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Comment by tyushk

8 days ago

I run NixOS on a coreboot-ed T420 and I absolutely love everything on the outside, but it really shows its age when compared to the display on my Macbook or it comes to running heavier software ie. rust-analyzer, Chrome, or Nix builds.

If Lenovo were to release a modern T420-like, with identical chassis, battery system and similar IO port variety, but a modern display, modern internals (replaceable SSD! soldered RAM at least has a case for performance) and a modern camera, cash would evaporate out of my wallet.

I remember there was a person [1] modding T60/T61s into "T700"s with 11th gen Intel chips. Unfortunately it looks like the project's been quiet since 2022. Hopefully there'll be more who try.

[1] https://www.xyte.ch/t700-crowdfunding/

10 comments

tyushk

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mgiampapa  8 days ago

I have a 25th Anniversary Edition Thinkpad, 7th gen i7 that I keep running PopOS specifically because it has the old magic style IBM keyboard. It's the only laptop I can stand typing on, but it's video card is getting so old in the tooth that it's starting to have problems with compatibility.

kombine  8 days ago

T14 Gen 5 AMD is perhaps the current best you can go for with non-soldered RAM.

  • theodric  8 days ago

    I have a P14s Gen 5 AMD, which afaik is just a T14 with some certifications, and it's flimsy. The whole chassis is plastic and quite flexible. It's also currently at a Lenovo service center because the battery lasted a whole month before failing and claiming to be "non-genuine."

    ThinkPads ain't what they were. My x230 is still going.

    • kombine  8 days ago

      I wasn't aware of their build quality degradation. I've been using T14s Gen 3 for a year now and I thoroughly enjoy it, the chassis is magnesium and really sturdy. Something must have happened around Gen 5 time.

      1 reply →

ladyanita22  7 days ago

Doesn't NixOS hog on your hardware?

  • Weetile  7 days ago

    It's very unlikely that performance would be hindered by a particular Linux distribution, but usually rather the desktop environment that it employs. NixOS with LXQt would run very differently to NixOS with GNOME.

  • SuperSandro2000  7 days ago

    How?

    The package manager needs more RAM than the average other package manager because it is doing a lot more behind the back.