What all customizations have you done to your laptop?

[Gung Pow Chicken]

I just finished doing all of the mods I've wanted done to my Thinkpad T430. I've switched the CPU to an i7-3820QM @ 3.7Ghz and a new HFS. 16gb Corsair Vengeance, 256GB mSATA as boot drive, 1tb 850 Pro as storage drive for virtual machines and various applications, along with a 500GB 850 Evo for a storage pool which I mainly use for ISO's and other tech tools. I also switched back to the classic keyboard, but I kept the stock touch pad. I had to make a few cuts with a Dremel inorder to get it in place. The final thing I've done is install a 1080p panel from an Alienware using a conversion kit.

 

What all mods have you done with your laptops ?

 

 

 

[SCHISCHKA]

old think pads are great machines. I should get another one

[MatrixGrenade]

Can't give a pic but I did a complete carbon fiber wrap on my old laptop after upgrading the shitty 1tb hdd to a 500gb Samsung 850 Evo and putting in 32gb of memory

[Droidbot]

I'm modding my HP 2570p slowly. 

I'm putting an IVB quad-core into it eventually (when one goes cheap here) and probably replacing the 4GB stick with a new 8GB one to total 16GB.

Alongside that I'm buying 2 SSDs, deshelling them (to save weight) and putting them into the laptop (one in HDD bay, one in ODD bay with caddy) and running them in RAID0.

And I've got all the parts for an eGPU setup besides a working GPU. 

[gtx1060=value]

i took out my quadro in my thinkpad (no dev needs that power consuming shit) and put a ssd in it's place, now i have 5 terabytes of ssd storage  and 32gb of ram - all paid for by my company - being a programmer feels nice

[Gung Pow Chicken]

5 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

old think pads are great machines. I should get another one

I refuse to by anything past a 30 series , and this CPU still keeps up with current gen i7's

 

[gtx1060=value]

since my thinkpads are the new carbon x series which is for business trips, (i7 6th gen u series) i don't really care about making that any better - but my other thinkpads are w541's which are actually really nice - i ended up backlighting the thinkpad logo on the back and adding in more ssd storage for speedy vms - i also bought a thermally conductive 4 leaf clover sticker to stick onto my cpu for good luck while compiling - and added some chinese decals on the ssd to ward away evil errors that take hours to fix

[gtx1060=value]

1 minute ago, Icuw1pc said:

I refuse to by anything past a 30 series , and this CPU still keeps up with current gen i7's

 

i completely agree - but the w541 is the absolute limit for me - the thinkpad ultrabooks don't really count as thinkpads per se - but the t430 is really nice if you have 32 gigs of ram 

[Droidbot]

Just now, Icuw1pc said:

I refuse to by anything past a 30 series , and this CPU still keeps up with current gen i7's

 

40 series are really nice.. especially with 4940MX, which almost hits '6700k-tier' performance. 

[gtx1060=value]

8 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

old think pads are great machines. I should get another one

my thinkpad t42 that my dad used for programming back in the glory days still works fine with 2 gigs of ram and a pentium

[gtx1060=value]

1 minute ago, Droidbot said:

40 series are really nice.. especially with 4940MX, which almost hits '6700k-tier' performance. 

yes, w541 especially, the w series are complete beasts

[Droidbot]

Just now, gtx1060=value said:

yes, w541 especially, the w series are complete beasts

not a thinkpad, but e6440 is insanely good for its size. 

4940MX in it takes 55w, yes, but it allows for turbo bins to be unlocked allowing for around 68W to be used under load for turbo. 

alongside that with some modding it can idle at around 5.3-4w for the igpu model and 7.3 for the quadro model. 

[gtx1060=value]

1 minute ago, Droidbot said:

not a thinkpad, but e6440 is insanely good for its size. 

4940MX in it takes 55w, yes, but it allows for turbo bins to be unlocked allowing for around 68W to be used under load for turbo. 

alongside that with some modding it can idle at around 5.3-4w for the igpu model and 7.3 for the quadro model. 

i took my quadro out and put a ssd in the space it took up - what programmer needs a quadro? what am i going to do, render my way out of an error?

[Droidbot]

Just now, gtx1060=value said:

i took my quadro out and put a ssd in the space it took up - what programmer needs a quadro? what am i going to do, render my way out of an error?

true that. with e6440 you can disable it in UEFI and then keep the beefier cooler that the GPU model offers

[gtx1060=value]

1 minute ago, Droidbot said:

true that. with e6440 you can disable it in UEFI and then keep the beefier cooler that the GPU model offers

i kept the cooler but just took out the quadro - it was a waste of space - managed to fit in 5 tb of ssd storage with it gone

[Droidbot]

Just now, gtx1060=value said:

i kept the cooler but just took out the quadro - it was a waste of space - managed to fit in 5 tb of ssd storage with it gone

5tb of ssd

 

holy sh i t that's some ssd.. get 4 1tb drives and raid10 lmao

[Gung Pow Chicken]

26 minutes ago, gtx1060=value said:

i completely agree - but the w541 is the absolute limit for me - the thinkpad ultrabooks don't really count as thinkpads per se - but the t430 is really nice if you have 32 gigs of ram 

I have a W540 that sits in my closet with a ton of other equipment that never gets used. Ive been looking for a T430 with 4 dimns so I could do that.

[SCHISCHKA]

54 minutes ago, gtx1060=value said:

my thinkpad t42 that my dad used for programming back in the glory days still works fine with 2 gigs of ram and a pentium

back then the marketing was "a whopping 2GB of ram"

[Pendragon]

Whered you get the panel + conversion kit! I wanna pick up a T530, replace the keyboard with the good old school one, can spec it like yours LOL. Most mods concern the T430 ): and no love for the T530.

[Gung Pow Chicken]

20 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

Whered you get the panel + conversion kit! I wanna pick up a T530, replace the keyboard with the good old school one, can spec it like yours LOL. Most mods concern the T430 ): and no love for the T530.

I found them on /Thinkpad/ about a year ago, I can look through receipts If you'd like the URL. I honestly feel like the T530 would be easier, I just didn't get one due to size. I really like the portability of the T430 and with a 9-cell I get decent battery life. Even with my powerhungry  CPU.

[AshleyAshes]

Acer Aspire 5750

Upgraded from i5 2430m to i7 2630QM
Upgraded from 4GB to 16GB RAM

Upgraded HDD with SSD.  Moved HDD to ODD Bay using a caddy.

Replaced the motherboard once.  (DC power circuts failed)

Replaced the monitor.  (Smashed it while it was in my bag when a bus accelerated and inertia drove me into a stanchion.)
Canadian Bilingual keyboard wore out, replaced it with a U.S. English keyboard.  (Yes there's a difference.  Even the Enter key is a different shape)
Upgraded the wifi module to an Intel AC 7260 module.

[infigo]

T420

2450M to 2630QM

8GB memory (never bothered with 16 even though I can)

New LP140WD2 TLG1 standing beside me but waiting for my screen cable (the best 1600x900 available that is drop in) 

Big 94Wh battery (not a mod though)

And of course 256GB mSata SSD

expresscard for dual usb 3.0 (though it is a bit buggy and won´t work all the time) 

A intel 6205 (i think) so I now can use 5GHz wifi. Could have gone for higher but that would be more expensive and need 1,46 modded bios. 

Ohhh and I removed that awful trackpad and replaced it with a matte black dbrand skin so it´s now usable 

 

Nothing more at the moment. Thinking of building in big speakers in the now empty wrist wrest 

[Bouzoo]

Interestingly, I was just looking today what to do to my laptop since I won't be selling it in the end. I'll probably get an SSD in it with a caddy. Was thinking about 16GB 2133 RAM and making a custom skin with this pic.

[Droidbot]

1 minute ago, Fooshi said:

I replaced the screen of my Dell Vostro 3300 from glossy HD to matte full-HD and replaced the bootdrive with an SSD. That was before the mobo died. Sucks, because that machine was brilliant.

 

Beyond that, I have a sticker on my X1 Carbon. If that counts as a mod.

 

It looks cool.

 

 

 

 

that's beautiful and scary at the same goddamn time

 

im gonna stickerbomb my elitebook, gonna have a pepe cover the HP logo

[Gung Pow Chicken]

25 minutes ago, Fooshi said:

I replaced the screen of my Dell Vostro 3300 from glossy HD to matte full-HD and replaced the bootdrive with an SSD. That was before the mobo died. Sucks, because that machine was brilliant.

 

Beyond that, I have a sticker on my X1 Carbon. If that counts as a mod.

 

It looks cool.

 

 

 

Love the sticker