Lenovo ThinkPad T430: Upgrade Wonder
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- Опубликовано: 15 июл 2024
- One of the most loved ThinkPads ever made, come learn why!
/ laptopretrospe1
teespring.com/stores/laptop-r...
laptopretrospective.com/
Detailed T430 Specs and Configurations:
support.lenovo.com/ca/en/solu...
Upgrade Guide:
/ the-definitive-t430-mo... by George Kushnir (n4ru.it)
Maintenance Manual:
thinkpads.com/support/hmm/hmm...
Support Videos and Documentation:
support.lenovo.com/ca/en/solu...
Looking for one yourself? Check eBay and your local classifieds. Amazon also has a series of parts and machines. By purchasing from the links below, as an Amazon and eBay Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases that goes to supporting the channel.
eBay:
rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-532...
Amazon.ca
amzn.to/3df8GwS
amzn.to/3ciswpU
Amazon.com
amzn.to/2XFXGCc
amzn.to/2Xi3Rx7
If you are looking for the latest and greatest version of this laptop, I suggest heading over to Lenovo's website to see what they have been up to recently. As a member of the Lenovo Affiliate Program, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through this link.
Lenovo Canada
lenovo.vzew.net/5XBWL (General)
lenovo.vzew.net/P2ZLR (ThinkPad)
Lenovo USA
lenovo.vzew.net/BXEK5B (General)
lenovo.vzew.net/zagjz0 (ThinkPad)
Timestamps (Special thanks to Jack Coe)
0:00 Introduction
0:50 Specifications/Upgrades
3:04 Disassembly
4:50 Conclusion
6:37 Port Selection 
Наука
The T430 has been my daily driver for about 7 years now. I bought it new from Lenovo's website with the i7 3540m, and immediately upgraded to 16GB RAM and a 250GB SSD (later upgraded to a larger SSD when prices came down.) I got the SATA drive bay you showed and stuck the factory standard 360GB HDD in it as backup / movie storage.
I agree that this is a great laptop. It's been virtually trouble free for the entire time I've had it. It's suffered through drops and less than careful handling with barely a scratch, and was well worth the hefty price tag when new. Since these were so ubiquitous, I fully suspect I'll be able to milk another 5 useful years out of this thing with parts available for any minimal repairs that are needed.
Here are some things I'd like to add, for people considering this laptop:
- You have to come to terms with the screen. It's disappointing, considering the overall build quality of the machine. There are very few drop in upgrade options, and they're getting too expensive to be viable.
- When you take the keyboard out, be very --- very --- careful with the ribbon cable. It's super fragile. I was able to get a replacement under warranty, but that's no longer an option.
- The keyboard came in two flavors: with and without backlight. I've had the pleasure of using both, and while both feel good, the non-backlit option is much more clicky and responsive. If you can make due without a backlight, I'd seek out this option. This model still has the thinklight, which you can use to see the keyboard in the dark either way.
- Don't forget that you can dock these as well! Docking this computer allows you to run up to four displays at once (including the built in screen) though you might want to seek out improved heat sinking options if you plan on making this a habit. Make sure you have the higher wattage adapter plugged into your docking station -- the one that comes with the computer won't cut it (this is the same as the W530 adapter.)
- The DVD/SATA drive bay also had a battery made for it, allowing you to hot swap the main battery without being plugged in! I've never used this functionality, but it could be useful if you're on a transcontinental flight or something.
Great points! The Ultrabay batteries are pretty darn rare and fetch high prices since no third party companies seemed to make them.
I have a spare T460 internal battery. Was hoping to stick it into this refurbished T430 that I just acquired.
I think you're out of luck. Pretty your battery will have no where to go in that machine.
Thank you, Subscribed!
@@chatbud thanks for your support. I hope you enjoy working with and on your T430.
I have a T430 that's been at my side for about 2 years before I finally got myself a new laptop.
It's liquid metal cooled, has the extended batter, has a secondary 1TB drive and primary 128gb SSD and runs like a dream. I still use it now and then with me on trips where I don't want to damage my newer, much more expensive laptop.
I love the thing to death.
Awesome setup. Thanks for sharing.
It’s almost 2022 and I bought a t430. Seriously this thing is awesome and brings out my inner geek to the max.
And the budget of incrementing upgrades is so well put.
Taking it apart and tinkering is so addictive. There’s a special charm to these old computers I can’t completely explain.
Very true Josh.
Hey I agree all of these are brilliant but why nobody's talking about GPUs? like if you can upgrade the laptop to that level, can you add some solid GPU to run engineering apps?
I remember when i had a T430 and i loved it so much. The design was great and it was very rugged too. Also that keyboard was a dream to type on. The fact that you can upgrade it is a huge bonus and it's something that you don't see these days on a laptop. Such a great laptop!
The best notebook ever. I have bought an used one for 200 bucks online, then upgrade with a ssd and 16gb of ram an now this machine os flying! Runs like a new computer. Lenovo make these thinkpad series in a way that you can totally dismount and change parts separately. Marvelous!
Yes, a good chunk of them are made to be taken apart.
Hey, idk if you’ll reply bc you’re like a year old comment buuut when you upgraded to 16gb of ram could you play Minecraft?
Ram helps but it isn't the only requirement.
Yeah, typing this on a T430. I also bought it in 2018. Used it as my main computer for work for 1.5 years but as I had most of my software licenses to OS X I had to switch to mac as my work computer in 2019.
Still use T430. A great computer.
Nice!
I absolutely love the ThinkPad series❤. I have owned many ThinkPads (T61, T420, T450, X220i, W510, X250, X230i). This is the only laptop series I could rely on, never had let me down. Now I have bought T430s. I want to say that I personally think your channel is so much underrated. You deserve so much more subscribers and views. I watch your movies since December of 2019 and they are always full of information and they are fun to watch. Greetings from Poland 🇵🇱😄
Thank you so much for your kind words and being a fan through the years. It's people like you that make it fun. As a ThinkPad fan I hope you've enjoyed the interviews as well.
The ones with a discrete GPU are time bombs because the heatsink is not enough to cool the area enough. This then causes the hinge metal to break, turning it into a poor desktop replacement. Then the heat makes the chips themselves questionable.
I recently found a T520 with a broken screen in the bottom of a dumpster behind a strip mall. Installed new screen and SSD, works great!
Nice find. Hope it didn't smell.
Strange as it may sound, I've lost track how many stories I've heard about ThinkPads being found there...
Watching this on my T430...still rocking with no issues all these years.
Awesome!
I got a T430 in 2017 after my previous laptop died and I'm loving mine.
They're reliable to be sure.
I bought this beast on july 2012, and it still running well. I maxed out the ram, swaped the cpu with 3632qm.
Very nice setup.
Thanks for this man! Music to my ears! I do have my own T430 currently at i5-3320M and 8 GB RAM and be upgrading soonest! Loving and enjoying this beast so far and he's my bestest work bud!
All the best to your channel!
Thanks for the well wishes! Good luck on your upgrades.
Bro ... Did you upgraded your laptop ?. I have Thinkpad T430i so i need that i5 3320M processor
@@guru9189 not yet. didn't proceed to upgrading.
Just bought a x230 tablet can't wait to get it up and running
Woot! Let me know how that goes.
Needed this video. Thanks for making this.👍
You're welcome! Glad to help.
I've been running a T430 (i7-3520M, 16GB DDR3, 1TB SSD, X1 Carbon LCD mod, 9 cell battery, Ubuntu 16.04) for almost 6 years, and have found it to be the best all-around laptop I've ever owned. I might be one of the few longtime Thinkpad fans who prefer the new (at the time of the T430) chicklet keyboard. The original 1600x900 LCD was atrocious regarding color and contrast as were most laptop displays from that era, and as I do a lot of late night reading in dark rooms, the X1 Carbon display swap added immense value for me. With a fresh 9 cell battery, it can get 8 hours under moderate to low load. It is also extremely durable, relatively speaking, showing only scratches and finish wear and tear after all this time. My only reasons for upgrading in the near future (likely to the X1 Extreme), are a physically larger display, not needing a heat shield for my leg when the laptop is under heavy load, and weight. Better wifi performance, NVMe storage, and a trackpad which supports advanced multi-touch gestures will be a nice bonus. I'd highly recommend this laptop to anyone who might be in the market for such a device.
Well said and thanks for sharing your configuration.
What's that heatshield thing?
Which?
he said that he doesnt need the T430 heatshield which is... for protecting your legs from the heat? Because I have the T430 and if you get it heated up, I'd say my legs aren't protected :D
Ah gotcha.
T430 is my daily driver I am really happy with it especially after preforming these upgrades for the first time.
Awesome stuff. What was your favourite upgrade?
Ssd and ram it’s crazy fast now I was happy with the existing processor changing it seemed like a hassle.
Many find the SSD the most significant upgrade with these units. So I'm not surprised by that assessment.
I had that same computer for almost 4 years, is THE BEST for hard work! I changed for a T470!
How is the newer one?
Very good review and assessment, informative. And you are not annoying or overly snarky in your delivery. sound trustworthy too. good job.
Thanks Mario, I try to be the real deal.
@@LaptopRetrospective Do you have any more for sale
I don't sell them, sorry.
I have one for work, it is two years past its service life (four years) but it has never let me down. Not replacing it for some plastic HP machine that has basically the same specs. The IT department understand.
Makes sense to me.
On one right now, bought it in 2017 for about $150 refurbished, to have something to use while travelling when I'm not at my desktop.
It's a very nice laptop IMO.
To be sure, what battery do you have?
i got a thinkpad t400 since 5 years ago and i am more than happy with it ,it is made like a tank and since then i got no problems with it
Great units for long term use.
I didn't understand too many words, but the pictures explained perfectly, why I love this notebook so much and use it since over 10 years.
In this notebook I can insert an update of my last 1:1-HD-copy - and it works in between 5 minutes including handling time.
Glad you liked the video!
Hi Boss, your video is awesome, I do have my old lenovo x220 recently upgraded last year to a 256SSD with 16GB ram, now im planning for a MSATA and FULL HD Display(if I can find one in my country), what is more interesting here is reading all the comments one by one and seeing how other users mod their laptops. Good job on the author of the video and all the users here who has modified their laptops, now I know what to find for future buys.
I Susbscribe now to your channel, Thumbs up.
Cheers man, I'm glad you recognize the talent we have in the comments. Glad to have your support.
The T430 is still my daily driver I'm actually getting ready to replace the palm rest. I have a new Latitude laptop and I still find myself using my ThinkPad.
They are special aren't they?
Great vid I was thinking about getting this for my budget
Thanks. They're great project machines.
Just sold my T420 ThinkPad. Had it for 4 years and installed an SSD. It never let me down, was fast and did what I wanted it to do. Was using 8.1 Windows. Love Lenovo
What did you replace it with?
Got the t420 with SSD. Works perfect and fast for Browsing, Office, GIMP and smooth programming. Best decision to buy it used for 200€ 6 months ago.
Sounds solid to me alright.
That is funny because Im watching a thinkpad t430 video on a thinkpad t430
That's so meta. How is it?
@@LaptopRetrospective Runs like a champ. All my school work, music production, small gaming, with only BIOS settings changed to go from a balanced power/battery to full power of course being plugged in. Shes loud to be honest. Overall very good
Very nice!
Same, but on a T430s.
Padception.
Thank you for this video. I just bought one.
Thanks for watching, I hope you found it useful.
Wow ... excellent information, thank you.
Glad to be of service!
I like my T430. It's running less demanding stuff and I can sit at it for hours. The keyboard (like in this video with back light) was what made me buy it and I enjoy the whole thing with a few upgrades last year.
Very nice. What's your workload like with it?
Just picked a T430 and the dock today. Really happy with the unit. Its such a TANK and feels so premium.
-Cheers
Very cool.
@@LaptopRetrospective Hi L.R. question on batteries for the T430, do you use OEM or 3rd party?
I'm thinking of purchasing an OEM from Lenovo because I don't want to mess around with the BIOS. Do you use 3rd party batteries? If so have you had problems and had to modify the BIOS? What brands of 3rd party do you recommend from eBay /Amazon?
Lenovo batteries tend to be the highest capacity, but expensive and sometimes hard to find. No BIOS modding was needed for these, not sure what kind of batteries are being rejected. My biggest advice is but reputable and read carefully that the capacity you buy is what you get.
@@LaptopRetrospective thanks for the advice.
You're most welcome.
Great video. I did buy a 410 3 years ago and installed Lubuntu. Works great. Now you have me interested in the 430.
It has some trade offs from the older models but is still a contender.
Due to the better power efficiency and Intel graphics capability, it is significantly faster. With an SSD and a new battery, it's on par with brand new laptops.
Wow! Great video. Thanks to you my friend now I have the reason to buy a T430. So I subscribed to your channel :)
Thanks for the sub and I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
YES! You won't go wrong with it!
I went with a T420 last year, upgraded to an Ssd, plus an msata ssd, and A 3rd ssd in place of optical drive with an ultrabay caddy. Never have had a single issue. Awesome video!
T420 is no slouch to be sure and has that keyboard many prefer.
Wes the only issue with mine is the screen. :(
Washed out colors, low resolution...
Also usb 2.0 only
Medeiros I've seen expresscard usb 3.0 cards (2 ports) but I've not tried that yet. As for the screen I don't disagree but mine is okay for my usage. Cheers.
Check the upgrade guide for screen options.
Picked up my T430 about a year ago for $220. Added 16gb of ram and a 500gb SSD. Super solid machine!
Nice. Lots of RAM to go around.
If i add 500gb ssd do i have to reinstall windows ?
Depends if you replace the original drive or not. If so, then yes, you'll either need to clone the original drive or reinstall.
@@jefferymillerjr8572 Since the laptops tend to come with smaller SSD's, you can easily upgrade to a bigger drive using Acronis or another migration tool.
@@dskribe9598 what you be the difference and would I have to reinstall windows?
This has been my best laptop for what it is.
The T430 is well loved.
i have t400,i am writing and watching your video on it right now,and it works just fine.i bought 3 of them for 100$...one MB is dead,other one ihave sold for 150$ and the third is this one....so....thank you Lenovo for real quality laptops that made me earn money and have one for free
Very cool story.
I've got an X250 that I love to death, and an X61T sitting around while I fight to make it think it's a Chromebook. If my job ever gets around to selling off the stack of old ThinkPads in the back closet, I may find myself in possession of a T420 and/or a T430. Basically, I'm hooked.
...although I do slightly prefer the Latitude line for the first two generations of Core i architecture. You'll never convince me that there is a laptop out there more beautiful than an E6420.
Haha, fair enough. ThinkPads are many things but beautiful is not often a word you hear with them.
Just bought two T430s Thinkpads for $100 each! i5-3320M, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD. Using one of them now as my daily driver, replacing the Macbook Air 13 from 2013, I bought new. I plan to upgrade the chip & RAM in the next month & put a SSD in the optical drive bay. Came with Windows 10 but on my daily driver, I replaced it with a distro of Linux. It's an amazing machine!
Nice! Thanks for sharing.
wow nice, where did you get them? I just saw them as refurbished laps on a dutch site, for 300euros. Kinda way to much i guess. Its the t430s i5, 8gb and 180 ssd.
I used a T430 for a long time before switching to its cousin, the X230. :)
Great choices all around.
I've been thinking about that too :)
Hi Thanks for the reviews, I am Thinkpad Lover
No problem. Glad you enjoyed the videos so far.
Love mine. Travels well in a checked bag and still works fast Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Excel.
- i7 3612QM
-16 GB RAM
- 500 GB SSD
Favorite part is the keyboard light! I'll be sad when it becomes obsolete.
Obsolete is more the use case of the user.
if it's speced out the way that it's listed above then you should get good performance so long as the project isn't super complex or is using incredibly high resolution video.
The T430 is the school laptop I'm currently using, I actually love the keyboard and how durable it is. (dropped once)
Nice! Glad to hear there are fans of the newer keyboard too, I don't actually mind it.
I looked over one of these, but it has 4GB Ram and 320HDD and core i5 third gen, is that an old one? The owner asked 185$
Oldish, but still a great platform. Especially for tinkering.
The 3rd gen of Intel i series is still very capable for gaming and other functions, and you can upgrade to a quadcore i7 if the i5 dualcore fails you.
Definitely plusses.
Just picked up a refurbed T430s from ebay for $250 with 6 months warranty. This is going to be my 3rd laptop and the only one that will hopefully be functional for some time to come! My old 13 year old toshiba Portege can't perform in today's world. Acer Aspire decided to call quits. And the current "laptop" I'm typing from has a broken hinge and keyboard. I love the fact that you can repair almost every part of this laptop as highlighted in your video. Hopefully, this bad boy will hold up for a couple more years for uni/travel purposes!
It should be able to, hope you enjoy it!
Heavy user of T400 in 2018. Thinkpad rocks!
Nice! What do you use it for?
@@LaptopRetrospective Purchased in Mar 2009, still using it for engineering finite element analysis.
Very cool. Always interested to hear how these machines are used.
I topped up my T430 with 16 GB of ram, Msata SSD, an i7 3720QM (didn't need so much horse power more than threads) and this machine is still a beast that can pull off quite a load of work. I couldn't find a better heatsink, but decided to use better thermal paste, and lower the CPU performance in power management to avoid turboboost (gets near the 100°c quite often that way).
I can produce on protools and with a lot of stuff going on, from plugins to virtual instruments, a firewire interface with an xpresscard expansion. This machine is a dream.
The only disadvantage, is that doesn't come with thunderbolt, no even the first generation. If an expresscard adaptor coud give us that, it would be amazing and make this laptop even more futureproof.
Thunderbolt via ExpressCard would be something to see...
You might be surprised to know that the Express card slot on the t430 has a whopping two pcie data lanes! I used a GTX 780 with mine for a while and it worked great, only lost about 15% performance compared to stock 780's thanks to Nvidias amazing pcie compression on laptops
Still love this product T430 that I'm using right now
Can't Sell this Laptop for other laptop out there Love my Laptop
It's a nice unit. No doubt.
Laptop Retrospective Yeah Still using this
Amazing video!
Cheers.
Cherrs LaptopRetrospective!😊
Good explanation
Thanks.
I used to use the T430s, I used it for around 4 years, when the screen was really starting to bother me. I had the one with core i5-3320m and Nvidia NVS 5200m. I used to overclock it, and found that removing they keyboard while the fan was at full blast helped it move more air. The vent on the back never blew out any air, dont know why, but that one vent blew out lots of air.
I switched to a T480s now. The screen is a night and day difference.
I can imagine a huge difference in screen quality for sure!
My friend inspired me to get a T430 and I love it, though it's not as durable as I expected it to be. Hinges and bowed lids seem to be a high failure point for these machines I've noticed and mine came with the lid ruined, ruining the hinges shortly afterwards and broke a few tabs on the bezel. My ultrabay got destroyed by the laptop's weight, the laptop was sitting in my bag at an angle and the weight of the laptop pushing down on the ultrabay managed to break the locking tap piece. On the flip side, the machine performs well and after a thermal paste change it stays damn cool and quitet at idle and even under small loads. Keyboard feels great too despite what most ThinkPad enthusiasts say. Absolutely love the servicebility and the price. Lovely machines.
Sounds like yours might have had a tough life before you got it. Thankfully parts are easy to come by.
Laptop Retrospective I believe it got scarred during shipping, the keyboard had very little wear and there's no dings or signs of wear anywhere
Could have been an old demo unit or perhaps saw previous service repairs.
Really useful!
Thanks!
Thanks! - I for one am hooked on the T410s. Fantastic, except of run-time on battery. I have a bunch of cheap docks, in these days available from USD 10 onwards. So I can carry my 3 T410s around, have the manuals, some spare parts. And blow out the fan with compressed air from time to time.
Just to think that you have a 10-year-old machine that easily compares with a 'modern' one - with the exception of gaming, of course. But I'm not a gamer, just some 1,8-inch SSDs thrown in, 8 GB of RAM, and all running *buntu with double-boot to some Windows on disks on the bays, swappable easily with DVD-RW.
Agreed. Very versatile.
I have exactly the same ThinkPad and I bought it in 2018. ;)
Hope it was a good deal.
@@LaptopRetrospective Yeah it was, I am satisfied with it.
@@ping01ping66 I just received mine yesterday I paid $200 for it .
Nice. Welcome to the club. 😎
Yeah i got mine 2 weeks ago (october 2018) and i love it. Had to choose between newer models also, and yet still i got this one. Didn't pay anything for it, but at our store it goes out for 200EUR with 12 month guarantee
I love Thinkpads. Wife has T500. We upgraded memory from 8 to 16gb and installed a 500gb SSD. It is running Linux Mint and is very fast. My Thinkpad is a W520, 32gb, 500gb SSD w/Mint, I put a 2tb HDD in the DVD bay, and use it for video editing. It is my 5th Thinkpad ... a bit bulky but just run flawlessly. So sturdy you can leave them to your grandchildren.
Haha yeah, pretty much. I've read as lot of comments on how they get handed down.
☺
I bought 3 last year in a lot for $175, no batteries or drives but with 8GB in each one. Wonderful machines for playing around with different Linux distros.
Excellent use!
Still using mine, upgraded to a 3x3 5 GHz wifi card, i7-3632qm, and 16 GB of RAM with an SSD.
I recently also discovered that the exact FRU number for the keyboard can make a pretty significant difference. There are 3 manufacturers for this laptop's keyboard going by the FRU BOM list - LiteOn, Chicony, and Sunrex. You want the LiteOn if you can live without the keyboard backlight (they do not manufacture a backlit part). I had the Chicony backlit one but the keys constantly looked smudged. This does not happen on the LiteOn part (FRU 04X1277) as the keycaps are nicely textured, and the tactility of the rubber domes themselves are improved over the slightly mushy Chicony. From what I have read, flat out avoid the Sunrex parts.
Yeah it isn't as well know as it should be that there are several keyboard manufacturers and they have different materials and some different switch mechanisms. One model has five different versions.
Hi there I see you changed the CPU. I've got i5 did you see a significant difference when upgrading. I'm trying to do the same but very much out my depth with the lingo.
@@johnjohnston1086 since modern applications commonly take advantage of more than 4 logical cores, yes. The 3632qm is as high as you can go without blowing the TDP rating of the heatsink, to my knowledge. You will gain total performance by having 4 physical, 8 logical cores, but the performance of each core will be slightly less. Overall it is a gain in most workloads in my experience. I needed it because I write software for a living and compiling code to executable format is heavily multithreaded.
@@metal571 ok thanks for reply. I'm running bot traffic through software but just wanting to speed tasks up get done more in day.
I am still using a T530 as a main computer. This thing never gets old. I cloned the HDD to 1Tb SSD, and use the old HDD in the DVD Bay for storage. 16gb RAM. It is as fast as new machines. With I7. Screen is HD+ with an awesome resolution and format, not glossy. Replaced the keyboard as the fire ants chew the original... Sticky and yummy. I still don't feel the need for a new one.
Nice. The fire ants sound like an interesting story...
+Laptop Retrospective yes. Red, tiny but painful ants. I use the laptop deep in the jungle, in very humid environment.
In a certain moment I realized that some keys were not responding anymore. I took it out, checked it, cleaned it. It was full of crumbs, sticky, dusty. Only then I realized those ants really liked to chew on the silicone taps under the keys, and eat the contacts.
After a week, they did the same to my wife's ThinkPad. I had to smoke the ants out of the house and replace both keyboards.
Now that's a real story of some serious use.
very informative video , thanx much
You're very welcome. Glad it was useful.
@@LaptopRetrospective best one I have seen , no opinion & straight to the point , I have subscribed , thanx again
Thanks for the compliments and your support!
Just bought one of these and had to do some research and i think with the help* i had from a fb chat i made a good choice :)
They're great machines.
update: lost in transit, and just ordered a T430u after the refund was issued :)
Better luck next time.
I'm getting this ThinkPad in my birthday and to be honest, I've been having these dreams where I get the ThinkPad. Good Video tho!
Thank you! Hope you enjoy it.
You getting the nvs or the intel? Its pretty good regardless (coming from the guy who uses a 2007 macbook pro)
How much ?
Cost will vary from region to region.
my love with t430 is not going to end , according to my company policy my laptop has been expired a long time back and they are giving t480 these days to new comers. I.T has sent me many reminders to replace it but still i want this and not responding to them. In 5 years i have replaced batteries 3 times and screen one time. :P
There is a lot of like, that's for sure.
Got two W520s and a T420 as well several older Thinkpads from both eras including a 701c so yea the old ones are the good ones unlike the ultra book crap they make these days. My favorites are the T60P and the W500 but the T420/430 with two 9 cell batteries installed are damn good for just work as one can stretch the battery life well over 10 hours+.
Very cool. Especially the 701c.
I'm watching this on a T430 that I've done a few upgrades to so far:
- Brought the RAM to 12GB with the sticks I had on hand
- Swapped the original chicklet KB for a backlit one
What I hope to do next is swap out the LCD, change the 2nd 4GB stick to an 8GB, get a SATA drive bay for a 2nd SSD. I'll still keep the DVD burner to swap out on the fly.
I'm good w/ the i7 3520M that's in it currently, don't need the Quad Core.
I enjoy your content, especially on the AMAZING ThinkPads! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the update Ryan on your upgrade history. Eager to hear how your LCD panel work goes.
This is one of my all time favourite post-IBM ThinkPads. I use one as my daily laptop for the last 3 years or so with 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD, Windows 8.1 Pro and hardly any complaints yet. My biggest issue with Lenovo is the lackluster screen resolutions but that can be easily replaced later.
Nice to hear you've gotten so much life it if it so far.
It’s a great little machine that’s for sure. The best post-IBM ThinkPad imo (now I haven’t had anything past the x40 series) is the T400. The C2D is getting to be unusable now but as a general purpose word processing, email, web browsing machine it is still amazing and my son and husband haven’t had a complaint about it.
Very cool. I'm just rendering another ThinkPad video I've had on the back burner. Hope you enjoy it.
These are great. I've compared it to a much newer T450 and it is similar CPU performance despite being older. Graphics performance on the T450 is only slightly better and you get no optical drive, no LED light, etc.. It's better than most new $500 laptops from the big box stores.
Most big box stores that still sell laptops around here don't offer much at all.
Ah man, they don't make 'em like that any more. Soooooooooooo tempted to buy one of these retro ThinkPads. So, so, so tempted.
Good investment.
I just upgraded mine to 1080p yay
Very nice! I bet that looks great.
Bought mine 3 years ago for £349 U.K. used. It's still running just fine with original 8GB RAM and 240GB SSD. The built-in display is not up to much but I do all my Photoshop editing and watch huge amounts of RUclips - all on a 24-inch Dell Ultrasharp permanently connected to the Mini Display Port. The USB 3 ports are great for USB3 Western Digital MyPassport external drives. Who needs expensive Macs?
Definitely sounds like a solid setup to me. Especially that monitor.
Laptop Retrospective - You sound like a chap who knows his stuff. I'll coming back to you for reccommendations when I want to get my next Laptop. This one is good for now.
My brother upgraded his Dell to a T450S with more RAM and the top of the range touch screen after seeing how reliable my T430 has been.
Cheers, always glad to have a viewer benefit the content.
I have both W520 and T430 and prefer the keyboard on T430. Both are great though.
Please forgive me for bringing up my newly acquired T410s my first Think Pad, I bought it on a whim and can’t tell you how happy I am with it, it is fast and runs like a striped assed ape after increasing the ram, and adding two SSD’s one in the dvd bay. Modifying one makes you feel like Superman, especially when it works well, and when you are working on something with some body and they go. “Goddam this machine is fast”. It makes me smile.
Cheers All
Thanks for sharing your story. If you have pictures, feel free to tag me on Twitter.
These are great machines. Even if you don't use it daily, these are great for for putting a 2T HHD in the SATA bay where the optical drive was and keeping a copy of all your files on the computer you use daily. Then if something happens to your daily computer or you have to evacuate, you can grab this laptop and be up and running anywhere. With a SSD, they are plenty fast.
Great units, no doubt about it.
Totally agree even in 2019
i got my t430 last week, im fascinated with this laptop, works very good on graphic design projects
Tell us more! Many people ask if it's a good machine for that work and first hand knowledge is always best.
@@MikoErrante can I run Adobe premiere on Lenovo t430?
It will run, your limitations will come in the complexity of the projects you wish to create.
@@LaptopRetrospective i want to create a 2d cartoons and also can i rin Adobe Character animator? Thanks for the reply.
I've a T430 and a L570 (offered by my job), but, despite the T430 be old, I prefer the T model because it's more comfortable, robust and expandable
Very nice!
I just picked up one of these for super cheap off eBay (I’m only 14 so I’m just using it for hooking up my arduino to as well as do some basic coding and penetration testing) so it was a steal
Very cool! Hope you enjoy it.
Please talk about the t440p!!! These vids are AMAZINGGG
I've covered the T540p previously. Haven't had the chance to do the T440.
@@LaptopRetrospective ooooh
I enjoyed your video, I purchased one for $25.00 and upon examination I wondered what the socket next to the 2 USB connection was and I didn't make out what you said about it, all I got was " .......display connection", but beyond that your review was excellent, Thank you very much.
Must be the display port? Glad you enjoyed it!
@@LaptopRetrospective Indeed, it is, I looked it up online, just ordered an adapter cable from Prime Cables.
Right on! Hope everything works out and you enjoy it for years to come.
I have a T430 since late 2016. I upgraded to an i7-3540M and 16GB of DDR3-1600 RAM. I honestly really recommend it to pretty much anyone. Reliable, (in my opinion) nice, and can be really snappy.
Sounds like quite the power house. You rocking a 9 cell or 6? What kind of life do you get?
Hello, I was thinking of doing the same as you but with a i7-3610QM. which is better?
Laptop Retrospective Sadly, I have just a 6 cell battery. But it's till pretty much new, so it does the job just fine. While I edit documents, and browse the web, I get around ~4 hours of battery life.
Dan Brown Well... It's not an easy questin... A 3610QM is way faster than my 3540M, BUT the TDP of that quad core is 45W. All of the "official" CPUs, wich were installed in this motherboard are not using more than 35 watts of power. Using a more power-hungry CPU is problematic, because it's generating more heat (and the heatsink is only designed to handle 35W CPUs), and also the circuitry on the board isn't designed to andle this much power. I've heard about several T430s that they are able to run stable with a quad core CPU, but I personally do not recommend it.
Very nice for an older power house.
still using my i7 one since 2015. upgraded to twin 256gb samsung ssd's and 12gb ram. win10 still runs like a dream. using it daily and even playing some asphalt 9 on the built in intel gfx :-)
Excellent!
Awesome review, I'm looking at one now on eBay as an upgrade to my sluggish Lenovo X132e(AMD ver.) that I had to put Cloudready OS on it to get any kind of 1/2 decent usage out of it, so this looks like with 8GB of ram to be a good work computer that I can also carry home, and use on the couch with Xubuntu. Don't need a system to game on that only serves to distract me from my work lol! just note my current laptop can't even handle 720p even upgraded to 8GB RAM without being sluggish.
Good choice.
This video got me so far as to purchase a T430 off of eBay, I just hope the battery is OK! I7 3520m, 8gb of ram, and an 225 GB ssd :)
Not bad, glad you found it helpful! A new battery won't break the bank and having a spare never hurts.
@@LaptopRetrospective I might consider that! I just found out the charger I got from amazon is rated at 90W, but it was listed at 65W, so I'll have to deal with that hassle first! Thanks for the video!
Common mistake often made by sellers as they look very similar. Hope you get it sorted out.
Got mine off Craigslist for $60 in 2016. I still love it. I was really tickled at the backlight keyboard.
Nice catch at $60.
Have bought t430 for only 150 euro 5 years ago. It's still running like a charm ! I added easly 8gb Ram for 50euro. Only problème is the screen quality.
Nice find. The older ThinkPads aren't known for their screens. That's why that's are so many mods.
Today, still giving the fight like an old warrior
Still a nice machine, especially in a Linux environment.
This is probably my laptop of choice, I need to replace my current laptop and I was really attracted to the thinkpad style and the moddability of this thing. It's also on Amazon with 8gb for like 200 usd. I know I could probably get it cheaper on ebay, but I'd like something decent over a complete project build. Since I don't game as much as I used to, it can run AoE 2, Rome, Fable, and some other classics which is all I need nowadays (and Rimworld!).
Also your advice on the pi is grand, but I think most people should get one! The zero, the one I have, is a fantastic little machine and it was like 10 bucks or something.
Very nice. Lots of options out there.
Hey, do you know if this laptop could run football manager 2020? That's all I'd really want to play plus the ones you mentioned!
System requirements for it are fairly low so you can probably manage. Not sure how well since I've never played it.
Ah, the 30 series. The last real ThinkPads. I've decked the whole office out in these, they've become the standard (though I now go for the t430s, the slim, lighter version). Last ThinkPad to have LEDs, touchpad buttons, and to be actually built like a ThinkPad. After that, it was all jet-setting executive MacBook-derived garbage. :(
3:43 I frikin died when the video cut away without mentioning the 2nd stick is under the keyboard, 2 screws away from where you were.
thanks for the info, I might buy a t430 or t530 sometime when I'm on my own money because I'm a sucker for vintage :D
Ex lease Lenovo Think pad laptops have been the best kept secret for years.
I have had the T42, T43, T60, T61, T420, and T520. They never wore out they were just so cheap I kept upgrading. You just cannot get better value for money.
That is a huge draw for me recommending them to people who need a simple computer.
My T430 was with me for 10 years now. I just bought a T530 and swapped all upgrades to that machine: CPU, RAM mSata, main SSD, caddy SSD, battery, snap on battery and it's ready to serve me another 10 years. Worth every penny
That's awesome John! What do you use it for?
@LaptopRetrospective my main office work machine
Most word, excel ... some light programming with pycharm. OTT like viber, WhatsApp, zoom, msTeam.
The T430 I reassigned it as linux environment now. As for entertainment I?have anothe T470
Nice fleet of machines.
I have gotten myself the T430 with the i5 but with the Nvidia Nvs 5400m upgraded to 16gb 9cl ram, light up keyboard, upgraded to the i7 3740qm, SSD 850evo m.2 converted cady in a standard HDD slot and 450mbs dual-band wifi 3 antenna. plays Arma 3 at low to med settings and that says something for that game
Yep, any laptop that can handle Arma and not turn into a cooking surface is an achievement.
i bought lenovo t430s 4 months ago, secondhand, and i tell you what, this is the best decision I've ever made, the price only $280 with 320gb hdd, i7 3rd gen, 4gb ram, backlit keyboard holyshit this machine is insane. i install win 10 in it and it works just well. i really recommend to buy this laptop, its cheap nowadays and can do almost everything.
For many, it's all the computer they need. Might not be power efficient but it gets the job done.
Laptop Retrospective I use it for designing program such photoshop, Rhino3D even Keyshot for rendering that use all 100% cpu usage, its a bit hot even after i replaced the thermal paste but still can do all those things flawlessly.
Yeah, they have a reputation for running hot.
I’m an electrical engineer and I use a w530 for cad work, programming and in the office work everyday. I run my old x201t I got freshman year of college when I need portable toughness on job sites. Modded a t430s as much as possible for my wife. I just love these machines and still haven’t seen a reason to upgrade. They just don’t make them like they used to!
That's an awesome story, thanks for sharing it here!
Works for me.
What's your work? Always interested to hear.
This Laptop isn't that old.. I still use this Notebook, have two hard drives in it and upgraded the WiFi chip two times during the last four years.
Definitely very decent ThinkPad and after so many years of every day use, the battery is still in excellent condition.
Glad to hear it's going strong.
What really helps the t430 is its M-series CPU, with significantly higher clocks it competes well with U-series chips up to 5th gen. The integrated graphics aren't the quickest but it won't drop frames on 1080p HTML video, plus they support directx11.
Take the price into consideration and this little monster is an all around great buy.
Agreed.
Got my T430 year ago for about £300 with 8GB ram and 240GB SSD and it's my main work laptop now.
Nice, I'd feel cramped on a drive that size, but nothing to mock either.
I just bought a ThinkPad to use for less demanding staff and as a mobile Thin Client: I can perform the majority of my tasks (frontend web developement, Internet surfing, Office...) directly on the laptop, when I need more power (I.E. for Visual Studio, Hyper-V, GNS3...) I connect it to my Fujitsu workstation through Microsoft RDP.
Nice solution!
PS the keyboard is really good as most laptops have really cheap keyboards. using other laptops makes you appreciate how good this are - great video by the way
Didn't get the chance to really feel it, but it seemed like a good quality board.
The T430 is one of the latest real ThinkPads which allows you to do some heavily modding,
thanks to community which were interested and involved in that process. (Like some old days with T61 modding)
For mine stock T430 with i5-2520m I did next list of modding:
1. CPU swap -> i7-3632qm
2. Heatsink swap, to NVidia model, with extra heatpipe (my T430 doesn't have NVidia card, so extra pipe help alot in cooling)
3. Memory upgrade -> HyperX 2133Mhz DDR3L 16GB
4. Classic keyboard upgrade
5. Screen upgrade to IPS WQHD (the hardest part)
6. SSD for main SATA slot, HDD replaced the optical drive, and some m2 sata SSD...
...and what I got after all of that? I'v got an extremely fast machine for my software developing purposes with amazing IPS display
and amazing keyboard.
The only one drawback in T430 series is that main SATA slot located very close up to palmrest, it's mean that after
heavily laptop usage it causes left side of palmrest be more hot in comparsion with right side. Swapping HDD to SSD decreases heating, but
not removes it completelly...Anyway, this is a great machine.
Excellent upgrade list!
T440p and W540P have some serious upgradability too.
For sure!
What about its battery, I'm going to buy one so I will be happy to know that it has a good battery.
Battery if used will probably need to be replaced. I suggest a 9 cell.
Are bios required when replacing parts like the ram, cpu, ssd, or the WiFi card?
Any part that isn't in the Whitelist of the BIOS will require some tweaks. RAM, CPU and SSD should be drop in so long as the motherboard supports them. WiFi cards need to be on the approved list or you need to modify the BIOS.
Long comment ahead:
Got my refurbished T430 for about 6,900 THB (around 210 USD) year ago as I was in need a good laptop to do stuff while I was on vacation. It was in very good condition, with a few scratch and worn touchpad (which I rarely use it as I have fall in love with nipple mouse after using it for a while and now I always feel weird when use touchpad on other people laptop XD), it have Core i5 3320M, 4GB RAM (2x2GB), 320GB HDD, 1366x768 display, almost new 6 cell battery, OEM Windows 7 Pro license and 3 months warranty. I later upgrade the RAM to 16GB with 2x8GB DDR3L 1600Mhz, add 256GB SSD and put the old 350GB HDD in optical drive bay as storage drive, upgrade the charger to 90w model (for future quad core CPU upgrade as it won't charge with lower wattage charger) and CPU thermal compound to Arctic MX-4 to improve cooling.
I'd say ThinkPad T430 is still usable in 2018 and years beyond with just 8GB RAM and maybe SSD upgrade, I use my T430 for LibreOffice work, programing in C/C++ and Python (this laptop have very good keyboard btw), image/texture editing with Gimp, drawing with Krita (the 1366x768 display seems too small for it's interface, but it doable if change the interface to Big_Paint_2).
I also do 3D stuff as a hobby with Blender and DAZ Studio, tho the current i5 dual core CPU is not suite for rendering, but it get the job done, if you have good cooling for the laptop to run continuously for hours and wait looong enough for the render to finish :D and while the Intel HD 4000 viewport performance is acceptable for smaller scene/simple model, but for complex scene/model, the framerate will drop to single digit.
And for gaming, I have play the original Skyrim (with lots of mods!, 300+ mods) on it with acceptable framerate, about 25-30 fps on 720p/low/mixed settings, Guild Wars 2 and World of Warcraft also run, but on windowed mode at potato level graphic/framerate XD
For gaming, using dual channel RAM (2 RAM module, for example 2x4GB RAM for total of 8GB RAM or 2x8GB RAM for total of 16GB RAM) will help improve framerate a bit.
Unlike most modern laptop, this T430 can be upgrade easily with the help of disassembly manual from Lenovo, and there are lots of upgrade options and hacks too, even non standard one like replace the keyboard with older model keyboard, easier external GPU with Express card to PCI-E adapter, 1080p IPS screen (tho this one is hard to do) or quad core CPU upgrade!
I also thought about putting GNU/Linux on this laptop as I use Kubuntu on my PC at work. but sadly, it seems I also need a Windows PC to run some program that don't run correctly in Wine and test a program I that maintain in my free time, so Windows 7 until 2020 it is.
My next upgrade would be i7-3740QM or classic T420 keyboard, as more keys is better for me, and maybe HD+ screen if I can find one locally. :D
Great post. Really enjoyed hearing your upgrade story and what you found this machine to be capable of doing. Thanks for sharing this information.
I picked up a T430s off eBay recently and I love it. 8GB of ram and SSD makes it the best laptop that I have ever owned even though it is 6 years old.
Nice. What CPU are you rocking?
**Checks**
Core i5 3320M
Not too shabby. Going to do any upgrades?