Lenovo ThinkPad T430

I too maintain an older thinkpad! i want to say T430 so probably not as old, maybe got in 2012 or so? In any case, I have replaced: the screen, the battery, the power button (3D printed), the hard drive, the RAM, and the entire internal fan /cooling structure, and probably some more things I've forgotten. Why? Well it's all been over the years. But 1) because you can! like this post describes. Also: it's been nice to have a windows system around that I can remote into for certain tasks that are difficult or impossible on linux, like using the adobe suite. The last time something broke (the fan) I looked up how much a used T430 costs on ebay (~$40-$50) and buying a new fan was still cheaper. So I fixed it. It's been like that every time and it's still here.

In September of 2012, I bought a T430 from Lenovo. I loved that thing! Covered it with stickers, even upgraded it as the years went on. Eventually, it had a Core i7-3820QM with 16GB RAM, 1080p screen (with an adapter), SSDs (plural, I put one in the UltraBay)... I installed Coreboot with Tianocore, upgraded the WiFi card... I even modded in the keyboard from a T420. In June of 2022, 10 years later, I bought an X270 off eBay. I could still use the T430, it was just starting to feel sluggish... I just felt like I needed a new laptop. I'm very happy with the X270 and I hope to use it as long as possible. It was also fun to start covering it with stickers all over again! I still have the T430, it's just not being used and it's sitting in a storage locker (with my vintage computer collection).

You can use the T420/T520's keyboard in a T430/T530 with modifications to the firmware, some plastic around the keyboard part itself, and the ribbon cable (just pin isolation with tape). It lets you go with Ivy Bridge over Sandy Bridge. I have a T430 with the T420's keyboard and it lasted me 7 years of daily use before battery life became too big of an issue for me (even with a single DDR3L RAM module and a slice battery), so I put it aside. The typing experience was really excellent. Upgrading the CPU to a quad-core model (ideally one that consumes 35W over 45W) is one of the best upgrades to make for anyone still using these machines.

ThinkPads every day of the week. I have a T430 that I have owned for about 6 years and a new P52 which is my daily work machine. Both running Linux with zero issues. I liked the comment below describing Hotels (Mac) Vs home (ThinkPads). It's true that if you can be bothered to tweak and install some stuff then you end up with something of your own. Your way. Never used Macs as old enough to remember the "no one got sacked for buying IBM" saying and it's true even if it is now Lenovo.

I agree. I remember when I bought a refurbished ThinkPad T430 to play with back in late 2016; it came with Windows 10. The interface looked gaudy on the laptop's 1366x768 display, with all of its oversized elements. It seems to me that Microsoft has a penchant for UI designs that consume a lot of vertical screen real estate (i.e., the Microsoft Office ribbon). On the flipside, I've had the opportunity to use Windows 10 on a 4K display at work, and it looks much better on it. It seems to me that Windows 10's UI is designed for high-resolution displays, but the problem with this assumption is that there are a lot of business laptop users out there making do with 1366x768 displays. The old-style Windows Classic or Windows 7 UIs with their conservative use of screen real estate would fit perfectly with these displays, but unfortunately these themes are unavailable in Windows 10, and it still wouldn't address the problem of applications written using Windows' modern UI guidelines. macOS still looks good on my 1440x900 2013 MacBook Air, and I like how the Cinnamon desktop looks on my ThinkPad T430; I use Linux Mint on that ThinkPad now.

I've posted in a couple other threads. But Thinkpad T430. My only complaint is the screen at 1600x900. But I have it docked with 3 24" @ 1920x1200. Every day I use my macbook pro at work, I curse under my breath and wish for my Thinkpad. It's maxed out, I bought it back in 2013 used from ebay base was 500, with dock and extra parts ~900 total. The specs outside of GPU for gaming are still more than adequate. I5 dual w. hyperthreading. 16GB Ram, 2 SSD (2.5 128GB, M2 256GB). Spare battery in optical slot, or 1TB sata. About 10 hours battery life. That's one of the biggest things to me, is the flexibility and expansion. It's the best Linux laptop I've used. Everything on Arch works flawlessly. I haven't done a full reboot in months, opting to suspend. The dock with a custom script, is a breeze. The keyboard, almost as good as my Unicomp. Lastly ease of maintenance. I replaced the screen after leaving earbuds on the keyboard and cracking it (60$). Dropped it down a flight of stairs, toasted I don't know what [wouldn't boot]. New motherboard, CPU, and stick of ram (80$). Dropped a box on it, broke one hinge (15$). There are also some HiDPI mods floating around replacing the screen with either 2560x1440 or 1920x1080. I'm either waiting to build a gaming rig, or a laptop with external gpu at this point. There are pain points, the screen viewing angles are atrocious. Speakers are tinny and useless. I gutted them on a rebuild years ago. But I mean when I'm at work or on any other lapt

I have went through a lot of differnt laptops, mainly had a lot of Dell laptops but last year I decided to buy a Thinkpad T430 on ebay for close to notting and it's the best laptop I have ever had.

I still own and use my original X250, which I bought new in 2015. I recently replaced the batteries and swapped out the internal Wi-Fi adapter for a €20 AX210NGW. It's almost laughable how easy both upgrades were. Everything works out of the box with every Linux distro I've tried, including the fingerprint sensor. I prefer the keyboard on my T430, but the much better screen, slimmer form factor, and still pretty good keyboard make the X250 one of the best devices I've ever owned.

The recent thinkpads are shit. They market high tech materials in the T14s machines but the bottom for a huge amount of the line is aluminium with plastic mounts glued to it. Those are fragile and break off. So really the whole magnesium alloy thing is performative. I preferred the older plastic coated Mg chassis ones. At least they were honest about the materials. Personally I avoid laptops now since the T430 line. Desktops are faster, cheaper, more reliable, easier to repair and replace bits and most of the time I don't need to carry a computer around.

woah 4 years is considered obsolete? My kids still using thinkpad 430 from 2013

Can it be upgraded ? I heard many newer laptops went back to soldered ram because people want thin. I doubt I will ever get a system with this type of ram, but if it can be easily upgraded then that is an improvement. I usually buy used or in reality I take Laptops from people I know who went and bought the latest and greatest hardware. I am typing this on a T430 with NetBSD I got from a relative a year ago. I upgraded the ram to 16G back then and today I replaced the keyboard. The keyboard's power button stopped working, seems a small piece broke off over the years and it got to the point it needed replacement. FWIW, I want a laptop where if you throw it at someone they will know it/s.

I installed Coreboot/Tianocore on my T430 and it was awesome! Mostly, it got rid of Lenovo's stupid WiFi whitelist. A few years ago, I got an X270 since my T430 was feeling sluggish. I'd be curious to try this! My X270 has a 7th-gen core i5, is that Kaby Lake? Does coreboot/libreboot on the X270 need SeaBIOS or will it work with Tianocore?

On my ThinkPad T430, I have a weekly full discharge cycle set up using "tlp recalibrate BAT0", it helps avoid that issue and helps confirm that the battery is still functional.

I have Linux as primary OS since 4 laptops. No issue, especially now that all the devices are detected without any problems and works out of the box. My actual setup is a Thinkpad T430 running Debian Bookworm with XFCE as DE. What I have experienced in my 15 years of using Linux on laptops daily is that the life of a Linux laptop is really long and you don't need to replace it to fight obsolence. My old Sony Vaio lasts for more than 10 years, running Ubuntu and just replacing HDD to SSD.

I normally use an M3 MacBook Air, but I still have my T430 from college and I love how upgradable and hackable it is. What I've done so far: * Maxed out the RAM to 16GB (using lower voltage DIMMs to increase battery life) * Swapped to a larger 9 cell battery * Upgraded the CPU (and thermal paste) from a 2 core/4 thread i5 to a 4 core/8 thread i7 * Flashed a custom BIOS to remove the WiFi card whitelist and installed an Intel 7260 WiFi AC + Bluetooth card * Replaced the stock 1600x900 TN panel with a 1920x1080 IPS display * Replaced the barrel charging port with a USB-C connector (requires a 20v USB PD power supply, but those aren't super rare or expensive) * Replaced the HDD with an SSD * Replaced the optical drive and a 2.5" drive enclosure and installed a second SSD Future projects: * Flash Coreboot * Upgrade to a faster i7 * Upgrade to a 1440p IPS panel * Swap to a T420 keyboard

I enjoy my Framework 13 laptop; it’s great having a laptop that is user-serviceable and upgradable, and I’m keeping my eyes out on the upcoming Framework convertible laptop as a potential replacement for my aging Microsoft Surface Pro 7. With that said, I do wish the keyboard on my Framework 13 were better. It would be a wonderful to have a ThinkPad-quality keyboard, I have a ThinkPad T430 and its keyboard is one of the best chiclet-style keyboards I’ve ever used. I also like the keyboard on my old aluminum PowerBook G4, as well as the keyboard on my work-issued M3 MacBook Pro. What would be a dream, though, would be if there’s some way to fit a mechanical keyboard into a laptop.

Man, I knew it was going to be a T-series machine. I used to own T400s and T430. Just hardcore pieces of hardware. I fine-tuned my T430 so that it boots Archlinux in about 3-4 seconds. Loved tinkering with Linux, Xfce and coding on that machine. As I grew older I switched to a MacBook, like many others but I miss that machine.

My newest laptop is a Thinkpad W541 with Linux purchased used a few of years ago. That is just as good as any new laptop made today. The Old T430 I got from a relative who went to a MAC is also quite adequate for daily use. I have NetBSD on it and just finished upgrading to 10.1, so this was typed on that T430. So unless you are a heavy duty gamer or work on complex 3d graphics professionally, any recently used laptop will work just as well.