UPDATE, October 2024: This 13-year-old ThinkPad X220 is still my main computer! I use it every day for blogging, shopping, photo editing, business stuff, and even writing this comment. 😊 I also did one more mod since creating this video. I added an additional internal USB 2.0 port (weird, right?) using the laptop's vacant Bluetooth card port and this custom chip: ebay.us/dqV6bG (affiliate link). That brings the total number of USB-A ports to 6 and allows me to hide a small USB device inside the computer (like an additional Bluetooth adapter, wireless mouse dongle, or flash drive). For more frugal tips, be sure to subscribe to our channel and read the blog at www.tripofalifestyle.com Thanks for watching! - Lauren
@TripOfALifestyle I have a Dell Latitude E6530. Upgraded with 16 gig RAM, bigger battery, 2TB SSD, BD-RE drive, USB 3.0 ExpressCard. It has 2 USB 3.0 ports built in plus a USB 2.0 and an eSATA USB 2.0 combo port. It has 1080p display and nVidia GPU with dedicated RAM. I got it cheap because it had an i3 CPU. It was easy to swap in an i7. One puzzler is why DELL won't do a TPM 2.0 firmware update for it when they have for lesser models of the same era.
I am writing this on a x220 i got 2nd hand in 2014. It has an i5. I upped it to 16GB RAM and a Sata SSD. Still going strong! (Got it for 150 bucks lol)
That just shows how most people's needs in terms of technology were met 10-15 years ago already and all the fancy new tech is just satisfying consumerism.
@emperorarasaka Depends from settings and GPU, but it's possible to game on i7 from 2009. But most people aren't gaming anyway, for browsing, office and movies it's perfectly fine.
Great job, i'm 79 and still do all my own repairs thanks to youtube. Replace batteries in cell phones ( which they say can't be replaced) to replacing screens on laptops. You go girl!
Pro tip for anyone wanting to do this sort of thing: be cautious when blowing out any PC fans. It's best to either hold the blades still, or disconnect the fan(s) from the motherboard. Otherwise, you run the risk of generating an electrical current with the fan motor strong enough to short the motherboard when you spin the blades up with air pressure, because you're effectively turning it into an electic generator and that power is going to go somewhere if it's still connected to a circuit. But this was a great video and I really enjoyed the premise and end result data.
For every Muppet who says this is fine and you can ignore the comment above... That is BS! Listen to This man, hold them or disconnect them. I myself Fried two Motherboards with this (one as accident, the other to prove it can happen with a spare board) Don't be stupid me! :D
@@abdul-kabiralegbe5660 Yes, this & working on an open computer while on carpet flooring, especially in winter! That spark felt will likely surely damage something, why I don't do this, plus wear a $5 wrist strap touching a metal part of the unit. Some components, especially GPU's, doesn't always like the blasts of cold air to blow out dust either. Better to tear down to the point of removing the heatsink & then, if possible, wash it after allowing to sock to loosen the dust & pick as much of the rest out as one can. It's much safer, have seen many on Tech forums reporting this, in particular those who has MSI brand models. A GPU not torn down likely won't dry as much as an open motherboard & any trapped liquid can (& will likely) short the GPU as soon as booted.
Late to the party, but here goes. I used to work at a recycling/waste transfer site where we would get discarded laptops. I, being an old tech head, would enjoy taking them home and refurbishing them. Most often it was a plugged cooling fan. Was given a HP Pavilion with a busted 17" screen. Worked on an external monitor so ordered a new screen for $110.00 Cdn. Later installed a 512 Gb SSD, 16Gb RAM a cooling stand and after 10 years, still runs great. Now, if Microsoft would work on a lean mean OS like XP, I'd be thrilled. There's still Linux that I'm learning at 72 on another salvaged laptop. Too many people buy a new phone because it has a larger number after the fruit for which it was named. If it works, I'm using it.
Search for "Live" linux distributions you can run off a thumb drive. That allows you to try before you decide. Linux Mint may as well be a GUI like MacOS or Windows. You can get by without terminal for 90% of it. You can also run versions of Linux in a virtual machine on Windows, but it works much better the other way around, using Windows on a virtual machine via Ubuntu or Debian distros. With VMware being free, you even get pass through hardware functionality in many cases for Windows. Godspeed young man! 🍻
Btw, 128GB is plenty of space for a Linux Distro if you just decide to dual boot the machine. Realistically, RAM usage on windows will be the real bottleneck soon enough at 16GB.
No need to throw it out so it doesn't have all the newest bangs and whistles or super fast I still keep and use 8 to 10 yr old laptops to this day and I upgraded my acer 2010 network too.
Plus the fruit company intentionally designs it so that it will look bad after a few years of use. I mean, if it can't stand a few years of use, why buy it in the first place?
I’m totally on board with this. So many wasted older computers that have plenty of life in them. In fact most people think they need to upgrade a pc just because the OS gets a little sluggish but I do a clean install of Windows every 2 years or so. I also built a home server and have a dedicated Linux laptop. For me computers are a hobby but I can build most people a great computer for a few hundred dollars. My Lenovo ThinkStation server has a Xeon 8 core/16 thread processor, 96Gb RAM, 1Tb NVMe SSD and 16Tb of HD storage and it cost me about $750. I just laugh when people buy $2500 Macs that they don’t need with the exception being video/music editors. You don’t need a MacBook Pro to be a college student or surf the web.
@@TripOfALifestyle also you mentioned that you don’t use your second drive bay. I always do because I keep my OS on one drive and my data on the other. Makes things easier when it comes to refreshing the OS or if it dies but I also know you mentioned your husband backs up the data. I just like the compartmentalization.
When it comes to USB ports, please keep in mind that USB 3.0 is available only in i7 version of X220. If you get i5 or i3, you will only get USB 2 ports.
True, but for all practical purposes it doesn't matter unless you are transferring mega amounts of data. For day to day use USB2 is fine, esp. if you are just connecting peripherals like a printer, mouse, keyboard etc.
Thanks for making this video. I looked up at least 3-4 videos about repasting an x230T and yours is the only one that mentions that the Thermal Pads also need replacement. Everyone else just glosses over it, and only mention how to apply the thermal paste.
@@TripOfALifestyle You are very welcome. I love discovering new content creators like yourself and your hubby on this platform. It's like Christmas everyday.
I only have ever bought 1 laptop ever. Every single laptop after that shitty gateway I bought in like 1998 I have gotten for free from places that I have worked. Companies throw away computers like crazy and all of my laptops after that have been from these throw away machines. If you work somewhere get to know your IT staff and more then likely they have a bunch of old stuff laying around that they would be happy to let you have.... just don't steal stuff tho :P
as a thinkpad enthusiast I love this video! you were really committed to that X220 -- the newer models just aren't as easily upgradeable, so I get it. I'm still in love with the T480 I bought in 2019 and have kept upgrading, even though I now daily drive an X1 Carbon 9th Gen.
These old ThinkPads are something else. I've received old X200 for free (4 GB of RAM, no hard drive and Core 2 Duo P8600). Over the years I've upgraded the RAM to 8 GB, threw in a 120 GB SSD, USB 3.0 Express Card, new battery, swapped motherboard from X200 to X201 one with i3 CPU and installed modded BIOS without WiFi whitelist. Right now, I'm waiting for two adapters, which will allow me to install small NVMe drive and two additional SD cards (internally) for storage boost. I have plans for upgrading WiFi card in the future. Also, this unit (even with X200 motherboard) runs Windows 11 just fine.
@@arikowidtrash7074 It runs Windows 11 fine. It's a little bit slower than modern Intel Pentium laptops but otherwise pretty snappy for it's age. It does all the office work fast enough. RUclips FullHD playback works. For 1200 frames it will drop about 5.
You are lucky that your laptop on Core 2 Duo recognizes 8Gb RAM. I have a Samsung (also on Core 2 Duo) and it refuses to see more than 3G RAM. No matter what I tried, even upgrading the latest BIOS version did not help. By the way, I also installed Win 11 on this laptop (need to change 2 keys in the registry during installation) and it works fine, but it takes a long time to load. That's why I use Win 8.1 - it is much lighter, loads faster and uses fewer resources.
@@Вася-ш3щ My X200 recognised 8 GB of RAM because it was Core 2 Duo P-series working on DDR3 memory. If you have Core 2 Duo T-series the chances are that it will only support only 4 GB of RAM and most likely only DDR2. Oh, and the newest version of Windows 11 (24H2) requires SSE 4.2 CPU instructions so old Core 2 Duo systems will not get past 23H2. You have to have at least 1st generation of Intel Core CPUs.
Major kudos for getting your laptop for an average investment of less than $100 / year. I think not every brand would upgrade as well as the one you have, a testament to the wise choice you made in the beginning. Thanks for sharing your experience. Happy travels, and Happy Holidays!
Awesome video, so many great ideas for my old pads I had not thought of and probably wouldn't have without this video. Top notch info. The overall video presentation was generally easy on the eyes too (:
Got a 2010 macbook white. With ssd, new battery and extra ram. Used opencore to load a more recent mac operating system. Everything still works. Good for general use.
after watching this and a few other videos i got a thinkpad x220 in crappy condition for 40 dollars and fixed it up. Im a lot into it and it still has some minor issues but i like it a lot. one of my favorite laptops i have
An excellent idea to continue using a perfectly adequate laptop. I have done almost all of the same mods with my X220 and it’s still going strong. The nice thing about Thinkpad laptops is that there were so many leased to corporations that there is a huge pool of used units for parts available. Because they were built for business use, the components were reliable and not necessarily leading edge so they last a long time. The old Thinkpad in particular are highly modularized so it’s easy to swap out certain components rather than having to replace the entire main board for everything. Thanks for the tip on the USB-C power inlet replacement! I got my upgraded WiFi module long ago as a Lenovo branded unit out of a newer parts Thinkpad found on eBay. I’ve been through 4 batteries and finally landed one that seems to be built less cheaply and that has lasted well. Because the “hard disk” SSD is so easy to swap I run Debian most of the time and can swap to Windows 10 for one specialized application that requires a direct hardware interface and won’t work with a virtual machine. The SSD and memory upgrades really give new life to the old X220. I also have an even older X200 that’s still in use and even an ancient X40 with a rare tiny replacement SSD and running 32-bit Debian that I keep around as a novelty.
I do a very similar thing! As a cyber security engineer, my company supplies me with a laptop for work. But, for college and all personal use after college I have been using/upgrading a Lenovo Thinkpad E580 that I bought in high school. It didn't have a windows license when I bought it so I've been running Ubuntu natively since day 1 (I prefer standard Ubuntu to Xubuntu even though standard Ubuntu is slightly more resource heavy).
@@TripOfALifestyle Fair enough. The most important thing is that they are all free! Thanks so much for interacting! I love y’all’s content! Keep it up!
I love videos like this, where there is a place for newer tech like gaming as a hobby or like 3d modeling/animating which is a lot of what I do most of the time people would be fine on older hardware.
I work at a company with a mobile workforce and the workload demands that we replace aging computers with new ones because motherboards are dying from fans giving out (non-replaceable) and heat issues, as well as terrible slowdown as Windows gets more bloated. The most important upgrade is replace HDD with SSD and the most important setting change is TURN OFF TURBO BOOST in the BIOS. It makes it run hot, increases power consumption, and greatly increases fan noise.
I'm a Thinkpad fanboy. My wife and I each have a Thinkpad T520 in addition to our desktops. In addition I'm using a T420 as a poor man's server mainly for automated backups and personal web server. It has an SSD as the main drive and a 2TB HDD in a caddy replacing the DVD drive. We have had good luck buying off lease PCs and laptops on eBay. Normally use recyclers rather then one-offers trying to sell their old computer.
This was my work computer for 6 years. I never had a single problem, except near the end, I replaced the HDD with an SSD, and yes, it got much faster. I used it hard and was even dropped once or twice. It was a company laptop, so I gave it back. It was the best laptop I used to date I was allowed to pick whatever I wanted before that, and those were always Dell products. They were good but needed a lot of repairs. I own a MacBook Pro now, but I still loved that X220
My daily driver is a used Thinkpad T520 i got off Ebay for $200 in 2016. No OS, no hard drive, so I added a 1TB SSD with windows 7. It did come with a supersize battery which I am still using . I also dual boot with Archlinux. I love it and don't feel I need anything better.
I did many years of corporate IT support and the Thinkpad is the best you can get. You do have to get corporate Thinkpad, not retail systems. The x220 is corporate. I’m a solo circumnavigator now and still use an x240 with solid state drive for pulling down HF radio weather, email underway. I use a Raspberry Pi for navigation computer too. Cheers A SV Soy Libre Vuda, Fiji
Your video is inspring as I have a few retired laptops sitting at my storage room collecting dust and these retured laptops are actually younger than your Thinkpad. I think I am trying to do some refurblishing work to rejunvenile them.
Got an old x220t which I've only now replaced with a newer laptop for its intended function. Two tips I can mention: -Get H264ify plugin for your browsers. YT and other streaming sites are starting to use H265 encoding, which is great if you have hardware that can handle it (anything after around 2016). Anything older can request the older codec instead which these laptops can handle. That should stop stuttering or fan spinup on higher definition screens. -Consider getting the dock. Most of the business line have/had docking stations you could buy. They'll perform better than 3rd party USB docks and can keep your setup cleaner at home -If yours has a low resolution display, you may be able to upgrade to 1920x1080. Check the original specifications and models available for your laptop, many came with higher resolution options. If you can get either the model number it refers to or the panel number you can upgrade it. This isn't super hard to do on older systems, but one side effect is that some of the feature buttons may not longer match up correctly. All of the features are there, you just need to figure them out for yourself.
The X220 was also the last laptop they made with that particular keyboard. For that reason alone, it's great. On mine, the fan stopped working -- IDK if it's a hardware or software problem. I will try to replace the fan. And thanks for a very pleasant and helpful video.
My MacBook is 12 years old. It was unused for over 3 years until I finally installed Ubuntu 24.04 on it a few months ago. I procrastinated a long time because I already had another desktop pc with Linux on it, but the MacBook now gives me the option of doing work from my own room if I suddenly have brain storms in the middle of the night and don't feel like leaving my room. Linux is great for breathing life back into old hardware that is no longer supported by commercial software.
The happiest part is considering how much e-waste you haven't created, as a lot of people treat a laptop as a throwaway item and renew when the next fastest thing comes along. For myself I've never bought new, just by used and upgrade what you can😊😊
This is kind of girl I love to be with. Not a girl that spoiled with her latest MacBook Pro. I also now focusing on buying a futureproof laptop so that they can last 10+ years. I would have been happy with a Lenovo Thinkpad W520 but my 4K video editing work requires like a Pascal Quadro GPU so Fujitsu Celsius H780 is perfect.
Nice video. It shows we can update old computers in many ways. Many things can be repaired if we make an effort. I was watching this video on an old I-mac from late 2006 with Linux Elementry. Many thanks to those people who make this possible, they are great.
This is so cool, I wonder if I could do this with my current laptop in the future I'm guessing probably not considering it's a newer model, I already own 2 laptops! My old laptop and my current one
I got x230 which is similar. great laptop. my only problem is getting a good battery since lenovo has long stopped producing battery for this series. after bought 3 batteries that each only lasted for one year I got sicked of it so I uninstalled the battery. to power the laptop I use power bank 65 W which has type C port that can deliver 20V 3,25A. the good thing is you can get much bigger capacity with powerbank. the battery capacity is only 5300mah but you can buy powerbank 20000 mah that will give you longer usage time.
Great video. I recently bought a Lenovo 480s from Amazon Renew for $200. I highly recommend it fot anyone looking to buy a laptop you can still modify. Ive only added a second ssd and installed linux on it so far but you can do everything else in this video when needed.
I still use a 2012 Samsung laptop that I run ChromeOS Flex on and a 2014 Mac Book Pro that now runs Ubuntu. Only upgrade done to the Samsung laptop was replacing the hard drive with an SSD. No changes done to the MBP h/w yet. But might need to replace battery as it barely lasts.
Great tutorial. Hard to retire a good running laptop. My 2010 Asus ROG laptop's screen went out as a result of short caused by the faulty power supply. It's a power house of a gaming laptop but unfortunately, the backlight harness is a rare commodity. Thanks for the inspiration.
I'm rehabbing an early 2011 MacBook Pro that belonged to my wife. So far, I've replaced the battery, a broken touchpad, and the SSD, and installed Ubuntu 24.04. I could have kept the old SSD in service, but replacing it was the easiest way to back up its contents. The MagSafe charger failed yesterday; one of its power pins stuck. A couple of pokes with a thin probe put everything right. One more task remains: upgrading the memory. I'll do that later this week. Update: One of the pins in the power supply's MagSafe connector stuck yesterday, which caused charging to fail. A couple of pokes with a mechanical pencil put things right. Just upgraded memory to 16 gigs and the machine just cooks. Love it!
As an old pc upgrader/refurbisher however you want to call it, i lik the effort you took to keep the old laptop going. I kept my old hp 8730w quad core till last year just because of the 17" it was a good old gal but had to be replaced ofc, changed 3 battery's i think, and bought an extended battery in the end. Bought a 2nd hand dell last (8th gen i7) year to replace let's see if it can also keep up for 10+ years (in desktops i'm a bit more wasteful as i change every 3-4y) .But still nice to see that old hw can still be upgraded unlike new all soldered down hardware even the RAM..
Pros: Free, open source, stable, secure, lightweight, fast, updates for life, and gives you native access to a terminal using a nice shell like bash. Cons: Sometimes lacking good support for certain hardware (driver issues), and cannot natively run proprietary software that's written specififically for macOS or Windows (like Adobe products, for example).
@@TripOfALifestyle Thanks. For me that rules it out as a replacement, which I have looked into before... maybe for a standalone server as I see someone commented. Ole Bill has us by the fill in the blank...
@@StationaryDingleberry You can still run Windows apps under Linux inside a virtual machine (for example with VirtualBox as shown in the video) OR with emulation software such as WINE. It's just a bit more of a pain to set up. 😓
My X220 is still kicking hard! I have Arch on it and sometimes I can feel it's kind of slow for some modern tasks, but for what I'm using it, it performs brilliantly. The most "annoying" thing is that it chugs on 4K video, especially if it's a higher bit rate. I mainly use it for Internet radio, personal e-mailing, organizing and listening to music. I love how portable and durable it is.
I'm been using an old DEll 1545 from 2008 for nearly 15 years. Recently upgraded the ram, upgraded the CPU, added an SSD and even brought a replacement battery (holds a decent charge now). Gave it a good clean too. Total cost around £25 :) Purrs like a kitten and does everything I need.
How do you solve the software compatibility problem with Linux? I use an Intuit rental property program for my business but it is not Linux compatible. I do love Linux and would like to use it for everything.
This video is great for those who don't want to do anything new with their computer, but the rest of us, it's time to buy a new or upgrade our computer.
My upgraded T430 will last forever. I put in an i7-3630QM with the 2-pipe cooler, it's got 8GB RAM, 2 SSDs, 1600x900 IPS screen, ThinkLight & an illuminated keyboard. It's running all day every day and it's just legendary.
@@algavone You're not actually upgrading any of the existing USB ports. You're ADDING 2 extra USB 3 ports via the ExpressCard slot. The card needed to do this is linked in the video description! 😊
Great video there!💯💯💯 In fact, I had a much older model ThinkPad, believe it was the T42. Though was able to upgrade the CPU & DDR RAM to its max it 2GB, making it run 32-bit Windows 7 Pro (due to having a TechNet subscription) w/out the Aero effects, later became a decent Linux Mint Mate laptop. Anyway, getting newer & closer to the one you upgraded, have an MSI FX-603 that's still used, came with a 1st generation (Arrandale) Intel i5-480M, later upgraded to the max of a i7-640M. Plus, all the way from a N-1000 to an 7260N & later to 7260AC wireless/BT card, 8GB RAM (this was the worst limitation about the 1st gen Intel laptops) & finally, a SATA-3 SSD, though ran at SATA-2 speed, still quite fast with Samsung's Rapid Mode!💪 Tried to find a modified BIOS to make it run a i7-720QM CPU, as similar HP models based on 1st gel Intel, since it has a dedicated NVIDIA GPU, but came up empty handed, even looking on specific tech forums to create one just for me yet found nothing. I still presume there's a way, but then gave up & began building computers after my 1st new one, an XPS 8700, although had potential, even upgraded from its installed i7-4770 (Intel Haswell, 4th gen) to its max, the i7-4790K, which was in a few months to be the CPU for my 1st Z97, 32GB RAM & EVGA GTX 1070 FTW (8GB GDDR5). Have never bought a retail computer of any type since then, learning what I am wanted & do & enjoying the thrill while saving $1,000 each time. Am now rocking an AM5 ASRock X670E Steel Legend with 32GB DDR5 RAM & as for the CPU, a real contender in the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, purchased in June of 2024 at $350 on Amazon new. Since then, has went from that price to first, over $500 & now over $600, as it's known for being the current King for gamers. At least until the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is released for around today's current same price as mine, being it's been a huge success for AM5 platform. Will likely skip the next & wait for the release of the one after, since am still running the GTX 1070 in this one, needing to prioritize a GPU upgrade first. Good Luck on your channel, have subscribed!❤❤❤
Barrel to USB-C is a great mod! If you forget your charger, you can almost always find a USB-C cable nearby. The i7's have had an amazing run, almost any of those 2+GHz i7's from 2012 or later are still very useful today (and many can be found with native HDMI out, but an onboard SD-card reader can be hit or miss-- that's handy for xfer drone or camera images). Around $300 for a (second hand) daily driver (non-gaming) system is very do-able (i7 because 2+ row taskbars is how we roll, 14-16" screen, SATA/mSATA/NVM, 16GB and good to go). Old MacBook Pro's from that era (which are also i7's) are also still decent (but kind of heavy) or older Razer Blade's. Modern laptop does offer the higher speed USB-C 3.2 (where you can attach external GPUs, which is a lot more practical than using those external riser adapters). Even if not gaming, doing some Google Earth or faster video editing/effects preview is always good (for me a GPU helps with astronomy imaging, stacking/stretching images). // You can also find old laptops at Vintage Computer Festivals around the country throughout the year (the one in Chicago being probably the best for laptops).
Nice video! My needs are fewer than yours but I use my old x220 (I have an i5 processor)that I bought from my employer after carrying around for 3 years;) My used machine cost me $45.00 I have given it more memory and an SSD. Running windows 11. It’s a lovely machine!
Buying a business class Lenovo laptop is the BEST financial choice you could ever make ! Debian Linux Distro with XFCE desktop makes your laptop Superfast 👍 I'm still using my X220 and just got an awesome T450 for $75 !! 🤣
I am 61 years old and have only ever purchased one new computer 35 years ago. Since learning of linux, I have inherited desktops and laptops that supposed don't work and previous owners have trashed only to be able to install linux on them. Even with that knowledge the owners did not want to learn a wee bit of linux but rather go out and spend more money for a windows computer, there loss my gain. Great for me. Currently running MX linux on a 8 year old Dell xps laptop, it's awesome ! BTW: used a Linux computer and co-habitated in a windows work based environment with little to no problem.
I bought my X220 as a scratch and dent for less than $200 from Lenovo Outlet. 12 years ago. Returned it to get the screen replaced as part of the warranty. Upgrades: 512 SSD, 8GB Ram. Replaced fan with CPU heat sink. Replaced red rubber pointer. Batteries are the most expensive maintenance for me.
You've pretty much pushed it to the max! I like it. I've got same X220 with i7. Where did you get the USB-C charging port? Was unaware of that, so appreciate it. I'm checking Aliexpress but haven't seen one. If you wanted to squeeze every bit of performance out of it, you could look at compiling with Gentoo but I doubt it'd be worth it + you'd have days of compiling ahead of you. Think if you wanted to go further mods, you'd have to go X230 but I appreciate this is your original laptop so likely quite attached to it
@@TripOfALifestyle Winner, thank you. I often forget to look there. I've read that Kingsener batteries on a Aliexpress are generally quite good, that's my next stop. I'm mostly plugged in each day, so I've used TLP to set my battery thresholds to 40-50% charge, i.e. extending the lifetime of the battery before it degrades. I'm also interested in recelling the battery but just don't have the time or equipment just yet. I'd definitely watch a video on that if you're looking for another challenge
Here i'd add that if you will change the thermal paste again maybe look in to PTM 7950. That i7 likes to run hot so excellent heat transfer and life-time longevity are quite usefull. You also might want to do an IPS mod if not done already. Your X220 has lived a wonderfull life :D
Good advice if you already have an oldpad from way back and you want to upgrade it. Picking one up today expecting it to go another 12 years would be weird though (where are you getting the Thunderbolt port from? Like actual Thunderbolt with charging and DisplayPort?). For such a purpose I'd probably get a Framework (if I weren't so married to the ThinkPad TrackPoint).
yeah i don't think spending money to keep it going it actually worth already not using windows had to spend 100 on batteries alone along with all the other stuff at that point just buying knew is the way to go. just like computer maybe every 5 years make some type of upgrade move by then your couple generation into new tech and it is well worth the jump to new hardware keep something for ten years ago going isn't worth it. unless your to retro type of videos. but most of those is about showing things at their stock or close to stock specks so upgrading kills that type of video.
I have Asus laptop from 2015 which I upgraded in a simple fashion: upgraded its' RAM and changed HDD to SSD. I also use Linux, only Ubuntu distro. Its' cost back then was about 350-400€. Since then it is the main put-bread-on-my-table machine.
unfortunately the USB3-Port is ONLY AVAILABLE if the I7 is installed on the X220 the I5 and the I3 has only USB2. If this is an issue go for the X230 this has an USB3 on each version.
Totally agree; I love Linux. If you clean the fan, place something to keep the fan from moving e.g. toothpick, then blow air. Use a cloud drive to backup files so no need very expensive high capacity drive; additional benefits from cloud drive, backup when laptop drive fails.
My laptop is 12 to 14 years old now and I was thinking of getting a new one. I too have upgraded the disk, doubled the memory, tricked out and expanded the usb. Given my frustration with windows, the OS upgrade and the USBc charging port might be all I need to do to get more life out of it. Thank you!!
UPDATE, October 2024: This 13-year-old ThinkPad X220 is still my main computer! I use it every day for blogging, shopping, photo editing, business stuff, and even writing this comment. 😊
I also did one more mod since creating this video. I added an additional internal USB 2.0 port (weird, right?) using the laptop's vacant Bluetooth card port and this custom chip: ebay.us/dqV6bG (affiliate link).
That brings the total number of USB-A ports to 6 and allows me to hide a small USB device inside the computer (like an additional Bluetooth adapter, wireless mouse dongle, or flash drive).
For more frugal tips, be sure to subscribe to our channel and read the blog at www.tripofalifestyle.com
Thanks for watching!
- Lauren
@TripOfALifestyle I have a Dell Latitude E6530. Upgraded with 16 gig RAM, bigger battery, 2TB SSD, BD-RE drive, USB 3.0 ExpressCard. It has 2 USB 3.0 ports built in plus a USB 2.0 and an eSATA USB 2.0 combo port. It has 1080p display and nVidia GPU with dedicated RAM. I got it cheap because it had an i3 CPU. It was easy to swap in an i7. One puzzler is why DELL won't do a TPM 2.0 firmware update for it when they have for lesser models of the same era.
@greggv8 👏
I am writing this on a x220 i got 2nd hand in 2014. It has an i5. I upped it to 16GB RAM and a Sata SSD. Still going strong! (Got it for 150 bucks lol)
Do you use Arch, by the way?
@@vijaynatrajan1887 Nicely done!
That just shows how most people's needs in terms of technology were met 10-15 years ago already and all the fancy new tech is just satisfying consumerism.
@@attilaszovan Some truth to that!
Try running some of the latest games and software on a 15 year old laptop (if at all)
@emperorarasaka Depends from settings and GPU, but it's possible to game on i7 from 2009. But most people aren't gaming anyway, for browsing, office and movies it's perfectly fine.
@@emperorarasaka
Pixel shader was not even a thing, and now all games require the latest version. This video is misleading
@@MikeTMikeyou're misleading.
Great job, i'm 79 and still do all my own repairs thanks to youtube. Replace batteries in cell phones ( which they say can't be replaced) to replacing screens on laptops. You go girl!
Good for you man. I'm only 59. I'm self taught in Linux and do all my own repairs and upgrades.
My ThinkPad T60 19 y.o..
@2:03.. Those are not SODIMM
Guilty! We pulled some random old desktop memory out of the closet as a prop for the video. 😂
Pro tip for anyone wanting to do this sort of thing: be cautious when blowing out any PC fans. It's best to either hold the blades still, or disconnect the fan(s) from the motherboard. Otherwise, you run the risk of generating an electrical current with the fan motor strong enough to short the motherboard when you spin the blades up with air pressure, because you're effectively turning it into an electic generator and that power is going to go somewhere if it's still connected to a circuit.
But this was a great video and I really enjoyed the premise and end result data.
For every Muppet who says this is fine and you can ignore the comment above... That is BS! Listen to This man, hold them or disconnect them. I myself Fried two Motherboards with this (one as accident, the other to prove it can happen with a spare board) Don't be stupid me! :D
@@Phil-9h You guys are idiots if you believe this advice. You may be "pros", but you are not engineers.
Thanks. This is one of those things that seem obvious in retrospect but which almost everyone forgets.
@@abdul-kabiralegbe5660 Yes, this & working on an open computer while on carpet flooring, especially in winter! That spark felt will likely surely damage something, why I don't do this, plus wear a $5 wrist strap touching a metal part of the unit. Some components, especially GPU's, doesn't always like the blasts of cold air to blow out dust either. Better to tear down to the point of removing the heatsink & then, if possible, wash it after allowing to sock to loosen the dust & pick as much of the rest out as one can. It's much safer, have seen many on Tech forums reporting this, in particular those who has MSI brand models. A GPU not torn down likely won't dry as much as an open motherboard & any trapped liquid can (& will likely) short the GPU as soon as booted.
Killed my dad's power supply by blowing the fan. too hard.
Late to the party, but here goes. I used to work at a recycling/waste transfer site where we would get discarded laptops. I, being an old tech head, would enjoy taking them home and refurbishing them. Most often it was a plugged cooling fan. Was given a HP Pavilion with a busted 17" screen. Worked on an external monitor so ordered a new screen for $110.00 Cdn. Later installed a 512 Gb SSD, 16Gb RAM a cooling stand and after 10 years, still runs great. Now, if Microsoft would work on a lean mean OS like XP, I'd be thrilled. There's still Linux that I'm learning at 72 on another salvaged laptop. Too many people buy a new phone because it has a larger number after the fruit for which it was named. If it works, I'm using it.
Search for "Live" linux distributions you can run off a thumb drive. That allows you to try before you decide. Linux Mint may as well be a GUI like MacOS or Windows. You can get by without terminal for 90% of it.
You can also run versions of Linux in a virtual machine on Windows, but it works much better the other way around, using Windows on a virtual machine via Ubuntu or Debian distros. With VMware being free, you even get pass through hardware functionality in many cases for Windows.
Godspeed young man! 🍻
Btw, 128GB is plenty of space for a Linux Distro if you just decide to dual boot the machine.
Realistically, RAM usage on windows will be the real bottleneck soon enough at 16GB.
No need to throw it out so it doesn't have all the newest bangs and whistles or super fast I still keep and use 8 to 10 yr old laptops to this day and I upgraded my acer 2010 network too.
Plus the fruit company intentionally designs it so that it will look bad after a few years of use. I mean, if it can't stand a few years of use, why buy it in the first place?
Just maxed the RAM, and went SSD on my 10yo HP Pav17. Still works great!
I’m totally on board with this. So many wasted older computers that have plenty of life in them. In fact most people think they need to upgrade a pc just because the OS gets a little sluggish but I do a clean install of Windows every 2 years or so. I also built a home server and have a dedicated Linux laptop. For me computers are a hobby but I can build most people a great computer for a few hundred dollars. My Lenovo ThinkStation server has a Xeon 8 core/16 thread processor, 96Gb RAM, 1Tb NVMe SSD and 16Tb of HD storage and it cost me about $750. I just laugh when people buy $2500 Macs that they don’t need with the exception being video/music editors. You don’t need a MacBook Pro to be a college student or surf the web.
Fresh OS install solves so many problems...and costs nothing!
@@TripOfALifestyle also you mentioned that you don’t use your second drive bay. I always do because I keep my OS on one drive and my data on the other. Makes things easier when it comes to refreshing the OS or if it dies but I also know you mentioned your husband backs up the data. I just like the compartmentalization.
You don't NEED a MacBook Pro for ANYTHING. The Air will meet 100% of your computing needs.
When it comes to USB ports, please keep in mind that USB 3.0 is available only in i7 version of X220. If you get i5 or i3, you will only get USB 2 ports.
Correct! But you can still get some level of USB 3 support through an ExpressCard!
Doesn't really matter imo.😊
Get the x230, it has the USB 3 ports at any level
True, but for all practical purposes it doesn't matter unless you are transferring mega amounts of data. For day to day use USB2 is fine, esp. if you are just connecting peripherals like a printer, mouse, keyboard etc.
@@Fred-g2k True, yet USB 3.0 does make backups, restores & clones many times faster!💪
Thanks for making this video. I looked up at least 3-4 videos about repasting an x230T and yours is the only one that mentions that the Thermal Pads also need replacement. Everyone else just glosses over it, and only mention how to apply the thermal paste.
Glad you liked it! Please feel free to share in any communities you think would benefit from it. 😊
Thermal pads need no replacement. They usually are grey and paddy like. However Thermal Paste sometimes can dry out and needs replacement.
RUclips just recommended this video to me. Well done. Clear and concise. I'm a tech of 25+ years and learned even something today! Thank you for that.
@@dominicene3647 Awesome! Thanks for watching and thanks for the comment!
@@TripOfALifestyle You are very welcome. I love discovering new content creators like yourself and your hubby on this platform. It's like Christmas everyday.
I must say I love how the barrel charging port works and feels.
Seriously...just amazing. I am so completely impressed by your work on this 'old' laptop. I am inspired to do the same.
I only have ever bought 1 laptop ever. Every single laptop after that shitty gateway I bought in like 1998 I have gotten for free from places that I have worked. Companies throw away computers like crazy and all of my laptops after that have been from these throw away machines. If you work somewhere get to know your IT staff and more then likely they have a bunch of old stuff laying around that they would be happy to let you have.... just don't steal stuff tho :P
This is so true! Really good tip. Pinning and sharing to our Instagram story (@tripofalifestyle).
as a thinkpad enthusiast I love this video! you were really committed to that X220 -- the newer models just aren't as easily upgradeable, so I get it. I'm still in love with the T480 I bought in 2019 and have kept upgrading, even though I now daily drive an X1 Carbon 9th Gen.
The X1 Carbon is very cool looking. How upgradeable do you think it is?
These old ThinkPads are something else. I've received old X200 for free (4 GB of RAM, no hard drive and Core 2 Duo P8600). Over the years I've upgraded the RAM to 8 GB, threw in a 120 GB SSD, USB 3.0 Express Card, new battery, swapped motherboard from X200 to X201 one with i3 CPU and installed modded BIOS without WiFi whitelist. Right now, I'm waiting for two adapters, which will allow me to install small NVMe drive and two additional SD cards (internally) for storage boost. I have plans for upgrading WiFi card in the future. Also, this unit (even with X200 motherboard) runs Windows 11 just fine.
👏
how that cpu run win 11 just fine?
but a bit slower right?
@@arikowidtrash7074 It runs Windows 11 fine. It's a little bit slower than modern Intel Pentium laptops but otherwise pretty snappy for it's age. It does all the office work fast enough. RUclips FullHD playback works. For 1200 frames it will drop about 5.
You are lucky that your laptop on Core 2 Duo recognizes 8Gb RAM. I have a Samsung (also on Core 2 Duo) and it refuses to see more than 3G RAM. No matter what I tried, even upgrading the latest BIOS version did not help.
By the way, I also installed Win 11 on this laptop (need to change 2 keys in the registry during installation) and it works fine, but it takes a long time to load. That's why I use Win 8.1 - it is much lighter, loads faster and uses fewer resources.
@@Вася-ш3щ My X200 recognised 8 GB of RAM because it was Core 2 Duo P-series working on DDR3 memory. If you have Core 2 Duo T-series the chances are that it will only support only 4 GB of RAM and most likely only DDR2. Oh, and the newest version of Windows 11 (24H2) requires SSE 4.2 CPU instructions so old Core 2 Duo systems will not get past 23H2. You have to have at least 1st generation of Intel Core CPUs.
Major kudos for getting your laptop for an average investment of less than $100 / year. I think not every brand would upgrade as well as the one you have, a testament to the wise choice you made in the beginning. Thanks for sharing your experience. Happy travels, and Happy Holidays!
@@truthseeker9454 Thanks so much!
Awesome video, so many great ideas for my old pads I had not thought of and probably wouldn't have without this video. Top notch info. The overall video presentation was generally easy on the eyes too (:
Got a 2010 macbook white. With ssd, new battery and extra ram. Used opencore to load a more recent mac operating system. Everything still works. Good for general use.
Thank you, I’ve been wondering how to get my used old MacBook a bit newer. Now the certificates or so old it won’t load webpages.
after watching this and a few other videos i got a thinkpad x220 in crappy condition for 40 dollars and fixed it up. Im a lot into it and it still has some minor issues but i like it a lot. one of my favorite laptops i have
Super cool. It's a great computer, still today!
Foreign countries have such nice prices for used laptops. Here in Italy it's impossibile to find a Thinkpad under 100/150€!
An excellent idea to continue using a perfectly adequate laptop. I have done almost all of the same mods with my X220 and it’s still going strong. The nice thing about Thinkpad laptops is that there were so many leased to corporations that there is a huge pool of used units for parts available. Because they were built for business use, the components were reliable and not necessarily leading edge so they last a long time. The old Thinkpad in particular are highly modularized so it’s easy to swap out certain components rather than having to replace the entire main board for everything. Thanks for the tip on the USB-C power inlet replacement!
I got my upgraded WiFi module long ago as a Lenovo branded unit out of a newer parts Thinkpad found on eBay. I’ve been through 4 batteries and finally landed one that seems to be built less cheaply and that has lasted well. Because the “hard disk” SSD is so easy to swap I run Debian most of the time and can swap to Windows 10 for one specialized application that requires a direct hardware interface and won’t work with a virtual machine. The SSD and memory upgrades really give new life to the old X220. I also have an even older X200 that’s still in use and even an ancient X40 with a rare tiny replacement SSD and running 32-bit Debian that I keep around as a novelty.
Got my Lenovo workstation laptop. Did most of the upgrades and now it's fast as hell.
I do a very similar thing! As a cyber security engineer, my company supplies me with a laptop for work. But, for college and all personal use after college I have been using/upgrading a Lenovo Thinkpad E580 that I bought in high school. It didn't have a windows license when I bought it so I've been running Ubuntu natively since day 1 (I prefer standard Ubuntu to Xubuntu even though standard Ubuntu is slightly more resource heavy).
Cool! We were on regular Ubuntu until they switched to Unity. 🐧
@@TripOfALifestyle FYI: Ubuntu has gone back to using GNOME since 18.04 LTS. I also prefer GNOME over Unity.
@@andylightfoot7508 Loved GNOME 2. Not quite as fond of GNOME 3 and onward. Just personal taste though!
@@TripOfALifestyle Fair enough. The most important thing is that they are all free! Thanks so much for interacting! I love y’all’s content! Keep it up!
Wow nice work! I am rocking my 2009 Macbook on Debian 12 and I love it, the speed improve the switch to a SSD is crazy!
I love videos like this, where there is a place for newer tech like gaming as a hobby or like 3d modeling/animating which is a lot of what I do most of the time people would be fine on older hardware.
These are great for running Mac OS as well.
Always impressed people when I boot it up at college!
This is what I LOVE to see. Reusing old stuff. Well done!
@@jasonp3484 Thanks! ☺️
The question is where do you find new quality batteries for the X220? I have a x230 which I love, but original batteries are not available now.
Typing this in a Lenovo ThinkPad X230, I bought refurbished. My most beloved computer!
Am using this too
Love it!!! Reminds me of my Lenova Thinkpad Mini I bought in 2005... It will go down as one of my fav laptops/pc's of all time!!!
@@aqn1976 Never heard of a ThinkPad Mini. Sounds cool!
I’ve got a 2008 MBP 15” with maxed out RAM. Still works great.
I work at a company with a mobile workforce and the workload demands that we replace aging computers with new ones because motherboards are dying from fans giving out (non-replaceable) and heat issues, as well as terrible slowdown as Windows gets more bloated.
The most important upgrade is replace HDD with SSD and the most important setting change is TURN OFF TURBO BOOST in the BIOS. It makes it run hot, increases power consumption, and greatly increases fan noise.
I'm a Thinkpad fanboy. My wife and I each have a Thinkpad T520 in addition to our desktops. In addition I'm using a T420 as a poor man's server mainly for automated backups and personal web server. It has an SSD as the main drive and a 2TB HDD in a caddy replacing the DVD drive.
We have had good luck buying off lease PCs and laptops on eBay. Normally use recyclers rather then one-offers trying to sell their old computer.
The used market/eBay is great for ThinkPads!
This was my work computer for 6 years. I never had a single problem, except near the end, I replaced the HDD with an SSD, and yes, it got much faster. I used it hard and was even dropped once or twice. It was a company laptop, so I gave it back. It was the best laptop I used to date I was allowed to pick whatever I wanted before that, and those were always Dell products. They were good but needed a lot of repairs. I own a MacBook Pro now, but I still loved that X220
A nice machine, as most vintage Thinkpads are. I use a W520 on a daily basis. Had it for almost 8 years!
Can I do this with an old Acer laptop?
Cool thanks! I like the light reflection off your glasses.
My daily driver is a used Thinkpad T520 i got off Ebay for $200 in 2016. No OS, no hard drive, so I added a 1TB SSD with windows 7. It did come with a supersize battery which I am still using . I also dual boot with Archlinux. I love it and don't feel I need anything better.
@@jamba_d2225 Nicely done! 👏
I did many years of corporate IT support and the Thinkpad is the best you can get. You do have to get corporate Thinkpad, not retail systems. The x220 is corporate. I’m a solo circumnavigator now and still use an x240 with solid state drive for pulling down HF radio weather, email underway. I use a Raspberry Pi for navigation computer too.
Cheers
A
SV Soy Libre
Vuda, Fiji
Your video is inspring as I have a few retired laptops sitting at my storage room collecting dust and these retured laptops are actually younger than your Thinkpad. I think I am trying to do some refurblishing work to rejunvenile them.
Awesome! They probably have plenty of good years left.
Great upgrades.
LOVE the ring-light glare because it's SOOOOooo 2020s!! 👍
Got an old x220t which I've only now replaced with a newer laptop for its intended function. Two tips I can mention:
-Get H264ify plugin for your browsers. YT and other streaming sites are starting to use H265 encoding, which is great if you have hardware that can handle it (anything after around 2016). Anything older can request the older codec instead which these laptops can handle. That should stop stuttering or fan spinup on higher definition screens.
-Consider getting the dock. Most of the business line have/had docking stations you could buy. They'll perform better than 3rd party USB docks and can keep your setup cleaner at home
-If yours has a low resolution display, you may be able to upgrade to 1920x1080. Check the original specifications and models available for your laptop, many came with higher resolution options. If you can get either the model number it refers to or the panel number you can upgrade it. This isn't super hard to do on older systems, but one side effect is that some of the feature buttons may not longer match up correctly. All of the features are there, you just need to figure them out for yourself.
Thank you for the tips on the plugins, I just got my x220 and keeps on wondering with its so laggy when I tried to listen to YT video :)
The X220 was also the last laptop they made with that particular keyboard. For that reason alone, it's great. On mine, the fan stopped working -- IDK if it's a hardware or software problem. I will try to replace the fan. And thanks for a very pleasant and helpful video.
@@dipierro4 It's such a nice keyboard!
Beautiful video this sort of content kicks ass!
My MacBook is 12 years old. It was unused for over 3 years until I finally installed Ubuntu 24.04 on it a few months ago. I procrastinated a long time because I already had another desktop pc with Linux on it, but the MacBook now gives me the option of doing work from my own room if I suddenly have brain storms in the middle of the night and don't feel like leaving my room. Linux is great for breathing life back into old hardware that is no longer supported by commercial software.
The happiest part is considering how much e-waste you haven't created, as a lot of people treat a laptop as a throwaway item and renew when the next fastest thing comes along. For myself I've never bought new, just by used and upgrade what you can😊😊
I buy new, but I use them until they're dead. Old laptops make pretty decent home servers.
This is kind of girl I love to be with. Not a girl that spoiled with her latest MacBook Pro. I also now focusing on buying a futureproof laptop so that they can last 10+ years. I would have been happy with a Lenovo Thinkpad W520 but my 4K video editing work requires like a Pascal Quadro GPU so Fujitsu Celsius H780 is perfect.
How did you procure an OEM battery? I need to replace the batteries of T475 and T480.
Nice video. It shows we can update old computers in many ways. Many things can be repaired if we make an effort. I was watching this video on an old I-mac from late 2006 with Linux Elementry. Many thanks to those people who make this possible, they are great.
@@peterbos2998 Thanks! 😊
This is so cool, I wonder if I could do this with my current laptop in the future
I'm guessing probably not considering it's a newer model, I already own 2 laptops! My old laptop and my current one
I got x230 which is similar. great laptop. my only problem is getting a good battery since lenovo has long stopped producing battery for this series. after bought 3 batteries that each only lasted for one year I got sicked of it so I uninstalled the battery. to power the laptop I use power bank 65 W which has type C port that can deliver 20V 3,25A. the good thing is you can get much bigger capacity with powerbank. the battery capacity is only 5300mah but you can buy powerbank 20000 mah that will give you longer usage time.
Cool idea!
Great video. I recently bought a Lenovo 480s from Amazon Renew for $200. I highly recommend it fot anyone looking to buy a laptop you can still modify. Ive only added a second ssd and installed linux on it so far but you can do everything else in this video when needed.
Even thou recently bough new laptop, but still having my old X230. Really love that thing. Would be cool to get better CPU and usbC ports all around.
Hero of the Planet. More folks like you would solve e-waste problem, not to mention saving our own wallets too.
I've just done the same with a t480s. Will see how long it lasts
I still use a 2012 Samsung laptop that I run ChromeOS Flex on and a 2014 Mac Book Pro that now runs Ubuntu. Only upgrade done to the Samsung laptop was replacing the hard drive with an SSD. No changes done to the MBP h/w yet. But might need to replace battery as it barely lasts.
Great tutorial. Hard to retire a good running laptop. My 2010 Asus ROG laptop's screen went out as a result of short caused by the faulty power supply. It's a power house of a gaming laptop but unfortunately, the backlight harness is a rare commodity. Thanks for the inspiration.
Great information - Thanks for sharing
@@louisbonilla6780 Thanks for watching!
I'm rehabbing an early 2011 MacBook Pro that belonged to my wife. So far, I've replaced the battery, a broken touchpad, and the SSD, and installed Ubuntu 24.04. I could have kept the old SSD in service, but replacing it was the easiest way to back up its contents. The MagSafe charger failed yesterday; one of its power pins stuck. A couple of pokes with a thin probe put everything right. One more task remains: upgrading the memory. I'll do that later this week.
Update:
One of the pins in the power supply's MagSafe connector stuck yesterday, which caused charging to fail. A couple of pokes with a mechanical pencil put things right.
Just upgraded memory to 16 gigs and the machine just cooks. Love it!
@@ericmintz8305 Awesome!
I am truly impressed how much you got out of this laptop! Great video!
@@RandyHanley Thank you! It's still going!
@@TripOfALifestyleamazing!
Still using x220 as secondary PC， glade to learn some new tricks from this video
@@jiasunzhang8001 Glad you're here! 😊
As an old pc upgrader/refurbisher however you want to call it, i lik the effort you took to keep the old laptop going. I kept my old hp 8730w quad core till last year just because of the 17" it was a good old gal but had to be replaced ofc, changed 3 battery's i think, and bought an extended battery in the end. Bought a 2nd hand dell last (8th gen i7) year to replace let's see if it can also keep up for 10+ years (in desktops i'm a bit more wasteful as i change every 3-4y) .But still nice to see that old hw can still be upgraded unlike new all soldered down hardware even the RAM..
So what are the downsides of LINUX?
Pros: Free, open source, stable, secure, lightweight, fast, updates for life, and gives you native access to a terminal using a nice shell like bash.
Cons: Sometimes lacking good support for certain hardware (driver issues), and cannot natively run proprietary software that's written specififically for macOS or Windows (like Adobe products, for example).
@@TripOfALifestyle Thanks. For me that rules it out as a replacement, which I have looked into before... maybe for a standalone server as I see someone commented. Ole Bill has us by the fill in the blank...
@@StationaryDingleberry You can still run Windows apps under Linux inside a virtual machine (for example with VirtualBox as shown in the video) OR with emulation software such as WINE. It's just a bit more of a pain to set up. 😓
Good to see U doing U part for the environment, cheers Graham
I have a X201 and it is still my travel companion installed with W11 and upgraded RAM.
200 views? I think yt meant to say 200k views 😂. The video is really high quality. I wish y'all the best
Haha, thanks! 😊
My X220 is still kicking hard! I have Arch on it and sometimes I can feel it's kind of slow for some modern tasks, but for what I'm using it, it performs brilliantly. The most "annoying" thing is that it chugs on 4K video, especially if it's a higher bit rate. I mainly use it for Internet radio, personal e-mailing, organizing and listening to music. I love how portable and durable it is.
I have the x240 and I bought it a long time ago I still use it and absolutely love it I also did a few upgrades😊
Had my Lenovo y510p 12 years. 4th gen i7 held up till now.
I'm been using an old DEll 1545 from 2008 for nearly 15 years. Recently upgraded the ram, upgraded the CPU, added an SSD and even brought a replacement battery (holds a decent charge now). Gave it a good clean too. Total cost around £25 :) Purrs like a kitten and does everything I need.
Would love to your specs
That's a dope laptop, well done
Thank you!
one of the best lenovo laptops ive owned
How do you solve the software compatibility problem with Linux? I use an Intuit rental property program for my business but it is not Linux compatible. I do love Linux and would like to use it for everything.
@@JohnT-x3k Try VirtualBox or Wine!
This video is great for those who don't want to do anything new with their computer, but the rest of us, it's time to buy a new or upgrade our computer.
My upgraded T430 will last forever. I put in an i7-3630QM with the 2-pipe cooler, it's got 8GB RAM, 2 SSDs, 1600x900 IPS screen, ThinkLight & an illuminated keyboard. It's running all day every day and it's just legendary.
ey, I Also but this laptop X220 and X230 for my family. 7 years and it still rocks
I have a X220 - works fine :)
Liked and subbed
Is upgrading the USB from USB 2 to USB 3 simply a matter of changing a USB card, or do you have to change the connectors as well?
@@algavone You're not actually upgrading any of the existing USB ports. You're ADDING 2 extra USB 3 ports via the ExpressCard slot. The card needed to do this is linked in the video description! 😊
X230 is awesome as well. 11+ years, alive and kicking. On Linux, without a doubt.
Nice upgrading. Keep it up. :)
@@johnpaulbacon8320 ty!
Great video there!💯💯💯
In fact, I had a much older model ThinkPad, believe it was the T42. Though was able to upgrade the CPU & DDR RAM to its max it 2GB, making it run 32-bit Windows 7 Pro (due to having a TechNet subscription) w/out the Aero effects, later became a decent Linux Mint Mate laptop.
Anyway, getting newer & closer to the one you upgraded, have an MSI FX-603 that's still used, came with a 1st generation (Arrandale) Intel i5-480M, later upgraded to the max of a i7-640M. Plus, all the way from a N-1000 to an 7260N & later to 7260AC wireless/BT card, 8GB RAM (this was the worst limitation about the 1st gen Intel laptops) & finally, a SATA-3 SSD, though ran at SATA-2 speed, still quite fast with Samsung's Rapid Mode!💪
Tried to find a modified BIOS to make it run a i7-720QM CPU, as similar HP models based on 1st gel Intel, since it has a dedicated NVIDIA GPU, but came up empty handed, even looking on specific tech forums to create one just for me yet found nothing. I still presume there's a way, but then gave up & began building computers after my 1st new one, an XPS 8700, although had potential, even upgraded from its installed i7-4770 (Intel Haswell, 4th gen) to its max, the i7-4790K, which was in a few months to be the CPU for my 1st Z97, 32GB RAM & EVGA GTX 1070 FTW (8GB GDDR5).
Have never bought a retail computer of any type since then, learning what I am wanted & do & enjoying the thrill while saving $1,000 each time. Am now rocking an AM5 ASRock X670E Steel Legend with 32GB DDR5 RAM & as for the CPU, a real contender in the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, purchased in June of 2024 at $350 on Amazon new. Since then, has went from that price to first, over $500 & now over $600, as it's known for being the current King for gamers. At least until the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is released for around today's current same price as mine, being it's been a huge success for AM5 platform. Will likely skip the next & wait for the release of the one after, since am still running the GTX 1070 in this one, needing to prioritize a GPU upgrade first.
Good Luck on your channel, have subscribed!❤❤❤
@@charlestilley2576 Thanks!
Barrel to USB-C is a great mod! If you forget your charger, you can almost always find a USB-C cable nearby. The i7's have had an amazing run, almost any of those 2+GHz i7's from 2012 or later are still very useful today (and many can be found with native HDMI out, but an onboard SD-card reader can be hit or miss-- that's handy for xfer drone or camera images). Around $300 for a (second hand) daily driver (non-gaming) system is very do-able (i7 because 2+ row taskbars is how we roll, 14-16" screen, SATA/mSATA/NVM, 16GB and good to go). Old MacBook Pro's from that era (which are also i7's) are also still decent (but kind of heavy) or older Razer Blade's. Modern laptop does offer the higher speed USB-C 3.2 (where you can attach external GPUs, which is a lot more practical than using those external riser adapters). Even if not gaming, doing some Google Earth or faster video editing/effects preview is always good (for me a GPU helps with astronomy imaging, stacking/stretching images). // You can also find old laptops at Vintage Computer Festivals around the country throughout the year (the one in Chicago being probably the best for laptops).
Nice video!
My needs are fewer than yours but I use my old x220 (I have an i5 processor)that I bought from my employer after carrying around for 3 years;)
My used machine cost me $45.00 I have given it more memory and an SSD. Running windows 11. It’s a lovely machine!
@@BlasphemousBill2023 Great!
Buying a business class Lenovo laptop is the BEST financial choice you could ever make !
Debian Linux Distro with XFCE desktop makes your laptop Superfast 👍
I'm still using my X220 and just got an awesome T450 for $75 !! 🤣
About the type C charger, do you need to adapt the power input? Don't you use any kind of resistors or something?
The modded port (which is linked in the video description) has all that stuff built in!
I am 61 years old and have only ever purchased one new computer 35 years ago. Since learning of linux, I have inherited desktops and laptops that supposed don't work and previous owners have trashed only to be able to install linux on them. Even with that knowledge the owners did not want to learn a wee bit of linux but rather go out and spend more money for a windows computer, there loss my gain. Great for me. Currently running MX linux on a 8 year old Dell xps laptop, it's awesome ! BTW: used a Linux computer and co-habitated in a windows work based environment with little to no problem.
@@philcadorette1383 Very cool! Feels great to breathe new life into old equipment.
This is so very cool! I have an old ThinkPad that might get a bump!
@@cletusrobinson Do it!
I bought my X220 as a scratch and dent for less than $200 from Lenovo Outlet. 12 years ago. Returned it to get the screen replaced as part of the warranty. Upgrades: 512 SSD, 8GB Ram. Replaced fan with CPU heat sink. Replaced red rubber pointer. Batteries are the most expensive maintenance for me.
@@turtle522 Awesome!
You've pretty much pushed it to the max! I like it. I've got same X220 with i7. Where did you get the USB-C charging port? Was unaware of that, so appreciate it. I'm checking Aliexpress but haven't seen one.
If you wanted to squeeze every bit of performance out of it, you could look at compiling with Gentoo but I doubt it'd be worth it + you'd have days of compiling ahead of you.
Think if you wanted to go further mods, you'd have to go X230 but I appreciate this is your original laptop so likely quite attached to it
Thanks! There are links to every mod in the video description, including the USB-C power port.
@@TripOfALifestyle Winner, thank you. I often forget to look there. I've read that Kingsener batteries on a Aliexpress are generally quite good, that's my next stop. I'm mostly plugged in each day, so I've used TLP to set my battery thresholds to 40-50% charge, i.e. extending the lifetime of the battery before it degrades. I'm also interested in recelling the battery but just don't have the time or equipment just yet. I'd definitely watch a video on that if you're looking for another challenge
The smartest choice was the laptop itself. The Thinkpad is well built and well designed.
my main laptop was a hand me down. Ive upgrade to a sata ssd and some extra memory. Still going strong even though it is from 2013
Here i'd add that if you will change the thermal paste again maybe look in to PTM 7950. That i7 likes to run hot so excellent heat transfer and life-time longevity are quite usefull. You also might want to do an IPS mod if not done already. Your X220 has lived a wonderfull life :D
Thanks!
I still have my Fujitsu Lifebook that is about 15 years old and works perfectly and still looking brand new without a mark on it.
Hi. USB-A to USB-C adapter can be used to usb-c headphones?
@@ogdan1173 Most likely yes!
@@TripOfALifestyle Thank you.
Good advice if you already have an oldpad from way back and you want to upgrade it. Picking one up today expecting it to go another 12 years would be weird though (where are you getting the Thunderbolt port from? Like actual Thunderbolt with charging and DisplayPort?). For such a purpose I'd probably get a Framework (if I weren't so married to the ThinkPad TrackPoint).
yeah i don't think spending money to keep it going it actually worth already not using windows had to spend 100 on batteries alone along with all the other stuff at that point just buying knew is the way to go. just like computer maybe every 5 years make some type of upgrade move by then your couple generation into new tech and it is well worth the jump to new hardware keep something for ten years ago going isn't worth it. unless your to retro type of videos. but most of those is about showing things at their stock or close to stock specks so upgrading kills that type of video.
I have Asus laptop from 2015 which I upgraded in a simple fashion: upgraded its' RAM and changed HDD to SSD. I also use Linux, only Ubuntu distro. Its' cost back then was about 350-400€. Since then it is the main put-bread-on-my-table machine.
unfortunately the USB3-Port is ONLY AVAILABLE if the I7 is installed on the X220 the I5 and the I3 has only USB2. If this is an issue go for the X230 this has an USB3 on each version.
You can also get limited USB 3 support with the ExpressCard mod mentioned in the video.
Totally agree; I love Linux. If you clean the fan, place something to keep the fan from moving e.g. toothpick, then blow air. Use a cloud drive to backup files so no need very expensive high capacity drive; additional benefits from cloud drive, backup when laptop drive fails.
My laptop is 12 to 14 years old now and I was thinking of getting a new one. I too have upgraded the disk, doubled the memory, tricked out and expanded the usb. Given my frustration with windows, the OS upgrade and the USBc charging port might be all I need to do to get more life out of it. Thank you!!
@@MadScientistGuitarLab Switching to Linux can be a massive performance boost. Xubuntu is very light. Thanks for watching! 😊
doesn't x220 came with fingerprint scanner I'm bit confused have some had fingerprint scanner and some don't
@@shadowx5985 It's an optional feature! Some don't have them.
I still love my x220 as well used it for ages, I keep it as a backup if my newer machine dies.