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I'm a university student in the United States, studying Computer Science and Business.
I come to the ThinkPad world from a MacBook Pro (late 2008 model: the machine that I loved to hate, but, in hindsight, served me valiantly through High School) and a HP ENVY 17 (lasted 6 mos. but died prematurely from a MoBo failure--HP replaced it but I needed a machine ASAP so that's my younger bro's now).
But there are a few older ThinkPads--a T61p now running an aftermarket battery/x25m SSD/32-bit Windows 8 Pro (primarily to keep compatibility with my BMW coding programs) and it FLIES--although it also BAKES with the t7300, a middleton BIOS and penryn isn't out of the question.
But I also have an 11-year old T30. Cosmetically, it was almost entirely flawless--it led a very cushy desk-centric lifestyle. The battery still runs the computer for an hour-90 minutes. The hard drive is a bit flakey and the front RAM slot is dead, but I'm going to try and re-solder the pins. But having tremors in my hands makes that somewhat difficult, so I'm going to see if I can find someone to help me
I threw Windows 7 Professional on the machine (DreamSpark is pretty much amazing), upgraded the processor to the 2.0GHz P4M, and threw in a 1GB stick of Komputerbay RAM (hopefully will be able to get 1.5GB with that front slot working! I have 2x 512 sticks lying around).
I wrapped the computer in an automotive-grade Oracal Matte-finish vinyl, a gorgeous metallic matte-blue color. I was going to go down the painting route, but I wanted to see what this vinyl looked like (I'm considering a whole vehicle wrap in the near future).
All in all, I would give myself a C for this execution. I wasn't patient enough, and I didn't test the material on the thinkpad rubber prior to applying (dumb, dumb mistake). Without any adhesion promoter, I had to scrap a large chunk of my first try (wasting a LOT of vinyl, leading to cutting corners at the end
) in order to scuff up the rubbery thinkPad finish.I still need a sanding block to smooth out some of the corners, but for a "fun" machine, it's decent. I might try it again in the near future if I'm adventurous.
I'll post some pictures up later tonight.
But if anyone needs to refinish their ThinkPad and doesn't want to paint it, then a satin-black vinyl would be the perfect solution for a close-to-OEM finish.
But, on that note, I DO have access to a soft-touch matte paint finish on the interior of BMWs (feels like Lenovo but w/o the metallic) and Nextel paint (metallic like lenovo but with a slightly different texture) so I might try that in the near future too...I'm thinking of trying the saddle brown!
