Thinkpad T4xx and T5xx

[ziloo]

Hello folks,

I have so far been an enthusiast for T4x series. Now for the T4xx-5xx models,
what do you recommend. I have been told that the Lenovo Thinkpads are not as
repair friendly as the legacy T4x series or Dell computers with equivalent specs.
Your comments are highly appreciated!

ziloo

[MikalE]

I don't know where you got your mis-information, but these are just as easy as any other Thinkpad to work on.

Of course I will recommend those I have, and have worked on; the T500, T510, and T520. Same for the W series.

[dr_st]

I have so far been an enthusiast for T4x series. Now for the T4xx-5xx models,
what do you recommend. I have been told that the Lenovo Thinkpads are not as
repair friendly as the legacy T4x series or Dell computers with equivalent specs.
Your comments are highly appreciated!

You can read my (rather lengthy) write-up about some of those Thinkpads:
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=123257

It focuses mostly on those I owned personally (so no T5xx there), but I did mention what I know and a lot of the information applies to the entire line-up.

[TPFanatic]

In my opinion from (limited, amateur) experience the ease of repair improves with each iteration of a series. In the *60-61-*00 series, the initial *60 generation has the least durable plastics and fasteners, and by **00 the plastics are a little better and the fasteners a little better engineered. Subsequently in the **10-20-30 series, the plastics are still brittle but the fasteners are simplified with each iteration. Even later on with the spread of Ultrabook engineering to non-Ultrabooks, removable bottom covers become more mainstream giving easiest access to most slotted components. And now with many laptops remaining at factory configuration through retirement, slots are giving away to solder, and with basic machines becoming less and less expensive, it clearly makes more business sense to recycle and replace failing units.

As for the IBM era, T4*/R5* has the notorious southbridge and GPU failures despite the strength and durability of the actual chassis material. As a longtime T42p and R50p user I never felt the T4* was excessively flexible, contrarily I felt it was very sturdy, I'll opine even the sturdiest of laptops. Yet flex cannot be completely engineered out, and the problem winds up being inherent to the manufacture of the planars. T30 had a similar weakness in the RAM slots. These failures are unavoidable facts. I believe Lenovo responded with the magnesium rollcage for *60 and subsequent planars, but these too still have some flex, and they're not immune to random death either, probably related to heat, dry thermal paste, and slow spinning fans. *60 and **00 ATI death is fairly common, *61 Nvidia death is infamous. In the end everything dies.

[RealBlackStuff]

From experience the most upgradable newer one is still the T440p.
Followed by the T480.
Most anything after that is soldered.

[ziloo]

Thank you for all the responses!

How good are the 4xx series in handling Visual Studio suit, linux, and
mp4 movies?

ziloo

[TPFanatic]

All of them are good.

[ziloo]

What graphics card are available for a T430 and
which ones are the best for graphics?

ziloo

[dr_st]

You can see the available configurations here:
https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PD ... d_T430.pdf
And for the slimmer T430s here:
https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PD ... _T430s.pdf

[ziloo]

You can see the available configurations here.....

Brilliant....Thank you very much!!!!

How does the combo 2 graphics cards (or two chips on one card?) work?

ziloo

[TPFanatic]

You can read all about it here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Optimus

[ziloo]

You can read all about it here.....

Thank you TP....I always prefer one answer from a living buddy than
100 answers from encyclomania !!

Has anybody used the dual graphics card and does it deliver
what it promises?

ziloo

[dr_st]

Has anybody used the dual graphics card and does it deliver what it promises?

Well, what do you suppose it 'promises'?

[ziloo]

Being able to work efficiently, hassle-free, no special config needed, and
work with some graphic formats and not work with some other formats
kind of thing! In other words, does it always choose the best graphics chip
to use for a given application?

ziloo

[theterminator93]

I haven't chimed in on this topic yet, just needed to be in the right mindset and have the time.

T4xx and T5xx is really broad. Really broad. T400 was released in 2008, and T490 was manufactured well into 2020, possibly 2021 (I am not sure - the last T490 I had a client buy was mid-2020). Technology changed a LOT in those years, as has the ThinkPad lineup.

T400/T500 is very similar to the widescreen T60 and T61. The 10 series was a complete refresh, with the subsequent 20 and 30 series (and to a degree 40 series) being similar evolutions to the basic underpinnings. 50 series was another ground-up refresh, with the underpinnings lasting through the 80 series. The 90 series introduced the latest ground-up chassis refresh which remains in use, AFAIK, to this day.

Each generation/chassis design has its benefits and drawbacks to serviceability and upgradeability. As the industry pushed users to "thinner and lighter" designs, serviceability and upgradeability suffered; to make laptops thinner and lighter, optical drives were omitted, thicker CPU and RAM sockets were abandoned in favor of soldered designs, batteries were made progressively smaller/thinner, TDPs plummeted to allow for smaller heat sinks, ports were removed etc.

The 00 series has the "roll cage" design that requires a good degree of disassembly to get at certain components, though there are service doors that grant easy access to the most commonly replaced components. The 10-40 series have a much beefier magnesium frame but again, service doors (and removing the keyboard) get you access to the big 3 components - RAM, CPU and HDD. The 50-80 series have a top cover with a "tray" the keyboard sits in, and a cover over the bottom that, when removed, exposes the entire motherboard. Very easy to service. The 90 series is also built this way.

To satisfactorily answer your initial question, I think we need to know some goals or preferences. If you intend to use it as a primary machine you'll need something newer - I'd say 80 series or newer as all models got 4-core CPU as standard. Another benefit of 80 series is the external battery (options), WQHD displays, as well as reasonably user-serviceable components (e.g. 90 series and newer have soldered WLAN cards and RAM; 80 series and older use 2 or more RAM sockets, M.2 cards for WLAN/WWAN etc. as we are accustomed to).

If you want something older for nostalgic purposes, or need an optical drive, you're limited to 40 series or older as the "ultrabook" 50 series and newer left no provisions for that.

As far as multi-GPU systems... I have a few with the iGPU as well as a GeForce or Quadro. I very rarely use the dGPU - when I do it's when I do video encoding or video/photo editing. It's hotter and uses a lot more power - if I'm plugged in I'm usually at home, and if I'm at home, I'll want to use my desktop for things like that.

[ziloo]

Thank you so much!

ziloo

[ziloo]

Although this could be old news to all Thinkpals, but
I ask it anyway........How does a T430 i5 compare to
a T430 i7?

ziloo

[TPFanatic]

For regular T430 no meaningful difference.

For T430s model the i7 integrated gfx config has a thunderbolt port in combination with the Mini DP port, switched in Bios.

To answer your next question of what is Thunderbolt, it is a port with 4x PCI-E lanes that can be used to plug in multiple additional peripherals and it supports eGPUs.

[ziloo]

..... For T430s model the i7 integrated gfx config ....... with the Mini DP port, switched in Bios.... Thunderbolt, is a port with 4x PCI-E lanes .................... supports eGPUs.

WoooooooH.......Now that was intense!!!!!!!

Brilliant answers!

ziloo

[dr_st]

For T430s model the i7 integrated gfx config has a thunderbolt port in combination with the Mini DP port, switched in Bios.

To answer your next question of what is Thunderbolt, it is a port with 4x PCI-E lanes that can be used to plug in multiple additional peripherals and it supports eGPUs.

I have one of these TBT T430s units, and I have been toying with the idea of enabling eGPU via the Thunderbolt port. But the ecosystem back then was far more limited than it is today; there are very few solutions going from miniDP shaped TBT to PCIe, and these tend to be expensive.