Project Shittop

[Nickco43]

A few weeks ago I was watching Linus's review of the LG Gram, I looked at my Chromebook and decided I needed a new laptop . At $1000 USD for a 13" lG Gram I couldn't afford it. On ebay the Grams were still $800. I set a max budget of $500 and I started looking.

 

  I posted on the Laptop and rebuilt forum to see what I could refurbish myself and I received loads of encouragement:  

On 3/19/2018 at 8:40 PM, Pangea2017 said:

Hiden gems? no

old $1000+ business notebooks? jup

 

1. i7 m or i7 u are overpriced, i7 hq, mq, qe are fine

2. do you prefer 14" or 15.6" screen?

Lenovo T440/540 (s and p are also fine)

Lenovo X1 carbon

keep in mind that the keyboard was on my device a problem and other people have simular problems (keycaps can break, $5-10 per key for replacement parts)

 

Dell Latitude Latitude E7440

no Dell XPS devices

 

 

Why would you buy a 5 year old laptop, with poor specs? There has to be some newer laptop that has been banged up a bit. 

 

Behold the Lenovo 710 14ISK AKA Shittop:

 

 

 

Stock Specs: 

Intel 6200 i5 2.3GHz

8GB of DDR4 2333

256GB M.2 Sata SSD

1080p IPS Touch Screen

Metal Case

Backlit Keyboard

 

I used the laptop for a day and I noticed the SATA SSD was slow, running 400 read, 200 write. Also the battery was shot as I could only get two hours of battery life on a charge. something you would not expect on a two year old laptop.

 

Parts list:

$140 Crucial 16gb DDR4 2400 RAM

$70 Crucial 275GB M.2 Sata SSD

$180 OEM Screen

$50 OEM battery

 

Now the laptop looks like this:

 

 

Sexy screen, super snappy and a 6 hour battery life.

 

Total price: $600

 

I sold the old ram for $55 and the old SSD for $60

 

Price out of pocket: $485

$15 under budget 

 

Considering a used example with stock specs and a blown battery run about $550 I think I made out well.

 

[CombatComedy]

*clap* *clap* *clap* well done my friend

[CombatComedy]

delete fortnite though, its a child's game

[Nickco43]

17 minutes ago, Pangea2017 said:

This is just a consumer device also $160 is not normal for this device:

 - bad Keyboard

 - not as durable, just take them appart

 - no Waterprotection

 

I love the keyboard on the Yoga. I know this is not the most durable laptop but I take care of my things.