Thinkpad upgrading

[dave8671]

I was looking at the Thinkpad T560 mainly cause it has a backlit keyboard and a number pad. I have read this thread below and thought I will use a mouse. I think I will be looking for an Intel graphics only model though. I am sure the NVIDIA GeForce 940MX will eat the battery up. Thoughts?


viewtopic.php?f=49&t=343087&p=2070175#p2070175

[AZgl1800]

I suspect you are right about the Nivia card eating up the battery.

I have an old ThinkPad E550 and the battery on it will last almost 7 hours.

Code: Select all

 Intel HD Graphics in processor only, or 
AMD Radeon R7 M260 Graphics, 2GB DDR3 memory, 
external analog monitor support via VGA DB-15 connector and
digital monitor support via HDMI
™ (supporting HDCP to output protected content);
supports dual independent display
Max resolution: 1920x1080 (HDMI)@60Hz

Battery type Li-Ion 6-cell (48Wh)
6-cell (48Wh): up to 9.0 hr

https://www.cnet.com/products/lenovo-th ... 0df0040us/

I have an ASUS TUF FX and the battery on it will just barely make 2 hours at best...
I hate Nividia graphics cards.

[dave8671]

The cnet link is broken not sure why

[AZgl1800]

The cnet link is broken not sure why

don't know, so I went straight to Lenovo which is solid.

https://www.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptops/th ... ries/e550/

I just ignored the statement that the "product is no longer available'

the 1st link was to a PDF download which I do have

[dave8671]

How os the laptop in general you are running LM on the E 550?

[AZgl1800]

How os the laptop in general you are running LM on the E 550?

I installed LM20.2 Cinnamon on it, seemed to do just fine so far.

It has gone thru a few Update Manager cycles and nothing adverse has happened so far.

I like the little ThinkPad for just a Grab 'n Go device to put in my motorcycle's trunk.... not much room there for anything bigger than a lunch box

I keep a change of clothes, several bottles of water, and some snacks, that is just about all the little tyke can carry.

[dave8671]

I did buy a E550 on ebay and has to ship its back. after running for a bit it would had 2100 drive detection error.

[ivar]

we have around 100 T460's (same basic innards as the 560, just a smaller screen) at work , been running for 5 and a half years now and they're ready for replacement. Solid workhorses - and I suspect some of them will get linux mint installed
Before putting linus on it I would dowload and run the lenovo system update utility to make sure the bios is updated

[AZgl1800]

we have around 100 T460's (same basic innards as the 560, just a smaller screen) at work , been running for 5 and a half years now and they're ready for replacement. Solid workhorses - and I suspect some of them will get linux mint installed
Before putting linus on it I would download and run the lenovo system update utility to make sure the bios is updated

I didn't look to see if the E550 has a BIOS update, I suppose I could boot it up with a windows thumbdrive and update it that way.

I had a LM20.2 flash drive with me, and just put it on to see if it would take it, it did, no issues.

this is the first Lenovo product I have owned, no experience with them at all.

[donten]

My Asus uj30 packed it in recently, so I picked up a ThinkPad T460 from a vendor on eBay who purchases corporate stock... I am exceedingly happy with it! Added another 8Gb of ram, replaced the spinner hd with an ssd, and installed Linux Mint. It is in excellent shape: hard to beat for $270!

[dave8671]

I been looking at the t450s on ebay most of them have no power supplies. I do not know if I could but a Lenovo power supply. It seems with the T450 or the T460 only the t450s and the t460s has a backlit board. I assume the t460s has the same hardware minus the backlit keyboard. I am still hunting but now you give me another laptop to look for

[donten]

My T460 has the backlit keyboard...It can be turned on or off.
Here is the company on eBay I used:

https://www.ebay.com/usr/aitexpress

[ivar]

had to google a little to see what the differences was between s and non-s models.

Main difference seems to be S = slimmer design
We've got around 25 T480s pcs at work, these have soldered-in memory while our non-S 460's got 2 slots as described in this review.

https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comme ... _of_usage/

Another thing I prefer with the non-s models: full-size ethernet port.

[dave8671]

I will check that company out on ebay. I think they have low stock
Right now though. I read the review from reddit. I been liking the look of the t460s.

The reviewer's remarks concerning the trackpad. I never used them anyway on either thinkpad I ever had. I do not like them in general. If it could click on a folder that's a required function. I wonder though how different the trackpad is from t450s. Which serms to have driver and configuration issues. I did read a bug report. I think I looked up this when I was researching the T480.


https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=88609

Its was interesting to read how bugs like this get fixed. I think I will get a t460s. That IT professional was reviewing the hardware and was never thinking about linux at all. But his insight on the hardware was fantastic. I am planning to sell my t420 which is a nice unit I do not need 3 laptops nope. I have 2 DIY built desktops one is linux mint the other win10.

[AZgl1800]

the first thing I do to any laptop is turn OFF that damn mouse pad,
if left on, my palm touches it and the mouse jumps to hell and gone and my Touch Typing does not know the difference,

destroys every document I try to write.

I only use the LogiTech M510 USB mouse.

[dave8671]

Yes I been using a mouse for any laptop I have owned including a macbook pro. Which CPU to get the i5 or the i7 which is better? I found a seller on ebay that has a 60 warranty.

[dave8671]

Before putting Linus on it I would download and run the Lenovo system update utility to make sure the bios is updated

I was planning on upgrading the BIOS not something I normally do cause I think it would not help with a Linux Mint installation. I have decided on a T460s.

[AndyMH]

Which CPU - check them out at https://www.cpubenchmark.net/. I assume the i7 will be more expensive. Without looking, it is likely that the CPU is soldered not socketed in a T460S so no option to replace later. In my T430 the CPU is socketed and I have replaced the i5 with an i7.

[dave8671]

The CPU is not socketed but I really never upgrade them anyway. As for the i5 6300u and i7 6600u the link is below. I assume that I can turn off the nvidia card in the bios if a unit has duel cards? Looks like the 6600U is better choice

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/In ... 2608vs2609

[AndyMH]

There really isn't a lot in it, depends on the price difference. Mine was more marked on a T430, standard i5-3320M = 2634, i7-3632QM = 4572. The other factor that I don't know the answer on is - how much stuff runs on a single thread?

Just goes to show that old doesn't mean slow

nvidia - don't know.