E320 Upgrades

[deevus]

Hi everyone, I'm new here

I have an E320 that I got for a steal ($50AUD) from someone on Facebook who "found it" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I didn't find that out until I caught the train to meet the person.

I had to buy a charger ($20AUD) and it works fine, however there is several irreparable cracks near the screen hinge/power so I'll have to replace the bottom cover. The left alt key is missing as well. I am currently in dire need of a usable laptop and I figure I can spend a few dollars and make this into a bit of a beast. So I'm looking for some advice on what I should do and anything I should be careful about.

Here's what I'm thinking
- Max out the RAM (2 x 8GB sticks: is 16GB compatible?)
- Upgrade the CPU (i7 possible? Currently has an i5-2410m)
- HD+ (or even better FHD) display. Anyone know if this has been done? There are a lot of 13.3" 40pin HD+ screens on eBay with the connector in roughly the same spot as the official screen
- Replace the HDD with an SSD (I've already got a drive to put in it)
- Find a new alt key
- Run Fedora \m/

All in all I think this will be cheaper (and more fun) than buying a new laptop. If it turns out I can't upgrade the screen I will be disappointed, but I can plug in an external monitor when I'm not commuting.

Cheers

[ZaZ]

Upgrade the CPU (i7 possible? Currently has an i5-2410m)

Unless you bump up to a quad core, which I don't believe the E320 supports, there's little practical difference between the i5 and i7.

[axur-delmeria]

FHD is most likely impossible, because FHD requires an LVDS connection with 2 channels, while the stock 1366x768 screen only requires 1. There's no reason the engineers would put a 2-channel LVDS connection on the system board if it's not needed, so it's safe to assume that it's 1-channel only.

HD+ might be possible, since HD+ only requires 1-channel LVDS. However, someone already tried, unsuccessfully, with an E330.

The FHD mods for the T420s/430s and X220/230 make use of newer LCDs with a different type of connection (embedded DisplayPort or eDP). This is possible because these Thinkpad models have Displayport output on the Dock connector, which the adapter kits use.