I don’t buy new hardware. I pickup second hand kit from ebay and refurbish it. My two most recent computers are a Thinkpad T61p and Thinkpad X61s.
The T61p (ÂŁ89) flashed a modified BIOS to unlock 3Gbps SATA and disable thermal warnings. Added an Intel 320 40GB SSD (ÂŁ20). Upgraded the Merom T7500 CPU to Penryn T9500 (ÂŁ18), which is significantly quicker, more power efficient and runs much cooler. The T9500 has digital thermal sensors which is why the analogue sensors need to be disabled. I upgraded the RAM to 8GB (already had) , the documented maximum is 4GB. I added a 250GB SSD (already had) to the ultrabay and an eSATA/USB 3 ExpressCard (ÂŁ5). The T61p has nVidia Quadro FX 570M and a 15.6" 1900x1200 panel. It is a brilliant machine now. I wanted a high resolution laptop with a proper keyboard.
I gave the X61s (ÂŁ60) similar treatment. Again, flashed a modified BIOS to unlock 3Gbps SATA, fitted a 120GB SSD (ÂŁ54), swapped out the wifi for an Intel something (ÂŁ9) and upgrade the RAM to 8GB (ÂŁ40) which is also more than the documented maximum. Running Ubuntu MATE, of course, and has just a touch over 7 hours on battery.
You don’t have to go to these lengths, but here are my top tips for refurbishing old computers.
- Max out the RAM. Use memconf to determine what the hardware actually supports. http://www.4schmidts.com/memconf.html
- Fit an SSD. You can get PATA/IDE SSDs on eBay and I have a T43p that has been transformed by a ÂŁ20 IDE SSD.
- If you need a new laptop battery, pay extra to get a genuine part. The cheap no brand alternatives never match the rated specifications and die quckly.
Apart from being fun, I like to mod these old computers because they feel like mine afterwards ![:smiley: :smiley:](https://ubuntu-mate.community/images/emoji/google/smiley.png?v=6)