Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430

  • Martin
  • Martin's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • Administrator
  • Administrator
More
6 years 7 months ago - 6 years 7 months ago #1 by Martin
Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430 was created by Martin
Those of you who watch the channel will be familiar with My Lenovo ThinkPad T420 that I've been using for the last 6 months.

It got a new SSD from SK Hynix the SL300 120GB


The worn out trackpad surface was replaced


Then lastly the 1366x768 HD LED Screen was upgraded to a 1600x900 HD+ LED panel.


One of my buddies has been bringing his laptop to me for the past 8+ years for various repairs, a service and upgrades, it was an HP Pentium Dual core machine, one of their consumer based machines, cheap & nasty but served him well over the years. It was originally a Vista machine, I upgraded it to Windows 7 a few years ago and then it was back at me for the free Windows 10 upgrade when MS were giving it out. It ended up getting a more powerful CPU and the ram maxed out to 4GB a year ago to try and breath some more life into it for him. He's not a power user just moderate web browsing. The hard drive failed recently so it was back to me for a replacement and re setup, while I had it I loaned him the T420 for a few days to keep him going, got his machine running as best as it could for an older machine and got it back to him. A few days after returning it to him I got a phone call from him saying he misses the T420 and needs one in his life!

So onto eBay I go searching for a T420 for him, when I realise the T430 prices have come down a little recently. Finding a NICE T430 within his budget was looking unrealistic so that's where the plan suddenly changed, I would find a nice T430 for myself and sell him my T420.

I've always fancied a T430, especially since they were available with an LED backlit keyboard. I was finding it hard to find one with the backlit keyboard but a quick google search revealed they are plug and play and a UK Seller has a stack of them brand new, Genuine Lenovo - Winner! That solved that issue, my only next requirement was it MUST have an SSD, as I wanted to keep my nearly new SK Hynix 120GB so needed an SSD to fit to the T420.

I managed to find a fantastic condition one, none of the usual scratches, marks, asset tag residue etc. It came with the following Spec...

Intel i5 3320m - Ivy Bridge 2.6GHz (3.3GHz TURBO Boost)
4GB DDR3 (1x4GB)
120GB Crucial M4 SSD
1600x900 LED panel (that saves me another job!!)















Swapped the SSD's over and gave both a fresh install of Windows 7 PRO activated via the COE on each machine and then an upgrade to Windows 10 PRO.
got the T430 updated to the latest bios, latest firmware, updated the DVD-RW drives firmware, gave the SK Hynix an update to the latest firmware, oh and used the Lenovo battery firmware update tool to do the battery too! That's a lot of updating!!!


So, what's the plans?
Well, the Backlit keyboard is already ordered, expect a video soon of this swap
upgrade to 16GB (2x8GB) Crucial Ballistix SPORT performance RAM in dual channel (interesting to see what sort of performance increase this brings - again expect a video!)

Running some benchmarks tonight, lets see how I get on!
Cheers

Martin,
Hardware Hackers Team
Attachments:
Last edit: 6 years 7 months ago by Martin.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
6 years 7 months ago #2 by Nik
Replied by Nik on topic Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430
I love the Thinkpad since day 1 when IBM started selling them, so this is just a lovely machine, too.

---
Why ???
Because I can !!!

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Martin
  • Martin's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • Administrator
  • Administrator
More
6 years 7 months ago #3 by Martin
Replied by Martin on topic Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430
3D Mark Vantage on the T420




and now the T430



Martin,
Hardware Hackers Team
Attachments:

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Martin
  • Martin's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • Administrator
  • Administrator
More
6 years 7 months ago - 6 years 7 months ago #4 by Martin
Replied by Martin on topic Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430

I love the Thinkpad since day 1 when IBM started selling them, so this is just a lovely machine, too.

Same! I bought a refurbished T21 as my first laptop back maybe 2003-2004 and ive never looked back! - Work gave me an HP elite business grade thing a few years back and it wasn't a patch on the thinkpad!

Martin,
Hardware Hackers Team
Last edit: 6 years 7 months ago by Martin.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
6 years 7 months ago #5 by Nik
Replied by Nik on topic Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430
unfortunatly I never had one.
In 2002 I bought an old compaq laptop (forgot the model), but someone stole it (useless for the thief as I kept the drives and docking station at home :lol: )

---
Why ???
Because I can !!!

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Martin
  • Martin's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • Administrator
  • Administrator
More
6 years 7 months ago #6 by Martin
Replied by Martin on topic Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430
:angry: shame about the thief, at least he got no proper use out of it, at least without having to spend money first!!

Martin,
Hardware Hackers Team

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
6 years 7 months ago - 6 years 7 months ago #7 by Nik
Replied by Nik on topic Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430
I identified the model ! :cheer:
Looking up the hdd-tray's part number revealed, it was a Compaq Armada 41xx series model ! ;)

---
Why ???
Because I can !!!
Last edit: 6 years 7 months ago by Nik.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Martin
  • Martin's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • Administrator
  • Administrator
More
6 years 7 months ago - 6 years 7 months ago #8 by Martin
Replied by Martin on topic Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430
Time to run Cinebench R15, not a bad score...




Martin,
Hardware Hackers Team
Attachments:
Last edit: 6 years 7 months ago by Martin.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
6 years 7 months ago #9 by Nik
Replied by Nik on topic Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430
wow, nice score. :cheer:

---
Why ???
Because I can !!!

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Martin
  • Martin's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • Administrator
  • Administrator
More
6 years 7 months ago #10 by Martin
Replied by Martin on topic Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430
What do we have here?!?!



Oh yes, LED Backlit keyboard baby!!!

Martin,
Hardware Hackers Team
Attachments:

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
6 years 7 months ago #11 by Nik
Replied by Nik on topic Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430
Let's rock it in there, I wanna see it glow. ;)

---
Why ???
Because I can !!!
The following user(s) said Thank You: Martin

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Martin
  • Martin's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • Administrator
  • Administrator
More
6 years 7 months ago #12 by Martin
Replied by Martin on topic Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430

Martin,
Hardware Hackers Team
Attachments:

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
6 years 7 months ago #13 by Nik
Replied by Nik on topic Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430
YEAH!
That looks REALLY AMAZING!!!

Great job, Martin!

I really love it.:cheer: :cheer: :cheer:

---
Why ???
Because I can !!!
The following user(s) said Thank You: Martin

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Martin
  • Martin's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • Administrator
  • Administrator
More
6 years 7 months ago #14 by Martin
Replied by Martin on topic Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430
Thanks :-)
Video coming tomorrow but the swap literally took 3 minutes!, 2 screws, one connector and a little wiggling!

Martin,
Hardware Hackers Team

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
6 years 7 months ago #15 by Nik
Replied by Nik on topic Martin's NEW ThinkPad T430
easier than stealing candy from a baby... :lol:

---
Why ???
Because I can !!!

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Time to create page: 0.324 seconds

About Hardware Hackers

Hardware Hackers, Modifying For The Greater Good! Follow us while we take you on a journey of custom computer modifying mayhem. We are available on Facebook & YouTube see our links below.

Why not join in the fun at our community forum? Visit forum or Create an account.

Subscribe For Updates

Subscribe to get our latest updates straight to your inbox and stay updated on the latest developments from the HwH Team!