Good morning/afternoon.
Well to restart my journey with thinkpads again after only using work provided machines for 5+ years. T420 L14 and a few others over the years.
I recently purchased a X220i (Yes the petrol model) with an Ultra Base Series 3
X220i - I3 2310m - 2x 4GB RAM - 500GB 7200RPM HDD.
(Dead battery, chassis - like new MINT condition, TN panel with some bright spots and a perfectly suitable OEM charger.)
https://imgur.com/a/qxmjzed
For 65$USD in my currency.
Considering the price of Green cell batteries, (40$USD shipped) I saw a cheeky X230....
X230 - i5 3320m - 2x 4GB RAM - 500GB 7200RPM HDD.
https://imgur.com/a/lIoIPa1
(Like new battery, chassis - Beaten, cracked and badly repaired, TN panel like new, OEM charger appears to be functional but eaten by some sort of dog)
This ran me 75$USD in my currency.
So with the stage set. What combo should I produce? I have some ideas. Do I combine and butcher one machine or make two solid working machines?
Top of my head - (Swapping some parts around / SSD upgrade / IPS panel / Noctua fan replacement / Liquid metal/ Custom battery / MPCIE SSD)
I am a tech savvy person and have some budget for mods.
Thanks for reading and any idea is considered.
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Advice on X220/X230 Hybrid & mods.
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Re: Advice on X220/X230 Hybrid & mods.
You can transplant the X230 chassis in the X220i, but you have to file down a small part of the bottom chassis, specifically a ridge near the left USB port that's under the Expresscard slot. The reason for this is simple: the ridge acts as a support for that USB port, but the USB 3.0 port on the X230 is slightly deeper than the USB 2.0 one on the X220. When a X230 board is transplanted on an X220 chassis, the ridge hits the rear of the USB port, causing the system board to flex slightly. Filing down the ridge allows the board to lie flat.
Regarding SSDs, you have a number of options:
1. Standard 2.5" SATA SSD (replaces HDD)
2. mSATA SSD (usually more expensive per gigabyte compared to 2.5" SSDs.
3. M.2 2242 NVMe SSD on the Expresscard slot via an adapter (see https://thinkmods.store/)
4. M.2 SATA 2242/2280 SSD on the mSATA slot via an adapter (will probably have clearance issues though)
Regarding fan replacement -- I don't think Noctua has one that would work as a suitable replacement.
Regarding SSDs, you have a number of options:
1. Standard 2.5" SATA SSD (replaces HDD)
2. mSATA SSD (usually more expensive per gigabyte compared to 2.5" SSDs.
3. M.2 2242 NVMe SSD on the Expresscard slot via an adapter (see https://thinkmods.store/)
4. M.2 SATA 2242/2280 SSD on the mSATA slot via an adapter (will probably have clearance issues though)
Regarding fan replacement -- I don't think Noctua has one that would work as a suitable replacement.
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E
Re: Advice on X220/X230 Hybrid & mods.
Everything below is my personal opinion, you may welcome it or disregard it.
If you value your time and have a job, my advice is:
Sell both, add a bit more money, and buy one X230 in a decent condition. Then stick an X220 keyboard into it (classic keyboard mod).
If you do it just for fun, then try what was suggested, but are there enough parts for even one fully good machine?
Also, in my experience, i5-3320m is noticeably slower than i7-3520m. I have two X230t with the former and one X230 with the latter.
So I'd recommend an i7 X230, unless max battery life is important to you, in which case the i5 could be a better choice.
As for mods, I'd put 2x8 GB RAM into it (1866 MHz, 1600 if you can't find 1866 at a good price).
I recommend a regular SATA SSD, 500 GB or bigger. I used to use a combination of mSATA SSDs + large(ish) SATA HDD, but these days large enough SATA SSDs are widely available at good prices, so I don't see a good reason to use HDDs anymore. I don't really store a lot of stuff on my laptops, there is a NAS for that and external HDDs for backups.
An Intel 7260ac card can provide quite fast WiFi, as well as BlueTooth 4.0 (you can then remove the separate Lenovo Bluetooth DaughterCard). It's the last official card from Intel in mPCIe form factor. You will need a custom (unlocked) BIOS to remove the Lenovo's whitelist, or the laptop won't boot with the card installed. If you want BlueTooth 5+ and even faster WiFi, you can get an Intel AX210 (M.2 form factor + an adaptor to mPCIe that also adapts the antenna connectors, or an unofficial mPCIe version named "MPE-AXE3000H", I bought mine on AliExpress - both work with official Intel drivers).
Some people like to do an FHD panel mod. At this screen size, I'm quite happy with the stock resolution. I'm talking about the stock IPS panel, which is very good. I haven't tried any X220/X230 with a TN panel, but heard they are not great, to put it mildly.
Use a 90W PSU at home, 65W for travel. Warning: if you have no battery in the laptop, and a 65W PSU, the CPU will be throttled to the lowest frequency.
Good luck
Gene
If you value your time and have a job, my advice is:
Sell both, add a bit more money, and buy one X230 in a decent condition. Then stick an X220 keyboard into it (classic keyboard mod).
If you do it just for fun, then try what was suggested, but are there enough parts for even one fully good machine?
Also, in my experience, i5-3320m is noticeably slower than i7-3520m. I have two X230t with the former and one X230 with the latter.
So I'd recommend an i7 X230, unless max battery life is important to you, in which case the i5 could be a better choice.
As for mods, I'd put 2x8 GB RAM into it (1866 MHz, 1600 if you can't find 1866 at a good price).
I recommend a regular SATA SSD, 500 GB or bigger. I used to use a combination of mSATA SSDs + large(ish) SATA HDD, but these days large enough SATA SSDs are widely available at good prices, so I don't see a good reason to use HDDs anymore. I don't really store a lot of stuff on my laptops, there is a NAS for that and external HDDs for backups.
An Intel 7260ac card can provide quite fast WiFi, as well as BlueTooth 4.0 (you can then remove the separate Lenovo Bluetooth DaughterCard). It's the last official card from Intel in mPCIe form factor. You will need a custom (unlocked) BIOS to remove the Lenovo's whitelist, or the laptop won't boot with the card installed. If you want BlueTooth 5+ and even faster WiFi, you can get an Intel AX210 (M.2 form factor + an adaptor to mPCIe that also adapts the antenna connectors, or an unofficial mPCIe version named "MPE-AXE3000H", I bought mine on AliExpress - both work with official Intel drivers).
Some people like to do an FHD panel mod. At this screen size, I'm quite happy with the stock resolution. I'm talking about the stock IPS panel, which is very good. I haven't tried any X220/X230 with a TN panel, but heard they are not great, to put it mildly.
Use a 90W PSU at home, 65W for travel. Warning: if you have no battery in the laptop, and a 65W PSU, the CPU will be throttled to the lowest frequency.
Good luck
Gene
X220 i7-2640M 16GB RAM, X230 i7-3520M 16GB RAM, 2x X230t i5-3320M 16GB RAM, W530 i7-3940XM 32GB RAM K2000M
All X230(t), W530: Classic Keyboard Mod
X230, W530: Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E / BT 5.2
eGPU: ASUS Phoenix GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, Dell DA-2 220W PSU, EXP GDC Beast (ExpressCard)
All X230(t), W530: Classic Keyboard Mod
X230, W530: Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E / BT 5.2
eGPU: ASUS Phoenix GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, Dell DA-2 220W PSU, EXP GDC Beast (ExpressCard)
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