Hello rwdplz1.... You could not be any more right. It is a cake walk to pull the heat sync, remove the old crappy thermal paste, clean the CPU and heat sync up, apply modern very good thermal paste and re install it. I like to use the free utility called Speccy which will give you a read out in C or F of every temperature probe in the computer. You do not need to buy the paid version as the free version will do everything anyone would want. I will be looking for fan control software if you have any suggestions...
TODAY 16.04.2023 T-Force Zeus TTZD464G3200HC22DC-S01 99.99 Your 64 GB Kit for T480 T-Force Zeus TTZD432G3200HC22-SBK ? Work from 99.99 USD now Thinkpad T480 ?
Yes, PTM7950 is the best option even for the iGPU coolers. Though obviously putting a dGPU cooler and undervolting the CPU to make it run at the maximum core clocks across all cores is also necessary. I think BIOS versions 1.26 and older support undervolting - version 1.28 introduces a CPU microcode update (supposedly it is in the BIOS and non-permanent) that blocks undervolting to combat the Plundervolt vulnerability, but that vulnerability basically never affects regular consumers so blocking it is wholly unnecessary, or they could have at least just given a toggle to support or restrict undervolting the CPU in the BIOS.
The T480 is a damn fine machine, and it runs Linux like a champ! I just bought a T495 (even though it was soldered RAM). The price was in the double digits, I just couldn't resist! The T495 runs Linux pretty well too.
It seem that my particular T480 was a rare gem: - It already had the WWAN card (very useful for internet when you have no wifi, just stick in a data MicroSIM and enter the APN) - it had the SD card reader - built-in touchscreen - one 16GB RAM stick I only had to purchase the NVME caddy to upgrade the drive to NVME, also a new extended battery. 2 years in and it is working very well. Just purchased a 16GB module to finally jump from 16GB to 32GB Now I'm considering upgrading he screen. T480's biggest flaw is the dim screen, even at max brightness, and I've read you can get a brighter screen, but at the cost of the touchscreen feature.
The t480 can take 30pin and 40pin screens, I installed a screen (B140QAN02.0) that came from one of the newer lenovo laptops by modifying the lid and taping it into the lid.
The touchscreen can be a downside if you do not use it. Even with the touch functionality disabled, the digitizer takes power actively, causing lower battery life. Enjoy your T480!
I bought a T460 off a local store in another city for 190$, I was so impressed by it's condition I went ahead and ordered another one, going to use it for spare parts for the upcoming years. will buy another laptop 2030 not before.
As a Thinkpad T480 owner it’s still a PERFECT Machine. Since I got my MacBook I have been using it less. But after installing several updates it’s still fast. I don’t think I’ll get rid of it anytime soon since it’s one of the last Think-pads you can do many upgrades. I bought a 1080p upgraded screen and Large external battery. I love having a pop out external battery
@@nannetteralphs9042 As long as you dont do any 3d heavy (and i mean heavy!) work, a t480 should still work very nicely. I even use a weaker x230 daily with an SSD and linux.
Dont you worry about the charging port and the potential issues with the charging port being soldered on the motherboard? 😅 that's what's holding me back from getting a t480
@@emberavenge7162 it held me back for the longest time, and I'm still surprised that the vast majority of thinkpad lovers doesn't treat it as the huge disadvantage that it objectively is. However, I still ordered one this week. Why? Because I wanted a thinkpad specifically from that era, and all other models that were as good or better than the T480 in terms of specs, price, repairability and upgradability - which mainly leaves the P series - had a numpad and were significantly heavier. Numpads are a dealbreaker for me, so I didn't really have a choice. Apart from this issue, the T480 is pretty much perfect, so I took a leap of faith. I'll update the firmware as soon as it arrives and hope for the best. Your caution is completely justified, the soldered charging port is the dumbest thing lenovo could've possibly done on a supposedly premium device (I dislike USB charging on laptops in general, but that's a matter of personal taste), and in combination with the firmware bug it's indeed a good reason not to buy a T480 or the other models that have the same issue. It's mostly a question of how much you love the other qualities the T480 has to offer, and whether or not you're willing to take the risk. It's understandable if you're not.
Great video. Agreed, you should replace the thermal paste. Also, I would look to add a second stick of RAM so you benefit from dual channels. The external case can be cleaned up with water, magic eraser, hand cream and a microfiber cloth.
you can use eucalyptus oil to clean the top lid. put the oil on piece of soft cloth, and gently rub it on the lid. it's going to look brand new. bonus new will get a aromatheraphy smell as well.
I just got an i7 variant without an SSD and charger for 200$ and I'm happy with it. I paired it with an extra 500GB 2.5" ssd i have and bought a Ugreen 65W GAN charger and I'm really enjoying this machine.
We have many T480 laptops at work. The most of the damages I found were the LCD panel and the USB-C charge port. There is another port next to it, but sometimes that, too, gets damaged. Having the USB-C port as the only charge port is an engineering mistake. The "slim" square charge port was more robust.
the port fail was most likely caused by the Thunderbolt issue and not physical wear of the ports. Updating the Thunderbolt firmware on units that still work will prevent port death
@@oddinvestigatorNot to mention that to repair the T480 laptops with a dead port, there's just a small dirt cheap chip on the board that needs replacing, which can be done by a regular user with a heat gun and other soldering materials (it's like soldering a BIOS chip) - the port itself is going to be fine.
Just bought this laptop, want to add a 1TB NVMe to it and if possible my WWAN 5G card that I already have. Also going to try upgrading the WiFi if possible (I've heard different things about whitelists of cards). Thanks for your video. Very helpful. I got lucky and the eBay seller said no second battery, but actually it's there!
Dude...! This is absolutely one of the best videos I've seen! VERY informative, concise, intelligent and exactly what I needed. I'm usually critical of most everything and rarely find satisfactory videos. You answered all questions I had and many I didn't know I had. Even the financial comments are super helpful. Thank you for all the valuable info and an enjoyable watching experience.
Fun bit of info, you can buy the discontinued gpu dock with a 1050ti inside of it, and if you are running windows, you can get the right drivers to cinnect your laptop to it. Alzo you can swap the trackpad with others if yours is without the buttons at the top. And, youll wanna go for the i5 or non igpu i7, as the mx150 isnt worth the price, and causes the cpu to throttle and overheat much too fast. My 100% upgrade recommendation is a large ssd, and as much ram as you can shove in it. Oh, and replace thermal paste, always helps. (Btw for the memes, i run arch 😂)
@@arisu1230 I'm not sure I usually had it plugged in. Maybe 5 hours? I don't know. I might have had the second battery in mine, and I know there's bigger batteries to have. I don't know much about laptops or hardware back then
I managed to grab one t480 today for 115$ that comes with i5-8350u, both batteries work pretty good and the ports aswell with 8gb ram and 512gb ssd, 1080p screen with touchscreen included with little to no scratches almost feels like brand new, I'm feeling very happy with my purchase 👍👍😊😊 also just noticed I also have the backlight keyboard 😍😍
Recently I got used T470 (only have 127 hours of use, it's a warehouse stock clearance sale), pay $250, got a full pack with the box, manual box, charger, type-C to VGA adapter, etc. Have a 100% perfect condition, and I decided to upgraded the RAM from 4GB to 16GB, and 256 Gb SSD to dual SSD 512GB+1Tb. Yes i want a used T480 with a faster processor, but got a T470 almost like new and I think this T470 is a good bargain for me right now.
Hello... I very much appreciated your video. I own a T430 and I am in the process of upgrading it now. I also wanted a laptop that could support Windows 11. I wanted a laptop that would do this as it will be a while until I can take my full tower, rip out the old motherboard and upgrade to a motherboard can can support Windows 11. Until I saw this video, I had no idea I could buy a robust older Thinkpad that supported Windows 11 for a reasonable price. I usually think and read about stuff for quite some time before I buy anything. But after a day of reading up on the T480, I decided to go for it. I bought one on ebay last night. I wanted the fasted processor, the Nvidia GPU, and 1080p. I found one for $349.00 & free shipping and just bough it. I am very happy that Lenovo has support for this laptop in the way of an owners manual, service manual plus driver and BIOS updates. So, thank you very much for your helpful post & Happy Holidays from Oregon!
Thank you for the feedback, there is definitely a lot of good information on these laptops out there. Without it, I probably could not have made this video either. Happy Holidays to you too!
Same here, I used T430s from 2017 (I keep using win7 until now) Sadly, win7 end and chrome also end support for win7 at 2022 So, I search thinkpad imtel 8th gen and I found T480/s T480 more upgradable, but T480s have solid case. Still confuse to decide, but I hope I can make a choice in few month.
I'd add a cooler upgrade to the list, since the stock cooler in the t480 is pretty weak. I personally went for an upgrade from the single pipe cpu cooler to the dual pipe gpu cooler. Whether there's a gpu in the machine or not, it'll reduce core temps by quite a bit, and you can replace the thermal compound while you're at it.
My T480 accepted the M.2 SSD with a single notch. I'm not sure if it's the standard M.2 adapter or something aftermarket. Mine had a 1TB SSD with the dual notches, but a 2TB with only one notch installed and worked fine. The low resolution "HD" screen (1366x768) can be upgraded to a non-touch "FHD (1920x1080) screen, as they both have 30 pin connectors. The Touchscreen FHD display (also 1920x1080) uses a 40-ion connector, so the T480 is not upgrade able to a touchscreen display. If that's important to you, make sure you find one with the touchscreen display. Mine was sold as an FHD screen model running Windows 10 Pro. The good is it came with Windows 11 Pro (at least, I think that's a good thing. YMMV). The bad is it came wth the HD screen, which is how I learned the HD and FHD screens are interchangeable. Great video. Keep up the good work!
Watching this with a Thinkpad X270 I bought from a seller that was still sitting in its box unopened for a fraction of the actual cost. These machines are built to last.
I basically can’t decide if I should get the T480 or the T470. Some people at forums I visit complain about the USB-C charging port in the T480 and on being easily damaged and not easy to repair, while the T470 has the slim tip charging port. (They’re saying USB-C charging ports are inherently a problem, not Lenovo laptop with USB-C charging specifically). This kind of struck a chord with me because I have never had a laptop with USB-C charging port… and if I was going to buy an older laptop because it’s upgradeable and it’ll last awhile, I wouldn’t want the charging port to potentially be able to be damaged and expensive to replace. The T470 has the slim tip charging port (which I already have 3 charging cords to because I have a Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 3 which uses the slim tip charging port) but it also has a single USB-C port available for USB peripherals. Is there any benefit to having the device that has 2 USB-C ports on it (like the T480 has)?
One thing to note with USB C charging, it's typically physical breakdown of the port (broken pins or poor cable retention). The nice thing about the T480 is it has two charging ports (can also charge over the Thunderbolt port). Although the USB-C ports are soldered to the board, it's not a difficult repair with a hot air station.
Great vedio. I own a t480 for a year now and i have a strange problem with the batteries . So when im working they hold the charge very well and i checked their true capacity using vantage software it shows over 80 % both and it says that there is no problem with them but when i boot in into windows after a shutdown or a reboot the charge drops to 0 % even if they were completly charged The solution i found is to power up with ac pluged in this fixed the issue but it bothers me so much the fact i can not turn on the computer on without the cable .
You upgraded the notebook but didn't replace the cpu thermal compound and you didn't clean the cpu fan out right and i know the air intake vents are dirty and keep to clean
Points for mentioning that nasty thunderbolt bug. But I think the nvme connection to the 2.5 inch caddy is limited to 2x... Would be interesting to see benchmark..
In the last month, I have bought 2 of the T480's. First I got an i5 with 16 GB ram for $80 and a T580 i7 with 16GB ram for $90,no hard drives in any of then, including the T480 i7 with 32 GB, back lit keyboard,1080 IPS display, and the MX 150 Nvidia card in the one I got last Friday, I got that one for $45. It was kind of dirty, so I took the magic eraser to it, and it looks like new. I'm planning to flip them and just keep my x1 because it has a 1440 display.
i got one with 20gb ram and a 512 ssd for about 150 and the only thing it needs is a new internal battery (which isnt a huge issue because its got an internal battery AND an external battery). you can definitely get some great deals if you look around
Hi, would you mind listing the upgrades you did to your T480? Like the parts. I'll try to find those parts here in the Philippines and upgrade my 2nd hand T480. 😊
Owned a T480 for 6 months so far and I still love it. I didn't even think that this laptop would be able to house 64 GB RAM, but now my jaw has dropped. Guess I know what other upgrades to do with this machine!
I had one of these for work, we had a fleet of thousands of T470-t490, i liked it other than 8gb ram only. they are also notorious for usb c failure like mine had, mine was replaced with a T14. I like my personal Dell Latitude 7390 a little bit better as it is much cheaper with the same specs (can be had under $200)
bro i still use the t480 a i stil love it. its fast enough to do everything. i upgraded to 32gb ram, only issue is SSD upgrade only uses 2 pci-ex lanes instead of 4. which means half speed using m2 ssds. however, still much faster than sata ssd and way faster than hdd. i only have an ac1900 wifi so i didnt need to upgrade my wifi. but yea the 8th gen i5 is powerful enough for me.
I just scored one of these from a friends company.... Its practically brand new... no wear at all... And he threw in a Tbolt dock.... So question, can you boot off the 2242 NVMe??? Also whats the purpose of the ID reader? And my Thunderbolt software doesnt have the menu yours does... Any idea how I can check the firmware version? Thanks!
Congrats! That's pretty killer. Yes, you can boot off the 2242. I do this on both my T25 and my T480. They both have a Western Digital SN520. Just in case you run Windows: I've run into problems installing it to the 2242 via USB using Lenovo's DDRS recovery, but if I use Microsoft's Media Creation Tool to do it I have no issues. As far as the Thunderbolt firmware version, you can get this in the Thunderbolt Control Center under "About." It's listed as "NVM Firmware Version." My T480 reports version 23.
@@MattJH Yeah I have played with it for a bit now and have ordered the 2242 drive and its getting here today... And I was able to update my Tbolt firmware to 23 as well... Took me a while to figure out how to see what version it was on. What's Lenovo DDRS? Sorry just woke up and brains not working!
@@neccros007 Morning! DDRS is Digital Download Recovery Service. If you don't have a Lenovo restore CD, you can use DDRS to image your machine back to the way it was at the point of sale. It recognized the 2280 drive on both of my ThinkPads, but not the 2242. I still don't know why. Microsoft's Media Creation Tool saw both drives so I just went that route and washed my hands of it.
@@MattJH Ahhh yeah I never heard of it... I have a small ITX music server/streamer that I have running off a NVMe on a PCIe adapter. MS see's it but in order to boot off of it, I have to have a internal USB with Clover to boot from to be able to see and boot off the NVMe. I wanted to make sure the 2242 was bootable natively because I want to run my OS and apps off this drive and use the 2280 in mine as data only.
@@MattJH Well my T480 now has 32gigs of ram, AX210 Wifi 6e card, a 512 gig WD SN520 2242 NVMe and a 2tb Kingston 2280 NVMe. Booting off the SN520 flawlessly!
THANKS FOR THIS WONDERFUL VIDEO ON THE INTERNALS. IF U COULD HELP ME DECIDE; WHICH IS BETTER FOR BUCK T480 OR X1 CARBON? WHICH SHOULD WE PICK. HOME AND OFFICE USE. THANKS.
This is by far the most holistic video. Quick question, when you installed a new SSD, did you find it difficult to install the windows, or did you clone the OS from your other/previous SSD? Thanks.
@2vndR thanks sir ur the man! My father bought it for my yesterday night for leaning ethical hacking. But I'm also planning to learn programming and etc. I bought the i5 base version with 8gb ram and 256 gb. I hope I can upgrade it with time
I ended up buying the HP Zbook 14 G2…. The TPM chip firmware doesn’t want to be upgraded but I can change out everything else if I want. A classic mobile workstation and it wasn’t exactly quad core but I thought the flaw was the sum of its virtue and I got mine in mint in mint condition and when you find them, you don’t let them away!
9:56 The machine I'm looking at has wiped drives and the seller does not know the status of the Thunderbolt Firmware. But looking on Lenovo's site there is a Critical Firmware Upgrade for the Thunderbolt controller listed as "Thunderbolt Firmware Update Utility for Windows 11 (Version 21H2 or later) and 10 (Version 1709 or later) - ThinkPad T480" it is dated 12 Jul 2022 and is for the 15BF model. But I cannot find any information about whether it resolves the specific issue you mentioned.
I have an Thinkpad L580 and have the same SSD like you. Kingspec SSD 2242 it's B and M key. If you don't pay attention, it's easy to buy the wrong one.
hmm i found an application for the windows shell was eating up like 40% of my cpu and destroying my battery life even when put to sleep. I was able to fix this by going into the windows privacy app settings and stopping it from launching programs in the background as well as changing a bunch of other privacy settings. i would check ur task manager (ctrl + alt + delete) and see if you have a simmilar process that goes crazy and just eats up 30-50% of the cpu. i just googled the name of the application and found a guide on how to turn off these sketchy meta data gathering background app settings.
Please suggest the best suitable ThinkPad model for my son to buy who is going to admit for the engineering college this year in July'2023. Also please suggest the best second sale/ refurbished online sites. We are from India.
@Kunibert Because it's the best modern thinkpad for people that want them like they used to be. No soldered RAM Swappable battery Quad core CPU (t470 i7 only had a dual core) It's the best thinkpad even the t490 don't have external battery. Price are increasing because people start to buy them as they understand the value of it. It's hard to get a good deal outside USA for less than 300€
Is there any way to deal with the issue of bad firmware on the Thunderbolt controller? Surely if there’s a way to update the firmware, it should be fine?
Absolutely, Lenovo didn’t test the capacity nor did intel and that is why they went with the “32 max estimate” just for the label simply because of not testing. There are lot of people who have upgraded their T480 to 64 gigs no matter the model (i5 or i7). Hope that helps. I’ve ordered one myself. (Edit : ram frequency supports up to ddr4 2400 mhz frequency.
@Max hello sir, I'm looking forward to buy T480 for ethical hacking and programming. Would you recommend me this? Also. If I buy the bade version 8 gb ram and 256 gb ssd it's capable for an upgrade right?
@@G18_120fps yes thats the same one i bought , upgraded the ram to 64 ( 32 gb 2400 x 2 ) and the ssd is sort of a gamble to be honest because some t480 varients come with the nvme caddy included and some dont so be sure to ask them about the caddy before buying , doesnt worth it if its equipped with an standard ssd which is a common trick they use to save money. then u have to buy nvme caddy separately for 30 to 50$ depending on region. but yeah definately research on the ssd department. ( edit : even if u buy 3200 mhz ram it works just fine , board will automatically set the limit to 2400mhz , telling this because its easier to find 3200 than 2400 nowdays which is stupid yes.
Was this for personal use, or to resell? I'm just curious as to why you decided to add a smart card reader. Outside of an enterprise or government environment, they're pretty much pointless for everyday users.
Tell me if this ThinkPad T480 - supports Stereo Mix in recording, because on 03/06/2023 I bought a T470 and unfortunately its Music Card does not have the Stereo Mix Function and to do my job on it I have to connect an external USB Music Card that has this Function. This is how these Laptops were praised, and there is no such basic Function, despite the fact that the Audio Chipset is Realtek, which in 99% of Laptops from various companies - supports this Function. Regards goombay
@@МелашРо So right now, the battery is messed up. So if I unplug it from charge it just switches off and it is always on 0% so I once I get the battery replaced I will surely let you know if the bug is fixed!
Great video. I had already chosen to get a T480 from Amazon refurbished. The first one returned because of visual problems, kept flickering and turning itself off. It may have been caused by the upgrade to Win 11. The 2nd one will work. I opted for the 500GB SSD. I have rescued a WD 1.0TB WD10JPVK one fon r 500GB. Any chance that those would fit in the T480? Just being greedy. Don't think I need it. Regarding the thunderbolt charger problem you mentioned. Where do I find the version info? I print out hwinfo, but need to know where to look while I still have time to return it. Thanks
lol Ive been using this laptop 2+ yrs and only got it with a 120g ssd. thought about upgrading the wlan drive but found prices were kind of crazy. decided against my better judgement to just put a sd card into it with ~120gigs. one of those name brand ones meant for high read/write numbers. i just use it for files i need to put somewhere and dont care about speed or loosing. was a very cheap solution and makes it really easy to transfer physical files. i try not to uninsert the sd card ever though i think this was like a 15$ solution to the memory :p
I recently bought a T480. How do I update the Thunderbolt Controller firmware? I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling older firmware but it's still stuck on version 14
I got a T480 i5-8250 with a single 8Gb 2400Mhz memory few weeks ago. Thinking about upgrade to 16Gb. Is there any benefit to buy 2x 8Gb 3200Mhz vs adding a second 2400 ?
The T480 is a great machine, untill you need a new external battery. Reddit is full of questions which is a reliable brand to buy. Lenovo doesn't make them new anymore and there is lots of discussion about this. Be aware of this when you buy one.
The only complaint i have for this model or any thinkpad model is the rubber coating they used.... Over time it will become sticky and hard to remove or take care
Only certain parts become sticky. I have a x1 carbon gen 1 from 2012. The rubber finish on the casing is still fine. But there is a rubber section around the power button that has become sticky.
Hello! Ive also bought and t480 recently and have some issues. Mine thunderbolt firmware is appareantly 14! Please can somebody help me to update it? I just simply can't update it myself.
when talking about total price used 500$ vs new ~2k$ you should also talk about time budget! how much time you spent on first option (researching, finding parts, buying them, installing, cleaning etc) vs second option?
Of course, my T480 didn't come with the internal battery (it had a spacer in its place that was dead weight so I chucked it into the drawer), so I got a 72Wh battery for myself for $30 and it works great
Only thing I'd add is to replace the CPU thermal compound while it's open
Hello rwdplz1.... You could not be any more right. It is a cake walk to pull the heat sync, remove the old crappy thermal paste, clean the CPU and heat sync up, apply modern very good thermal paste and re install it. I like to use the free utility called Speccy which will give you a read out in C or F of every temperature probe in the computer. You do not need to buy the paid version as the free version will do everything anyone would want. I will be looking for fan control software if you have any suggestions...
And the screen 📺
TODAY 16.04.2023
T-Force Zeus TTZD464G3200HC22DC-S01 99.99
Your 64 GB Kit for T480
T-Force Zeus TTZD432G3200HC22-SBK ?
Work from 99.99 USD now Thinkpad T480 ?
@@banphekohsamet2551yes
Yes, PTM7950 is the best option even for the iGPU coolers. Though obviously putting a dGPU cooler and undervolting the CPU to make it run at the maximum core clocks across all cores is also necessary. I think BIOS versions 1.26 and older support undervolting - version 1.28 introduces a CPU microcode update (supposedly it is in the BIOS and non-permanent) that blocks undervolting to combat the Plundervolt vulnerability, but that vulnerability basically never affects regular consumers so blocking it is wholly unnecessary, or they could have at least just given a toggle to support or restrict undervolting the CPU in the BIOS.
The T480 is a damn fine machine, and it runs Linux like a champ! I just bought a T495 (even though it was soldered RAM). The price was in the double digits, I just couldn't resist! The T495 runs Linux pretty well too.
It seem that my particular T480 was a rare gem:
- It already had the WWAN card (very useful for internet when you have no wifi, just stick in a data MicroSIM and enter the APN)
- it had the SD card reader
- built-in touchscreen
- one 16GB RAM stick
I only had to purchase the NVME caddy to upgrade the drive to NVME, also a new extended battery.
2 years in and it is working very well. Just purchased a 16GB module to finally jump from 16GB to 32GB
Now I'm considering upgrading he screen. T480's biggest flaw is the dim screen, even at max brightness, and I've read you can get a brighter screen, but at the cost of the touchscreen feature.
The t480 can take 30pin and 40pin screens, I installed a screen (B140QAN02.0) that came from one of the newer lenovo laptops by modifying the lid and taping it into the lid.
The touchscreen can be a downside if you do not use it. Even with the touch functionality disabled, the digitizer takes power actively, causing lower battery life. Enjoy your T480!
and what is the storage capacity_
Can you replace the tocuhscreen lcd with a non touchscreen one?
@@rocksaltsreally? You can use 30 & 40pin panels?! What screen did you upgrade to?
I bought a T460 off a local store in another city for 190$, I was so impressed by it's condition I went ahead and ordered another one, going to use it for spare parts for the upcoming years. will buy another laptop 2030 not before.
As a Thinkpad T480 owner it’s still a PERFECT Machine. Since I got my MacBook I have been using it less. But after installing several updates it’s still fast. I don’t think I’ll get rid of it anytime soon since it’s one of the last Think-pads you can do many upgrades. I bought a 1080p upgraded screen and Large external battery. I love having a pop out external battery
What is your opinion in 2023? I want to buy something refurbished/repairable but still compatible with new stuff...
Hey man thanks for your comment I’m in the market for a laptop . How much was your build in total ? And how has your experience been so far ?
@@nannetteralphs9042 As long as you dont do any 3d heavy (and i mean heavy!) work, a t480 should still work very nicely. I even use a weaker x230 daily with an SSD and linux.
where did you get the extended battery? (if you have a link that would be awesome).
Is it still good for now?
I love my T480 with Win 11. Maxed out the memory and this is my go to Development Laptop.
Dont you worry about the charging port and the potential issues with the charging port being soldered on the motherboard? 😅 that's what's holding me back from getting a t480
@@emberavenge7162 it held me back for the longest time, and I'm still surprised that the vast majority of thinkpad lovers doesn't treat it as the huge disadvantage that it objectively is. However, I still ordered one this week. Why? Because I wanted a thinkpad specifically from that era, and all other models that were as good or better than the T480 in terms of specs, price, repairability and upgradability - which mainly leaves the P series - had a numpad and were significantly heavier. Numpads are a dealbreaker for me, so I didn't really have a choice. Apart from this issue, the T480 is pretty much perfect, so I took a leap of faith. I'll update the firmware as soon as it arrives and hope for the best.
Your caution is completely justified, the soldered charging port is the dumbest thing lenovo could've possibly done on a supposedly premium device (I dislike USB charging on laptops in general, but that's a matter of personal taste), and in combination with the firmware bug it's indeed a good reason not to buy a T480 or the other models that have the same issue. It's mostly a question of how much you love the other qualities the T480 has to offer, and whether or not you're willing to take the risk. It's understandable if you're not.
@@emberavenge7162 what does that mean?
Great video. Agreed, you should replace the thermal paste. Also, I would look to add a second stick of RAM so you benefit from dual channels. The external case can be cleaned up with water, magic eraser, hand cream and a microfiber cloth.
you can use eucalyptus oil to clean the top lid. put the oil on piece of soft cloth, and gently rub it on the lid. it's going to look brand new. bonus new will get a aromatheraphy smell as well.
I just got an i7 variant without an SSD and charger for 200$ and I'm happy with it. I paired it with an extra 500GB 2.5" ssd i have and bought a Ugreen 65W GAN charger and I'm really enjoying this machine.
How is it running 3 months later?
Is it alive? I want to buy one of those
Very much still alive. It's my backup work pc and my mobile work laptop when I'm on "vacation" lol
We have many T480 laptops at work. The most of the damages I found were the LCD panel and the USB-C charge port. There is another port next to it, but sometimes that, too, gets damaged. Having the USB-C port as the only charge port is an engineering mistake. The "slim" square charge port was more robust.
the port fail was most likely caused by the Thunderbolt issue and not physical wear of the ports. Updating the Thunderbolt firmware on units that still work will prevent port death
@@oddinvestigatorNot to mention that to repair the T480 laptops with a dead port, there's just a small dirt cheap chip on the board that needs replacing, which can be done by a regular user with a heat gun and other soldering materials (it's like soldering a BIOS chip) - the port itself is going to be fine.
this is the budget laptop that i want to buy for this year.hope this laptop is good for programming...
How is it ?
Bought 480s at the end of last year. After swapping ctrl and fn probably best laptop I’ve owned.
Swap the keys using software?
@@ramicollo You can swap them in the bios.
Just bought this laptop, want to add a 1TB NVMe to it and if possible my WWAN 5G card that I already have. Also going to try upgrading the WiFi if possible (I've heard different things about whitelists of cards). Thanks for your video. Very helpful. I got lucky and the eBay seller said no second battery, but actually it's there!
Dude...! This is absolutely one of the best videos I've seen! VERY informative, concise, intelligent and exactly what I needed. I'm usually critical of most everything and rarely find satisfactory videos. You answered all questions I had and many I didn't know I had. Even the financial comments are super helpful. Thank you for all the valuable info and an enjoyable watching experience.
Fun bit of info, you can buy the discontinued gpu dock with a 1050ti inside of it, and if you are running windows, you can get the right drivers to cinnect your laptop to it.
Alzo you can swap the trackpad with others if yours is without the buttons at the top.
And, youll wanna go for the i5 or non igpu i7, as the mx150 isnt worth the price, and causes the cpu to throttle and overheat much too fast.
My 100% upgrade recommendation is a large ssd, and as much ram as you can shove in it.
Oh, and replace thermal paste, always helps. (Btw for the memes, i run arch 😂)
The ONLY thing that really sucks about having dual SSDs slotted in the T480 is that both slots share the same bus, so disk bandwidth isn't increased.
Did not know that. But then again I am using it to dual boot linux mint and window 11
That doesn't matter. No one is going to run a server on an old 4-core laptop anyways.
@@one_step_sidewaysis this a good laptop or not
@@NBaa2123 very good
Used one of these for about 2.5 years for work. Pretty good build. Good size. Decent battery. Weird to think it’s older now.
how many hrs of batt life for this kind of laptop?
@@arisu1230 I'm not sure I usually had it plugged in. Maybe 5 hours? I don't know. I might have had the second battery in mine, and I know there's bigger batteries to have. I don't know much about laptops or hardware back then
I managed to grab one t480 today for 115$ that comes with i5-8350u, both batteries work pretty good and the ports aswell with 8gb ram and 512gb ssd, 1080p screen with touchscreen included with little to no scratches almost feels like brand new, I'm feeling very happy with my purchase 👍👍😊😊 also just noticed I also have the backlight keyboard 😍😍
Recently I got used T470 (only have 127 hours of use, it's a warehouse stock clearance sale), pay $250, got a full pack with the box, manual box, charger, type-C to VGA adapter, etc.
Have a 100% perfect condition, and I decided to upgraded the RAM from 4GB to 16GB, and 256 Gb SSD to dual SSD 512GB+1Tb.
Yes i want a used T480 with a faster processor, but got a T470 almost like new and I think this T470 is a good bargain for me right now.
Just bought a MINT t480s model off a guy. Brand new not even a scratch due to it being dockced for its entire life
I have the T480s, quad core, with 16 gigs of DDR4 RAM, 64 bit. It's a full Linux machine now. Bulletproof.
Hello... I very much appreciated your video. I own a T430 and I am in the process of upgrading it now. I also wanted a laptop that could support Windows 11. I wanted a laptop that would do this as it will be a while until I can take my full tower, rip out the old motherboard and upgrade to a motherboard can can support Windows 11. Until I saw this video, I had no idea I could buy a robust older Thinkpad that supported Windows 11 for a reasonable price. I usually think and read about stuff for quite some time before I buy anything. But after a day of reading up on the T480, I decided to go for it. I bought one on ebay last night. I wanted the fasted processor, the Nvidia GPU, and 1080p. I found one for $349.00 & free shipping and just bough it. I am very happy that Lenovo has support for this laptop in the way of an owners manual, service manual plus driver and BIOS updates. So, thank you very much for your helpful post & Happy Holidays from Oregon!
Thank you for the feedback, there is definitely a lot of good information on these laptops out there. Without it, I probably could not have made this video either. Happy Holidays to you too!
I'm using t430 too,
I'm using tiny11 and mint for t430, so far no problem found
Same here, I used T430s from 2017 (I keep using win7 until now)
Sadly, win7 end and chrome also end support for win7 at 2022
So, I search thinkpad imtel 8th gen and I found T480/s
T480 more upgradable, but T480s have solid case. Still confuse to decide, but I hope I can make a choice in few month.
Thank you to the excellent antidote for the IT anti-repair movement
Nice video, thank you. I'm curious about the battery life...? I plan to run Fedora Linux 38
I'd add a cooler upgrade to the list, since the stock cooler in the t480 is pretty weak. I personally went for an upgrade from the single pipe cpu cooler to the dual pipe gpu cooler. Whether there's a gpu in the machine or not, it'll reduce core temps by quite a bit, and you can replace the thermal compound while you're at it.
My T480 accepted the M.2 SSD with a single notch. I'm not sure if it's the standard M.2 adapter or something aftermarket. Mine had a 1TB SSD with the dual notches, but a 2TB with only one notch installed and worked fine.
The low resolution "HD" screen (1366x768) can be upgraded to a non-touch "FHD (1920x1080) screen, as they both have 30 pin connectors. The Touchscreen FHD display (also 1920x1080) uses a 40-ion connector, so the T480 is not upgrade able to a touchscreen display. If that's important to you, make sure you find one with the touchscreen display.
Mine was sold as an FHD screen model running Windows 10 Pro. The good is it came with Windows 11 Pro (at least, I think that's a good thing. YMMV). The bad is it came wth the HD screen, which is how I learned the HD and FHD screens are interchangeable.
Great video. Keep up the good work!
Watching this with a Thinkpad X270 I bought from a seller that was still sitting in its box unopened for a fraction of the actual cost. These machines are built to last.
I basically can’t decide if I should get the T480 or the T470. Some people at forums I visit complain about the USB-C charging port in the T480 and on being easily damaged and not easy to repair, while the T470 has the slim tip charging port. (They’re saying USB-C charging ports are inherently a problem, not Lenovo laptop with USB-C charging specifically).
This kind of struck a chord with me because I have never had a laptop with USB-C charging port… and if I was going to buy an older laptop because it’s upgradeable and it’ll last awhile, I wouldn’t want the charging port to potentially be able to be damaged and expensive to replace.
The T470 has the slim tip charging port (which I already have 3 charging cords to because I have a Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 3 which uses the slim tip charging port) but it also has a single USB-C port available for USB peripherals.
Is there any benefit to having the device that has 2 USB-C ports on it (like the T480 has)?
Nice comment, I got a 470s but I was also with the same doubt
One thing to note with USB C charging, it's typically physical breakdown of the port (broken pins or poor cable retention). The nice thing about the T480 is it has two charging ports (can also charge over the Thunderbolt port). Although the USB-C ports are soldered to the board, it's not a difficult repair with a hot air station.
Awesome video. T480's seem to have gone up in price. Thinking about getting one of those $999 ASUS TUF gaming laptops instead.
Great vedio. I own a t480 for a year now and i have a strange problem with the batteries . So when im working they hold the charge very well and i checked their true capacity using vantage software it shows over 80 % both and it says that there is no problem with them but when i boot in into windows after a shutdown or a reboot the charge drops to 0 % even if they were completly charged
The solution i found is to power up with ac pluged in this fixed the issue but it bothers me so much the fact i can not turn on the computer on without the cable .
i have the same issue, dual batteries are really annoying
You upgraded the notebook but didn't replace the cpu thermal compound and you didn't clean the cpu fan out right and i know the air intake vents are dirty and keep to clean
Points for mentioning that nasty thunderbolt bug. But I think the nvme connection to the 2.5 inch caddy is limited to 2x... Would be interesting to see benchmark..
This T480 is still powerful and reliable compare to today's laptop which is somewhat questionable build quality.
In the last month, I have bought 2 of the T480's. First I got an i5 with 16 GB ram for $80 and a T580 i7 with 16GB ram for $90,no hard drives in any of then, including the T480 i7 with 32 GB, back lit keyboard,1080 IPS display, and the MX 150 Nvidia card in the one I got last Friday, I got that one for $45. It was kind of dirty, so I took the magic eraser to it, and it looks like new. I'm planning to flip them and just keep my x1 because it has a 1440 display.
What a steal
Where would you sell them
@@MbnAsj Craigslist
Let me buy 😭
Nice job on upgrading the laptop...should do you well for your use case. Cheers!
Thank you. This is a really interesting video 🙂
i got one with 20gb ram and a 512 ssd for about 150 and the only thing it needs is a new internal battery (which isnt a huge issue because its got an internal battery AND an external battery). you can definitely get some great deals if you look around
Hi, would you mind listing the upgrades you did to your T480? Like the parts. I'll try to find those parts here in the Philippines and upgrade my 2nd hand T480. 😊
Good video, very informative. 👍👍👍👍👍
Owned a T480 for 6 months so far and I still love it. I didn't even think that this laptop would be able to house 64 GB RAM, but now my jaw has dropped.
Guess I know what other upgrades to do with this machine!
@TheRadmin124 Did you faced any issues with T480? If you did please mention. I am looking forward to buy this laptop.
it would be useless for most things, but it sure does help if you have 100+ tabs open all the time
does t480 has touch screen?🤔
@@jinkazamaaa mine does
I had one of these for work, we had a fleet of thousands of T470-t490, i liked it other than 8gb ram only. they are also notorious for usb c failure like mine had, mine was replaced with a T14. I like my personal Dell Latitude 7390 a little bit better as it is much cheaper with the same specs (can be had under $200)
You can easily upgrade them up to 64 gb ram
You added a backlit keyboard to the T480? I would love to see a video about this. I want to add one to mine.
bro i still use the t480 a i stil love it. its fast enough to do everything. i upgraded to 32gb ram, only issue is SSD upgrade only uses 2 pci-ex lanes instead of 4. which means half speed using m2 ssds. however, still much faster than sata ssd and way faster than hdd. i only have an ac1900 wifi so i didnt need to upgrade my wifi. but yea the 8th gen i5 is powerful enough for me.
Can it game or use Adobe
I just scored one of these from a friends company.... Its practically brand new... no wear at all... And he threw in a Tbolt dock.... So question, can you boot off the 2242 NVMe??? Also whats the purpose of the ID reader? And my Thunderbolt software doesnt have the menu yours does... Any idea how I can check the firmware version? Thanks!
Congrats! That's pretty killer. Yes, you can boot off the 2242. I do this on both my T25 and my T480. They both have a Western Digital SN520. Just in case you run Windows: I've run into problems installing it to the 2242 via USB using Lenovo's DDRS recovery, but if I use Microsoft's Media Creation Tool to do it I have no issues. As far as the Thunderbolt firmware version, you can get this in the Thunderbolt Control Center under "About." It's listed as "NVM Firmware Version." My T480 reports version 23.
@@MattJH Yeah I have played with it for a bit now and have ordered the 2242 drive and its getting here today... And I was able to update my Tbolt firmware to 23 as well... Took me a while to figure out how to see what version it was on. What's Lenovo DDRS? Sorry just woke up and brains not working!
@@neccros007 Morning! DDRS is Digital Download Recovery Service. If you don't have a Lenovo restore CD, you can use DDRS to image your machine back to the way it was at the point of sale. It recognized the 2280 drive on both of my ThinkPads, but not the 2242. I still don't know why. Microsoft's Media Creation Tool saw both drives so I just went that route and washed my hands of it.
@@MattJH Ahhh yeah I never heard of it... I have a small ITX music server/streamer that I have running off a NVMe on a PCIe adapter. MS see's it but in order to boot off of it, I have to have a internal USB with Clover to boot from to be able to see and boot off the NVMe. I wanted to make sure the 2242 was bootable natively because I want to run my OS and apps off this drive and use the 2280 in mine as data only.
@@MattJH Well my T480 now has 32gigs of ram, AX210 Wifi 6e card, a 512 gig WD SN520 2242 NVMe and a 2tb Kingston 2280 NVMe. Booting off the SN520 flawlessly!
Nice presentation! I'm seriously thinking about one of these now. Given its speed limitations, is there any advantage to nvme vs sata ssd?
Can I do the same upgrade with the Lenovo T480s? Thanks.
THANKS FOR THIS WONDERFUL VIDEO ON THE INTERNALS. IF U COULD HELP ME DECIDE; WHICH IS BETTER FOR BUCK T480 OR X1 CARBON? WHICH SHOULD WE PICK. HOME AND OFFICE USE. THANKS.
This is by far the most holistic video. Quick question, when you installed a new SSD, did you find it difficult to install the windows, or did you clone the OS from your other/previous SSD? Thanks.
It should be a pretty run of the mill install. I would absolutely clean install since it is a new device.
ordered one a couple days ago, hope everything works fine
Did u like it?
@@G18_120fps yup, been using it dual booted W10 and Fedora, works perfectly for college (programming and networking simulation)
@2vndR thanks sir ur the man! My father bought it for my yesterday night for leaning ethical hacking. But I'm also planning to learn programming and etc. I bought the i5 base version with 8gb ram and 256 gb. I hope I can upgrade it with time
@@G18_120fps How's the experience?
Subscribed, liked, and thank you for the video.
Bought one with a broke screen and damaged m2 connector for 40$. Bought a sata SSD for 55$ and a new screen for 35$ it's an i5 8350u though
No wonder the T480 is holding up value
Fantastic video!
I ended up buying the HP Zbook 14 G2…. The TPM chip firmware doesn’t want to be upgraded but I can change out everything else if I want. A classic mobile workstation and it wasn’t exactly quad core but I thought the flaw was the sum of its virtue and I got mine in mint in mint condition and when you find them, you don’t let them away!
A485 is better for not having the thunderbolt at all as its Ryzem equiped, everything else is the same.
9:56 The machine I'm looking at has wiped drives and the seller does not know the status of the Thunderbolt Firmware. But looking on Lenovo's site there is a Critical Firmware Upgrade for the Thunderbolt controller listed as "Thunderbolt Firmware Update Utility for Windows 11 (Version 21H2 or later) and 10 (Version 1709 or later) - ThinkPad T480" it is dated 12 Jul 2022 and is for the 15BF model. But I cannot find any information about whether it resolves the specific issue you mentioned.
I have an Thinkpad L580 and have the same SSD like you. Kingspec SSD 2242 it's B and M key. If you don't pay attention, it's easy to buy the wrong one.
hmm i found an application for the windows shell was eating up like 40% of my cpu and destroying my battery life even when put to sleep. I was able to fix this by going into the windows privacy app settings and stopping it from launching programs in the background as well as changing a bunch of other privacy settings. i would check ur task manager (ctrl + alt + delete) and see if you have a simmilar process that goes crazy and just eats up 30-50% of the cpu. i just googled the name of the application and found a guide on how to turn off these sketchy meta data gathering background app settings.
Please suggest the best suitable ThinkPad model for my son to buy who is going to admit for the engineering college this year in July'2023. Also please suggest the best second sale/ refurbished online sites. We are from India.
Great video, I’ve purchased one myself.
Is this the best thinkpad ? And is it good for pasaord cracking?
How do you know the laptop you bought didn't have its battery replaced for a lower quality one that's prone to fire?
This is very interesting. Thank you
Buy a t480 asap because prices are increasing very fast as it’s better then t470 and t490
what about the 480s?
@Kunibert Because it's the best modern thinkpad for people that want them like they used to be.
No soldered RAM
Swappable battery
Quad core CPU (t470 i7 only had a dual core)
It's the best thinkpad even the t490 don't have external battery.
Price are increasing because people start to buy them as they understand the value of it. It's hard to get a good deal outside USA for less than 300€
I own one and I agree. I had money for the T490 but comparing it to the T480 I went with that one
Idk but your voice is like Jim Browning.
IS THIS CONSIDERED THE BEST THINKPAD AND CAN IT BE UPGRADED
Great video. Thanks
Nice video. Very helpful
Overall nicely done
Is there any way to deal with the issue of bad firmware on the Thunderbolt controller? Surely if there’s a way to update the firmware, it should be fine?
yes update the firmware. the problem is if the laptop wasn't updated in time and the damage is done, updating the firmware will not fix the issue.
Hi, Is that possible to use 64 GB RAM in T480? I was thinking 32 GB is a max size.
Absolutely, Lenovo didn’t test the capacity nor did intel and that is why they went with the “32 max estimate” just for the label simply because of not testing. There are lot of people who have upgraded their T480 to 64 gigs no matter the model (i5 or i7). Hope that helps. I’ve ordered one myself. (Edit : ram frequency supports up to ddr4 2400 mhz frequency.
@@MaxReload Thanks
@Max hello sir, I'm looking forward to buy T480 for ethical hacking and programming. Would you recommend me this? Also. If I buy the bade version 8 gb ram and 256 gb ssd it's capable for an upgrade right?
@@G18_120fps yes thats the same one i bought , upgraded the ram to 64 ( 32 gb 2400 x 2 ) and the ssd is sort of a gamble to be honest because some t480 varients come with the nvme caddy included and some dont so be sure to ask them about the caddy before buying , doesnt worth it if its equipped with an standard ssd which is a common trick they use to save money. then u have to buy nvme caddy separately for 30 to 50$ depending on region. but yeah definately research on the ssd department. ( edit : even if u buy 3200 mhz ram it works just fine , board will automatically set the limit to 2400mhz , telling this because its easier to find 3200 than 2400 nowdays which is stupid yes.
@@MaxReload tysm brother!
Was this for personal use, or to resell? I'm just curious as to why you decided to add a smart card reader. Outside of an enterprise or government environment, they're pretty much pointless for everyday users.
Why does your voice seem so familiar even though this is the very first time I am hearing it?
The new thinpads are disposable junk so you picked a decent one.
2x16gigs is better then one 32 gig module... you should repaste the cpu... but it was a good vid! have luck with the machine!
Tell me if this ThinkPad T480 - supports Stereo Mix in recording, because on 03/06/2023 I bought a T470 and unfortunately its Music Card does not have the Stereo Mix Function and to do my job on it I have to connect an external USB Music Card that has this Function. This is how these Laptops were praised, and there is no such basic Function, despite the fact that the Audio Chipset is Realtek, which in 99% of Laptops from various companies - supports this Function. Regards goombay
I have the L480 and it has MANY MANY issues. Putting on charge/removing the charger puts up a black screen for 3 seconds
Same, did you do something with that?
@@МелашРо So right now, the battery is messed up. So if I unplug it from charge it just switches off and it is always on 0% so I once I get the battery replaced I will surely let you know if the bug is fixed!
@@blanknessedits thank you for your answer
@@МелашРо No problem!
How did you install operating system in those primary nvme ssd?
I just traded an IPad 6th generation for one of these bad boys.
Good, traded a toy for a work instrument
6:18 is your thumb okay? That looks painful.
Great video. I had already chosen to get a T480 from Amazon refurbished. The first one returned because of visual problems, kept flickering and turning itself off. It may have been caused by the upgrade to Win 11. The 2nd one will work. I opted for the 500GB SSD. I have rescued a WD 1.0TB WD10JPVK one fon r 500GB. Any chance that those would fit in the T480? Just being greedy. Don't think I need it. Regarding the thunderbolt charger problem you mentioned. Where do I find the version info? I print out hwinfo, but need to know where to look while I still have time to return it. Thanks
Just bought one on Ebay for $150 USD in excellent condition, I feel like I just robbed someone.
lol Ive been using this laptop 2+ yrs and only got it with a 120g ssd. thought about upgrading the wlan drive but found prices were kind of crazy. decided against my better judgement to just put a sd card into it with ~120gigs. one of those name brand ones meant for high read/write numbers. i just use it for files i need to put somewhere and dont care about speed or loosing. was a very cheap solution and makes it really easy to transfer physical files. i try not to uninsert the sd card ever though i think this was like a 15$ solution to the memory :p
3.5 years on, this is ironically still working perfectly lol. its only come loose in my bag once with daily use.
I recently bought a T480. How do I update the Thunderbolt Controller firmware? I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling older firmware but it's still stuck on version 14
You should try to update BIOS firware if you cannot update Thunderbolt firware under Windows.
I got a T480 i5-8250 with a single 8Gb 2400Mhz memory few weeks ago. Thinking about upgrade to 16Gb. Is there any benefit to buy 2x 8Gb 3200Mhz vs adding a second 2400 ?
it will work at 2400 mhz, it is the maximum
Get 2x16GB sticks to get 32GB right away. 16GB may be too little if you're doing programming and some work
I bought used non-working for cheap. Its working after long work trying to repair it.
What was wrong with it and how did you repair it?
Can I put a laptop internal hard drive in place of the SD card reader? It looks like one could fit there.
The answer is a big unfortunate NO. Extreme misread on my end.
Is there a workaround with the charging ports going bad?
Upgrade the Thunderbolt driver
@@karlnul oh i already did but i didn’t check the firmware so i was still confused
Anybody know a t480s backlight keyboard to purchase? Lenovo website don't have it.
Nice video
3:13 Me: buying a T480 with NO screen
Bruh, same coming this Thursday and I'm going to have to replace the screen and the trackpad, first time doing anything like this 😭
What is the use of the smart card reader? can you write data? nfc or rfid
logging in with a physical card
The T480 is a great machine, untill you need a new external battery. Reddit is full of questions which is a reliable brand to buy. Lenovo doesn't make them new anymore and there is lots of discussion about this. Be aware of this when you buy one.
Instead of buying external battery you can also buy a large capacity new power bank these days that will serve the same purpose.
The only complaint i have for this model or any thinkpad model is the rubber coating they used.... Over time it will become sticky and hard to remove or take care
Only certain parts become sticky. I have a x1 carbon gen 1 from 2012. The rubber finish on the casing is still fine. But there is a rubber section around the power button that has become sticky.
Hello! Ive also bought and t480 recently and have some issues. Mine thunderbolt firmware is appareantly 14! Please can somebody help me to update it? I just simply can't update it myself.
Idk look it up
Is hp Dev one better option ?
If laptop comes with a fresh install of windows with an account on it. Could I use that account or should I reset it and make a new one?
Reset
when talking about total price used 500$ vs new ~2k$ you should also talk about time budget! how much time you spent on first option (researching, finding parts, buying them, installing, cleaning etc) vs second option?
Can you use this computer only with the external battery?
Of course, my T480 didn't come with the internal battery (it had a spacer in its place that was dead weight so I chucked it into the drawer), so I got a 72Wh battery for myself for $30 and it works great
This my school laptop it’s for gaming tho I just updated driver then it went fast while gaming 🔥😭