Something new you've got! *PICS*

[Cigarguy]

Finally got me a X301 (2776-3CU) yesterday. Mint condition, screen, battery and original 128 GB SSD are all there and in good shape. A steal for $150.

[A31]

Finally got me a X301 (2776-3CU) yesterday. Mint condition, screen, battery and original 128 GB SSD are all there and in good shape. A steal for $150.

Awesome! Sounds like you grabbed a bargain! Enjoy!

[Cigarguy]

Yeah just finished loading Win 8.1 on it. Runs great! The original SSD is in pretty good shape and is about what I expected for SATA II. Finished battery recalibration, 70% left which is OK. Just ordered a Ultrabay adapter for a 1 GB HDD for data. May upgrade the RAM to 8 GB just because I can....don't really need more than 2 GB for most of my daily usage.

[DaKKS]

Yeah just finished loading Win 8.1 on it. Runs great! The original SSD is in pretty good shape and is about what I expected for SATA II. Finished battery recalibration, 70% left which is OK. Just ordered a Ultrabay adapter for a 1 GB HDD for data. May upgrade the RAM to 8 GB just because I can....don't really need more than 2 GB for most of my daily usage.

"You can never have enough ram." Albert Einstein, 1951

Also,

"Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet just because there’s a picture with a quote next to it." – Abraham Lincoln

[emeraldgirl08]

"Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet just because there’s a picture with a quote next to it." – Abraham Lincoln

This statement was one of the first thing we learned in grade school!

[unix_joe]

T530 I purchased for $500. It has a 1080 screen and nVidia graphics, which was exactly what I was looking for in a UNIX workstation. It also retains the traditional mouse buttons and centered keyboard. It is pictured running Scientific Linux, but I have moved over to Kubuntu. WiFi card does not work in FreeBSD yet, and I haven't had time or will to troubleshoot.



BlackBerry Q10. I am a sucker for QWERTY keyboards. I got this one on eBay in rough condition, and purchased a new housing + screen for it for $50. It took about an hour to swap the internals over, but I have a practically brand new phone wth a great OS and the ability to run Android apps.

[A31]

I got the email from Lenovo saying that my L540 has shipped. Should be here by the weekend! Very excited!

I ordered it on April 28th and it shipped May 6th, so that's a week and one day to build a custom configured machine, which isn't bad at all.

The laptop rucksack which I posted a picture of earlier is due to arrive tomorrow. A lot of stuff arriving for me this week!

[Cola]

Cigarguy, you should post some pictures of your nice X301!

And jdk your T530 sounds like a steal at that price. I'd really love to own one of those.

A31 keep us updated on the L440


--

I personally just installed some of the red LED strips I recieved from China last week. Looks nice so far IMO, still have to do the inside of my desktop PC, and behind the dual-monitors.

[Medessec]

That's a pretty nice setup. That a G15? Err... it's newer version? I bought an old G15 off my roommate, because it had an orange backlit display and keys... and I like orange.

[bluefruit]

I like the G25/G27 at the bottom .Never been able to afford one, so I'm still using a DFGT.

[A31]

Cola, that setup looks awesome!

Swissgear rucksack arrived yesterday and certainly seems very sturdy and well-built. Used it today for school and it was nice and comfortable so that's great. L540 should arrive Friday 9th - very excited now.

[Cola]

Thanks guys.

The keyboard is a Logitech G510s. I can change the colors of the backlit keys and screen, so mine are red all the time of course.


On another note, I think I got a replacement for my T410, which I've had in almost 8 months now.

Lenovo Thinkpad T420
Intel Core i5 2520M 2.5GHz
Intel HD Graphics 3000
6GB Ram
128GB Samsung 840 SSD
14'' 1600x900 LED backlit display

This thing is so fast. Also slightly thinner than my old T410. Condition of this one is really good.

[Medessec]

A couple of years behind the frontier-pushing Thinkpads I see?

Well, it's still years ahead of what I own. From what I hear, the Sandy-Bridge Thinkpads are pretty nice to own, if it wasn't for the 16:9 screen. That T420 looks very nice too. And Sandy Bridge HD graphics, a few on here will agree, is so much better than past Integrated Intel graphics, and makes for a pretty cool-running, efficient performance machine. Sincerely hope you enjoy it.

And yeah, my friend back in Elk Grove has a G510, He likes green though. I guess it suits me just fine the only color the old G15 can do is orange since I like orange.

[A31]

Cola, that T420 looks very neat indeed.

[Cola]

Thank you, guys. The 1600x900 screen is definitely the most noticeable, as I came from the 1280x800 screen on my T410. Also the screen has gotten really thin on the T420!

[Temetka]

Thanks to forum member T1000, I got a T410!!!

Here are my specs:

i5 540m CPU
Nvidia 3100GPU
120GB Samsung 840 SSD
DVD-RW
WXGA+ LCD
Fingerprrint, Camera, Bluetooth, etc.

This is my first machine with an SSD and man is it fast!!!!

The weight of this machine is very, very nice. It's even lighter than my D630 which was the lightest laptop in my collection. It was the D630 that made me fall in love with the 14" widescreen form factor. Because this machine features the higher res LCD it allows me to work much more comfortably than on on the WXGA LCD in the my D630.

Other thoughts: It's nice to have a Thinkpad keyboard again. That being said I never really had an issue on my Latitude E6500, E6520, D830 or D630. But this keyboard offers a more pleasant typing experience. Maybe it's the fact that for the last 10+ years all that I have owned laptop wise has been either Thinkpads or Powerbooks (G3,G4 era). Whatever it is this keyboard is very nice and comfortable.

My temps are a bit high. I idle around 60c and under load it can shoot up to 93c. So I will have to re-paste the CPU. Once that is done I am pretty sure I will have far lower temps.

Other than that, I am extremely happy with this computer. It's going to be my primary computer for a long time. Nice and light, very fast, the LCD is easy on my eyes and it just looks awesome. I might be late to the T410 party, but I plan on staying and enjoying it.

[ZaZ]

This is my first machine with an SSD and man is it fast!!!!

I went all SSD three, four years ago. You don't realize how fast they are until you go back a platter drive.

[kony]

what is that thing on the left that you have connected to the laptop?

[rkawakami]

If you are referring to Temetka's photo of the T410, it looks like a USB external hard drive. My guess is that you are wondering why there's TWO USB plugs that appear to be connected together. Standard USB ports provide up to 500mA of current. Many laptop hard drives that go into these external enclosures require slightly more than that amount of power at maximum draw so they provide these two-headed USB cables so you can get up to 1A of power out to the drive.

[Temetka]

Ray is right.

It's my 500GB USB hard drive. It runs just fine off of the primary USB connection, but I always plug in both because I don't want any issues and for peace of mind. It's pretty fast for a 7200 RPM drive. I use it keep my files with me and of course if I need to back something up for a client while moving them from one machine to another.

[Norway Pad]

Not very new, but new to me:



The laptop itself has been a daily driver for years, so it isn't worth a picture. So this will do, as I assume most of you guys know what the deal is when you see a T8300 CPU running inside a T60 shell. The Frankenpad conversion was easy, and took me 3 hours from the T60 was shut down, until it was powered back on. That included the necessary adjustment work with the Dremel.

This Frankenpad is running one of TuuS' NOS boards. I don't remember what TuuS told me about the manufacturing date on them, but the box that the board was in, is dated 2011. So it is no matter what far beyond 08/08, and the Nvidia GPU should be of no concern here. So now I know I will have access to acceptable computing performance in a 4:3 UXGA shell at least until Win7's EOL, and presumably also Win8's EOL. So thanks a lot to users and resources found on this forum that makes things like this possible.

[Medessec]

I've also got a Frankenpad with a TuuS supplied NOS motherboard... I've gotta say, that laptop deserves better, but it's seen quite possibly the most action of modern computing out of any 4:3 laptop. I've used it for powerpoints and multi-monitor, web/flash and online 3D application, Unity 3D development and running, and my friends have borrowed it for varying degrees of gaming, from Minecraft(normally the best T61 Nvidia-killer), World of Tanks, CoD World at War, all very graphics intensive games, as well as edited videos and all the rest on the go. I also use it to watch my TV or Netflix when I'm just laying in bed.

That Frankenpad has been through some serious abuse, and I'm kinda reluctant to carry on with treating it this way, but it always winds up in the line of fire. But it hasn't failed yet, nor has it showed any signs of electrical infidelity or glitching. I may need to put a new T60 lid on it soon... the scratches are making my insides itch.

But I'm with you. This forum has given me the opportunity to really expand on my interest of these extraordinary examples of mobile computing, and this Frankenpad isn't just the crown jewel of my collection, it's the most dependable workhorse. Really, though. It is the most reliable. My W700ds, even though it'd probably be more valuable as a collectible, has gone through an FX 3700M, and it's now needing another motherboard. Ugh.

I'll share a pic of my Frankie when I get the chance.

[Compgeke]

My 500 gig WD Blue drive decided to fail in my T410, figured I would get a SSD.

Picked up a 256 gig Crucial MX100 SSD. Not the best on the market but there's not a lot negative on it and has power loss capacitors which is nice since I tend to run my Thinkpad battery dead.


Also bought a cheap adapter to replace my DVD burner with a hard drive for storage of stuffs. I don't need to bother putting pictures, games, etc onto the main drive when I can put it onto a regular hard drive instead. Using a 320 gig drive I had here spare I threw that into the adapter and it's working fine now.


At the same time I also replaced the 2 gig stick of ram with a 4 gig that happens to match the one I had already so I now have 8 gigs of ram.
All together now this makes for a: 2.4 GHz Core i5 520M, 256 gig SSD + 320 gig HDD, 8 GB ram, NVS3100M 256 meg, 1440x900 screen, BT, finger print, webcam, Intel N 6300 card and a WWAN card. I don't consider it that bad for buying it for $230 and adding $130 in upgrades to (SSD and hard drive adapter - rest was free parts pulled from other stuff).

[Temetka]

Sounds like a pretty nice T410 you got your hands on there. We should let our T410's meet and see if they reproduce. (I kid). I am sorry that your HD died, but glad you picked up an SSD. I read a few quick reviews of the model you chose and it should work just fine for you. Someday I will get the 2nd HDD adapter and softrim trackpoint cap for my T410.

May your T410 serve you well.

[DaKKS]

The DHL guy made me very happy.

OnePlus One 64 Sandstone.


GM Tech 2

[pianowizard]

Last week, I received and started using my third smartphpone and first phablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note:


I bought the original Note instead of the Note ii or Note 3 mainly because I wanted to save money, but also the Note 2 is heavier, narrower and lower resolution than the Note. When the Note 3 has dropped below $150, I may upgrade to it.

Phablets are the way to go. I no longer need to carry a phone and a separate tablet. Apple has resisted phablets for fear that they would cut into iPad Mini sales. But as we all know, super-sized iPhones are expected to be announced next week, and Apple may also make bigger iPads to maintain a size gap. I find the iPad Mini superfluous anyway since it's still too large to be pocketable, so why not pay a bit more to get the 9.7" iPad Air.

[Temetka]

Nice phone.

When I replace my Galaxy S3 I am going to get something from the Note series. I already have a Note 10.1 (2012 version). However I don't use it for work very much because I would have to cram it, and my T410 into my bag and I only want to carry one device. So it's a couch surfing tablet. Way overkill for what I use it for, but whatever.

However a phablet with s-pen integration, now that *is* something I would use everyday. Plus the larger screen would allow me to read e-books on the john more comfortably then I do now.

[heartswarm]

My "brand new", boxed and sealed T520 came in yesterday from Amazon Italy. The notebook has been waiting for its owner since January 2012 and I am happy it waited for me! I got it for Euro 530.00.

Screen Resolution 1600 x 900
Processor Brand intel Core i5 2540M
Processor Speed 2.5 GHz
RAM Size 4 GB
Size Hard-Disk 500 GB
Graphics card nvidia NVS 4200M

I also have T430s, which is really a fantastic device. I like the bigger and brighter screen of the T520, but the T430s has the better feel, especially in the palmrest where it doesn't feel as plasticky.

[Temetka]

Nice score on a new machine. I hope since it was waiting so long for a good home, that it serves you well and you in turn take great care of it.

[KristianJ]

After a few years of running a 17" HP Pavilion behemoth and a 24" BenQ full HD LCD, I've decided to drop down to something smaller and newer.

I'd originally looked at various ultrabooks, and actually bought an Asus Zenbook (which arrived with a damaged screen and was duly returned). When the PP refund arrived, this X220 came up on an eBay listing local to me last Thursday. After reading a few reviews, I put in a bid, won the auction and picked it up that night.

Pretty standard specs (i5, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD), but its good to have a trackpoint back, and the classic Thinkpad keyboard. Sadly it's not the IPS, but it will do just fine for now. Just over 5 months warranty remaining, and has a dock with CD/DVD combo drive, plus seller included a brand new leather carry bag.

I'll replace the hard drive with a SSD and pop an extra 4GB RAM in over the next little while. Pavilion will get a reformat and I'll pass it on to my mum, whose desktop has seen better days.