A dream come true! My own ThinkPad!

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
After a prior thread here I started nosing around eBay and landed a real steal.

A few days ago I was working at home and UPS came to the door with a box for me. I signed for it, opened the box and this was inside:

IMG_0066.JPG


A dream come true....I actually have my own ThinkPad!

To be specific, I went on eBay and landed a 2015 ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It even has a three year next day service warranty on it. And (to cue a prior thread) even though thin and light it feels solid enough to beat someone to death with it and then start doing other things on it.

We have the ThinkPad keyboard:

IMG_0064.JPG


Backlit, perfectly shaped (ThinkPads have concave keys with a shield shape and the result is much better typing accuracy than on flat topped island keys) and the travel on them is superb! And yes that little red bulb is the TrackPoint. The three buttons above the trackpad are controls for the TrackPoint and I am rapidly getting to the point where I don't bother with the trackpad as the TrackPoint is fast and precise.

Display is gorgeous and 1440p and (yay!) with a semi matte finish that makes it very easy to see in sunlight. It is full RGB and IPS to boot:

IMG_0065.JPG


Add in FAST hardware (Broadwell Core i7 with 256GB SSD) and a RapidCharge battery that fully recharges in about 65 minutes and this is premium stuff - I got a big bargain on eBay which I verified by going to the local Computer shop and letting the tech check it out. It is in primo condition and everything is working perfectly.

In order to make this cost neutral I sold off some stuff on eBay too. To me it is a worthwhile exchange as now I have a non-Apple screamer of a portable laptop. Even better, with the Broadwell CPU and Windows 8.1 Pro on it (I'll push it to Windows 10 when it is released, for now I am using Classic Shell to tame the UI) I have free built in virtualization via Hyper-V, so multiple OSes here I come.

:jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14:
 
Last edited:

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
After a prior thread here I started nosing around eBay and landed a real steal.

A few days ago I was working at home and UPS came to the door with a box for me. I signed for it, opened the box and this was inside:

View attachment 31164

A dream come true....I actually have my own ThinkPad!

To be specific, I went on eBay and landed a 2015 ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It even has a three year next day service warranty on it. And (to cue a prior thread) even though thin and light it feels solid enough to beat someone to death with it and then start doing other things on it.

We have the ThinkPad keyboard:

View attachment 31165

Backlit, perfectly shaped (ThinkPads have concave keys with a shield shape and the result is much better typing accuracy than on flat topped island keys) and the travel on them is superb! And yes that little red bulb is the TrackPoint. The three buttons above the trackpad are controls for the TrackPoint and I am rapidly getting to the point where I don't bother with the trackpad as the TrackPoint is fast and precise.

Display is gorgeous and 1440p and (yay!) with a semi matte finish that makes it very easy to see in sunlight. It is full RGB and IPS to boot:

View attachment 31166

Add in FAST hardware (Broadwell Core i7 with 256GB SSD) and a RapidCharge battery that fully recharges in about 65 minutes and this is premium stuff - I got a big bargain on eBay which I verified by going to the local Computer shop and letting the tech check it out. It is in primo condition and everything is working perfectly.

In order to make this cost neutral I sold off some stuff on eBay too. To me it is a worthwhile exchange as now I have a non-Apple screamer of a portable laptop. Even better, with the Broadwell CPU and Windows 8.1 Pro on it (I'll push it to Windows 10 when it is released, for now I am using Classic Shell to tame the UI) I have free built in virtualization via Hyper-V, so multiple OSes here I come.

:jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14::jackanime14:

Beautiful! You can easily run a Hackintosh Mac in a VM. :) How much usable space after Win8 and programs installed?
 

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
After Win8, other programs and my files being transferred I have 150GB left.
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
After Win8, other programs and my files being transferred I have 150GB left.

Cool! That actually isnt bad. You can easily make use of external storage if you need it for files and stuff. That is a beautiful machine. :)
 

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
I've been playing with some of its other goodies too. It comes with a good fingerprint reader so I have registered a couple of fingers for when I am too lazy to type in a password.

Port selection is good - 3 USB 3.0 (one doubles as AC charging), Mini Display Port, HDMI, Ethernet and a port for the ThinkPad OneLink dock.

Also, it is user upgradeable. The bottom hatch is secured with mini phillips screws and in there the SSD, WiFi and such are easy access. The motherboard has the connections for PCIe SSDs (this particular machine I have uses a regular M.2 form factor SSD) and also for installing an LTE modem. So if I keep my eyes open I can upgrade hardware (although right now it is not needed as this stuff is all super fast).
 

shavedape

Well Known GateFan
Yes, but the real question is can it brew a decent cup of coffee? :daniel_new004:
 

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
Yes, but the real question is can it brew a decent cup of coffee? :daniel_new004:
Dunno. If it's durable enough to beat someone to death with it the next question would be can I get it to run hot enough to boil water.....:psychosga:
 

shavedape

Well Known GateFan
Dunno. If it's durable enough to beat someone to death with it the next question would be can I get it to run hot enough to boil water.....:psychosga:

You need an iPhone to do that. ;)
 

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
I am now running Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 10130.

w10screen.PNG



This build is pretty stable and fast, although it does still have rough edges and is not in final release form. For example, Project Spartan is not fully featured yet (and indeed has not been renamed to Edge yet). But also I am not on the most recent build as it is not on the "fast ring" yet (the new development channel model has fast and slow rings - slow ring gets builds only once they are stable and fast ring gets them as soon as they are up regardless of stability). The next build due in the channel is 10149, which some reviewers got leaked and it apparently is much closer to release form.
 

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
And now I am on build 10159 (the fast ring got really fast this week). Speed is superb and stability has made a quantum leap. Project Spartan got a lot of updates and is now using its release name of Edge. The whole OS now has beautiful hi res icons and wallpaper and also everything uniformly adopts themes (like the "dark" theme below). This version is actually "releaseable":

10159.PNG
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
And now I am on build 10159 (the fast ring got really fast this week). Speed is superb and stability has made a quantum leap. Project Spartan got a lot of updates and is now using its release name of Edge. The whole OS now has beautiful hi res icons and wallpaper and also everything uniformly adopts themes (like the "dark" theme below). This version is actually "releaseable":

View attachment 31303

I am very stoked about Windows 10. :) The Beta I tested earlier this year was very stable and I think I stopped at 10149. Im loving the browser, the layout and the end user experience. I like the way they have integrated the best of Windows 8 with Windows 10 and I especially love the control I now have over the experience which was totally missing from Windows 8.1.

The upgrades you describe sound great! Im waiting till July 26 to get my free upgrade to the production OS. That will no doubt be a nightmare on the internet.
 

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
And an update on three plus months in with my very own ThinkPad (X1 Carbon 2015 model).

This is still a SWEET machine!

Build quality is holding up nicely despite it taking a beating as my daily driver (and me being a mobile professional). It is still solid as a rock with no creaks or flexes, which for a thin ultrabook configuration is astonishing. Display still perfect with no dead pixels or other such.

The keyboard has been a joy to use - the typo issues I had especially on Macs and Dells virtually have vanished on this puppy. I have to attribute it to the VERY well thought out key shaping (note from the picture upthread that they are not square and also have a concave top instead of flat) combined with a keyboard mechanism that gives them much more travel than an ultrabook keyboard typically has.

Speed is still excellent with no feeling of slowing down at all. The Broadwell-U puts out plenty of CPU horsepower and the SSD is a very robust Samsung M2 form factor model with a long lifespan.

Everything still works perfectly. I've taken to using the fingerprint scanner as opposed to a simple password.

Probably the best eBay investment I ever made!
 

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
I am considering doing a hardware experiment.

Lenovo designed this motherboard to be future looking in that the M2 interface on it has both the SATA 6gb bus and PCIe 2.0 also, with a motherboard firmware switch to determine which it uses. This means that a ThinkPad X1 Gen 3 can take PCIe SSDs with the main adjustment being flipping the firmware switch.

I have the directions to flip the switch. What I am speculating on is landing an M2 PCIe SSD and installing it, and seeing what having over twice the speed on the hard drive does. :)
 

Bluce Ree

Tech Admin / Council Member
I am considering doing a hardware experiment.

Lenovo designed this motherboard to be future looking in that the M2 interface on it has both the SATA 6gb bus and PCIe 2.0 also, with a motherboard firmware switch to determine which it uses. This means that a ThinkPad X1 Gen 3 can take PCIe SSDs with the main adjustment being flipping the firmware switch.

I have the directions to flip the switch. What I am speculating on is landing an M2 PCIe SSD and installing it, and seeing what having over twice the speed on the hard drive does. :)

Is the performance increase in SSD from SATA 6GB to PCIe 2.0 really that noticeable in a laptop environment under normal, or even moderately advanced, usage? Other than data-intensive read/write applications, like database systems, I can't see how the difference would be that noticeable.
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
And an update on three plus months in with my very own ThinkPad (X1 Carbon 2015 model).

This is still a SWEET machine!

Build quality is holding up nicely despite it taking a beating as my daily driver (and me being a mobile professional). It is still solid as a rock with no creaks or flexes, which for a thin ultrabook configuration is astonishing. Display still perfect with no dead pixels or other such.

The keyboard has been a joy to use - the typo issues I had especially on Macs and Dells virtually have vanished on this puppy. I have to attribute it to the VERY well thought out key shaping (note from the picture upthread that they are not square and also have a concave top instead of flat) combined with a keyboard mechanism that gives them much more travel than an ultrabook keyboard typically has.

Speed is still excellent with no feeling of slowing down at all. The Broadwell-U puts out plenty of CPU horsepower and the SSD is a very robust Samsung M2 form factor model with a long lifespan.


Everything still works perfectly. I've taken to using the fingerprint scanner as opposed to a simple password.

Probably the best eBay investment I ever made!

Have you attempted gaming in Windows 10? That is one thing I did not try when I have a VM of it. I have not attempted to install it on any bare metal machine yet so that gaming could be tested.
 

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
Is the performance increase in SSD from SATA 6GB to PCIe 2.0 really that noticeable in a laptop environment under normal, or even moderately advanced, usage? Other than data-intensive read/write applications, like database systems, I can't see how the difference would be that noticeable.

Actually it is. I noticed it when I dual booted Windows 8 on my MacBook Pro which has the PCIe SSD. And if you're doing database work like I do it is a big help. Of interest is that this year has seen (especially the last month or so with Skylake) notebooks with PCIe 3.0 SSDs and no SATA bus at all. PCIe 3.0 has a 2 Gb/Sec Read/Write as opposed to 1 Gb/Sec Read?write on PCIe 2.0 and 300-500 Mb/Sec Read/Write on the latest version of SATA.
 

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
Have you attempted gaming in Windows 10? That is one thing I did not try when I have a VM of it. I have not attempted to install it on any bare metal machine yet so that gaming could be tested.

Yes, I have played Crusader Kings II on Steam in it. It is very fast and stable.

Next week I also have a plan to set up dual boot (none of the VMs made me happy for this) and install a BSD Unix flavor OS with a KDE interface. Then I can compare it to other OSes on this hardware kit.
 
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