Super Portable and Fast Ultrabook for Under $350: Thinkpad X1 Carbon 3rd Gen Upgrade Guide
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- Опубликовано: 21 авг 2024
- Our laptop content typically revolves around cheap bulky enterprise machines and mobile workstations since i'm usually more concerned with performance than I am portability. Today we are going to change things up though by putting together a light and fast ultrabook for under $350. We will be using a 3rd generation Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon as a base and installing a new SSD and battery into it, and we will also replace the aging thermal paste.
HD Images: I'll post them .... eventually
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50wh Lenovo battery: rover.ebay.com/...
Seller I bought the laptop from: rover.ebay.com/...
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#ultrabook #thinkpad #x1carbon
Must be nice living in the US of A where you can get Thinkpads at a bargain. Good luck gettings those deals in Europe.
I will be taking one in two months i just want 350 € for mines its the i7 processor will be in barcelona spain in two months if you want it. I just bought it here to have a portable recording studio, but i have a recording studio in bcn already.
I got a good condition thinkpad x230 today for 50 euros, its possible, just needs patience
@@___echo___ On ebay its impossible for a good specced x230. 200 euro and up.
I found a 6th generation carbon x1 for 300€
Same here in Asia😭
I bought a 6th Gen X1 Carbon, i7 8650, 16gb, 512gb, QHD Screen for $800. I absolutely love it.
How and where?
damn that machine is a beast mine were thinkpad t460s i5, 8GB, 256gb FHD and absolutely loving it so much power compare to my previous macbook air 2015 install linux and upgrade ram to 20gb (4gb were soldered and 1 space free)
Are you asian?
???
A minor thing, but thank you for including the price of upgrades in your stated price tag! I have been seen videos lately from other channels that will say something like "great laptop for under 200 dollars." Then they do upgrades that completely blow past that budget.
yeah that's something I noticed with a lot of other videos
"here's this $200 ThinkPad! It only needs a $40 SSD, a $60 battery, $40 of RAM upgrades and an $80 screen!"
Got one of these bad boys at a company hardware sale recently for 40$ without an ssd. It's ridiculously easy to work on, it on;y took me a few mins to put a new one in. Really impressed with the build quality.
Very excited about this video. I got one of these from a guy off of Facebook for $50 because the m.2 drive was corrupted and he didn't want to bother with it. A quick swap out and I have a fully functioning system.
damn, that's a steal for such pricy machine
Your content is really good. Something about your videos just makes them very calming.
Most likely it is his voice
Yes
Nice! I am still happily rocking my T430 as my workhorse, while my 16 y/o son uses exclusively his T420. I have a smaller X230 as a spare, but neither of us ever had a single issues with our Thinkpads! I most probably will stick to bulky laptops :D
Still rocking it a year later? :)
Using an x270 but after using a t440p for a while I must agree with you...bulky thinkpads have a certain charm to them. Plus they make for great defense weapons 😂
Just ignore any negative comments about MX-4. It is actually one of the better choices for a laptop, especially when factoring in price. Some people are just idiots and don't know what they are talking about.
Now that I think about it, back in the day I used to use Artic Silver 5 for my laptop builds. That might have been the paste people were complaining about, I can't recall entirely though.
@@AAComputersandTechnology AS5 is highly outdated and hasn't been a recommended TIM since the mid 2000's, and it was overhyped back then. It has a complicated two week curing process and needs to be replaced yearly. It wouldn't surprise me one bit to have people posting negative comments on using it.
I bought one of these guys a couple months ago to be my main machine and its been a wonderful experience. Going in, I knew that upgrade options were nonexistent, but the slimness and cool-factor make up for it. Its certainly much more nicer to look at than a older boxy thinkpad. The keyboard is also pretty nice, it feels pretty much the same as the T470S I got from work. I haven't tested it much with windows, but it runs fedora pretty well. Its some of the best $300 I've ever spent.
If you watch the video you will see how easy upgrades are to install: new batter, new 512g ssd, and your computer will nearly like a new ultrabook.
"Just one small drop of thermal compound..."
**Proceeds to add a drop almost as big as the die.**
That is a small amount. As you said, what you see there is the die itself, it has no Integrated Heat Spreader, so you using a little bit more for laptops is completely fine. Idk why people obsess so much about this topic.
it's a good job that isn't LIQUID metal LOL
He used 3 times as much as you need, laptop probably runs hotter now.
@@Shiniiee because it seems to be an internet joke
@@Shiniiee Too much thermal paste will act as an insulator and make it hotter, you only need enough to fill in the tiny imperfections between the die and cpu cooler, if they were both nice and level (like what "lapping" attempts to do) then you don't need thermal paste. this is way too much thermal paste.
Little trick I learned regarding the screen - I put small, think sticky rubber feet (around 1mm) on the corners and it helped reduce the imprinting. It did leave a gap for dust to get in if you're chucking into a bag, but I used a slipcase to protect it anyway. Very nice video btw.
I have that screen situation also and was looking for a way to fix it once it's happened. But your idea to keep it from happening, or maybe from getting worse, is worth considering. I still wish there were a way to "refresh" the surface of the screen, but the things I've tried actually made it worse. I guess it's a non-glare coating that there's really no way to un-blemish.
i'm literally on the exact same X1C right now, also upgraded with a better SSD :D battery has ~300 charging cycles / 97% health and lasts me around 6 hrs.
I absolutely love all my thinkpads. My current daily is an X1 gen 6 and it’s phenomenal
No heat issue?
Btw is that still worth around 3 years later? I mean x1 carbon gen6
@@ferryrahmattesa1042 no heat issues at all. its a beast with the quad core i7 and 16gb ram it handles everything i throw at tit. totally gonna last a long time
@@KingASE88 you buy i7 version, okey thanks you
1 tech tip a day
Keeps the macs away
no my wallet does
watching from 2019 macbook pro lol
Did same as you. Bought a used T480s with low specs for little money. Upgraded to top notch mem and SSD, and now I have a great portable laptop for 500 USD (brand new, it would cost around 1300 USD or more). Love Lenovos. Easy to service/upgrade, and simply the best keyboards in the planet.
Talk about timing.. I recently purchased a 3rd Gen X1 Carbon off Ebay for $114... Added a 512 Gig SSD and had a dead battery.. I was just getting ready for installing it and this video appeared.. Well Done!! and it worked the 1st time did it too..
I would recomend non-touch version, as in this video you can see oily matrix of keyboard on display, non touch versions have more space between display and keyboard
I have a 3rd gen X1C with touch screen and never had keyboard marks on the screen
this couldn't have come at a better time, my mum's looking for a laptop
@Shank Adams He say laptop no bs
The T420 is absolutely amazing, and this build is too. Great video!
I would guess that the plastic on the heatsink is there to make applying the thermal paste easier. Put the paste on, take something flat like a credit card and scrape across to give a coating of paste as thick as the plastic.
However, I would recommend removing the plastic strip afterwards!
Nice, I have gotten 2 scrap laptops from Discount Electronics. And mine is HP HDX-16 1140US and Dell Latitude E6410. Both are in working condition and the HP laptop is one of the best laptop of 2009.
I actually own a Lenovo X1 Carbon 3rd Gen. It's super light even by today's standards (1.27 kg for a 14“!). Also, it still works flawlessly.
Francesco Varrato count me in man
I bought a second gen ThinkPad Yoga S1 for 130 pounds; pen, 1080ips, i5 5300u, 8 gigs if ram, and an SSD! Bought a more comfortable pen and made a holder for it by pinching elastic fabric between the back plate. The 2in1ness and pen is seriously awesome.
I love my X1 Carbon 3rd Gen. Have been using it continuously since 2016. By now the battery no longer has much capacity and I am so happy to come across the video!!! In addition to replacing the battery, I also want to increase the SSD from 512 GB to 1 TB. Regarding the SSD I would appreciate recommendations on a decent and affordable 1 TB SSD. Great video, thank you!
I have 3 more days and I'll receive my Gen 3 Thinkpad...but, I need it for what it does so I'm going to install Linux and/or BSD. Wonderful vid sir, and nice to see someone else wants to try the Thinkpad greatness.
I’m partial to HPs elitebook series and have revived a few over the years, I got a 9480 in really bad shape last year for $40 with an i7. I got another one that was dead and make a great functioning laptop out of them. The 9480 has an SD card slot and docking station slot :P.
i have that machine... its a beast! Bought it off ebay also for a steal.
Finally! The video I was expecting to watch! Your take on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon
X1 Carbon 6th gen is good because it has the Kaby Lake R CPU's and those are quadcore. Much more powerful than the Dual Cores.
But the 6th gen go for around 700€ on ebay (in germany).
I have this 3rd gen as my daily driver and I dont miss much. With a 30€ Pro Dock its also just one connector cable for an external display + power + usb.
Still i am amazed to see bloggers use a cheap wallmart screwdriver and use it as a pointing device inside the delicate lenovo electronics without being correctly grounded,one little static and the X1 is history 😞
Just bought this model cheap on ebay hope it holds up to expectations
I loved my X1 carbon 3rd gen, but it had some serious problem with power after some time. Probably something on motherboard went down and I coudn't track it. Last month I found it in the closed and was amazed, how slim and light it is, even in comparison with nowadays standards.
Honestly, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme (or it's twin, the P1) isn't too bad for a laptop that falls into the thin-and-light category. I've been using an X1 Extreme Gen 2 as my daily since September and it's probably the best laptop I've ever had. It's not too heavy, but plenty powerful and with the GTX 1650 Max-Q, I can even play the odd game every now and then (usually Final Fantasy XIV or Forza Horizon 4).
Pls do a review and upgrade on Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen 4 and 5. Thanks.
Just bought this one refurbished from a company for $400. Gotta say, the keyboard is very very good, and the screen is nice. I have the i7-5500 and no touch screen, but the only negative is that I miss usb C on it. But then again, bluetooth works fine so yeah. Great laptop
Just got a thicc 13R3 OLED off ebay , love love love it.
DELL even let me renew the warranty.
This guy should compete with Luke Miani lol
He's the Miani of thinkpads, I'd love them to meet and try to buy the opposite type of laptop, eg Luke buys think pad vice versa
Oliver Smith Luke has actually done a couple of videos with thinkpads before
He's been making vids way longer than Miani. Thinkpads just don't attract the mainstream sadly
You should take that muzzle you need to look up on a encrypted search engine because " your first sign" all info has changed and false on Google and main search engines. Your killing your lungs your immune system and the human races future freedoms.
@@BrandonDeft Wtf are you talking about
I have my dads old x1 carbon 1gen and it works pretty good. I just changed the battery for a new one and its pretty ok.
I'm still running my X1 gen one. I did have to upgrade the SSD, but that was it.
6:53 At first I thought it had installed a 2TB SSD or something like that 😂
This laptop has the exact same specs as the T450s of the same generation. Though, the T450s has a worse screen (still 1080p touch) but has way more ports.
T450s has the better screen, battery, keyboard & more portsbut is heavier, bulkier, less good sound, camera. The Screen of T450s has a higher sRGB coverage, better deltas, contrast and brightness which I prefer over the difference between FHD and WQHD resolution
Really missed my X1C 3rd Gen that I got back in May 2022 for around ₱8000 ($140).. It’s a Japanese Model with a 1080p Display.. unfortunately it only lasted for about 4 Months as for unknown reasons it just won’t turn on anymore.. already moved on and got an Acer Nitro 5 last year, but part of me still wanted to have it fixed..
The pressure on the battery wires is common and normal. You can just push them down off to the side and they will be fine.
You may want to go back blank out the tracking ID.
Good choice on the whisky!
Love my Motile (Tongfang) Ultrabook I got from Walmart for $299 with a 3500U(4c/8t), Vega 8 Graphics, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD and 1080p IPS Display - The only downside is the single channel RAM but it wasn't a deal breaker
I love my Lenovo Thinkpad T61 notebook
Yes T61 is a beast! Mine came from the trash and it's still kickin! I just ordered a 4th gen X1 off ebay with my stimmy so I'm psyched to try it out
I think to watch 1 min max but end to watch full video, thanks.
Good job YT for recommending this :)
I use a Onelink dock with mine and its just one cable. It's pretty great.
I don't think I'll ever go back to a dual core i5/i7 laptop or computer in general after having my 4C/8T i7 6820HQ T460p for a little while now. It's so slow in comparison that it's agonizing to go back to, it really is!
you can peel off the protecting film on the screen since I notice some marks on it, caused by the keyboard. Peel it off and you'll have a nice glass screen with sharper image and more vibrant color, only downside is the glare of a glossy screen
I have this laptop and while generally pretty usable, the dual core configuration really shows its dated. For example when windows update starts doing its thing in the background, youtube videos start to lag.
The only gripe I have with Lenovo is the keyboard and buttons marking the screen. Nubs are mandatory lol. The only other laptop brand I'd buy is the Panasonic tough book. I always turn the screw backwards until I hear a click before tightening it up.
Get into the habit of screwing heatsinks down diagonal order, its more likely to lay flat if the springs are a little stretched.
Also diagonal screw order dissipates the heatsink compound more evenly over the surface.
Got this 2 months ago. It is really good
I got myself a thinkpad e14 gen 2 with ryzen 4500u. Running good .Love the keyboard . Its not backlit though . Got it for around 630$ .
I really like my X1 carbon
I got a 3rd gen x1 carbon from a friend for free. Only needed to have Windows installed so I got the factory image from Lenovo as they host the digital download
We have sold over 400 t510s Not a problem with any of them.
Technically the 3rd Gen X1 Carbon does have a dedicated docking port - however, it’s combined with the power port so isn’t on the underside. It isn’t USB based, however.
i was litterally just about to get this exact laptop lol
I'll probably get the non Touch version and replace the tn panel with a new ips display
did you do it? i switched to this laptop from t420 cus the screen was shit, but i realized on this laptop is the screen weak as well, just less visible pixels...is it worthy to upgrade to the wqhd2560x1440 ips screen? someone let me know
update: changed the screen to FHD IPS glossy, totally worth it
Build a hackintosh!
The dock is fantastic. You should try it. single connector for power and USB. supports 4K screen, GbE, USB2.0, USB 3.0 2 physical displays and sound.
and really really cheap
Used this iPads are awesome at the moment lenovo p50 are at a decent price 800 for a max space unit with 64gb of ram I think used thinkpad are killer value and I did buy that laptop
Thanks RUclips algorithm that reads my mind! I've been thinking about getting an x1
I actually used mx-4 even in my PS4 and Xbox One.. Thermal performance got improved and never got any issues with it.
Other thermal paste brands were really shitty. Mostly they were really dried out and had to remove. The mx-4 even after 3 years was in really good condition.
For some reason RUclips autounsubbed me from your channel :( Anyways, I've posted this video to r/thinkpad. Hope some new people discover your channel today!
i wish i had a brother like that :/
I have gen 5 one. Amazing laptop.
How many laptops does your sister need?
Great video. If you would like to take this upgrade-an-X1 concept even farther, would you consider upgrading a gen 1 machine by replacing the keyboard and touchpad? If so, I would gladly offer my gen1 X1 for the effort.
My X1 Carbon Gen 1 just died, after 7 years. Problem was CPU or Ram, which is soldered in, drat.
Why would you buy a t410/t420 when you could get the +70% iGPU performance of the t430/t530 for $20-30 more?
Any of the earlier T series machines are pretty good. I used a T430 for a year, I prefer the older style keyboard but performance wise the T430 is great (especially with the quad core i7). If you can find a T430 for a few bucks more, then you're right, go for the T430.
Can you do more videos on pcs like this? One's that are a little dated but are still a great value.
awesome!
Great video
Great vid as always. How is the car running?
I was tossing up between this and a Dell latitude 7280. I got the latitude only due to the cost $500 AUD
How are you liking your e7280? Seen some people complain about the keuboard. Been eyeing it as an alternative to Thinkpads
unfortunately soldered ram is a quite a big issue, since it's very hard to find carbons with more than 8gb. I prefer the t460s which can be found with the same price, although screen and battery life are slightly worse
Man, it almost looks like a motherboard from a gen 2 x1 carbon fits on there and maybe vise versa.
I got a thinkpad x240 for 120 dollars. is that a good deal?
Pretty good imo especially compared to the prices we've got here in the EU
It’s a decent deal. I’ve seen them sold for around $150.
Pretty good. I just got a x250 for a pinch more that only needed an SSD. Batteries might be of concern with their health.
Mine has 27% wear on the external and 14% on the internal. Getting just south of 8 hours with it.
Yes
mine was like 180eur, 8gb ram, i5 4300u, mint batteries and 768p ips touchscreen
I just got a new dell latitude e6540 (loaned) battery (97 wh battery) for $30 on ebay, compared to $119 on dell's site.
Good one !
Just bought a Thinkpad x1 Tablet 2nd Gen for 360€ on ebay, replaced the battery for 10€.
Best Laptop I ever hahd.
There s a thinkpad x1 gen 5 i7 8gb of ram and 512gb ssd mint condition and new battery for 240£ 😍 should i take it? How s ue laptop doin?
@@TheAmanor123 Mine is great, better than a surface pro for 1/4 of the price :)
Great video. Can you do a video on the thinkpad x1 yoga. Im a math teacher and I use the digital pen it has.
Thanks
m.2 screw might be JIS. If so, philips head will strip the screw.
Good video.
worst thing on this Thinkpad is to change the CMOS Battery, good luck,
the touch bar before the touch bar
It too heavy when used for travel ..also Not easy for upgraded.?
Review suggestion: Lenovo Miix 510. Ram and CPU are soldered but m.2 is upgradable.
better suggestion stay away from Lenovo
Bro. I just won t570 bid for $340 . Lucky me
That looks like a nice machine, but there's not all that much of a price difference between that old Thinkpad and a 1-2 year old (or even a runout new) ultrabook running an i5-8250u. I'd assume you could get a tidy 8th gen i5 ultrabook for about $500?
How much of the depreciation on a new machine occurs within the first couple of years (or even as soon as the box is opened)? :)
Can you do the same for ThinkPad with USB C thunderbolt laptop. Great vid.
looks like its nice laptop
I've been running an X1 Carbon 3rd gen for a couple years now and love it. I was wondering if replacing the thermal paste has given any noticeable improvement?
usually you could drop the temp by 2-5c depending on how old or bad the original thermal paste is.
for 300-400 its good but you end up dipping closer to 600 with parts youll likely need to make yourself comfy anyways and you'll now be generations in the past. Esp with W11 I think that has the potential to be a problem. And Ill be honest the T400-W510 people are crazy; if you want to use a desktop just use a desktop. The other thing is the screen is god freaking awful by comparison to any modern IPS screen.
just get a e7250 or 7270 or 14in equal u can upgrade the ram on those