That's a great deal at that price, i bought T520 last week for about 150€ in Germany, with i7 2670QM and Nvidia 4200M, it's barely used like new. I love older Thinkpad laptops way more than any modern machine.
I bought a T400 for R$250 (for a laptop in Brazil, it's cheap) and I couldn't be more happy. With an SSD and ram upgrade, it runs great and the keyboard is amazing. The trackpoint is a little tricky to use but I'm getting used to it.
I just picked up a T14 Gen3 with i7-1260p for $400. $140 in upgrade to 1TB M.2 and 40GB of RAM. This thing is perfect for on the go studying and work. Even plays games with the integrated Intel IRIS video.
I love the ThinkPad nipple! I was at a trade show a while back and they had the 25th Anniversary ThinkPad on show and naturally I had a play with it. The kid manning the display was astounded that I preferred the trackpoint and I could use that way faster than the trackpad :) I felt proud. Proud but old!
Nice video as always, this laptop sure isn't the most portable Thinkpad but given the big 15.6" screen and that $5 price, you just can't walk away from it
A T520 is my desktop workstation. Upgraded to a Quad-Core, 16gb RAM, FHD LCD screen from a W510, 3 SSDs, and an external DVD drive, all driving 3 external FHD screens through a 4338 dock. Love it- still more than fast enough for everyday work.
It is unbelievable to get a Thinkpad at the cost so stated in this video . Previous generation Thinkpads were very sturdy and reliable machines for sure. Slight tuning and upgrade and we are confident previous gen Thinkpads can effectively handle most of the features of the latest expensive laptops.
I always find the videos on this channel to be full of useful information, presented in a clear, no-nonsense way. The Lenovo laptop in this video looks to be a good machine, especially with the option of three drive bays, and considering the price of just $5. Sweet deal!
Dang nice find. I'm amazed all the time how cheap these kind of things are getting. People are almost giving them away at this point. I just picked up an L520 for $35, a lower quality version of this and I'm able to use it as a daily driver for most things. You could probably find an i7 for pretty cheap and a bigger copper pad heatsink from an L412 and bring it to quad core. I think.
Awesome, it's great to see that it's not just England that do 'carboot sales' Always some great deals to be had in places like those, because people just want to get rid of as much stuff as possible
The ThinkPads hold up pretty dang well! Impressed a battery that old has any capacity. Usually I find the battery ends up drained beyond the point of being able to take a charge at all.
I picked up a used T520 last summer from Craigslist. i5-2520m, 8 gig ram (2 x 4), new 9 cell Lenovo brand batter with less than 1% wear, 1600 x 900 display, and the NVS 4200M graphics. Nice machine, but after a year I picked up a T530 for two main reasons. USB 3 (the T520 is limited to USB 2) and a backlit keyboard. Aside from that I don't see any noticeable performance difference between the two. But I use a laptop in low light conditions a lot so the backlit keyboard is a great benefit to me over the T520s ThinkLight, and the USB 3 is essential to a lot of what I do. I know that some will think I'm crazy, but I'll take the backlit newer style keyboard over the non backlit OG keyboard anyday for how, when, and where I use a laptop. I was used to it within a week and I wouldn't go back.
Also, an HDD isn't the worst thing ever for a boot drive. It takes a few seconds longer than an SSD but it's acceptable. I think most of the problem is that most people use slower 5400RPM HDDs that have been used alot and they slow down. My 7200RPM 1TB HDD I bought not a while back boots up just a few seconds longer than a new SSD I just installed in my ThinkCentre. Not saying an SSD is worthless though. The speed is noticeable, but if I was forced to use a 7200RPM HDD as a boot drive, I wouldn't mind.
I convinced my Dad to buy a W540 off eBay, it actually came with the 3K IPS panel and a quad-core i7. The viewing angles and colors are amazing. I can assure you the 15" displays are miles better than the 14" counterparts.
Used to have one of these upgraded to 16 gb of RAM and it ran beautifully. Gaming was decent when using it with MSI afterburner. Even basic Solidworks and AutoCAD ran without issues. Loved this clunky computer and its indestructible shell.
Classic Thinkpads rock. I've got an old T60 with the Intel GMA 950 graphics upgraded to a T7200 Core 2 Duo @2.0GHz with a 240GB SSD. It originally had a T2400 Core Duo but the only reason I upgraded was to get a 64 bit CPU so I can run modern Linux distributions as 32 bit support is starting to fall off. I'm honestly amazed at what it can do. Even today basic web browsing and 720P TH-cam is doable. Forcing hardware acceleration in Chromium along with H264ify helps a ton with these older systems. And that trackpoint combined with the 7 row keyboard is heaven.
The T520's are VERY capable machines, even a decade later. They can be swapped to quad-core, and an external GPU can easily be connected to it. And yes, this is the very last 15" ThinkPad to have the "classic" keyboard. These were the last true ThinkPad's, when it came to simplicity and features. Now, ThinkPad is basically like any other modern laptop. It's kind of sad.
I still like my X1 Nano a lot more than most other laptops out there, and the P series still provides something reminiscent of the older ThinkPads, but I definitely agree that they aren't the same now.
I found two 510 laptops in the yard at the recycler. Unplugged/replugged cmos, slapped Ubuntu on them, then gave them to the kids. Better than trashing some iPads!
I personally use a T520 as my main laptop now, while the weight of almost 3KG(sorry I previously misremembered it being 3.9KG, which is a lot heavier then it actually is) probably makes it the heaviest laptop in my entire class, it works fine and the typing experience is wonderful. 5USD for one of these is definitely a insane bargain, I paid 5000NTD(around 167.2USD)for mine and spend another 27USD to upgrade the RAM to a total of 10G, I'm planning to install a SSD later. As a side note, for some reason 15 inch ThinkPADs are kinda rare here in Taiwan, but I'm not sure why.
Damn! Nice find. And here I thought I scored locally by picking up a T450 and 2 older laptops (doesn’t work) for $30usd. The T450 was untested without power brick as well, but it was in very good shape as it was in storage for awhile.
Got a T420 that is fully loaded (fingerprint, 1600 x 900 screen, 8 GB RAM, Bluetooth and more I have forgot to mention) and I love it. Since owning a ThinkPad 770 (still got it, going strong to this day) I have sworn by ThinkPad's. Did buy a MacBook in 2007 ish, after a few months the plastics started cracking so I changed back to ThinkPad's by getting an R60e (guess what - that one is still also going strong) until 2014 when I got my T420 that I am typing this on now. Absolutely love they keyboard and after trying the new "island" keyboards in work on the T480, while perfectly useable and much better than that disgrace the new MacBook's have, given the choice I would still use they keyboard on my T420.
charlieboy31 I still have my A1181 2008 MacBook, I got it from my neighbor in 2012 after they upgraded to a MacBook Pro. Either I got lucky with the plastic lottery or just took decent care of mine because there aren’t any areas the plastic is visibly cracked. It was my daily driver until I got into ThinkPads and got a T430 to replace it.
@@SebisRandomTech I tried my best to take care of mine, quite a few others had cracks too, especially around the palm area. Mine is a 1,1 and while it still works, its pretty rough especially around the palm wrests. I also noticed that it seem to get extremely loud and warm during regular use (sitting on the desktop even) so perhaps its due a re-paste. Other than the plastic cracks, solid machine though and I would be happy to give the new MacBook pros a go if they did not have that god awful keyboard.
A $5 T520, I'm going to cry 😭 You should reconsider upgrading it, luckily power supplies are universal with ThinkPads as long as yours has the same jack (barrell vs squared plug).
Did you watch the whole video? I’m going to be upgrading it in the future. RAM and storage at the very least, but hoping to eventually do the CPU and display as well, and maybe even toy with an external graphics card! Nice profile picture by the way! I also have a plethora of spare power supplies for these machines since I work on many of them.
@@SebisRandomTech Ah, pardon me, must have missed that line 😳 Still this is a great find you did there albeit I am in the same boat to prefer the small X and 14" T models.
I have a w541, best laptop I’ve ever had. It has a quadro k1100m, so I just use it for light gaming. I just recently found out it has a m.2 slot, so I got a little more storage too. The only downside is that the battery only lasts like 20 minutes but I don’t take it anywhere anyways
Gotta say, I'm very jealous. I've got a very nice T61, but this certainly blows it out of the water on quite a few levels. I still like my T61 as it's an absolute tank. Not even Thanos could snap it out of existence.
Hah! I came here thanks to your vid on the AFFS panel for an X201/X200. This T520 is absolutely a treat, I was lucky to get 3 of them out of service for about 100 bucks each, ripped the i5 CPU, the 16x9 disp and the 320G HDD out -- bumped the ram to 16G, CPU to i7-2760QM(had to get 135W AC adapters to support this), replaced panel with a 1080P LCD, and finally, stuffed in an mSATA 256G SSD and a 512G 2.5" SSD. I now have 3 Dual-booting tricked-out classic beasts running W10 and LinuxMint 20. Could not be any happier. A beautiful machine made fully awesome with some significant upgrades. Love 'em! Thanks for the vids!
I used to agree with you on that a 15.6 inch laptop was too big and clunky. Ever since I went dumpster diving in my school's ewaste dumpster and got a HP ProBook 6570b. I decided to use this ProBook to replace my Dell Latitude e5430 (14 inch). Both of these systems have near identical CPUs (i5-3340m) and just took the SSD and RAM from the Latitude to upgrade the ProBook. I also got a ProBook 6560b, which is closer in specs to your T520. I did grab the fingerprint sensor off the 6560b and moved it to the 6570b, because thats a feature I care about. Now here are some features I gained by upgrading to the ProBook. • Better I/O (Serial port, more USB, FireWire, etc) • Better 1600x900 screen • Numpad • Fingerprint scanner (had to take one out of a ProBook 6560b • The laptop doesn't freeze when I pick it up (the Latitude did this, and it was annoying) Here are some things I lost when upgrading to the ProBook. • The better keyboard (the ProBook's keyboard is not nearly as nice as the Latitude's) • The better battery life (to be fair, I got the ProBook's probably 8 year old battery out of a dumpster as well.) What's ironic is a free dumpster laptop has less issues than my $100 Latitude. The ProBook runs Windows 7 and 8.1 pretty well. I have installed Windows 10 on a friend's Probook 6570b (exact same specs as mine, just with a lower end SSD PLUS) and it runs it pretty well. Which I use Windows 8.1 on my ProBook for two reasons: (1) I don't like Windows 10 and (2) the fingerprint driver works in Windows 8.1.
I might be wrong about this but generally T5 thinkpads have better cooling solutions than T4s. And so I believe that the T520 might be able to take sandy bridge qm chips. If that's the case this machine could actually be upgraded later on to become a real piece of work.
That is correct, the 15" models can handle the quad cores of this generation while 14" models will run very hot if a quad core is installed. With the subsequent generation (Ivy Bridge), a handful of processors such as the 3612QM and 3632QM are within the thermal limits of the T430's cooling and can be installed with the stock cooling. My own T430 has had a quad core installed for several years now with no issues to speak of.
@@SebisRandomTech yeah that's one of the cooler things about the T430 (literally). The thing is a beast. And the T440p could handle some pretty powerful quad cores too.
@@SebisRandomTech indeed. Though with a touchpad swap the T440p is still very good. I actually like the trackpoint on newer models a little more because the buttons are wider and a bit more natural feeling. Seamless FHD IPS displays are nice too. Just wish they didn't have that weird gray color and a lack of physical media keys.
Dear Mr. Sebi, you mentioned tthat minimum $500 bucks to get near a thinkpad's processing power. I concur. My beloved's windows 7 machine (may 2020) is giving her its near last rites, so I amk givi9ng her my toshiba c55. I am also awaiting my package containing my ordered thinkpad x201. It has more to go then the c55, and did not cost near $500 neither. I wish you well with your new 'w' pad!
Damn! Sebi is always downing the W500 series. 😧. I personal own a 14 inch ThinkPad because the 15 inch units always seemed to big and heavy to me. But mine is so old that the best CPU is a dual core duo so I'm looking to upgrade. Sebi always puts out the best videos. He knows Thinkpads better than any other TH-cam creator.
I got a used X300 with a dead battery and a UMTS modem for free when a company where dad worked was going to sent them for recycling, even have the vista sticker and a license key. If only there was a way to get storage without replacing the disk drive with a bay. Whos bright idea it was to use 1.8 inch sata drives instead of normal 2.5 I'll never know.
@@pompshuffle562 SD card as a boot drive? Sounds like a bad idea. Anyway I found some of those weird SSDs on AliExpress, so might order one if I decide that it's worth salvaging.
ThinkPads are fantastic computers. Feel free to send me an email on here if you want to hear more. By the way, I checked out your channel and liked some of the short films you've made! I have a couple on my channel from when I was in high school, it kind of brought back memories of doing that for me.
In the shithole country i live in, i paid $70 for a lenovo g470 2nd gen i3 with 4gb of ram no hdd with a broken hinge. And enterprise laptops even old ones are horribly expensive. A t60 can cost $220! That in bad shape, missing batterie no ram, no hdd no charger. The cheapest t60's and t400's i found costed $90 I literally found a guy trying to sell a godamn latitude d510 for $320! And pentium M machine...
you got a great deal for $5! i got a Lenovo thinkpad Edge E535 & an HP G62, at a garage sale($25) both need some work, but the E535 is worth upgrading! thanks for a great video! have you gone back to the flea market for other bargains?
Its hard to find good deal on ebay. most seller are greedy and sell junk for too much. it rare to find cheap stuff on ebay. their like beggar or thieves pretending to do business and shady. You can find great deal on clearance item at walmart. best buy, office depot. ebay sucks.
And so the story goes: "I got this for $5, and I'm going to see what it will do without any upgrades." "Hmm, why is anyone still using spinning rust any more? Only $25 for a cheap SSD." "Only 4GB RAM--but see how easy it is to upgrade to 16GB." "The CPU is socketed, so you can upgrade it." "If you just get an Express Card adapter, and play with the drivers, then you can use an external graphics card." Been there, done that, though I'm too chicken to change a CPU and don't game. But my cheap T420 I got to try out Linux distros now has 8GB, a 256GB msata drive and a 500GB 2.5 inch SSD. They just sit there, asking you to show them love.
My current Lenovo ThinkPad is a T530, (Windows 10) which I bought for the i7 processor and CD/DVD drive. Looking back, I could have bought a T440, since Ye Olde Lenovo ThinkPad SL 410 is a handy size. It does everything I want it to do and has replaced a "needs a CLA 2012 Apple MacBook Pro" as the "high tech" laptop. Would I get a newer ThinkPad? Well, the chicklet keyboards of current MacBook Pros don't impress me, so not now.
i think it still sells at USD200 at my country as 'refurbished' laptop with 8gb ram and 240GB SSD. Its not manufacturer refurbished. More like some repair shops buy them for scraps and make it work a bit and sold it
Boy, now that screen comparison really makes me depressed using my T430s, haha. Hopefully I can get my T440p working again, otherwise I think I'm going to try to get a W540 and just fully send it in upgrades.
High gamut AUO panel available in T520/W520/T530/W530 is amazing. Colors are vivid and viewing angles are not that bad. It's much better from most of cheap IPS screens installed nowadays. IPS panel I put into my X230 is way worse in terms of color reproduction and contrast.
I picked one up on ebay about a year ago without the fingerprint reader or even the thinklight oddly enough. I was debating of doing a CPU upgrade, but have not yet. These models are certainly the last of it's kind, something like this definitely deserves all the love it can get (i7 swap maybe?) Anyway, great vid as always bud, looking forward to more vids about the T520!
I'm pretty sure these models all came with the ThinkLight. It's possible that yours is broken or the LED failed, or the cable going to the laptop is bad. That's what happened with the T430s featured in this video.
That's cheap!! Although I got an X250 i5 with a touchscreen 8gb/256ssd from a selling app called Mercari for $135 but when I got the laptop the seller sent the wrong charger but since I already own two Thinkpads (a T420s and T460) I was able to charge it and when it booted up it was running Windows 7 with all the drivers missing it can't connect to the internet and the USB ports are not working so since the seller sent the wrong charger I had a reason to return it, I'm not the most technical person so I didn't want to bother with it and when my return was approved the seller decided he didn't want it back so I got a refund and I kept the laptop lol. So basically got it for free. I was able to change the boort seuqence from the BIOS and I was able to utilize one of the USB ports and I installed Windows 10 Pro on it and now it's running amazingly and added a second ssd (it has an internal m.2 slot). Now my next project is to hackintosh my T460 (I gifted my T420s to my friend after I got the X250 to work).
After configuring the same model Lenovo Thinkpad with Linux, I donated the laptop to a charity serving malaria prevention to the poor in remote Uganda. The clinic was later overrun with patients who had Ebola, so I have no idea what purpose it now serves.
@@elfedorausado Lo se, y no tengo problema con ello, cada cual le llama a las cosas como quiere, al final yo se como me llamo 😁 Un aguacate es una fruta noble, sin desperdicio, que nunca miente y que cambia rápido de estado... Si, soy venezolano. Saludos!
I paid $200 for 5 pcs and I got the following. That's $200 total...NOT PER. x99 i7 5960x ( 8 core 16 thread) with 64gb ddr4 ram and liquid cooling x79 i7 3930k (6 core 12 thread) with 32gb ddr3 ram and a gtx titan x x58 dell with i7-920 and 24gb ram and gtx 580 dell with i7-6700 and 16gb ddr4 ram and some 5th pc I haven't looked over yet cause it's dusty and got at least 1 dead spider in it so I'm gonna blow it out first but it's probably some intel xeon
@@riverlefae2047 got lucky, found a dude legit 5 min away from me who is moving and he was offloading his "old" pcs for dirt cheap. His ad listing was very basic, not detailed at all which is why many people probably looked past it. But if you had an eye for detail you could see these pcs must be packing amazing stuff. And this is the start to our buy/sell relationship lol As he's emptying out his house, he offers me his old stuff first. So far no deal as good as those pcs but then those pcs probably took up alot of space (he said he thought about just throwing them away, hence the basically fire sale pricing) since then I've bought a couple hundred dollars worth of new gaming mice and keyboards for $100. Must be at least $400 in stuff. For myself a Occulus in immaculate condition for $100. And a brand new Titan XP (not the original, or the X, but the XP) for $400. And used they sell for $800 on ebay cha ching. So easy flip there. Evidently he used to own his own video game company and I guess he was hired by other devs to help their projects. I hope he keeps the goods coming.
Late to the party but myself and my wife have T520's. Kind of a large brick compared to modern ultra portables but they work for us. Totally agree about upgrading the HDD to SSD. I'm also using a T420 as a poor-man's server on our home LAN. As you mentioned you can use an HDD caddy to add a HDD.
Man, I see these every day but never give them the light of day, I even skip the t430's and t530's because ive never really given them a chance, ill see if I can pick one up from work today, let me know if you are looking for a T530 Sebi! or anything like an x230t, another x301/x300, or something like a X131e, which i know they sound bad, but i gave one a chance and was surprised with how well it worked with just a 60gb ssd.
Sorry for getting back to you so late. Feel free to send me an email regarding ThinkPads that you have. If you have something interesting or of value I may be interested.
@@wildbill23c No need to be rude, but at this point you aren't adding anything to the discussion. We get it, you don't like modern thinkpads, but you don't need to make dozens of comments that are essentially the same thing.
William Sevier and John Decker, please keep the comments here civil, or I will be blocking you both from commenting on my channel. This is your only warning.
Man - if only people sell old thinkpads with cheap price here. The best deal in could get so far is 35 USD for good condition T400 (only with 2GB ram and 80GB HDD) tho. A T520 like this would cost me at least 150 USD here. Some people even sell X220 for 200 USD++ here
Exactly. I hate it when American TH-camrs acts like these computers are cheap everywhere. In Europe, the standard price for these old style laptops are at least 150 EUR, with average prices of 200 EUR+.
i could watch videos of old thinkpads anytime and never get bored
You just threw shade at LTT? You just gained a sub
Am I the only one that couldn’t stand LTT right from day #1? Nothing has changed.
Lets just take a moment to appreciate the beautiful shots of the thinkpad that we're getting.
i dont know why but its really fascinating hearing you talk about this topic
That's a great deal at that price, i bought T520 last week for about 150€ in Germany, with i7 2670QM and Nvidia 4200M, it's barely used like new. I love older Thinkpad laptops way more than any modern machine.
I bought a T400 for R$250 (for a laptop in Brazil, it's cheap) and I couldn't be more happy. With an SSD and ram upgrade, it runs great and the keyboard is amazing. The trackpoint is a little tricky to use but I'm getting used to it.
Caralho mano, onde foi que tu achou essa oferta? Muito no preço
I just picked up a T14 Gen3 with i7-1260p for $400. $140 in upgrade to 1TB M.2 and 40GB of RAM. This thing is perfect for on the go studying and work. Even plays games with the integrated Intel IRIS video.
Damn that's a killer deal! Hope it serves you for many years :)
I really miss laptops like these, the ports, the size, the disc drive.
Well if laptop don't handle Win10, we always have Linux or Android64x
Puppy Linux can bring to life 12 year olds laps, that thing is awesome.
@@stepsistertrap5992 it's bring Acer Travel iMate 202T to live :)
Or windows 7…
@@sebastiaodeabreu7297 Nah windows 7 is literally malware central trust me
@@Alexander-vo4gv yeah and with support slowly dying off for software is not really the best option
I love the ThinkPad nipple! I was at a trade show a while back and they had the 25th Anniversary ThinkPad on show and naturally I had a play with it. The kid manning the display was astounded that I preferred the trackpoint and I could use that way faster than the trackpad :) I felt proud. Proud but old!
When I go to use any laptop my finger instinctively reaches between G, H, and B - and when it’s not a ThinkPad that finger is sorely disappointed.
Nice video as always, this laptop sure isn't the most portable Thinkpad but given the big 15.6" screen and that $5 price, you just can't walk away from it
A T520 is my desktop workstation. Upgraded to a Quad-Core, 16gb RAM, FHD LCD screen from a W510, 3 SSDs, and an external DVD drive, all driving 3 external FHD screens through a 4338 dock. Love it- still more than fast enough for everyday work.
It is unbelievable to get a Thinkpad at the cost so stated in this video . Previous generation Thinkpads were very sturdy and reliable machines for sure. Slight tuning and upgrade and we are confident previous gen Thinkpads can effectively handle most of the features of the latest expensive laptops.
Saying NO to a 5$ ThinkPad is self insult !
I always find the videos on this channel to be full of useful information, presented in a clear, no-nonsense way. The Lenovo laptop in this video looks to be a good machine, especially with the option of three drive bays, and considering the price of just $5. Sweet deal!
Glad you liked the video! Thanks for watching!
Sebi, you are a legend for liking comments on a year old video
Dang nice find. I'm amazed all the time how cheap these kind of things are getting. People are almost giving them away at this point. I just picked up an L520 for $35, a lower quality version of this and I'm able to use it as a daily driver for most things. You could probably find an i7 for pretty cheap and a bigger copper pad heatsink from an L412 and bring it to quad core. I think.
Ahh nevermind. I just checked (l412 heatsink) and they aren't compatible at all. Don't know why I thought they were!
@@neongoblin2171 Knowing how many parts are compatible across different models, I don't fault you for making the occasional mistake.
Awesome, it's great to see that it's not just England that do 'carboot sales'
Always some great deals to be had in places like those, because people just want to get rid of as much stuff as possible
The only thing that is better than that normally falls from a truck. And the Thinkpad would probably survive that without problems.
The ThinkPads hold up pretty dang well! Impressed a battery that old has any capacity. Usually I find the battery ends up drained beyond the point of being able to take a charge at all.
I picked up a used T520 last summer from Craigslist. i5-2520m, 8 gig ram (2 x 4), new 9 cell Lenovo brand batter with less than 1% wear, 1600 x 900 display, and the NVS 4200M graphics. Nice machine, but after a year I picked up a T530 for two main reasons. USB 3 (the T520 is limited to USB 2) and a backlit keyboard. Aside from that I don't see any noticeable performance difference between the two. But I use a laptop in low light conditions a lot so the backlit keyboard is a great benefit to me over the T520s ThinkLight, and the USB 3 is essential to a lot of what I do. I know that some will think I'm crazy, but I'll take the backlit newer style keyboard over the non backlit OG keyboard anyday for how, when, and where I use a laptop. I was used to it within a week and I wouldn't go back.
Very, very nice video! Extremely well put together! I could learn a thing or two from you!
Thanks Ozzy! You still have a better desktop than me! :)
@@SebisRandomTech well thanks LOL. :)
Also, an HDD isn't the worst thing ever for a boot drive. It takes a few seconds longer than an SSD but it's acceptable. I think most of the problem is that most people use slower 5400RPM HDDs that have been used alot and they slow down. My 7200RPM 1TB HDD I bought not a while back boots up just a few seconds longer than a new SSD I just installed in my ThinkCentre.
Not saying an SSD is worthless though. The speed is noticeable, but if I was forced to use a 7200RPM HDD as a boot drive, I wouldn't mind.
Yup
I convinced my Dad to buy a W540 off eBay, it actually came with the 3K IPS panel and a quad-core i7. The viewing angles and colors are amazing. I can assure you the 15" displays are miles better than the 14" counterparts.
Used to have one of these upgraded to 16 gb of RAM and it ran beautifully. Gaming was decent when using it with MSI afterburner. Even basic Solidworks and AutoCAD ran without issues. Loved this clunky computer and its indestructible shell.
Classic Thinkpads rock. I've got an old T60 with the Intel GMA 950 graphics upgraded to a T7200 Core 2 Duo @2.0GHz with a 240GB SSD. It originally had a T2400 Core Duo but the only reason I upgraded was to get a 64 bit CPU so I can run modern Linux distributions as 32 bit support is starting to fall off. I'm honestly amazed at what it can do. Even today basic web browsing and 720P TH-cam is doable. Forcing hardware acceleration in Chromium along with H264ify helps a ton with these older systems. And that trackpoint combined with the 7 row keyboard is heaven.
The T520's are VERY capable machines, even a decade later. They can be swapped to quad-core, and an external GPU can easily be connected to it. And yes, this is the very last 15" ThinkPad to have the "classic" keyboard. These were the last true ThinkPad's, when it came to simplicity and features. Now, ThinkPad is basically like any other modern laptop. It's kind of sad.
I still like my X1 Nano a lot more than most other laptops out there, and the P series still provides something reminiscent of the older ThinkPads, but I definitely agree that they aren't the same now.
The T420 is shockingly still very useful. $5 bucks very well spent!
That was a screaming deal on a T520!
that laptop is better than my laptop
Nice to see a fellow Yinzer sharing the love of the ThinkPad!
I found two 510 laptops in the yard at the recycler. Unplugged/replugged cmos, slapped Ubuntu on them, then gave them to the kids. Better than trashing some iPads!
The T520 was my first laptop
I personally use a T520 as my main laptop now, while the weight of almost 3KG(sorry I previously misremembered it being 3.9KG, which is a lot heavier then it actually is) probably makes it the heaviest laptop in my entire class, it works fine and the typing experience is wonderful.
5USD for one of these is definitely a insane bargain, I paid 5000NTD(around 167.2USD)for mine and spend another 27USD to upgrade the RAM to a total of 10G, I'm planning to install a SSD later.
As a side note, for some reason 15 inch ThinkPADs are kinda rare here in Taiwan, but I'm not sure why.
While I'll love to have one of those with me, unfortunately I have yet to get my hands on one since they are not that easy to found in Taiwan
Damn! Nice find. And here I thought I scored locally by picking up a T450 and 2 older laptops (doesn’t work) for $30usd. The T450 was untested without power brick as well, but it was in very good shape as it was in storage for awhile.
4:22 my heart stopped.
Nah it wasn't that bad, 8:07 and 8:18 is MUCH, MUCH worse.
Cool, I just bought a t520 three days ago on eBay and ordered 16gb of ram and a ssd. Can’t wait to see your upgrades!
Got a T420 that is fully loaded (fingerprint, 1600 x 900 screen, 8 GB RAM, Bluetooth and more I have forgot to mention) and I love it. Since owning a ThinkPad 770 (still got it, going strong to this day) I have sworn by ThinkPad's. Did buy a MacBook in 2007 ish, after a few months the plastics started cracking so I changed back to ThinkPad's by getting an R60e (guess what - that one is still also going strong) until 2014 when I got my T420 that I am typing this on now. Absolutely love they keyboard and after trying the new "island" keyboards in work on the T480, while perfectly useable and much better than that disgrace the new MacBook's have, given the choice I would still use they keyboard on my T420.
charlieboy31 I still have my A1181 2008 MacBook, I got it from my neighbor in 2012 after they upgraded to a MacBook Pro. Either I got lucky with the plastic lottery or just took decent care of mine because there aren’t any areas the plastic is visibly cracked. It was my daily driver until I got into ThinkPads and got a T430 to replace it.
@@SebisRandomTech I tried my best to take care of mine, quite a few others had cracks too, especially around the palm area. Mine is a 1,1 and while it still works, its pretty rough especially around the palm wrests. I also noticed that it seem to get extremely loud and warm during regular use (sitting on the desktop even) so perhaps its due a re-paste. Other than the plastic cracks, solid machine though and I would be happy to give the new MacBook pros a go if they did not have that god awful keyboard.
3:47 so much metal inside :) The modern ones are changing to flimsy plastic more and more...
Meanwhile the seller's geek son at home: Where the ffff my thinkpad is!?
Balancing a Thinkpad in Dangerous Places -- The Movie
My heart skipped a beat when I saw it perched on the railings of that balcony.
Holy... I'm impressed you find a cheap Thinkpad..
A $5 T520, I'm going to cry 😭
You should reconsider upgrading it, luckily power supplies are universal with ThinkPads as long as yours has the same jack (barrell vs squared plug).
Did you watch the whole video? I’m going to be upgrading it in the future. RAM and storage at the very least, but hoping to eventually do the CPU and display as well, and maybe even toy with an external graphics card! Nice profile picture by the way! I also have a plethora of spare power supplies for these machines since I work on many of them.
@@SebisRandomTech Ah, pardon me, must have missed that line 😳
Still this is a great find you did there albeit I am in the same boat to prefer the small X and 14" T models.
Typing this from my T420! Was about $200 4-5 years ago. SSD and some RAM have really kept it going.
I have a w541, best laptop I’ve ever had. It has a quadro k1100m, so I just use it for light gaming. I just recently found out it has a m.2 slot, so I got a little more storage too. The only downside is that the battery only lasts like 20 minutes but I don’t take it anywhere anyways
Easy to get replacement batteries for it if you choose. That should help extend its useful lifespan.
Another nicely done video of your epic ThinkPad adventures! Thanks
A used $250 T520 was my workhorse from 2014 until 2022.
Gotta say, I'm very jealous. I've got a very nice T61, but this certainly blows it out of the water on quite a few levels. I still like my T61 as it's an absolute tank. Not even Thanos could snap it out of existence.
There's a saying that after the world ends, the inhabitants that are left will be cockroaches, Nokias, and ThinkPads.
Hah! I came here thanks to your vid on the AFFS panel for an X201/X200. This T520 is absolutely a treat, I was lucky to get 3 of them out of service for about 100 bucks each, ripped the i5 CPU, the 16x9 disp and the 320G HDD out -- bumped the ram to 16G, CPU to i7-2760QM(had to get 135W AC adapters to support this), replaced panel with a 1080P LCD, and finally, stuffed in an mSATA 256G SSD and a 512G 2.5" SSD. I now have 3 Dual-booting tricked-out classic beasts running W10 and LinuxMint 20. Could not be any happier. A beautiful machine made fully awesome with some significant upgrades. Love 'em! Thanks for the vids!
Glad you're happy with your units! Thanks for watching!
I used to agree with you on that a 15.6 inch laptop was too big and clunky. Ever since I went dumpster diving in my school's ewaste dumpster and got a HP ProBook 6570b. I decided to use this ProBook to replace my Dell Latitude e5430 (14 inch). Both of these systems have near identical CPUs (i5-3340m) and just took the SSD and RAM from the Latitude to upgrade the ProBook. I also got a ProBook 6560b, which is closer in specs to your T520. I did grab the fingerprint sensor off the 6560b and moved it to the 6570b, because thats a feature I care about.
Now here are some features I gained by upgrading to the ProBook.
• Better I/O (Serial port, more USB, FireWire, etc)
• Better 1600x900 screen
• Numpad
• Fingerprint scanner (had to take one out of a ProBook 6560b
• The laptop doesn't freeze when I pick it up (the Latitude did this, and it was annoying)
Here are some things I lost when upgrading to the ProBook.
• The better keyboard (the ProBook's keyboard is not nearly as nice as the Latitude's)
• The better battery life (to be fair, I got the ProBook's probably 8 year old battery out of a dumpster as well.)
What's ironic is a free dumpster laptop has less issues than my $100 Latitude. The ProBook runs Windows 7 and 8.1 pretty well. I have installed Windows 10 on a friend's Probook 6570b (exact same specs as mine, just with a lower end SSD PLUS) and it runs it pretty well. Which I use Windows 8.1 on my ProBook for two reasons: (1) I don't like Windows 10 and (2) the fingerprint driver works in Windows 8.1.
I might be wrong about this but generally T5 thinkpads have better cooling solutions than T4s. And so I believe that the T520 might be able to take sandy bridge qm chips. If that's the case this machine could actually be upgraded later on to become a real piece of work.
That is correct, the 15" models can handle the quad cores of this generation while 14" models will run very hot if a quad core is installed. With the subsequent generation (Ivy Bridge), a handful of processors such as the 3612QM and 3632QM are within the thermal limits of the T430's cooling and can be installed with the stock cooling. My own T430 has had a quad core installed for several years now with no issues to speak of.
@@SebisRandomTech yeah that's one of the cooler things about the T430 (literally). The thing is a beast. And the T440p could handle some pretty powerful quad cores too.
@@carnelianknight5713 That it can! If only the T440p still had a similar design to the T430, that would be a killer modernish classic ThinkPad!
@@SebisRandomTech indeed. Though with a touchpad swap the T440p is still very good. I actually like the trackpoint on newer models a little more because the buttons are wider and a bit more natural feeling. Seamless FHD IPS displays are nice too.
Just wish they didn't have that weird gray color and a lack of physical media keys.
@@carnelianknight5713 Agreed, I'm glad Lenovo has gone back to the classic ThinkPad black in recent years.
Dear Mr. Sebi, you mentioned tthat minimum $500 bucks to get near a thinkpad's processing power. I concur. My beloved's windows 7 machine (may 2020) is giving her its near last rites, so I amk givi9ng her my toshiba c55. I am also awaiting my package containing my ordered thinkpad x201. It has more to go then the c55, and did not cost near $500 neither.
I wish you well with your new 'w' pad!
Just read this comment...on my x201.
i just found a dell inspiron 570 with a gtx 960 OC for 6 bucks, so that first line is definitely relatable.
WHAT
Damn
5 dollars?
That's a steal!
Nice video Sebi, also.. 3:35 you're lucky the wind didn't get any stronger lol.
Ah it would've been fine. I was more worried about derailing a train with that thing :P
@@SebisRandomTech I was more thinking the drop would of caused an earthquake once the T520 touched down
I am envious
Dang 5 bucks for such a treasure
Damn, what a steal, can't wait for the upgrade videos, particularly the screen one. ; )
Damn! Sebi is always downing the W500 series. 😧. I personal own a 14 inch ThinkPad because the 15 inch units always seemed to big and heavy to me. But mine is so old that the best CPU is a dual core duo so I'm looking to upgrade. Sebi always puts out the best videos. He knows Thinkpads better than any other TH-cam creator.
I got a used X300 with a dead battery and a UMTS modem for free when a company where dad worked was going to sent them for recycling, even have the vista sticker and a license key. If only there was a way to get storage without replacing the disk drive with a bay. Whos bright idea it was to use 1.8 inch sata drives instead of normal 2.5 I'll never know.
Sd card? If it has a dock connector that could possibly be a solution but probably not what you're looking for.
@@pompshuffle562 SD card as a boot drive? Sounds like a bad idea. Anyway I found some of those weird SSDs on AliExpress, so might order one if I decide that it's worth salvaging.
Your videos show your experience with computers
This T520 is amazing luck. $5 would give you a nice lunch at McDonalds for an average person.
$5 was a steal for a T520 :o
I love your video, it’s so relaxing, I watch it everyday in my college’s cafeteria!
I literally just bought a Dell Latitude D620 and D630 (both with integrated Intel graphics.) This video makes me wanna get an old Thinkpad. Thanks. XD
I have a d620, but probably with a dead chipset. Do you plan on putting a 64 bit processor in there? If yes, wich one?
ThinkPads are fantastic computers. Feel free to send me an email on here if you want to hear more. By the way, I checked out your channel and liked some of the short films you've made! I have a couple on my channel from when I was in high school, it kind of brought back memories of doing that for me.
A T520 for a mere $5..
In the shithole of a country I live in even a "well used" T520 can't be found for under $200.. 😢
In the shithole country i live in, i paid $70 for a lenovo g470 2nd gen i3 with 4gb of ram no hdd with a broken hinge.
And enterprise laptops even old ones are horribly expensive. A t60 can cost $220! That in bad shape, missing batterie no ram, no hdd no charger.
The cheapest t60's and t400's i found costed $90
I literally found a guy trying to sell a godamn latitude d510 for $320! And pentium M machine...
Best video to watch on a coffee break
you got a great deal for $5! i got a Lenovo thinkpad Edge E535 & an HP G62, at a garage sale($25) both need some work, but the E535 is worth upgrading! thanks for a great video! have you gone back to the flea market for other bargains?
Nope, I've been away for school. Nothing too much recently.
Sebi's Random Tech ok thanks
Its hard to find good deal on ebay. most seller are greedy and sell junk for too much. it rare to find cheap stuff on ebay. their like beggar or thieves pretending to do business and shady.
You can find great deal on clearance item at walmart. best buy, office depot. ebay sucks.
Samantha Tang Orange Juice hehe samantha you must be a hottie! hehe! but yeah, those stores do have good deals. thanks hugs 😉
Great vid would love to see how this runs with an egpu
In Britain we call flea markets “car boot sales”
And so the story goes: "I got this for $5, and I'm going to see what it will do without any upgrades." "Hmm, why is anyone still using spinning rust any more? Only $25 for a cheap SSD." "Only 4GB RAM--but see how easy it is to upgrade to 16GB." "The CPU is socketed, so you can upgrade it." "If you just get an Express Card adapter, and play with the drivers, then you can use an external graphics card."
Been there, done that, though I'm too chicken to change a CPU and don't game. But my cheap T420 I got to try out Linux distros now has 8GB, a 256GB msata drive and a 500GB 2.5 inch SSD. They just sit there, asking you to show them love.
My current Lenovo ThinkPad is a T530, (Windows 10) which I bought for the i7 processor and CD/DVD drive. Looking back, I could have bought a T440, since Ye Olde Lenovo ThinkPad SL 410 is a handy size. It does everything I want it to do and has replaced a "needs a CLA 2012 Apple MacBook Pro" as the "high tech" laptop. Would I get a newer ThinkPad? Well, the chicklet keyboards of current MacBook Pros don't impress me, so not now.
If a laptop can play the first Far Cry and HL 2. it's fine as a gaming laptop. Good looking laptop with useful grunt.
5:56 shots fired
i think it still sells at USD200 at my country as 'refurbished' laptop with 8gb ram and 240GB SSD. Its not manufacturer refurbished. More like some repair shops buy them for scraps and make it work a bit and sold it
My T520 is indestructible, 1TB SSD and 16G memory are the only upgrades, love it!
It's definitely a really solid machine.
$5 ThinkPad T520 really?? I will buy 100 laptops immediately if available for me...
Boy, now that screen comparison really makes me depressed using my T430s, haha. Hopefully I can get my T440p working again, otherwise I think I'm going to try to get a W540 and just fully send it in upgrades.
Thats a steal
you should make experiment videos on this, just like mjd does with his $5 windows 98 pc, it would be pretty interesting imo
Tossing a ThinkPad over the side at the Mon incline? Egads.
High gamut AUO panel available in T520/W520/T530/W530 is amazing. Colors are vivid and viewing angles are not that bad. It's much better from most of cheap IPS screens installed nowadays.
IPS panel I put into my X230 is way worse in terms of color reproduction and contrast.
I agree, the 520/530 machines had amazing 1080p panels. Even the 900p one on my T520 looks better than some of the cheaper IPS's out there.
Still better than my laptop lol
very good narration. i could fall sleep easily
The T520 also runs Ubuntu Linux famously.
4240-49U. That's a T520 with a 1600x900 LCD and 1GB Nvidia 4200M dedicated graphics. For $5... SCORE!!!
I picked one up on ebay about a year ago without the fingerprint reader or even the thinklight oddly enough. I was debating of doing a CPU upgrade, but have not yet. These models are certainly the last of it's kind, something like this definitely deserves all the love it can get (i7 swap maybe?) Anyway, great vid as always bud, looking forward to more vids about the T520!
I'm pretty sure these models all came with the ThinkLight. It's possible that yours is broken or the LED failed, or the cable going to the laptop is bad. That's what happened with the T430s featured in this video.
Very informative, professional, and thorough video. Thank you very much.
That's cheap!!
Although I got an X250 i5 with a touchscreen 8gb/256ssd from a selling app called Mercari for $135 but when I got the laptop the seller sent the wrong charger but since I already own two Thinkpads (a T420s and T460) I was able to charge it and when it booted up it was running Windows 7 with all the drivers missing it can't connect to the internet and the USB ports are not working so since the seller sent the wrong charger I had a reason to return it, I'm not the most technical person so I didn't want to bother with it and when my return was approved the seller decided he didn't want it back so I got a refund and I kept the laptop lol. So basically got it for free.
I was able to change the boort seuqence from the BIOS and I was able to utilize one of the USB ports and I installed Windows 10 Pro on it and now it's running amazingly and added a second ssd (it has an internal m.2 slot). Now my next project is to hackintosh my T460 (I gifted my T420s to my friend after I got the X250 to work).
Epic deal! I'm surprised it ran all those games.
After configuring the same model Lenovo Thinkpad with Linux, I donated the laptop to a charity serving malaria prevention to the poor in remote Uganda. The clinic was later overrun with patients who had Ebola, so I have no idea what purpose it now serves.
Wow cool deal. For 5 bucks I would say nothing wrong with it 😀
I run Linux Mint on my X230 Thinkpad and it runs great!
Cool, I have a X230T running Manjaro i3 and it's beautiful... It runs smoothly and the pen is a bless 😁
You read it from an avocado 🥑
@@ch1nux1430 en este contexto, qué es un aguacate? Por cierto ¿venezolano? Casi todos los demás países lo llaman palta
@@elfedorausado Lo se, y no tengo problema con ello, cada cual le llama a las cosas como quiere, al final yo se como me llamo 😁
Un aguacate es una fruta noble, sin desperdicio, que nunca miente y que cambia rápido de estado...
Si, soy venezolano. Saludos!
@@ch1nux1430 no era crítica. Venezolano igual
@@elfedorausado tampoco quise ser grosero XD 😋
Todo bien... 🥑
I just got a free desktop. No gpu but came with the motherboard, i7 3770, 12 gigs of ram, obviously case, and a 320 gig hard drive. :)
I paid $200 for 5 pcs and I got the following. That's $200 total...NOT PER.
x99 i7 5960x ( 8 core 16 thread) with 64gb ddr4 ram and liquid cooling
x79 i7 3930k (6 core 12 thread) with 32gb ddr3 ram and a gtx titan x
x58 dell with i7-920 and 24gb ram and gtx 580
dell with i7-6700 and 16gb ddr4 ram
and some 5th pc I haven't looked over yet cause it's dusty and got at least 1 dead spider in it so I'm gonna blow it out first but it's probably some intel xeon
@@bluescluessuperagent My friend, I must know the name of your PC dealer...
@@riverlefae2047 got lucky, found a dude legit 5 min away from me who is moving and he was offloading his "old" pcs for dirt cheap.
His ad listing was very basic, not detailed at all which is why many people probably looked past it. But if you had an eye for detail you could see these pcs must be packing amazing stuff.
And this is the start to our buy/sell relationship lol
As he's emptying out his house, he offers me his old stuff first. So far no deal as good as those pcs but then those pcs probably took up alot of space (he said he thought about just throwing them away, hence the basically fire sale pricing)
since then I've bought a couple hundred dollars worth of new gaming mice and keyboards for $100. Must be at least $400 in stuff.
For myself a Occulus in immaculate condition for $100.
And a brand new Titan XP (not the original, or the X, but the XP) for $400. And used they sell for $800 on ebay cha ching. So easy flip there.
Evidently he used to own his own video game company and I guess he was hired by other devs to help their projects.
I hope he keeps the goods coming.
Free is always a great deal.
Late to the party but myself and my wife have T520's. Kind of a large brick compared to modern ultra portables but they work for us. Totally agree about upgrading the HDD to SSD. I'm also using a T420 as a poor-man's server on our home LAN. As you mentioned you can use an HDD caddy to add a HDD.
Man, I see these every day but never give them the light of day, I even skip the t430's and t530's because ive never really given them a chance, ill see if I can pick one up from work today, let me know if you are looking for a T530 Sebi! or anything like an x230t, another x301/x300, or something like a X131e, which i know they sound bad, but i gave one a chance and was surprised with how well it worked with just a 60gb ssd.
Voixiom i know i’m not sebi, but do you have any more info on the x230t?
Sorry for getting back to you so late. Feel free to send me an email regarding ThinkPads that you have. If you have something interesting or of value I may be interested.
@@wildbill23c No need to be rude, but at this point you aren't adding anything to the discussion. We get it, you don't like modern thinkpads, but you don't need to make dozens of comments that are essentially the same thing.
@@wildbill23c So why are you still here commenting?
William Sevier and John Decker, please keep the comments here civil, or I will be blocking you both from commenting on my channel. This is your only warning.
Why are Thinkpads so fascinating? lol
They don’t need a reason. They just are. 😁
wow so lucky to pick up a t520 for only $5!
3:38 POV: There is a train coming.
That’d be awesome, but the line is abandoned.
Man - if only people sell old thinkpads with cheap price here. The best deal in could get so far is 35 USD for good condition T400 (only with 2GB ram and 80GB HDD) tho. A T520 like this would cost me at least 150 USD here. Some people even sell X220 for 200 USD++ here
Exactly. I hate it when American TH-camrs acts like these computers are cheap everywhere. In Europe, the standard price for these old style laptops are at least 150 EUR, with average prices of 200 EUR+.
Quite pain to watch this just after bought E14 to my brother yesterday.
Holy shit that's such a bargain.