Best budget laptop in 2022? Comparing a new Dell Inspiron vs 2013 ThinkPad T530
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- čas přidán 5. 06. 2024
- I'm passionate about right to repair, and I'm also passionate about saving people money. The average consumer doesn't realize that a brand new budget laptop from 6 months ago that cost $300, is not as good as a $300 used laptop that cost $2600 a few years ago. So I made this video! I put a lot of effort into this one, so I hope you enjoy and help spread the word to your family and friends!
Used business class laptops will always be a better purchase than brand new consumer laptops. Help everyone you know save some money.
Shoutout to Brue Computing for his in-depth teardown's of the Dell laptop which I used footage from. / bruecompcouk - Věda a technologie
"I grew up poor as fuck, and I know the struggle of having to always buy the cheapest shit and the cheap shit never lasts"
I know this pain. Iearned hardware upgrading simply because of being poor and not being able to afford to learn anything beyond. Soldering was too expensive a hobby to learn despite how useful it may have been and thus I give advice to anyone I see that needs help or advise them to simply buy the cheapest model in terms of memory or ram and simply upgrade it by themselves or for a small fee instead of giving it to the manufacturer for a marked up high price.
This is exactly how I started down this career path. I simply couldn't afford the newest stuff, so I was forced to learn how to fix things as well. Cars, computers, phone's, vacuum's, everything. You're a good person for helping spread this knowledge.
@@SalemTechsperts Haa, it's funny you mentioned vaccum because I literally fixed mine like 3 days ago, bought it in 2018 for $100, same vacuum is now worth $170.
Thanks man, great videos as well.
Still the best way to learn. Being poor make you genius, creative or fucked up, or even better, all of this.
Got a Lenovo ThinkPad W530. Great shit ! ssd in it ! i7-3630QM CPU in it !
Gonna add a ''MSI AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT 8GB GDDR6 Gpu'', a dirt cheap power supply, a 32 gb of ram, an express card and gonna run that monster on a Sony Bravia that I got for 60 $.
Worth of it : 400 $ max built but it will kill everything for another decade. Got that pc for free from insurances to go back to school after a work injury in 2013
:D:D:D:D Life is simple.
actually cheap stuff last for over 10 years if you lightly use them as intended or some are heavy duty tanks. my two $300 acer laptops all work after 10 years. one battery replacement , original hard drive, one lcd backlight after gaming. my $400 whirlpool washers last 10-20 years. same goes for cheap used honda civic and Toyota corolla. cheap models without the greatest specs last too.
well, i started poor af too... at first i had a crappy pentium laptop from 2015, and it was really bad at doing anything. so i started dissassembling some old computers, then attempted to fix them. and this is how i built my first ever computer. It had a amd athlon 2 X4 from 2008, 16gb of random green ddr3 sticks i got for free and a gigabyte mobo that takes an entire day to install windows. oh and also it didn't have sound XD ... i paired that with a gt210 and it worked just fine ! i still have all of the components i used to this day, and they still work... compared to some cheaper stuff i bought recently. Personnally, i htink it's generally better to buy some used gigachad pcs instead of these dogshit pieces of crap that cost 3 times their real value just because it's brand new. and that's what i've nearly always done my entire life.
fun fact : i'm writing this from a 2012 macbook pro... still works better that that dogshit hp craptop that cost 400 bucks and that i saw at the supermarket XD
Bought a T530 for $280 in 2019. Sat on it for a while, but then my HP desktop bit the dust so decided to try the Thinkpad as my primary home computer. Bought a 1TB SSD hard drive from Crucial, and added some RAM lying around at work for 14GB total. Also picked up a brand new dock for about $40 on eBay. All told probably spent about $400. Been using it every day for just over 3 years and it's been nearly flawless. It's fast. Boots up in about 15 seconds. I rip and burn DVDs with no issue, do light photo editing with no issue, play tunes, have bluetooth devices connected, and also a 27" Dell Ultrasharp monitor. Yep it's heavy, but I like that. Feels like a tank. The keyboard on the laptop is the best keyboard I've ever typed on. It's that good. If you've never typed on a Thinkpad keyboard, at least the older ones, you're missing out. Compared to the keyboard on my brand new Dell Latitude work laptop, it's no contest. I hope to get at least another 2-3 years with it. Then I'd probably look to get another used Thinkpad. I've used HP and Dell professional grade laptops at my jobs over the years (IT guy) and they feel like toys compared to the Thinkpads I've used. It's 10 years old and still kicking ass. Okay, so maybe can't handle newer games, but I'm not a big gamer. I currently am running Half-Life 2 and it's flawless.
Do their battery last longer than others?
Hold onto that game buddy. Its quality is smth most modern games cant reach.
Is it possible to use a professional producer music program like FL Studio with this laptop?
Funny how my Uni made me buy a T530 back in 2012. It's still working and has now been put in service as my media PC plugged into my TV. It has served me super well. Great device! I really can't argue against your advice it legitimately is great!
Louis Rossmann brought me here.
Thanks Victor! That's hilarious, they definitely did you a favor for that! These make for awesome HTPC's. Hope you made the best at your Uni!
I still use my T430 as my daily driver laptop. I've done a lot of upgrades (and I'm still doing them lol) so it's definitely a passion project at this point and my opinion may be biased, but there's just something so nice and sturdy about it. It's been incredibly reliable all these years and shows no signs of slowing down. I've re-celled the battery pack recently so I get plenty of hours away from the wall when needed, even with the power-hungry i7. Also being able to use my laptop anywhere from the kitchen to outside in a light rain, knowing that it won't just randomly break (and if it does break I can repair it or get cheap replacement parts) makes it so great. New laptops have their advantages, sure, but as someone who used to work in a major electronics retailer, it used to drive me crazy how many people came in to buy the cheapest piece of junk laptop that would already qualify as ewaste, but they would never consider buying something used. Great video!
Yes yes yes. That is awesome. T430 is the little brother of the T530. Just as fast too! I'm glad you can appreciate the struggle of dealing with this in retail. Trying not to rip your hair out when a poor customer is about to waste $300 on some disposable POS and won't listen to your advice is draining. Thanks for watching!
I just recently bought a t-430 myself, and after using it am still absolutely flabbergasted that it was only $55!
@@BigDrewski1000good buy :D I have one too and I love it
my T430 got me through college, the pandemic, hten took a break and it´s back cos my PC exploded, still awesome, still fast-
As somebody who has been working in the tech repair industry for nearly 20 years, I back EVERYTHING you said 100%. I usually tell people to think of every $100 you spend on a laptop to be one year of usage. I typically recommend they spend $500-$600 on a used Thinkpad over the same amount on a new Dell or HP. Lately I have been recommending the T14 and T15 models to a lot of people. What you get is just exponentially better for your money.
Thanks William! 20 years?? My soul has been crushed after 7 😂 how do you do it? That's a great way to put it to customers, I'm going to steal that! I also sell the T14 and T15, as well as the X1 Carbon for those that need something super portable, but for all these models, I always warn the customers about that damn soldered USB-C and the keyboard marks on the screen if they don't put something in between it when transporting.
@@SalemTechsperts Honestly, I tell myself I am going to quit every day... but for some reason I keep coming back to work.
Louis Rossmann brought me here! I honestly still use a W530 (ie, T530 with a Quadro) for a lot of my work and it does the job fine. When I need to do anything more intensive, I'm usually in one place so I can just use a desktop anyway. From my work, I also have gaming laptop as my work laptop, but its terrific thermal throttling and heat, uncomfortable fan noise and bad keyboard are such a turn off, that I'd rather keep using the less powerful W530 for convenience and experience. I got the W530 £300-ish used in early 2019 IIRC, which is of course a lot more than $250 when converted to USD but it already came with a quad-core i7, Quadro K2000M, an SSD, 16GB RAM and 1920x1080 display so couldn't complain much. At least back in 2019, this was still a lot better than buying new (and I can imagine it still is). Over time, I also maxed the RAM and added in a hard drive and caddy into the optical drive bay as well. The Quadro is definitely showing its age now, but it's good enough that I can still play BF4 on it (if I really wanted to) and it does most of my graphical needs competently. At most, I only plan to upgrade in a few years when second-hand P70/P17 series machines are more also affordable. Anywho, I'm very happy with this machine still!
Ditto
Thanks for watching! That W530 is definitely still better than most laptops nowadays. I love seeing them with multiple hard drives, I geek out when they come into the shop. I'm also looking for a P70/P17. They take much longer to go down in price though (understandably so).
Same
It's the vintage guy from the Blacksimon server!
@@sidp1494 Yes, it is me - the one with too many IBM keyboards!
This video shows exactly what companies have made people think, that cheap is always bad. I hate how companies charge so much for services that should be basic for any price point and last a good amount of time. My family has struggled to provide us with good devices to work on and we have replaced many laptops. I just bought a £1.5k laptop for my degree and that was so stressful for my family as well. I appreciate these videos and love how you teach us the best way to look after devices and make the right purchase decisions.
I came here looking for tech advice and stayed for the low key humorous remarks and editing.
Subscribed
Hah, glad you enjoyed it! This is the first video where I put serious effort into the editing. I have to learn something other than MS Paint though, it took forever to make some of these memes 🤣
Watching this on my T520 which also still kicks ass! I love the old keyboard design... Thanks for your video!
Great video man. In addition to what you said in the video this reusues old laptops that may be destined for the landfill. I am now following.
Thanks a ton! Exactly! I'm passionate about right to repair and the environmental impact of disposable electronics, so it was definitely a motivator behind this video. It's also why I only sell used business class laptops at my store, that we get from my local electronics recycler, or eBay.
Well done mate. A well thought through message from someone who knows what he is talking about. Do more of this sort of stuff it valuable information for those who need to know
As someone who bought and custom upgraded a used T440p for the exact same reason a few years back, I totally agree with this video. Ever since I always recommend older used ThinkPads. They just don't make them like they used to
Awesome, keep spreading the word!
@@SalemTechsperts is the dell latitude e5450 and solidly built machine
@@phillipsmith5888 yes. They run hot so make sure to change the past. Hinge welds get a bit loose but don’t break. If possible get a few years newer model, 8th gen. They’re great laptops though.
@@SalemTechsperts well I actually bought mine for 35 dollers because the seller said that it didn't turn on but when i pressed the power button it turned on and the sata was set to raid so i changed it back to ahci and it booted into windows even better is it was never used it was bought and it was never opened or used so pretty much i got a new laptop from 2015 but i had to replace the battery and a problem is when the battery gets below 25% it switches back and forth from charging to idle which is annoying i might have the buy genuine dell battery for it anyways it a great laptop for what i use it for.
@@SalemTechsperts and it natively can run windows 11 so yay
You're a tech hero. I appreciate your heart, humor, and contribution to the repair community.
In 2013 I bought a laptop (I think it was a Dell funnily enough) for like $400, it was literally like $100 less than the paycheck I just got for working 80 hours. I was so excited, but the thing slowed down in like a month, and I could never figure out how to fix it, or afford to get it fixed
I'm starting to learn a lot more about computers, and I wish someone like you was around in 2013 to help poor people like me who just wanted to learn about a world that always seemed closed off to them. Your vids are funny, informative, and based af, super glad I found your channel!
aye!! great video brother. keep up the awesome work. good content, much needed laugh!
Thanks dude!
This is very true out of all the lappys an old ThinkPad normally beats any new budget ones. So much so my kids will only be getting them and I'll also be showing them how to replace parts also
truly the greatest technician to ever live but seriously completely agree with you that newer budget stuff is just doomed to fail and that's just not right. thank you for opening my views to the world of used thinkpads. I actually have a t480s that I love it, I know its a filthy slim model but it still its like a little brother almost there but not quite IVE STILL GOT A SD SLOT THOUGH
You are absolutely correct my friend ! My son who's been a "techy" with an engineering degree from Georgia Tech, and who does computer based technology work for Amazon recommended to me when I was looking for a laptop to take with me wherever I go, that I buy the T530 Think Pad. That was in 2013, and I haven't regretted it one bit. I did install a solid state drive, and loaded it with as much ram as I could, several years ago. I'm typing on it right now btw..... This machine has been a tank. I'm a retired aircraft mechanic, and I spend a lot of free time traveling on my motorcycle. You can imagine the atmosphere of my T530 being in my cycles top box storage compartment enduring literally thousands of miles of travel. It's not riding in a Cadillac limo okay ? It's being shaken, and bounced, and has endured that for at least 30,000 miles. That's my estimate, roughly, and it may be more. My motorcycle, which is a 2013 Yamaha FJR1300a now has over 73,000 miles on it, and often I leave my T530 in the top box, even when I'm not traveling. However when I long distance travel on my cycle, the laptop is always with me. I carry two extra batteries for the nights I camp, and want to have power available.
The bottom line is, this T530 is the M1 Abrams tank of laptops, and I'm going to be seriously sad when this one gives up it's ghost and I have to look for a replacement.
I'm actually questioning the wisdom of this post, as I'm afraid you folks reading this will buy up the remaining used stock of T530's.
I got the Thinkpad for my 15th birthday f*cking awesome
Thank you so much for this video. I've been searching for a good budget laptop recently since I'm going to a college and this help me a lot! Again, thank you The Greatest Technician That Ever Live 🙏🙏🙏🙏
i bought one and its coming tommorow, also subbed!
A real advice from a real human❤ thank you
Thanks for a informative Sunday morning coffee
Anytime George! Glad you enjoyed it
Awesome video! What models of Thinkpads do you think started to fall from grace in terms of build quality?
I have a Dell Latitude 5590 as my current laptop and I was curious about your experience on the newer Thinkpads.
Loved this video. Hope you can make a video of what modern laptops are worth it today.
Thank you! That one's so tough because I don't like to share my opinion unless I have enough hands-on experience with it. Maybe I'll give Microcenter a visit, Gamers Nexus style, and see what I can come up with!
Dude thank you for this video. Avid IT Tech myself but you spoke every word for all of us who grew up poor
Great video.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
I've been watching stuff all night and all i can say that you’re a legend man
Greetings from 🇮🇶
Great video dude = 1 new subscriber
Thanks a ton Justin, I really appreciate that!
Great video, I settled on a T520 and a W520 with quad cores I7m's processors and nvidia graphics and the great thinkpad keyboards
I still use my P50 that I bought because of a video Louis Rossmann did on his. Great machine with the xenon cpu and quadro gpu. Only thing I've changed is maxing the ram out to 128gb and a higher capacity nvme ssd.
Holy shit, 128GB RAM, that's awesome. P50 is an amazing machine, Louis has good taste. I also love the older Dell Precisions! Before Dell started cutting costs and ruined the chassis.
@@SalemTechspertswhich precision would you recommend?
This video was very inspiring, so much so, it inspired me to search ebay for similar used option that kicks ass. I will be upgrading the screen and buying a dock. Thanks Salem Techsperts.
Absolutely love your commentary! 😂 #Subscribed
Hah, thanks John! I appreciate that
I did buy an T470S thinkpad for 250€ a couple of weeks ago.
I know you said that newer thinkpads are not as goog as the old ones, but I just love it.
Something like this, would cost 700€ easily if it happened to be brand new.
Your video had some effect.
One of the last that still has a modular charger port and not a soldered USB-C. Good laptop! Glad you got it for a good price.
I love your shit dude. Thanks a bunch.
Dell 5580 and after (for a large screened unit) or any Dell with USB-C are coming out of Dell's service agreement and flooding the second hand market, they have USB-C (Thunderbolt if your lucky, it was an option) supports NVMe and Sata SSD at the same time (the SSD will need to be one like Crucials BX series, you need to pull the case off and cut it down so both fit) for general use these are sturdy and well made machines and they support almost every new option, with a second hand Dell USB-C dock you have awesome expansion and the Dock will power the laptop for an excellent price.
Louis brought me here. You got yourself a new Subscriber
Thank you! Hope you enjoy my content!
Quality is good, especially in the long run.
I bought a T530 (I5) for 110 dollars, very happy.
I purchased a Lenovo T530 laptop several months ago for 75. dollars from ebay. It did not come with a hard drive or OS so I put in a 128gb mSATA card and a 128gb SSD. I loaded Linux Peppermint on the mSATA and use the SSD as storage. The condition of this refurbished laptop was just immaculate, almost like new. This business laptop is more robust and sturdy than any other consumer laptop I could find on the market today. These older laptops, even though they can run Windows, work exceptionally well with Linux. I'm so glad I didn't waste my money on the junk they sell at Best Buy, Walmart or Target!
Subbed!!
Thank you! I really appreciate it!
I love your videos and advice like this. My problem though is since the processor on this laptop won't be allowed by MS to run Windows 11 and Win10 support ends in 2025. Do you have an updated suggestion for a laptop to buy that will still be usable past 2025? It doesn't even have to be low budget, maybe $500 range. Or maybe make a video with a range of your picks for best laptops from low to high
🖖
Absolute facts here! ❤🎉
I absolutlely agree with you. I have mine for the last 5 years and upgraded it with a fingerprint reader and replaced the display. Everything has been perfect so far. The CPU is a third gen i7 and have a Windows 10. Am wondering if it will still be useful or usable in the future when we have Windows 15 and beyond.
At some point I do believe the CPU will become outdated, but having just sold 3 in the last month, I don't think it will be in the next 4 years. We have truly reached a plateau when it comes to specs.
@@SalemTechspertslinux to the rescue. Linux distros are becoming more stable now a days maybe after five years linux can compete toe to toe with windows
7:57 this hits so close home: "I know the struggle of having to always buy the cheapest shit and the cheap shit never lasts"
I own an off lease Dell Latitude, and like the corporate Lenovos and HP, they are all serviceable, with many parts available. You can easily upgrade internals, start with a basic model and upgrade the cpu, keyboard, add lte modules, and still beat new laptops in raw performance even at higher price points.
Yes sir! We swear by certain Dell Latitude's as well, though some models should never have held the Latitude title. Like the 3590, horrible cheap piece of garbage compared to the E5550, 60, 70 80, etc. It would be unfair to put the Latitude in the same Universe as the Inspiron series.
I have a t-61 I bought years ago. Upgraded from a core dueo to an i5 solid state ssd and 8gb ram. I love it still use it almost everyday
5:49 lmao 😂 i hope your channel keeps growing. Also, how do I connect this laptop to HDMI devices? Do I have to use adapter?
The best gat dayum video that I've seen in 10 years
Good video
Good advice. Now you can get a renewed 8th generation i5 thinkpad that supports windows 11, for under $300. For under $800 cad, you can get an i7 with a 1 Tb. ssd, and 16 gb. of ram. I own 2 old thinkpads already, a T510 I bought for my wife and a 12" Yoga I bought for myself. No they're not power-houses, but we've used them for several years, and somebody used them for even more years before us, and I wouldn't hesitate to take a chance on another Lenovo refurb. Maybe I just got lucky, but they've been rock solid. Come to think of it, I've broken at least 2 Inspirons over the years.
The older IBM thinkpads were good when they came out back in the 90’s.
There was a model that let you swap out the Floppy or CD drive for a second battery, doubling the battery life.
The best part was you could remove one of the batteries while the system was running, and charge it while the other battery kept powering the system.
So in theory you could have it on indefinitely!
I believe that the t430s (slimmer t430) was the last one to have the feature. Unfortunately, the normal thinkpad t530 and t430 omit the 2nd battery.
ive got a t460 that has an internal and external battery @@Joe-ko2kc
This channel is a goldmine
Thank you for digging!
Anyone else sent here from Louis?
I already have a laptop that works pretty well but just seeing this makes me want to snag one before they’re all bought up!
Me!
They're really hard to come by. I got super lucky finding this listing. I even thanked the seller for it, they definitely took care of this thing.
Hi there, amazing video, thanks a lot. It makes me sad to see how the repairability of Lenovo has gone downhill in the past ten years. I have not clue which laptop (used or new...) to buy so that it does not kill my budget. I need somehting mobile and lots of typing, maybe I will get some refurbished Thinkpad t4xxs and put Ubuntu on it. Thanks and good luck! (Perhaps I will stick to a standard t4xx or t4xxp model for the additional sturdyness... we will see :) )
Thank you so much for watching and commenting. It also makes me sad regarding the repairability and general quality of ThinkPad's recently.
I recently brought a 6th Gen X1 Carbon on a trip to Vegas and it grew on me. Super light, fast, stays cool, and the keyboard is very nice to type on.
As of now, still no keyboard marks on my LCD, even after being crammed in my backpack on the plane.
Whatever you grab, I hope it works out for you!
Fujitsu laptop u748 bought it recently used laptop mint condition price was a steal I was the only bidder! In with the old out with the new can't complain but the content 😆🔥
When I wanted a small laptop to carry around, I did not buy new, but a refurbished X270 Thinkpad. Turned out to be a great little machine. A bonus was that it had Windows 10 professional on it, instead of the home edition that most consumer laptops have. When my oldest son needed a laptop for school, I just got him a refurbished T460 Thinkpad.
Only bummer is that is does not comply to Windows 11 specs as the CPU is 6th Gen Core i5. O well, when Windows 10 support stops, I will either try to install Windows 11 anyway (using some trickery) or just move to Linux.
I just bought my first Thinkpad, the X270 is very nice for travel. Refurbished with 2 years warranty, 16 GB RAM, FHD display, it even has LTE modem so you can stay connected anywhere. And dual batteries which you can swap. It still looks almost new.
Agree with everything, growing up in the 50’s back in Hungary I have lived through everything, so I know the money situation. Once my grandson asked for a laptop recommendation for uni from me, I recomended a used Thinkpad, it is still working and running ever since, and that was like 7 years ago. Thank you once again for this video ❤. Sorry for my english also because i learned to speak some english from my grandson.
This gentleman is smart. great vid
I've been rocking my Dell XPS L502X since 2011, and I was even able to upgrade the processor and RAM recently so it runs even better. It's a chonky boi, but it does everything I need, it's well built, and reliable.
Oh, and the touchpad thing? I'm glad I'm not alone in still wanting physical buttons! LTT seems to always praise huge touchpads that don't have buttons, and it drives me nuts!
How is that thing still running without the GPU frying itself? That's awesome. I used to love working on these laptops, but there was a point in 2013 where I would see them all the time because of that same infamous GPU failure that effected every damn Nvidia and AMD chip. Yeah the touchpad is always personal preference, but I love me some physical clickies. Bigger touchpad is better for gestures, I will definitely admit that, but my baby hands like the small pads haha
@@SalemTechsperts The GPU (and CPU for that matter) were running really hot until I repasted them recently. But yeah, the GT 540M with 2 GB of VRAM holds up pretty well for 1080p video streaming, which is really all I think I can reasonably expect from an 11 year old laptop at this point. Ya know, as long as it doesn't melt itself lol
@@patpatboy2 that's awesome, glad to see old stuff still running!
Well said thank you for being honest.
I just bought a t530 and a t540 thinkpad because of this video. I'm gonna give them a try.
Hi. Love the suggestion. Is there a similar model that supports DDR4?
I believe you can go even cheaper! If you choose to go for a t440p, those are selling for 100 bucks, a new panel, CPU and more ram would give you a T440p, FHD IPS, I7 4810MQ and a 256gb SSD with 16gb ram for as little as 250 to 300 bucks!
While also being a bit newer but with excellent build quality.
well damn. I should have known that before I got a t495s.
100% agree. The only issue is with long term software support as I think W11 won't run on it and W10 will be gone soon. With that being said, even if that's the case, it's likely that the ThinkPad still outlasts the dell and the TP is 100% better buy indeed!
Thank you for standing up for lasting hardware!
Also for picking up the "too poor to buy cheap shit" matter. In Sweden there's an expression that goes "it's expensive to be poor", as you end up buying all the cheap and small little-bang-for-the-buck stuff.
It would be so great if laptops were are repairable and extendable as desktops.
yeah, standard parts that are exchangable between computers, would be super too.
you deserve so many more followers!
I don't need a laptop right now, but thank you man. I've used shitty cheap laptops before so I can approve of this from first hand experience. Old laptops are so much better!
thanks, I just brought a Lenovo T520
I bought a second gen X1 Carbon a few years ago for 500€, which is now 9 years old and still plenty fast for office work. Plus, its barely over 2 pounds but still pretty sturdy.
Love it, wouldnt trade it for anything. (Except maybe for a newer X1 😂)
I know this is an older video, but I can say I talked a friend of mine out of buying a cheap modern laptop recently, and he could not be happier with his used purchase. He was looking at a machine with a low power AMD APU, 8GB of RAM and a soldered on 256GB solid state drive and I can not even remember who made it. The used laptop he ended up buying has an Intel Core i7, 16GB of RAM that he upgraded to 32GB and a Nvidia RTX 2080 mobile GPU. With the RAM upgrade, he spent a whole $150.00 more than he was looking to spend on a brand new machine, but he can't care because he couldn't get anywhere near the performance for the same price in a new laptop. I do admit he was lucky on the price for his used laptop, the seller had just dropped the prices on their stock as part of an "overstock" sale.
I recently purchased a Thinkpad t530 with 8gb of ram and 500gb hdd for $70 on Facebook market. I upgraded the ram only so far. I like the laptop so much I purchased a second one from Ebay. Knowing how easy it is to upgrade and/or replace parts, which I plan on doing. Thank you for confirming that I did make a good purchase.
Make sure to repaste it and possibly replace the thermal pad although on that model I believe you can use paste on both the cpu and bus controller.....
in any case I recommend arctic mx-4 as it is cheap, effective in laptops and desktops and while not the absolute best paste it's probably the most popular one of all time, and for good reason. It simply lasts years as it doesn't dry out and degrade too fast, and that's important on a laptop that you have to fully disassemble to get to... I recently did some upgrades on mine and used mx-6 this time which is a bit thicker and slightly more expensive, and I saw an additional 5c drop over the mx4 but that could be attributed to the fact I put in a fan upgrade. I don't know how many years mx-6 lasts as it's my first time using the stuff but mx4 is good enough and lasts several years easily.
0:22 I have almost the exact same model (or maybe it's the same one idk) because I needed a laptop urgently last year and I chose this one because the specs weren't horrible and it had AMD integrated graphics, which, from my research, I understood to be superior to Intel ones, and I also didn't want to pay over a thousand euros for a laptop. A month or so ago, I wanted to open it up to see if I could clean it up because I noticed it was running a bit slow, and it was a nightmare to open up. Below that rubber are 6 screws and after removing them you have to flip it, open it, and pry it open, or at least I think you do. I don't have any plastic pryers at home, and out of all the objects I thought to try, only a swiss army knife could open it.
This laptop retails for 700€ btw (~750USD), and mine has a Ryzen 7 5800U inside (thought I'd mention it because idk if this classifies as a "budget" laptop at that pricepoint or not)
I have no idea if I did something wrong or if laptops are just that poorly designed.
And even after all that there wasn't even that much dust to clean! I might open it up again, though, to clean the keyboard, and to reapply the thermal paste, not sure atm.
ThinkPad T520 user here. it's 2024 and i'm using this 13 yr old laptop every day. it's no gaming machine, but for schoolwork and entertainment it's great. super upgradable, great keyboard, and has some pretty cool features that i wish were still on newer laptops
gonna be getting a W520 soon, for that extra GPU juice and more RAM capacity (T520 is 16GB max RAM, W520 is twice that)
do you have a video comparing which used thinkpads are worth buying? or is there a good chart? i'm looking for 1080p screen, upgradeable RAM (up to 32GB), hdmi port
Ah no I don't have a video like that, yet. If you go to the ThinkPad Wiki, it will have a list of models. Narrow it down by screen Size + weight, then determine what model you want by looking at the specs. Almost all of them have a 1080p screen, and some newer models still have the HDMI port.
I've been telling people this for years. The Lenovo T4x0 series is rugged and fast. I should know, I've had a ton of them, because they were affordable used and parts are still available. There is a caveat though, many of the used ones are already trashed.
Yeah you have to search really hard for a good quality used one. It's nearly impossible to find a T440 and newer without scratches on the LCD.
About these laptops, i completely agree with you, these enterprise laptops are build way higher quality than most consumer laptops these days. While the CPU of newer ones are much faster and often come with an iGPU that can handle some graphically intensive games, you can argue if one should game on a laptop at all, when you could also build a computer with a Much more powerful CPU, GPU, much more RAM, Realms and Dimensions better thermal transfer air capability than a laptop could ever dream about, and also have the ability to upgrade the thing.
Not to mention these specific gaming laptops, they are huge, bulky and super heavy, to be able to have enough mass for the heat sink and enough space for the fans and air to cool the thing, the battery often also doesn't last all that long...
They also cost quite a bit, when you can invest that in your own ideal self build gaming rig.
And you could still use it to game on whatever chosen laptop, even on smartphone or TV (with an Android TV box), by streaming the game using Steam Remote Gaming, or the program Moonlight + Nvidia Gamesstream or the program Sunlight.
If you eliminate the thought to go after the gaming aspect, you can find amazing laptops that work very smoothly for many things still, even as far down as the 2nd gen i-core series, and even when Microsoft has deprecated Windows 10 and 11 is not supported, can still attempt to install Windows 11 through alternative means, but you can also opt for a Linux distro and get a likely even more efficient and fast system working.
Exactly, well said! Every one of these companies have 2 completely separate divisions, the consumer division and the enterprise division. Enterprise laptops need to be built to last, consumer laptops need to be built to maximize profit at any cost. Not everyone needs a gaming laptop, but advertising has convinced a lot of consumers that they do!
there are a lot of people who need a laptop with a good graphics card for advanced CAD work because of school or work and simply don't have the means to buy 2 seperate devices.
"These new laptops are thin as a NYC crackhead". Subscribed and great video!
Hah, glad that line stuck out with you! Thanks for the sub and the like!
You a G for this one
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Ive been in IT 27 years and ive repaired over several hundred Thinkpads. I love the t420s t430s t440 t450 t530. Old thinkpads are a beast with an ssd.
I wished people realized this stuff and applied it to almost every type of product. Used high-end stuff at the same price of new-low end stuff almost always blows the new items out of the water.
Thank you
Great video!!! Funny!!!
Hah, thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
Don’t count out Dell’s Latitude series (their business line and rival to the ThinkPads). Solidly built with lots of ports and upgradeability. Thinkpads are the better machine (and have better community support), but those older Latitudes are quite a bit cheaper and almost as good.
I know - I own a Latitude E6430, which was the contemporary of the T430. Quad-core i7 (4C/8t), 16 GB RAM, and a 500 GB SSD, and it’s still a solid machine. I wish the screen was better, but I have a dock with it and it works great on my 1080p monitor at home!
Latitudes with beefier processors are a steaming pile of sh*t, I’ve head an E6530 with the I7 as well as an E6430 with an I7 and they both had horrible cooling issues, they idle around 60-70 degrees, just minutes after starting something compute heavy the processor would jump to a 100c and throttle down. No the fans were not clogged and yes I’ve repasted them anually
A lot of Dell Latitudes have some rubberized coating that turns to goo over time, incl. those 6430/6530 machines. My recommendation is usually, though it sounds insane, to use armorall. Older Thinkpads, I.E. T2x series laptops, had the same problem.
new Lattys work better w linux than newer lenovos. lenovo has a lot of issues w linux w any newer than 2019 and lenovo also preloads malware on both the hdd/ssd and the efi bios as well... that's why I switched to dell. I have both inspirons and laltitudes and they are all good so far. inspiron 3525 and latitude 5400 are my daily driver laptops rn. I only got an inspiron new cuz I wanted amd ryzen and dell doesn't have those in latitudes :( dell needs to put more ryzen processors in thier biz line systems. Ryzens have much better thermals than intels rn.
I need better performance for making music with bitwig studio... my lenovo w530 gets 120C doing the same things as my inspiron and latitude does at only 75-85C
I love my T430 machines. I have 2 of them I use daily and another 1 i use for distro hopping and trial and error runs. I will eventually upgrade the processor to the i7 once I get some money and can figure out the correct one to get. I read theres 3 or 4 different ones, but some require changing heatsinks and such.... which i dont know what much about. both the main laptops have the 1600x900 screen which is fine for travels, mostly connected to a monitor docked with the the 10 things plugged into it. I thought my early 2011 mbp was the best laptop, while I love it, it had hardware issues. I did fix those, and put linux on that instead of the outdated Mac OS. Still love the computer just dont really use at much as i used too.
The amount of T430 comments makes me so happy. One of the best laptops ever made just like this T530, same year too! i7-3840QM is the max the T430 can go, and definitely get the heatsink that comes with the Nvidia GPU, even if you don't have it. Infact, if you don't have the Nvidia GPU, you'll prob be better off since the thermals on that thing get outrageous. I still rock my 13" 2012 MBP, best one they ever made imo. Glad to hear you upgrade your stuff instead of throwing it out! We are a dying breed.
@@SalemTechsperts Yea i dont know how to tell what heatsink I have. I don't think I have the nvidia one though. Ill have to do some research. I love the T430, i think 14" is the perfect size not 13" not 15" but for 14" is that sweet spot. At least for me. I have a T520 that I use as like a smartPad, its connected to my tv plays movies, music, downloads and streams pretty much all day when I am at home. does what I need to it do. Do most my work on my thinkpad, and I have the other one for DJing. I dont think I have the nvidia, not 100% sure on that though. is the heatsink interchangable? I am guessing so since its already in a T430. I read somewhere but lost the site, that theres a processor you can just drop in and dont need to change the Heatsink. I think theres 3 processors that can work on the upgrade.
some addon to the thinkpad t530, if i recall correctly, it have an msata slot. So you can have a 2.5 inch drive, an msata drive, and another 2.5 inch drive through a hdd caddy, resulting in a total of 3 drives in a laptop
All the xx30 and xx20 laptops have an msata slot.
Thinkpads rock) I have a T430i since 2014, upgraded it few times- replaced the screen for a better one, CPU, added RAM, cooling fan since stock one was LOUD- it is a known problem with them... Also replaced speakers- somehow managed to install from Motorola E398, added a bluetooth module, SSD instead of CDrom and recently recelled the stock battery. That's it.
Also recently got x260 as a super portable thing with nice batteries. For about $300. And it is significantly less rigid. But almost weightless for everyday carry.
Can you tell me the procedure of recelling your battery? Did you have to keep the controller always powered? and what about the cycle counter? Does it make the new cells underperform?
@@RenoxMTA I was keeping the controller always under the power. That was not easy honestly Soldered some thin temporary wires. New cells was charget to the same voltage as original cells by Liitokala charger with a screen.
And the worst thing- controller still thinks it has bad batteries. I've tried few times to cycle the battery- didn't helped.
Also tested original cells- they had about 2200mAh out of 2600. But I had very little battery time until it showing critical power.
So honestly I'm not satisfied with this mod. Spent a whole day, working like on a bomb with lots of wires ... It was kinda fun, but not gonna do that 2nd time.
Did you try resetting the battery gauge from lenovo vantage? that might help a bit, but would you say it was worth it financially? Because i dont think you can find original + good working replacement batteries anymore i think
@@RenoxMTA I use Linux on that laptop, so no Lenovo Vantage for me. And the cells I used are Liitokala 3000mAh for about $2 each. They're pretty good, I use them for my FPV drone gear.
@@serhiirudenko6183 Well I think you should atleast try to boot windows temporarily to reset it via Vantage, I think it will help a bit)) but I guess I'll also be recelling my t440p battery soon then
It's April 2024 and I just bought my P51 for 350CHF (around 390 USD). I7 7860hq, 32G ram, 1TB M.2, Nvidia quadro M2200. A hell of a deal. I'm gonna use it for my second bachelor study. Before that I bought T560 I7 6gen for 160 CHF and 16g ram from Amazon for 29chf = 190 chf. It's very usable if you do basic browsing, admin tasks. I use it as my music, discord, whatsapp, trading, browsing laptop. Havent use it for watching movies with its 1080p matte screen.
well i did buy the new lenovo thinkpad for about 450 dollars so is it any good in the long run or do i just flush all the data and sell it as lightly used?
Thank you for asking this question, it's a common one! Are you sure it's a ThinkPad, not an IdeaPad? What's the exact model?
@@SalemTechsperts damn yes sorry about that wrong on my parts its the Ideapad 3 the 12 GB RAM version with 512 GB SDD
@@fernandoqueirozpopovic7024 No need to apologize man! The Ideapad 3 design is almost identical to the Dell I mentioned in this video, so all the negatives (and positives) apply. Hinges breaking are the #1 killer of this IdeaPad model. The other being the keyboard failing and having to replace the entire top case. Ask yourself first, how do you treat your laptops? Are you a little rough with them and always running into problems? Or is it going to sit on a desk for the rest of it's life? If you're a gentle user, and mindful of it's fragile build, that laptop could last you forever. It's definitely fast, and the battery probably lasts a good amount of time. If it does everything you need it to do, there are no major annoyances, and you take care of it, just keep it, and the next time you need to purchase a laptop, or a friend or your family are looking for one, keep this video in mind!
@@SalemTechsperts i treat it as a desktop never opening the screen from the sides never too fast and i also plan o making somewhat of a retro conversion with olcer parts but before i leave you to go on your marry way do you recommend the cleaning slime so i can more easly clean my keyboard or just a normal tissue?
I am still using my T430 which I bought secondhand around 2015. I've replaced the battery, upgraded the RAM and swapped the hard drive for an SSD, and while the i5 is starting to show its age, my laptop is still the best laptop for me.
Hell yeah man, love that thing.
Besti CZcams Serious Comedy Presentation EVER 😅❤
Recently bought a refurbished T490.
330€, I5 8300U (or something like that), 16gig RAM, soldered, can add more as well (i think 32GB more), and i upgraded the NVME to a 1TB one. It can handle anything i throw at it, even some light games, could have more USB A ports, but I do have a 4-port hub so isn't a big problem. Also, I'd like a VGA port, but an adapter is like 10 €.
Replaced an Asus Kv55vm, I7 with a 3rd gen I7 and 8 gigs of ram.
Hahah as a car guy I loved the Lexus LS reference. I still have my Sony Vaio from 2005. I added the 128GB SSD as well. And maxed out the ram to 4gb.
I own a Microsoft Laptop 3 13inch, I need something I can easily carry around. But I hustled some discounts like an educational discount and some other promos so I got it for $500 plus $150 off for a credit card promo. It was listed as $1000 at the time. It’s a 128GB 4GB ram set up.
With this being said, my everyday work is on the desktop rig I built in 2010. It’s getting at the end of this lifetime but I need it to bridge me through my dissertation and I’m good 🙂
I still have my HP envy 3 and it still works except for 2 USB ports.
I also still have my pixel 5 and still don't plan on updating any time soon
I bought myself a Dell Inspiron 7567 for about 390$. Very solid case, has nvme and 2.5 hdd slot, two ram slots, and all of that(including the battery) can be accessed by unscrewing just one screw and removing a big cover, that is also held by some clips. Has an i7 7700HQ and gtx1050ti. The only bad things are a soft touch material on the cover and shitty TN screen
I bought a 2012 Dell e6230 for school 4 years ago and it still runs like a champ. Definitely the best $200 laptop.
hubby daily drives his e6430 and uses it for programming and making games and he likes it.
I wouldn't go as far back as the T530 and I carry my laptops a lot, but the X270 is what I'm stuck. Replacing the keyboard is pain but it is the last sensible thinkpad and I just love my dock.
I bought my 3 thinkpads w/o harddrives for $15/ea from a company warehouse liquidation sale. I then bought 3 SSds for $120/ea. This was in 2016, they work great, only had to install a new OS on the WinXP laptop.😅
i take my t410 pretty much couple days of week into a coffee shop to study, its not light to carry, but i don't mind the THICC boi
You must assert dominance when you slam it on the table and the ground shakes under everyone's feet.
I work in a shop that does IT for a bunch of different facilities. One of which demanded that they use a specific new dell laptop. The retail price was above $1,200 with an 11th Gen i5, 16gb of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. The screen was only 1366x768 in a laptop released in 2021. But the worst part is the build quality. On a $1200 laptop they used the cheapest, most garbage plastic known to man. The entire chassis bends when you pick it up. I learned the hard way that it needs to be prepped on a towel, because the tiniest piece of dust or dirt on the table will leave a massive gash in the plastic. God forbid you drop that thing because it would probably explode. Literally into a billion little pieces. You would think that in a $1200 laptop they would spend an extra 20 cents in plastic that isn’t going to fall apart in 2 years. Well they probably designed it that way so you end up buying a new one when that one inevitably disintegrates. I shudder to imagine what they’ll look like after 3 years of use at a facility, especially knowing how they treat their laptops over there.
Jesus Christ there's so much to digest here. I straight up refuse to sell my contracted business clients any sort of consumer laptop, but I will gladly support them on a pay per fix and per hour troubleshooting basis. 1366x768 in a $1200 laptop, wtf? Dude it's like they shove the best hardware inside the cheapest chassis and LCD they can muster to cut costs. It's ridiculous! So many laptops come in where the motherboards are like i7 9th gen, Nvidia GPU, NVME SSD, and everything is completely destroyed except for the board. I gave my girlfriend an HP 15 w/ Ryzen, Nvme, 16GB RAM because the entire lid broke off and the customer didn't want to fix it. It's just a motherboard that I attached to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse lmao. She loves it, the thing flies 🤣 but wtf
Proud owner of a T540p :)
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