Just picked up a Thinkpad T430 for cheap!

[Whitieiii]

Just picked up a T430 i5 with 4 gb of ram for $75 with no OS but comes with battery, HDD, and power cord.... don't know what I will do with it... maybe it will become my travel computer... idk

what OS should I install onto it? don't know if I should put windows 7 or windows 10 on it... I like both of them and can't make my mind up

[RealBlackStuff]

W7 till 2020.
After that (or earlier if you like) Linux is all you need!

[Whitieiii]

W7 till 2020.
After that (or earlier if you like) Linux is all you need!

ok ya! my T440s is running windows 10 and never use half the windows 10 specific things but it was way better than windows 8.1 and was free at the time and I didn't wanna pay for windows 7

[sktn77a]

There are 2 schools of thought on this. If you like having the latest software and can stomach the user interface, then go for Windows 10. If, like me, you pine for the old days of the Windows 97SE user interface, then use Windows 7 - it's well tested and optimal for the T430.

[brchan]

As much as I dislike W10, I found W10 to be more productive than 7. The interface finally has virtual desktops built-in, and is much better implemented than most of the 3rd party variants for W7. Windows snapping can also easily be done in 4 quadrants. DPI scaling is also improved.

[Whitieiii]

I decided to install windows 7 on it since I don't need the benefits of windows 10 like DX 12 plus I already have windows 10 on my T440s... I do like windows 7 and 10 unlike some who hate windows 10... I've also installed a backlight keyboard in it as I can't stand the thinklight at all and as it stands I have also installed 6 GB of ram.... the T430 now doesn't need to be changed I got it where I want it

[agklimit]

I just picked up a really nice (looks almost new) T430 2347 on ebay. Honestly, I wouldn't bother with anything else other than W10 Pro it came with. Not a huge fan of W10, but it works well, and everything (in terms of hardware and all functionality) works just perfectly.

I still use my old trusty T400, but mainly as "media server" into which I remote using RDP (I found that this works fabulously on W10, it's really sometimes hard to tell whether I'm in the host desktop or the remote desktop).

I could whinge about the display (the 1366 variant) or less-than perfect touchpad, but overall it's a dream ThinkPad and it sure leaves some of the brand new laptops (that go for many times the price I paid) looking almost like a joke.

(I was on ebay actually looking for a T530, but this T430 deal was just too good*).

*Price not specified, as I'm in Australia and everything is more expensive here than in many other places - even used stuff on ebay. I know from experience whenever I tell overseas people what I paid for something, they think I'm nuts.

[Temetka]

I just bought a T430s off e-bay. i5, 4GB, 128GB SSD, 1600x900, etc. $189+shipping. The seller had a ton of them as well as a good feedback history. It should arrive next week.

I'm both looking forward to it and having some buyers remorse. You see I really, really love my X301. But it's CPU is a tad slow for my needs but still serviceable in this day. I'm running BunsenLabs Linux on it right now and it has 6GB of RAM. I do need to reload the OS and dual boot Windows so I can use the ESXi vShpere client and our remote agent for work. God I wish they made and X302. This machine is perfect (almost).

But the T430s is on paper a far superior machine. I'm hoping that when it arrives, I will fall in love with it. If not, up for sale it goes. I know I can get another year, maybe 2 out of this X301 if I need to. But I've always liked the look of the T430s. It's very aesthetically pleasing to my eye and I do want to try out the new keyboard as well. It's a $200 experiment at this point. If I sell it, I'll throw the money at a larger SSD for my X301, some nice beer and call it a day. I'll keep you guys posted on it.

[Tasurinchi]

T430s are nice machines. Don't forget you can retrofit a 7 row keyboard rather easily, and of course do the famous FHD Mod!

CPU wise, IMO you should expect a good performance increase compared to the old Core2Duo SU9x000 generation.

[Temetka]

T430s are nice machines. Don't forget you can retrofit a 7 row keyboard rather easily, and of course do the famous FHD Mod!

CPU wise, IMO you should expect a good performance increase compared to the old Core2Duo SU9x000 generation.

Thanks, I was already aware of those 2 mods. But the KB mod doesn't provide 100% compatibility AFAIK and my eyes are getting to old to appreciate the FHD mod on a small screen. I'm just going to use it as it is. I'm actually looking forward to trying out the new keyboard.

As far as CPU speed is concerned, that's the primary reason I bought it. That being said my X301 handles everything I need from a portable PC at this point in time. So this is an experiment. If I'm not blown away and or instantly in love with the machine - up for sale it goes. I really love my X301 but I also have to be realistic and understand that it has 1 maybe 2 more years of active duty life left in it before I turn it into a machine to play my old retro games on. Shame they never made a newer version of it with an IPS LCD and a Core i3/i5 CPU. It'd be perfect.

[Tasurinchi]

But the KB mod doesn't provide 100% compatibility AFAIK and my eyes are getting to old to appreciate the FHD mod on a small screen

I did the retrofit to a couple of T430 and X230 and as far as I remember only the CapsLock LED doesn't work.

So this is an experiment. If I'm not blown away and or instantly in love with the machine - up for sale it goes.

Design-wise, the T430s cannot compete against the X301, I'm curious to see the outcome of your experiment

[Temetka]

I did the retrofit to a couple of T430 and X230 and as far as I remember only the CapsLock LED doesn't work.

Design-wise, the T430s cannot compete against the X301, I'm curious to see the outcome of your experiment

No caps lock LED is not a deal breaker but also isn't purely 100% compatible. (splitting hairs here).

Also, AFAIK no Thinkpad equals the X301 in terms of design - which bothers me. It's a wonderful little laptop and I've grown very attached to it.

[dr_st]

The things that don't work retrofitting the classic keyboard are:
* Caps Lock LED
* Fn+F12 (Hibernate)
* Fn+F3 (Screen off / Power Manager)