SOLD: Maxed out W500 (T9900, 250GB Samsung SSD, new screen etc.)

[ibrazhko]

For sale is my beloved ThinkPad W500, fully upgraded and in perfect condition.

I maxed out this legendary machine and refurbished as perfectly as possible. It turned out great, the laptop was restored to its former glory and even better. I specifically chose W500 because it provides an excellent combination of 16:10 aspect ratio screen, classic 7-row keyboard, powerful GPU, great speakers, and a big high-quality screen. But lately I just don’t have much time and need to use it, and it’s a waste of this beautiful machine.

Here are the specs and upgrades I performed:

- CPU: Core 2 Duo T9900 @ 3.06GHz, 6MB Cache (the best CPU that W500 can take; I can also put in Core 2 Extreme X9100 instead, if you’re into overclocking)
- GPU: discrete ATI Mobility FireGL V5700 with 512GB video memory + integrated Intel 4500MHD
- RAM: maxed out at 8GB (2x4GB)
- SSD: 250GB Samsung 860 EVO
- WLAN: Intel Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3)
- Bluetooth: 4.0 ("ThinkPad Bluetooth with Enhanced Dara Rate", pulled from T430)
- Display: new 1680x1050 (WSXGA+) LG LP154WE2-TLB1 panel, 200 cd/m2, 500:1 contrast ratio (more on display at the end of the post)
- Keyboard: NMB keyboard from T60/T61 in excellent condition and almost no wear
- Serial Ultrabay Slim DVD Multi-Burner IV
- New heatsink and fan assembly (PTM7950 applied)
- New palmrest
- New LCD top cover
- New hinges
- Original Lenovo battery, re-celled with new SANYO 3500mah cells (3-5 hours browsing the web)
- Original Lenovo 90W charger
- Windows 10 Pro 64-bit with all the necessary drivers installed





Thanks to all the upgrades and the powerful hardware for its time, the machine works really well even in 2024. During normal day-to-day use it’s hard to tell a difference between it and a modern laptop. It can even play 1080p 60fps videos on YouTube (thanks to the powerful GPU and certain tweaks in Chrome that force hardware acceleration). I even got to play Splinter Cell Blacklist from 2013 at 20-24 fps (on lowest settings though). Temperature wise, on integrated graphics the CPU idles at just around 32C, and even under max load I’ve never seen it rise above 58C.

Visually, the machine looks like it has just been taken out of retail Lenovo box. When refurbishing it, I disassembled the laptop completely and carefully cleaned inside and out. The palmrest, hinges, and most importantly LCD top cover were replaced with new old stock parts to make the machine look as good as new.

Speaking of the display, I’ve tested at least 5 different panels, and found LP154WE2-TLB1 to be the best one. It’s a new old stock panel with 200 nits of brightness (plenty for indoor use), great contrast and wide viewing angles. If you want, I can replace it with a 1920x1200 (WUXGA) Sharp LQ154M1LW02 panel that has been recommended here on the forum (also new old stock), but having tried them both I can say that LG is better in every aspect.

I am asking 350 USD plus shipping.

More pics available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... l0LPaUocBR

I also posted about it on reddit some time ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comme ... _soul_can/

[SKA]

Hi Ibrazhko

sent you private message in forum, but its still in my outbox- can you login to forum and check your PMs(private messages) ?
also you may reply to my email directly.

Thanks
Ska

[ibrazhko]

Hi Ska,
Thanks for your interest. I replied in PM. I would need to figure out how to ship to Thailand and will get back to you a bit later.

[ibrazhko]

Sold to forum member.