I like used Thinkpads. I bought a T430s off eBay and used it for several years. Recently I got a T570 from work. It had a screen issue, so I bought a new screen. That didn’t fix it so I bought a new mobo, but it has a loose drive connector so won’t boot. Just now I killed it for good by putting an nvme in a sata slot lol.

Anyway, I need another laptop and I don’t want to buy something new. The t570 did everything I needed it to, but I’m concerned about the design/build quality. What Thinkpads are people running these days that aren’t very old but still solid?

  • Lettuce eat lettuce
    12·
    6 months ago

    T480 is a great machine. You can find them on eBay for $200-$300 quite easily. They work great with Linux and are still old enough that they are decently repairable.

    I’ve also heard that the older X1 carbons are really solid if you want something a little sleeker.

    • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
      4·
      6 months ago

      The nVidia GPUs on the Tx80 line suck. They throttle much too early and too aggressively bringing them down so much they can’t even handle Quake 3. And because they’re on the same heatpipe as the CPU that can happen very quickly.

      I have never been able to properly use the GPU in my T580 although it should be able to at least handle Tomb Raider 2013 or Doom 2016.

      • fl42v
        2·
        6 months ago

        CPUs are also somewhat choked. I had to use throttled to make mine run above 2.4 GHz under load. (You need HWP_MODE and possibly Disable_BDPROCHOT, if anyone’s interested).

        But other than that, waaaay better compared to …70 laptops, and some models seem to beat maxed out t440p-s. Also quicksync massively speeds up video decoding/encoding, so I’m overall happy with mine so far.

        • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
          2·
          6 months ago

          Ironically fixing the CPU throttling makes the GPU problem worse. For a long time throttled didn’t support the 80’s and back then I could at least play Tomb Raider when playing off of battery.

      • electric_nanOP
        1·
        6 months ago

        Thanks for the recs. I am looking pretty hard at a T580 refurb on eBay right now. I am looking for a bit more modern processor than most of what you have suggested, I think.

        • MalReynolds@slrpnk.netEnglish
          4·
          6 months ago

          I’m on a T580, great machine, basically a P52. Dual batteries. No TN screens (I think, make sure). I put the discrete graphics card cooler in my (integrated graphics) coz I live in a hot place and some TPN7950 on the CPU, and it never cracks 70C and usually stays silent. Upgraded the SSD to a 2TB nvme, and it’s basically been flawless for 2+ yrs, touch wood.

          • MalReynolds@slrpnk.netEnglish
            1·
            6 months ago

            Yup, Framework 16 highly tempting, that 8xOculink project is awesome. I’m usually a firm believer in out of contract business models, but this…

          • electric_nanOP
            1·
            6 months ago

            Right on. If I was buying new, I’d be looking at Framework or Tuxedo.

              • electric_nanOP
                2·
                6 months ago

                Yeah I can’t really justify the cost right now either. If I was more patient, I could just wait until we retire another Thinkpad at work :p