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Suitable replacement for T420
Suitable replacement for T420
Hi folks,
I have ThinkPad T420 and I'm happy. This is the best laptop ever... First of all, I like keyboard and design.
Unfortunately, this laptop is not enough powerful for modern work (I'm software developer). There is only 8GB ram onboard (need at least 16!), old CPU, and, what is more important, it heat up. Even after I changed thermal paste in a service. In case of 100% cpu loading I see 90-95 degrees (celsius) - it's very close to redline.
Whell, what I'm trying to say. I'm looking for "Modern T420". I saw Lenovo Yoga - and it's keyboard awful. I hate such keyboards, even like in MacBook. There is no better keyboard than T420 has. I need modern powerful laptop that is very similar to T420 (design, keyboard) - can you please recommend? Budget about $1-2K.
Thanks in advance!
I have ThinkPad T420 and I'm happy. This is the best laptop ever... First of all, I like keyboard and design.
Unfortunately, this laptop is not enough powerful for modern work (I'm software developer). There is only 8GB ram onboard (need at least 16!), old CPU, and, what is more important, it heat up. Even after I changed thermal paste in a service. In case of 100% cpu loading I see 90-95 degrees (celsius) - it's very close to redline.
Whell, what I'm trying to say. I'm looking for "Modern T420". I saw Lenovo Yoga - and it's keyboard awful. I hate such keyboards, even like in MacBook. There is no better keyboard than T420 has. I need modern powerful laptop that is very similar to T420 (design, keyboard) - can you please recommend? Budget about $1-2K.
Thanks in advance!
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Re: Suitable replacement for T420
Right now, with your wishes, that would only be the T25 Retro.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.
PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine.
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.
PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine.
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Re: Suitable replacement for T420
Either a T25 or one of the 51nb mods
theforgottenki.ng
P1 Gen 5: i9-12900H - RTX A5500 - 64GB DDR5 - 2TB NVMe
W701ds: i7-940XM - 32GB DDR3 - 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD - FX 2800M - 17" 1920x1200 + 10" 768x1280 - Wacom - Dock
PC XT: 5160 + 5151 + 5153 + F XT - Intel 8088 - 640 KB - 2GB CF
P1 Gen 5: i9-12900H - RTX A5500 - 64GB DDR5 - 2TB NVMe
W701ds: i7-940XM - 32GB DDR3 - 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD - FX 2800M - 17" 1920x1200 + 10" 768x1280 - Wacom - Dock
PC XT: 5160 + 5151 + 5153 + F XT - Intel 8088 - 640 KB - 2GB CF
Re: Suitable replacement for T420
As far as I'm aware the T25 is not available in the UK, don't know about Russia.
Save money, get a second hand T430, it's not got the nice keyboard of the T420, but good enough for me. Can be modded, I've got an i7-3632QM in mine, max is 16G RAM. I run linux mint, hottest I've seen is about 85C running handbrake decoding a DVD.
Save money, get a second hand T430, it's not got the nice keyboard of the T420, but good enough for me. Can be modded, I've got an i7-3632QM in mine, max is 16G RAM. I run linux mint, hottest I've seen is about 85C running handbrake decoding a DVD.
T430 i7-3632QM Mint 19.0 Cinnamon, T430 Mint 19.0 Cinnamon, T420 Mint 18.3 Cinnamon, T410 dual boot win7/mint 17.3, T60 Mint 19 Mate
Re: Suitable replacement for T420
It is not; Lenovo is still in "brain-fart, bang-head-against-wall-repeatedly" mode when it comes to this model. It is possible to obtain via international channels, of course, but in the end it will cost way more than $2000, and warranty/parts availability is questionable.
The T430 can, in fact, be modded to receive the 7-row keyboard of the T420. It's one of the most popular modes. It can also take a FHD screen (maybe even QHD), but these modes are currently problematic and no kits are offered. T430s is more accepting of the FHD mod (I have one), and possibly of the QHD mod as well. However, I think they cannot be modded to take a quad-core CPU (at least not easily) as the chips are soldered to the board.
It's not a big upgrade of the T420, though, but it has some advantages - the Intel GPU version has official Win10 support and better multi-monitor options (nVidia option is probably the same), and chipset-integrated USB 3.0.
Thinkpad 25 (20K7), T490 (20N3), Yoga 14 (20FY), T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X220 4291-4BG
X61 7673-V2V, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X32 (IPS Screen), A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad
X61 7673-V2V, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X32 (IPS Screen), A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad
Re: Suitable replacement for T420
T420 I am sure can support 16 GB.TimeCoder wrote: ↑Sat Jun 02, 2018 10:56 amHi folks,
I have ThinkPad T420 and I'm happy. This is the best laptop ever... First of all, I like keyboard and design.
Unfortunately, this laptop is not enough powerful for modern work (I'm software developer). There is only 8GB ram onboard (need at least 16!), old CPU, and, what is more important, it heat up. Even after I changed thermal paste in a service. In case of 100% cpu loading I see 90-95 degrees (celsius) - it's very close to redline.
Whell, what I'm trying to say. I'm looking for "Modern T420". I saw Lenovo Yoga - and it's keyboard awful. I hate such keyboards, even like in MacBook. There is no better keyboard than T420 has. I need modern powerful laptop that is very similar to T420 (design, keyboard) - can you please recommend? Budget about $1-2K.
Thanks in advance!
At 90-95 celsius you are going to take a huge hit to your CPU speed, it will throttle down to prevent over heat damage I think on my T420s I get that throttle at 90 - 92 C, and everything slows down. I think it starts slow, and if it can't bring the temperature down, it keeps dropping the CPU speed. If you are 95C, the CPU w
Find out why this laptop is over heating, it shouldn't be getting that hot. Make sure all the vents are clear, and honestly I will say replace the fan with a new one. I just did this to a friends X220t and you can tell the fan is just working better, even though ThinkPad Fan Controller is reporting the same speed for both fans. The laptop wouldn't even get above 75C running Prime95 at 100% CPU usage. The laptop didn't even want to run the fans at full speed with Prime95, it stayed around Fan state 3 or 4 and managed to keep the temperature down.
I did use GELID Solutions GC-Extreme Thermal Compound on that laptop, so that may be a factor in the lower temperature also.
If you are looking to replace the laptop, the only options are the T25 retro or the older T430 series with some mods to keep the better keyboard design. This is why I am keeping my T420s as my main laptop and slowly maxing out everything I can and making it work better.
Re: Suitable replacement for T420
Well 'nough said, either T70 or T25, both being way above the $1k and closer to $2k.
I've had the similar issue, and worked for some time with HP Elitebooks to check what the competition has Apart from Thinkpad Carbon, T25 (unavailable in most countries, including mine - thank you Lenovo!) and 51nb projects (Linux users only) I can see no reasonable unit that I would personally be interested in buying. All aunits newer than T420 offer either ugly display, clickpad, yucky keyboard, low performance, or combination of those options.
If 14" is a must-have, go for X1 Carbon, T70 or T25. T70 will require lots of tuning plus no idea about reliability, and T25 will be _EXPENSIVE_ to get.
If 15" or larger is an option, T540p would be the choice. Or a P50 (there is one in the marketplace). Or heck get an Elitebook 8770w w/17,3" Dreamcolor IPS LCD.
I've had the similar issue, and worked for some time with HP Elitebooks to check what the competition has Apart from Thinkpad Carbon, T25 (unavailable in most countries, including mine - thank you Lenovo!) and 51nb projects (Linux users only) I can see no reasonable unit that I would personally be interested in buying. All aunits newer than T420 offer either ugly display, clickpad, yucky keyboard, low performance, or combination of those options.
If 14" is a must-have, go for X1 Carbon, T70 or T25. T70 will require lots of tuning plus no idea about reliability, and T25 will be _EXPENSIVE_ to get.
If 15" or larger is an option, T540p would be the choice. Or a P50 (there is one in the marketplace). Or heck get an Elitebook 8770w w/17,3" Dreamcolor IPS LCD.
Too many thinkpads not enough time!
(stable under reduction)
(stable under reduction)
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Re: Suitable replacement for T420
There are a few heat sinks for the T420. The dual-pipe models runs much cooler than the single-pipe models under 100% cpu load. Remove your keyboard and see if you have one heat-pipe or two.
The T420 can be modified to accept an Ivy Bridge (3rd generation, i7-3xxxQM) quad-core cpu; you replace the stock bios with coreboot. Your machine likely has a Sandy Bridge (2nd generation, i5-2xxxM) dual-core. The 3xxxQM has double the L2 cache, double the L3 cache, and double the performance of the 2xxxM. These all make a big difference when compiling.
CPU benchmarks:
# i5-2520m (typical T420 processor)
3583 = https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=i5-2520m
# T25
5195 = https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=i7-7500u
# i7-3630QM (processor in my T420)
7587 = https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=i7-3630QM
# i7-3820QM (8mb L3 cache; untested; perhaps generates too much heat)
8455 = https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=i7-3820QM
# i7-8650u (top processor in the T480)
9030 = https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=i7-8650U
After 20 minutes at 100% cpu load on all cores, my i7-3630QM core temps are stable at 89C. CPUs reporting speed of 3.2 GHz
Or, get a T430. It also accepts a quad-core Ivy Bridge and 32GB of ram.
The T420 can take 16 GB of ram.
The T420 can be modified to accept an Ivy Bridge (3rd generation, i7-3xxxQM) quad-core cpu; you replace the stock bios with coreboot. Your machine likely has a Sandy Bridge (2nd generation, i5-2xxxM) dual-core. The 3xxxQM has double the L2 cache, double the L3 cache, and double the performance of the 2xxxM. These all make a big difference when compiling.
CPU benchmarks:
# i5-2520m (typical T420 processor)
3583 = https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=i5-2520m
# T25
5195 = https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=i7-7500u
# i7-3630QM (processor in my T420)
7587 = https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=i7-3630QM
# i7-3820QM (8mb L3 cache; untested; perhaps generates too much heat)
8455 = https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=i7-3820QM
# i7-8650u (top processor in the T480)
9030 = https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=i7-8650U
After 20 minutes at 100% cpu load on all cores, my i7-3630QM core temps are stable at 89C. CPUs reporting speed of 3.2 GHz
Or, get a T430. It also accepts a quad-core Ivy Bridge and 32GB of ram.
The T420 can take 16 GB of ram.
T420 i7 3612QM seabios; T420 i7 3630QM; T400 Q9100 seabios; T61 P9600; T60 libreboot; x62; x60s libreboot, led; x24 xiphmont led
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