I’m a 2nd-generation ThinkPad enthusiast. As I grew up, my father switched between R50e, T43, T60, X240, and X1 Carbon (2012). At a certain point, he purchased ~50 X60s & X61s for his side hustle.
But I barely owned any ThinkPads. When I started college in 2013, my dad gave me a “Frankenpad” for schoolwork: a X61 with a motherboard from X61s. I used it for a year before switching to MacBooks for the next decade.
It wasn’t until last month when I saw Eric Murphy’s humorous video, How ThinkPads Became The Internet’s Favorite Laptop, that I realized my dad wasn’t alone.
I’ve always admired how deeply my father can get “in the flow” when he tinkers with electronics. The idea of maxing out a recycled laptop into a total “sleeper PC” (a powerful computer in a low-key enclosure) also sounds so ridiculous that it’s actually going to be fun.
It seems to be a nice hobby to pick up.
Picking T440p and touching up the cosmetics
So I started choosing a model. Despite the sheer amount of ThinkPad models out there, T440p caught my eyes in no time. Reasons include:
- It’s outrageously upgradable. The CPU is socketed, not soldered on the board. It uses generic display panels seen on many non-ThinkPad laptops. Even the keyboard can be replaced with a backlit model. How cool is that!
- It’s well-documented. I’m in no way handy with modding laptops, so reading Joshua Lay’s extensive upgrade guide has prepared me with tons of courage. Kudos to that guy!
- It’s abundant in usable state on the market. Starting with a known-working machine is important: I can start straight into the modding process, not having to first fix hardware failures. (Remember, I’m just doing this for fun!)
T440p is dirt-cheap nowadays. With the basic trim released at ~$1,155 in 2013, I was able to get my hands on one for $45 in 2024, or $66.67 with tax & shipping from Goodwill. It’s pretty beaten up for sure, but I’ll be putting a vinyl skin over the top cover anyway, so more scratches actually means to sweeter deal for me.
Regarding cosmetics, I did make a few blunders there. I rubbed 99% isopropyl alcohol all over the plastic shell with a paper towel. This whitened the plastic into a grayish fade. Internet says I should have used a 50% or 70% mixture instead, just to be easy on the material.
The other mistake I’ve made was neglecting the length differences between screws while re-assembling the chassis. By fastening screws into holes that are too shallow for them, I protruded little nibs out from the palm rest cover:
Well, that really made my ThinkPad unique, and so much for resell value.
Upgrading hardware
Luck wasn’t in my favor while shopping for aftermarket items on eBay or Amazon. Perhaps T440p-era components are eventually fading out from the market. Turning to overseas stocks for help, I tried AliExpress for the first time. Here are what I purchased:
- A screen panel (N140HCG-GQ2) for $66.77.
- A quad-core CPU (Intel Core i7–4712MQ) for $40.38.
- A top-cover skin for $13.72.
- A backlit keyboard for $27.02.
- A three-key touchpad for $10.
That sums up to $157.89, or $224.56 with the laptop itself included. According to a post in r/thinkpad, that’s hefty for a T440p. Don’t start your laptop-flipping business this way. But, once again, I’m only doing this for fun.
You might noticed that I didn’t plan on upgrading SSD or RAM. My T440p came with 2x4=8GB of RAM and 120GB of SSD. Since I’m not going to daily-drive this laptop anyway, that’s plenty of space for me already. I also don’t find swapping RAMs or SSDs entertainingly challenging, so I just left them there.
The installation process was a blast, except that the display panel didn’t exactly fit the chassis. Turns out its driver strip is ~2mm wider than the stock panel (a B140XTN03.3, for the record). I had to saw off a bit of plastic on both sides for it to fit. Not owning a utility knife, I kept on abusing the device opener from my iFixit toolkit (affectionately named “the Jimmy”). You can see from the photo below that it has been misused as a box cutter for too long.
Choosing an OS
As is typical to a Goodwill refurb, my T440p arrived with Linux Mint pre-installed. It scored a pathetic 893 / 1861 on Geekbench 6, which made me wonder how much performance I can squeeze out of the Core i5–4200M it came with.
This was around the time when CachyOS and Clear Linux OS — two Linux distros focusing on performance — appeared on everyone’s radar (Aug 11, to be specific). I installed CachyOS and got a whopping 16% / 12% score bump (to 1040 / 2078) in the benchmark. That’s the power of OS-level optimization.
By swapping in a Core i7–4712MQ, I doubled the number of cores and the size of the L3 cache, while having a 6% increase in the base frequency. Now, this computer is hitting a new high score of 1131 / 3549, or a 9% / 73% bump.
Interestingly, CachyOS happens to be an Arch Linux derivative, so I’m inadvertently sliding towards the stereotype of Linux users who keep saying “BTW I use Arch”. I should put that on my business cards.
Epilogue
With all those tweaks and mods done, I hereby announce this project completed. Look how beautiful it is:
This whole experience was fun. Along the journey, I built up quite some confidence in my dexterity. What to do with the laptop itself, though? I enjoy its contoured keyboard even more than that on my MacBooks, so I might use it mostly as a typewriter. I will try carrying it around libraries / coffee shops and see how much writing I can get done on this machine.
Thanks for reading this blog post. If you are looking for a hobbyist project to conduct, I hope this article has convinced you to explore the ThinkPad-modding world. See you in r/thinkpad.
