Thinkpad X201 (and X6x/T6x) modded with new motherboard
- Thread starter EdZ
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Old ThinkPad, with the good input, LCD and the aesthetics of the shell, modded to take current generation internals. Think sleeper mod but for laptops.
More to the point: a team of enthusiasts have designed, manufactured, and released a fully-custom motherboard assembly for a selection of old ThinkPad laptops, with fully up-to-date specs. This includes 8th-gen Intel Core CPUs, NVMe SSD support, faster RAM, up-to-date connectivity and modern, fast WiFi. The motherboards slot more or less directly into the case with no modifications, use the original port cutouts, and connect to the original peripherals. They offer an LCD upgrade, but I don't know if it's required (though I'd say so - the 1280x800 TN LCD on the X201 was a dog). I sold my X201 recently, but I did consider investing in this instead for quite a while. What killed the idea for me was reports of quite bad battery life. I did love that laptop, though.
IMO, laptop manufacturers should release schematics for their internals after a few years so that this could be done more often. Very environmentally friendly, plus that it's just really, really cool.
I actually owned an assembled X210 (new old stock case with display and motherboard upgrades), it was a wonderful machine I just wish they would refresh the X301 or larger. It ended up being too small for me but I loved the retro aesthetic and obviously the 8250U is a productivity monster for mobile. I can attest to the build quality of the custom boards and numerous BIOS updates after release which was impressive for the small team behind it.
I have to kinda-sorta agree about the size, though for me the main point of a laptop will always be portability (I have a dock at work and a desktop PC at home). Still, my "dream" laptop would have a 13-14" 3:2 aspect ratio display (which could theoretically fit in an X201-like shell, it'd just need minimal bezels (14" 3:2 is 11.6"x7.8", the x201 is 11.6"x8.3")), an X201-like backlit keyboard (though I could live with an updated "smile key" like the T470-derived version my desktop keyboard is based on), classic ThinkPad design (particularly the rubberized outer shell), and modern hardware and connectivity. As no such display panel exists (the closest would be the power-guzzling panel Microsoft uses in the 13.5" Surface Book 2), I'm happy with waiting for now. Maybe they'll release an X211 with the SB2 panel as an upgrade in a couple of years?
I have to kinda-sorta agree about the size, though for me the main point of a laptop will always be portability (I have a dock at work and a desktop PC at home). Still, my "dream" laptop would have a 13-14" 3:2 aspect ratio display (which could theoretically fit in an X201-like shell, it'd just need minimal bezels (14" 3:2 is 11.6"x7.8", the x201 is 11.6"x8.3")), an X201-like backlit keyboard (though I could live with an updated "smile key" like the T470-derived version my desktop keyboard is based on), classic ThinkPad design (particularly the rubberized outer shell), and modern hardware and connectivity. As no such display panel exists (the closest would be the power-guzzling panel Microsoft uses in the 13.5" Surface Book 2), I'm happy with waiting for now. Maybe they'll release an X211 with the SB2 panel as an upgrade in a couple of years?
The guys at 51NB seem to be doing very well with each laptop production run they've made so far resulting in multiple runs in most cases so I'd say between them and Lenovo possibly creating a Thinkpad T25 successor something ideal should come along eventually.
Don't worryThats super awesome! Now i want one
*is super weak on thinkpads*
Lenovo makes their naming schemes reasonably easy to understand, and you can read through the ThinkPad Wiki(s) if you want information on really cool ThinkPads. I don't really remember the names, just their features.
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