Worth buying a Thinkpad x300?

Found one in my local classifieds for pretty cheap ( $80 ) Win7, 128gb ssd, Intel Core 2 Duo 2 1.3GHz, 2 gigs of ram, with a broken dvd drive which I don't mind.

I lurk a ton on these forums and I always hear about how good ThinkPads are, with some bad models sprinkled here and there so want to make sure I hear the experts out before I get my wallet out on this one.

Going to a college by bus, currently have the laptop in my sig which is a 15.6" with so the smaller x300 sounds like it would work well as a replacement for when I eventually get tired lugging my "big" beast around. Anti-glare screen is a bonus as my current screen is really glossy and I can see my face most of the time if it's not dark in the room. Battery life, not to concern as currently get around 3-4 hours on my current one and I should be near a outlet whenever needed. Main concerns are how well will it run while web browsing, microsoft office, youtube etc. Nothing too demanding will be done on it, just not sure how well the cpu can handle doing the basics. Side question, possible to upgrade the SSD to a higher size later? might be making this up but I remember reading that some older laptops have a maximum amount they recognize in the HDD slot.

Thanks!

 

That is a nice price, depending on the condition of course. The CPUs used in the X300 are ULV. They trade performance for efficiency. I used to have a R60e with a T5500, which would be a bit faster than the X300 CPUs. I never had a problem with playing 1080p rips or watching YouTube clips, though I was never one go full screen. Anything that hits the CPU hard, flash would be an example of this, it's probably going to chug a bit, but typical notebook usage like Office, Music or surfing, outside of flash, should be good.

The X300 is a terrific notebook. Light, portable, long battery life and a great keyboard were all there. Probably its biggest weakness is the screen. It's OK, but nothing great. Calibration can help some. Say what you want about modern ThinkPads, but at least nowadays you get an option for a good screen.

The X300 uses a 1.8" SSD, which will limit your upgrade options. I believe and I could be wrong, the largest capacity they came in was 320GB and they tend to be on the expensive side too. If you're looking for more space and since your DVD is broken already, they used to sell modular caddies for the X300 on eBay, which would allow you to replace the DVD drive with a hard drive or you might be able to do a SSD. I'm not really up on the particulars. You'd need to get a 7mm drive, which go up to 1TB in size. 128GB should be sufficient for the OS.

 

any 128gb ssd worth at least $40 by itself, so do the math ~

 

Now that mSATA drives are available en mass, the 1.8" bay doesn't limit your options as much anymore, as you can always get a 1.8" to mSATA adapter.

 

Great to hear, its starting to sound like it will suit me just fine.
I actually was looking for SSD's when I found the x300.
Just woke up to see the ad taken down, hope I'm not too late. :/
Actually couldn't sleep at night because I was researching it just before and excited to get a new toy to fool around with.

I'll keep an eye out for other models, just found a thinkpad edge 15" for $150, but still want something smaller.
Found an x60 for $50 with a Intel Core2 Duo processor T7200 2.00 GHz but the battery doesn't hold a charge and the screen shows "few" minors lines, and another in "8/10" condition for $100 with a Intel Core Duo 1.83Ghz. Only real grip I have is with the touchpad as I'm not used to clicking above but shouldn't be to bad adjusting.


* I just keep editing this post as I find things*

 

The X300 is a great notebook. I think ZaZ summed it up pretty well. However, if you really want to "upgrade" from your current notebook, I HIGHLY recommend getting the X301 which is identical to the X300 but is based on a newer Platform. (Montevina) The standard CPU is the much faster Intel SU9400 (1.4GHz) which is on par with mid-range T60 CPU's, so still very usable. The biggest difference however is that you get the newer Intel 4500MHD graphics, which supports hardware acceleration and greatly helps out the CPU with web browsing and videos. Full HD (1080p) videos are no problem thanks to the 4500MHD, and the CPU is only at 30-40%.

The biggest SSD that is available has 800GB of storage space. (the Intel DC S3500) It's a common misconception that 1.8" drives are rare. They aren't common anymore, that's true, but if you know where to look you'll find plenty of them. They are still being produced up to this day.

However, as mentioned before by Commander Wolf, the mSATA is the cheaper and easier solution as it can take some time to find a good 1.8" SSD offer. But it's good to know that you have many options available. If it comes to the worst, you can even install a regular 2.5" SSD by using a drive bay adapter.

For more information and cool mods (overclocking), visit the awesome X301 Owner's thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/681991-second-hand-thinkpad-x301-owner-s-thread.html

 

X60 is a pretty old platform by today's standards, limited to 3GB of RAM and SATA I speeds. The ones with T7*** CPUs will run hot. I'd stay away, unless you find one in mint condition for well under $100...

My $0.02 only...

 

Well, I got no response so we can kiss that x300 good bye~
Such a shame, was really looking forward to it. Debated on texting the seller at 1 in the morning when I saw the ad to lock it in but figured no one would buy it as it's been up for just a few hours.

Would love to get a x301 but trying to stick under $120 as my budget and doubt I'll get any falling into my hands anytime soon. I see one on ebay for $150 that has no bids + another $60 would be needed to ship and import fees to Canada
Really not seeing anything else popping up other then T41's, T42's, I could try bargaining on the better x60 but if it's going to be hot and loud I rather not. I
I'm not in a rush to buy a laptop right now so If I see anything else I might be interested I'll report back.


*Breaking news as I type this* Guy with the x300 responded! Can I get some quick notes on what to look for/test?

 

Got the laptop~

Spoiler

Seems fine from the little I used it, only real damage seems to be the left bezel near the screen which doesn't bother me too much. I got some question about it though, is it possible to factory reset/clean install this baby? It has a lenovo recovery partion, going under thinkpad tools, can only recover to backups and it doesn't have any backups. The fans speed up when going into the thinkvantage toolbox. Under systems it shows that it's 1 day away until automatic activation which I didn't check before buying but said it did have a legit windows 7 CDkey on it?

 

I'd venture a guess that the recovery partition is damaged or gone altogether. That machine should have a COA for XP or Vista, not W7.

Personally, I'd wipe everything clean and re-install whatever OS you're intent on running.

Good luck.

 

A bunch of us have used X301s and love them. The crack on your bezel is very common.

 

COA Sticker on the back is so faded I have no idea, I can see the numbers on it though. So once I clean install Win7 back on it, how do I get all the It's drivers back? Googled for them and I get random sites, not sure what to look for. I'm not that into it's preloaded programs but would it possible to get the battery notification back? I like how it tells you how much juice is left and how much time is needed to fully charge.

Thanks for the help!


Yep researched a bit and see many reports about the bezel, won't bother replacing it. It's defiantly a neat little machine.

 

The Lenovo site has all your drivers and software. You can get the power manager program and the wireless program. You can let the Thinkvantage software do all the updating for you if you want, but I would do the initial updating manually.

 

Do I need to get chipset/bios drivers? 21 pages of drivers

I want to try and keep things running in the background to a minimum to avoid revving up the fans.

 

First and foremost, I'd install Middleton's BIOS.

Second of all, after a clean install you can download and run Lenovo's System Update which *should* take care of the most of the missing drivers/utilities for you.

Power Manager is a must IMO, as are the Hotkeys. Everything else you can likely live without.

Good luck.

 

I like to double check and ask before I do just to make sure I don't screw anything up, Middleton's BIOS update from this link?

Would I save any background process by updating the manual route? or should I just uninstall whatever I don't end up using?

Is the system's fans supposed to speed up whenever I open something full screen? Opened up programs and features full screened to start looking at what I could uninstall before the clean install tomorrow and the fans really kicked in, opened up task manager and while having both of them open side by side cpu usage jumped to 56% with currently 581mb used. It eventually went silent again, I opened up the same page again full screen and it rev'd up again.I understand it's not the most powerful device, just a little worried when I hear it working hard.

 

Yes, that's the correct link for Middleton's BIOS.

As for the fan...expect to hear it, a lot. You could open up the machine and re-paste the CPU.

ThinkPad Fan Control is a nice utility to run on these...

TPFanControl by troubadix

Good luck.

 

I'll leave the repaste for another time, for TPFanControl which of the three options should I go choose? Waiting till tomorrow to clean install so I'm just planning ahead now.

 

Standard 0.62 should do just fine...

 

Doing the clean install right now, finally got a usb I could use to do it. While I was doing it, it came to the point that I had to format the drive, there were 3 other partitions, two of them were primary types, one for OS, one for lenovos backup and the other one of them was system type 1.2gb named system driv. Idiot me formatted it because I wanted to have no partitions not realizing it could've been system drivers. Did I do something bad?

 

Nope. You should be fine.

A clean install - at least in my book - means deleting everything previously present on the drive...amongst other things.

 

A ThinkPad X300 for 80 dollars, a relative bargain in my book. The crack you have is very common problem for the X30x.

 

Updated the bios, got .net framework 4.0 since the lenovo update wouldn't work without it, didn't see the wireless program Bronsky was talking about but I did get the hotkeys, and power manager. There was another option for windows 7 update module KB2397190, googled it and sounded pretty useful "Brightness setting for "Plugged in" profile is changed after restart Windows 7 on battery." so naturally I added that in too. First 3 downloaded, now its stuck on the update module at 90%, the top green bar will go to the end and then slowly back away and then do it all over again. I click cancel and what do I see! a agree/disagree term of use hiding behind it, I press yes the download starts to moving to 93% and It restarts itself, went back to the lenovo updater and it says its installed so I hope everything's fine.

Since I have this thread up I might as well ask some other questions, I remember seeing 3 partitions when formatting through the windows install but I only see 2 through my computer, under computer management > disk management I see the hidden drive 96% free I'm guessing because it's setup as "system" that's why I'm not seeing it under my computer. Should I let be? is it being used for something or can I turn it somehow into some usable space. It's only 1.17gigs so I'm not to concern if nothing can be done.

Thanks for the great help! I'm starting to really like it, had it on for quite a while installing everything and it's still very cool near the vents.

P.S If I could get a rec for a lightweight browser that would be groovy!

 

On my older ThinkPads I use Kmeleon and love it. YMMV.

 

How many ram slot a used? you may able to push the 3-4gb ram for pretty cheap.

 

I'll try anything! Been on chrome all this time and with 2gigs ram It's probably best not to use it.

Got anything to add for the hidden partition I mentioned up there?

I know I'm asking a lot of unnecessary questions, just need to get this figured out and I will be out of everyone's hair.

this forum post tells me 8GB's is possible.
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/X300-8GB-RAM-Memory/td-p/154617

No idea what the ram setup is in there, I've read it can read two 4GB DDR2-667 modules.

 

That is correct, but 4GB DDR2 laptop DIMMs are pricey. Think $140+ for a name-brand 8GB set.

You should be fine with 2x2GB.

 

I honestly don't want to spend much money on this thing unless it's really going to help out it's performance.

This is the cheapest I found

Buy the Patriot Signature PC6400 800MHz 2GB DDR2 Ntbk Mem at TigerDirect.ca

34+34=68 + 13% tax = almost $77, close to the value of the laptop.

 

Way too much. You can pick up a 4GB set for $40 or thereabouts on feebay or TPF's Marketplace....

 

Use those come with the machine, add 1gb if it have a free slot,

2gb seem to be a little expensive in canada ~

2GB to 3Gb make some difference, 3GB to 4GB make less difference.

 

Possibly found one, don't want to post the link incase you guys out bid poor little old me though with 12 bids and 9 hours left, I won't be surprised if it goes out of my budget.

It says it's DDR2 "800", will that work in the thinkpad?

It's tricky finding these little buggers, the shipping to Canada almost always breaks the deal.

 

Used Samsung 4GB DDR2 800 Notebook Memory 2GB X 2 | eBay

Just bought this ram, hope it works.

edit: just realized I'm going to have to reinstall windows and get the 64 bit version, will I have to update using middleton's bios again?

 

It should work just fine.

No need to touch the BIOS...just install the 64-bit version if you feel the need for it...I'd run the 32-bit with 4GB ( obviously only 3GB addressable) for a while and see whether a change is desirable...

My $0.02 only...

 

Good to hear my purchase wasn't for nothing,. I hear that some people say staying on 32bit when you have 4 gigs ram is better because it uses 1 gig for windows instead of 2 gigs on 64, there doesn't seem to be a joint opinion on it, I like to set and forget things so if I'm going to do it later I like saving the trouble of doing it later and getting it done now.

 

Personally, I'd stay with 64-bit. It handles 4GB just fine, and you don't have to reinstall should you decide to upgrade later. Heck, I've seen machines that shipped with 3GB RAM a few years ago, yet shipped with 64-bit win7. (Typing this on a C2D laptop with 4GB and win7 64-bit. 1GB used for Windows and ~800MB used for Chrome with a few forum tabs.)

 

Yeah I'll probably end up doing that.

Just realized my hotkeys aren't working, if I press mute the light above it turns on, press it again it stays on, press volume up or down light goes away, when I press volume up or down it does move, but I don't get that greenbar showing the levels as I did before the clean install. I'm pretty sure lenovo update installed hotkeys because I remember checking. Looking at installed updates it says thinkpad hotkey features intergration version 3.89.0000 installed, really odd. Also on bootup the sound of the broken cd reader is annoying, anyway to disable it? There's also a high pitched electrical sound on start up, it faintly beeps a couple times during the boot up and then its pretty constant at the desktop, I have very sensitive ears so if it wasn't for the loud fans it would really annoy me. Also the power management battery notifier the time left bounces around alot, is it supposed too? It's like 2:59 all of asudden its 3:3 and it will go down to 2:37 again.

Just a round up on my feelings on the laptop.
I'm really like the laptop, not used to do loud keyboard as my laptop is chiclet and I think even my desktop's G15 isn't as loud as this as it's rubberdome but it feels like I could type forever on it and not get tired quickly as I do on the others.. I use it in bed and I get surprised everytime by how little it weights compared to my asus, the resolution makes it alot better for internet browsing, I could've bargained the price a little more as I just gave him what he wanted but I'm really glad I got the laptop, it's a great little machine.

 

Windows 8 has its own OSD, which is why it was removed from the hotkey drivers in the newer versions.

No, if it were broken it wouldn't make any noise.

That's because the power usage increases heavily in certain moments like opening programs or scrolling.

 

There is a travel cover you can put in the OD bay. It will be silent. http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Lenovo-...8145?pt=US_Computer_Cases&hash=item4840f0a581

 

Hmm, rather spend the money on a empty cover can I get a recommendation on a 1.8" to mSATA adapter so I can just pop in a m.sata whenever I get a chance?

Interesting, I'll test it in a bit.

Hotkey Features Integration for Microsoft Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit) - Lenovo E49 - Lenovo Support (US)
Will this work to get it back?
Can't seem to find a way to uninstall the current hotkeys, can I just install over them or do I need ccleaner or something.

 

Hotkey driver 3.81 works. I only successfully downgraded once, usually I'd just reinstall windows if I want to get rid of a driver, just to be on the safe side.

 

Have to reinstall to get windows 64bit anyways so not too bad.

Testing youtube, 480p full screen works fine, 720p hd full screen it stutters/freezes a bit when a lot of movement but is expected. I'm sticking with 480p extended and it works .I'm using opera, on a google search page it sits at 621mb, internet explorer sits at 565mb.
With 3 tabs opened, one being a youtube video paused it sitting at 888mb on opera.

It's holding up for what I'm going to be doing on it which is good.

 

I downloaded 3.81.0100 from here, Hotkey Features Integration for Windows 8 (32-bit, 64-bit), 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), Vista (32-bit, 64-bit), XP and 2000 - ThinkPad - Lenovo Support (US)

Hot keys still don't work.

Spoiler

K-Meleon's makes everything go to the side, google works fine. Not sure if its just this site.

 

Are you using Lenovo's version of the graphics driver? They do implement additional features in the video driver for the OSD to work which is normally not present on the generic driver.

 

I didn't install any graphic drivers, which should I use? also on bootup I had some error that was like something something vista stopped working, I think it was display related.

 

The ThinkPad X300 uses Intel GM965 (X3100) Integrated Graphics, if you're using Vista you should head here for 32 bit drivers or here for 64 bit drivers so it allows the OSD to pop up with the hotkeys.

For Windows 7 however this particular driver is not available on the Lenovo page for the X300 oddly, you could try using the video driver from the T61 models as the Intel GPU models shares the same graphics chip as the X300. See here for 32 bit or here for 64 bit drivers.

 

Looks like you're right. When I run the X300 I get a monitor inf file when you key in the X300 and monitor/display driver. http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/pro...ries-laptops/thinkpad-x300/downloads/DS015012 The display driver does not show up. Weird.

 

Nothing was fixed, tried the vista ones, tried the T61 ones. I'm okay with the OSD not popping up if we can't do anything about it, the mute button not working is what's annoying me. Also surprised that the laptop can handle 5GHZ wireless N.

 

OK, that's strange on the video card driver part. I own two Thinkpads, and x120e and a t440s, and on neither have I ever installed the Lenovo provided video driver (save for what shipped on the stock install that I wiped soon enough) - I used the generic AMD one on the x120e (AMD E350/Radeon 6310) and generic Intel one on the t440s (Intel i5 4300U/HD4400). And on both, the hotkey utility still worked when downloaded. Lenovo OSDs under 7, and built in Windows ones on 8.1. On the t440s, the utility makes sure the mute light on that key is accurate with the OS. I seem to recall that the settings for the OSD tack onto the video driver settings pages that are built into Windows though. (Ex. screen res settings, advanced settings)

I also have an HP 6530b (slightly newer than the X300 and with 4500MHD graphics), and I used the default Win7 drivers for everything except the touchpad - the generic synaptics one gives me multitouch, which isn't supported by HP but works fine on those pads. Yep, Microsoft provided WDDM video driver. And HP's OSDs still work fine. (Same situation with the mute key/LED going out of sync with the OS. But, it's worth noting that the brightness keys do NOT work without the HP utility. However, that utility + non-HP video driver still worked fine.)

 

Check if there is hotkey driver, my intel t61 OSD don't come with video driver iirc. Its is so long time ago, i may be incorrect.

 

Got my ram in the mail today and I installed it, I'm getting beeps and a black screen on boot up. Not sure If it was because of the way I installed so I'll upload photos, I had to use something to help hold the clips back as I installed them.

Spoiler

edit: false alarm, I had the ram installed incorrectly, it wasn't touching the contact because of how I installed it. It's booted to the desktop now with 4gb of ram!