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Need advice catching up on the X-Series

X230-X280, X390 Series
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Bg357
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Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#1 Post by Bg357 » Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:06 pm

I’ve been out of the Thinkpad loop for a number of years, but I’m wanting to get back up to speed. Last one I had was an X220. Which newer models are worth having? Which ones should be avoided? Is there any point in trying to upgrade an X200 or X220?

Thanks for your assistance.

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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#2 Post by dr_st » Fri Mar 05, 2021 2:46 am

IMO, the 14" X1 Carbon - starting from the 5th generation - is the best model to have, if you consider to be an X series. It's the best compromise between screen size, weight and expansion options.

The smaller 12-13" laptops, starting from X240, don't even have a physical Insert key on the keyboard (it is accessed with Fn+End). And I think if you have Fn Lock, it changes the default and End becomes Fn+Insert. I don't know if they ever fixed this bug.

I suggest you look up platform specs on the series you want. Easiest way to find them would be to search for "thinkpad <insert model here> platform specifications", and you will get Lenovo's official PDF. The series you might want to look up are X240-X280, X380-X390, X13 and X1 Carbon, X1 Yoga.

If a particular model looks interesting, read some reviews. Notebookcheck usually has pretty extensive ones, including pictures as well as testing things, which are usually glossed over in other reviews.
Thinkpad 25 (20K7), T490 (20N3), Yoga 14 (20FY), T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X220 4291-4BG
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Bg357
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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#3 Post by Bg357 » Fri Mar 05, 2021 3:43 am

Thanks for the suggestions. I don’t learn too much from the reviews because they’re always written about a brand new system. Only time will tell if it’s actually good, reliable, etc.
I more value the opinion of Thinkpad loyalists who’ve been using them forever and pick up on the subtle changes from year to year. I was almost in that club for awhile, starting with a T30 about 15 years ago, then moving thru around 10 different T & X series models. I haven’t used a Thinkpad in over 5 years now, so it feels like I’m starting over, unfamiliar with which ones are good choices.

Just perusing the options at a desired price-point, I’m thinking about an X270. Is that a bad choice? Looking thru the forum, I’m not seeing much about the newer X-series. Interest seems to have waned past the X220 & 230. Is that just because of keyboard dissension, or did the series completely go to crap? That’s what I’m trying to figure out from those “in the know”.

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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#4 Post by RealBlackStuff » Fri Mar 05, 2021 5:25 am

xx70 models were the last ones with a removable battery.
The xx70 models also came with both 6th and 7th gen. CPU, so check that out.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#5 Post by Bg357 » Fri Mar 05, 2021 9:26 pm

Wow! Did this forum die while I was away... :cry:

Nobody has opinions about the X-Series anymore?
No thoughts on the upgradability of an X200 or an X220. I’ve got both of those, should I try to bring them up to speed? Would I be better off to get an X270 (or some other newer model), or would I be disappointed with the rumored decline of newer ThinkPads?

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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#6 Post by ajkula66 » Fri Mar 05, 2021 10:01 pm

Bg357 wrote:
Fri Mar 05, 2021 9:26 pm

No thoughts on the upgradability of an X200 or an X220.
I'll say that the answer to this question depends on your usage scanario(s).

To me, X200s is still the ultimate travel system. That being said, my usage patterns are light. I'm not mining Bitcoin or encoding video. 8GB RAM and an SSD in there, and no complaints on my end.

X220 has significantly more muscle and is more upgradeable but once again...what's the intended purpose ?
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


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Bg357
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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#7 Post by Bg357 » Fri Mar 05, 2021 10:57 pm

I don’t do anything too taxing, except for occasional photo editing. I need significant storage space for image files. Are there limitations on the drive sizes I could put in either the X200 or X220?

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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#8 Post by ajkula66 » Fri Mar 05, 2021 11:15 pm

Bg357 wrote:
Fri Mar 05, 2021 10:57 pm
I don’t do anything too taxing, except for occasional photo editing. I need significant storage space for image files. Are there limitations on the drive sizes I could put in either the X200 or X220?
There are no limits on the size of the drive for either of these AFAIK. Obviously, with X220 you can have mSATA as a boot drive and throw a huge SSD/HDD in the main bay for storage purposes.

Would 1TB suffice ?
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

Bg357
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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#9 Post by Bg357 » Sat Mar 06, 2021 1:09 am

Let’s say I decided to go that route...

What do I need to know about SSD drives. I’ve never bought one before. Are there good ones, bad ones, what do I need to know to get the right SSDs for an X220?

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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#10 Post by ajkula66 » Sat Mar 06, 2021 1:41 am

Bg357 wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 1:09 am
Let’s say I decided to go that route...

What do I need to know about SSD drives. I’ve never bought one before. Are there good ones, bad ones, what do I need to know to get the right SSDs for an X220?
Well, if you want to go big - as in 1TB - Samsung is probably your best option...

https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Inch-Int ... 405&sr=8-3

There's also a bunch of guides on properly provisioning SSDs. A modern OS - W7 or later - will do some of the work for you, but not all of it.

One thing to bear in mind with SSDs, and I can't stress this enough: backup everything important as often as humanly possible to a different drive/media. Because when these things die - and they DO die - the data is lost forever. Just goes pooof.... :shock:

If you want to keep your data on a separate HDD and use an mSATA SSD in a WWAN slot as a boot drive, you'd need something like this, along with the HDD in the main bay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lite-on-256GB- ... 3903749230
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

Bg357
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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#11 Post by Bg357 » Sat Mar 06, 2021 2:12 am

ajkula66 wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 1:41 am
One thing to bear in mind with SSDs, and I can't stress this enough: backup everything important as often as humanly possible to a different drive/media. Because when these things die - and they DO die - the data is lost forever. Just goes pooof.... :shock:
Wow, you should be in SSD sales! :eek:
I thought SSDs were supposed to be better & more reliable than disk HDDs...

Unfortunately, I just dug out the X220... my wife really trashed that thing! So I guess I’m back to the X200, it’s still in mint condition. It was painfully slow when it last ran, so it definitely needs some upgrades...

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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#12 Post by ajkula66 » Sat Mar 06, 2021 2:45 am

Bg357 wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 2:12 am

Wow, you should be in SSD sales! :eek:
I thought SSDs were supposed to be better & more reliable than disk HDDs...
They are more reliable, generally speaking. However - unlike most HDDs - they won't give out a warning before they croak. And therein lies the rub.
Unfortunately, I just dug out the X220... my wife really trashed that thing! So I guess I’m back to the X200, it’s still in mint condition. It was painfully slow when it last ran, so it definitely needs some upgrades...
8GB of RAM and an SSD...you're looking at $150 or so...maybe a few bucks more. That's a lot of money to put in a decade-old-system. I've done that with mine and don't regret it but...
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#13 Post by axur-delmeria » Sat Mar 06, 2021 2:51 am

Bg357 wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 2:12 am
Wow, you should be in SSD sales! :eek:
I thought SSDs were supposed to be better & more reliable than disk HDDs...
1. They're much faster than hard drives so they're better in that aspect.
2. Since they don't have any moving parts, they're much less susceptible to get damaged by vibrations and from getting dropped.

The problem is that many SSD's fail like "suddenly the drive itself can't be detected at all by the computer" rather than "the hard drive is screeching and slow, but most of the files can still be read". The former results in complete data loss, while the latter is partial data loss.
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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#14 Post by RealBlackStuff » Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:48 am

I was a (more or less) faithful user of various X41, X60/X61, X200/X201, X1, X300/X301, X1-Carbon, X220, X230, X240 and X250.
Currently I only have one X1, two X240 and one X250 left, the rest has been sold.
The X1 is now for sale.
One X240 is my wife's daily driver, it has IPS FHD and X250 touchpad.
One X240s is a prototype with IPS HD, X250 touchpad but without docking connector. Used for playing with Linux.
The X250 with IPS FHD-touch has W8.1 installed, but is currently gathering dust.
When I was not on my desktop, I used mostly Xes until I got my T440p in August 2018.
I think the last time I used my desktop was around spring 2020.
Not sure yet, but if I'd ever get another X-model, it would be a ~13" with AMD CPU.
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
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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#15 Post by Bg357 » Sat Mar 06, 2021 12:10 pm

RealBlackStuff wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:48 am
I was a (more or less) faithful user of various X41, X60/X61, X200/X201, X1, X300/X301, X1-Carbon, X220, X230, X240 and X250.

The X250 with IPS FHD-touch has W8.1 installed, but is currently gathering dust.

I think the last time I used my desktop was around spring 2020.
Not sure yet, but if I'd ever get another X-model, it would be a ~13" with AMD CPU.
Thanks for the feedback. Any interest in selling that dusty X250? :?:
Pardon my ignorance, but what X-series would that be, with the 13” & AMD CPU?

Bg357
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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#16 Post by Bg357 » Sat Mar 06, 2021 12:20 pm

ajkula66 wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 2:45 am
8GB of RAM and an SSD...you're looking at $150 or so...maybe a few bucks more. That's a lot of money to put in a decade-old-system. I've done that with mine and don't regret it but...
True, but the SSD is the biggest chunk of that, and it could be used in anything down the road, if the X200 experiment proved less than desirable. 🤔

You mentioned ‘guides to properly provision SSDs’. Where would I find those? Do I need an adapter to install the SSD in place of the current HDD? Is the restore any different, or can I just put the drive in, plug in an external drive and start running the recovery discs?

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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#17 Post by ajkula66 » Sat Mar 06, 2021 12:42 pm

Bg357 wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 12:20 pm

True, but the SSD is the biggest chunk of that, and it could be used in anything down the road, if the X200 experiment proved less than desirable. 🤔
True, but laptop manufacturers have been moving away from the 2.5" format for a couple of years now.
You mentioned ‘guides to properly provision SSDs’. Where would I find those? Do I need an adapter to install the SSD in place of the current HDD? Is the restore any different, or can I just put the drive in, plug in an external drive and start running the recovery discs?
No adapter required, it will fit in the same caddy that you currently have the HDD in.

As for provisioning, there are services that should be disabled such as Disk Defragmenter. I also reserve a portion of the drive - at least ~25% - as an "unalocated space". You'll need something like AOMEI partititon manager for this, to make sure that the drive is aligned at 4096 value. My take is to nuke the recovery partition as well.

I'll try to find a trustworthy link or two to post here, but you get the idea I believe.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

Bg357
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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#18 Post by Bg357 » Sat Mar 06, 2021 2:33 pm

ajkula66 wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 1:41 am

Well, if you want to go big - as in 1TB - Samsung is probably your best option...

https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Inch-Int ... 05&sr=8-30
Looking at the drive you suggested, and other similar drives, I’m wondering why the Samsung is so much more than some other options? Are they that much better, or are they a different type, and I just don’t know what I’m looking at?
The Samsung you linked is $120, and another Samsung (QVO vs. EVO?) is $110. Then there are Crucial & WD 1Tb drives at $90. Is the Samsung you linked worth 25% more, or are these other drives not compatible?

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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#19 Post by ajkula66 » Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:26 pm

Bg357 wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 2:33 pm
Is the Samsung you linked worth 25% more, or are these other drives not compatible?
It's not a compatibility issue. All of them will work. Samsung is generally viewed as the best consumer SSD brand available.

I don't know what exactly I would buy if I were shopping for an SSD today. All of the ones I use are older drives...
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

Bg357
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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#20 Post by Bg357 » Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:59 pm

So you don’t know anything bad about the others?

I’ve heard negative things about WD, but mostly related to their HDDS. Never heard anything bad about Crucial.

I’m not opposed to spending extra for the best, but since this is kind of an experiment on this X200, saving 25% is tempting too. 🤔

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Re: Need advice catching up on the X-Series

#21 Post by ajkula66 » Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:27 pm

Bg357 wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:59 pm
So you don’t know anything bad about the others?

I’ve heard negative things about WD, but mostly related to their HDDS. Never heard anything bad about Crucial.

I’m not opposed to spending extra for the best, but since this is kind of an experiment on this X200, saving 25% is tempting too. 🤔
I've used Crucial, never WD. Some of the Crucial drives have been less than spectacular. With that being said, I'd likely choose them over WD.

My $0.02 only...
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

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