How to Make a Fast Sub $100 Laptop for Older People With a Thinkpad T410s and Zorin OS 

You are the person along with sebis and laptop retrospective that got me into thinkpads, You helped me so much with my t430. thank you for all of that. Btw I hope you get back to uploading regularly

Have bought several used thinkpads and set them up for family members beaded on your advice. They work great. Thanks!

Great video, thanks. I would like to see more of this kind of video, demonstrating how to keep older hardware out of the recycle bin. On Installing a Linux distro, that initial error you got might be due to the way you ended the installation. Mortal users would do better to choose Restart when prompted, then press Enter when prompted. This would unmount that USB drive safely, then properly restart the computer. And that might also help in the long run. If you prefer shutting down as opposed to restarting, choose to Try the OS instead of Install, then run the installer from that live desktop. When the install is complete, choose to continue testing, then press the power button and choose shutdown, then press Enter when prompted. There is also an OEM install option, which may be different depending on which OS is being installed. This defers the account creation steps until after installation so that the end user can personalize the computer (username, password, login options, etc.) on first boot.

Spend the few extra bucks for a 420 . MUCH better laptop. Sandy Bridge instead of 1st gen Core i, SATA 3 instead of SATA 2 among other enhancements. I've purchased numerous T420s with i5 processors and chargers for under $100 US and set them up for people, although now I tend to push them to spend an extra $10 for T430's to get USB 3.

Nice to see a new video from you!

i love how genuine AA's content is. feels like a friend helping friends, no ulterior motives. just real thoughts and advice! i know the college student struggle, so don't feel pressure to upload frequently. keep it real and keep it up :D

This video is Great, I just purchased a T430, and it needs some upgrades and this I will use. Thank You

I've been using my t410 for more than 7 years or so. I bought it from first hands, upgraded to ssd, added from 4 to 8 gb ram, and put hdd bay instead of dvd rom. I'm not gonna change it as it is gonna be my daily driver till the last day of either of us! Planned to buj t430, but remote learning changed prices in Poland so need to wait for the situation to calm down. Gratings from Poland and come up please with new thinkpads as they are creme de la creme of notebooks ever made.

Hey, good to see a new video!!! I am still using the same T430 I bought more than 2 years ago, as my daily driver, and my son is still using the same T420 I bought 3 years ago. All that was from watching your videos! My wife uses the same X230 from 3 years ago (I think, kinda lost track of time). I recently bought an X201, just for fun, just to see if it could handle the same workload as my T430. Well, it can. The CPU isn't as strong, and it heats up a bit more, but it gets the job done. However, the T430 stays my main computer, as it just seems to be unbreakable. Let me take advantage to thank you for all those videos, they were a great source of inspiration!

English translation caps are hilarious! Like 8:12 "I wanna wish for Christmas presents"😂😂😂 First time I've watched your channel in a while, subbed!

As of Jan 2020, Win 7 is no longer supported. So I transitioned back to Linux. I started with LinuxMint, I am on 20.1 on my main PC Rig. I love it, ZORIN OS is so damn good for laptops and low end spec computers. I was given a few obsolete and trashed laptops and fixed the better one with parts from the other, luckily they had similar specs but different company made. Then did a deep clean, added ZORIN OS and wow, my friends didn't know I made trash into treasure. Great video by the way...

Awesome video. Im doing to give Zorin a try. See you in a few months for the next video

"Just turn it on and get shit done!"

You made my day.

People really underestimate these older Thinkpad models. They are so easy to upgrade and dirt cheap. Not to mention they are built like literal tanks. An SSD and Linux makes these run so much better and feel more modern. Heck, you can still run Windows on these things and they will still feel modern.

I just started using Zorin OS (Lite) a month ago-loved it!

I love Zorin I have been using it for almost a year on my t430

I bought both a T440p and a T440 and installed Zorin on them. Both machines work great and love the OS.

This is a great video I myself am only now getting into thinkoads and because of this video am thinking of getting one for my mom. Also I've tried Zorin OS before this video due to windows breaking itself via update and I didnt know gow to fix it and agree with everything you say about it.

You make vids about thinkpads ? You earned the sub!

Zorin was my first Linux OS. Switched to Manjaro just recently after years of Zorin, dating back to 2013.

I never realized Zorin was such a great OS. I've been slowly trying to use my Linux machine more and more to get used to the interface but Linux Mint has so much more settings you need to configure that it's not nearly as simple as Zorin. Excellent video.

Great video all around. I suggest you take a look on EndlessOS. Yes I know, suggestions for Linux OS never ends . This one is made for the purpose of being used and getting out of your way . also you can have a lot of data on the storage for use of internet. and thats a good use for people in remote places .

Great content. I miss Cub Linux : ( I have tried Phoenix Linux but it is no longer being supported, using Pop OS! on Lenovo Thinkcentre with great success. Keep up the great work, subscribed.

the thinkpad videos are pleasant to watch

hi another great video, just one comment,as a daily chromebook user i think you may need to use a chromebook even a cheap one for a while,say 3 months. This may not make you want to go out and but one, but you can see they all fall apart in less than a year. Once again another great video.

Ayyyy HE BE USING ZORIN OS thats my fav distro ngl

I have a collection of ibm/lenovo x60 &x61 Inc. S &T models all running various OSes and talk about strip down for thermal pasting and fan cleaning. These are still great, maxed out on ram and all have ssd

Hey look he came back

3:24 and 3:30... leave feedback!

Thanks for the video. Honestly I'm considering to buy an old Thinkpad X220 for my internet browsing computer since I'm deciding to use my current laptop to work as a rendering laptop only. I'm sure with 8GB of RAM it'll be plenty for browsing.

I've boycotted Zorin years ago because of the conduct of the people overseeing its forums. There are better lite distros out there. Like antiX and they have really nice forums.

I've never used automatic updates on anything where possible. Things always want to update at the most inconvenient of times and the latest version isn't always the best anyway. And actually I've found Zorin to be one of the heavier Linux distros, especially in virtual machines. I'd much rather use something like Xubuntu which you actually brought to my attention, I believe, in an earlier video.

Nice video! Question: what options do you have for WiFi with both of these laptops?

My T410s is becoming a car diagnosing laptop for my and my dad's 80s BMWs :D

One project that competes with cloudready is called brunch. It is full chrome os with Linux app support and android app support. I completely recommend it, and I've installed it on my tablet PC.

The hang at boot might come from force powering off and not using the reboot option, I don't know if the disks are properly synced before the box appears. Other than that, great video!

zorin os has definitely come a long way from my last install of it over five years ago.

Zorins OS is a very nice OS. I still prefer Linux mint mate for my elder relatives (they are used to, and do not like changes). The Mint Mate long-lasting release is crazy stable, ergonomics is well though, also as a non-english speaker, the os is very well translated in my language (French). And having my grandmother's computer with perfectly written French is super important to her (87yo). Nevertheless, I might give Zorin a try on my father's old HP laptop. Zorin looks super cool and slick and as he speaks English even if the translation to French is not perfect it will be ok for him I guess.

If the 2.5" SSD can be disassembled, I think it might fit in the drive bay

Have you ever had a stuttering trackpoint issue on a Thinkpad? My T440p does and I'm info hunting to see if anyone knows how to fix it, nothing so far.

I run Arcolinux xfce4 on my HP Probook 6450b. I've been running this distro for 2 years.

VLC can be sluggish sometimes . If you want a better playback experience , try celluloid .

Zorin OS is a great distro, especially if it's the Lite version. I've been running that for over a year on my daughter's old Compaq laptop, and the lightweight and polished OS is a huge draw. It was my daily driver too for a few months until I switched to Manjaro.

What do you think about Thinkpad t440p? I know they are cheap but I couldn't find one lower than 200 USD and maybe with shipping even on ebay. With this that thinkpad probably will cost me around 500 bucks with the max specs. What should I do?

Protip: You can get inexpensive adapter from 1.8" microsata (usata) to quite common msata. (had the same issue with 2530p)

Well I have my x230 and I use it for college and I just ordered some new parts for it but it's really good I have to say it and also yeah I do believe that Chrome OS it's not so good but I also do like it because well you can always search up how to install the original Chrome OS or you can install a Linux distribution in an install an Android OS and that basically it's almost like a Chromebook but with Linux which is still pretty cool but all in all I have to say that I like having options when it comes to my operating system

Who knows, maybe with this acquisition CloudReady could get Play Store support.

"creepy personal assistant..." LOL Also, to prevent the initial hang, click the reboot and in the bios set the boot drive to the ssd. Nice video though.

Have you heard of FydeOS? It's a Chrome OS port that has the Play Store.

Neverware does seem to still be around and working.

Hell yeah, love your old HW, or give/donate it to someone in need, as it takes years before it becomes truly obsolete. During the pandemic I had opportunity to work with different laptops, for myself and for family, and my conclusions are: - Any i-series Intel CPU from even the first generation will run Windows 10 no problem, though older ones might feel snappier with Linux - 2GB DDR2 RAM is no issue for light Linux distro like Lubuntu, but Windows 10 can kinda choke on 4GB DDR3 if you want to multitask - SSD is the most important part of any casual computer nowadays - used for web browsing, multimedia, light office work, whatever - 2nd/3rd gen M-series Intel CPUs are about as powerful as 5th/6th gen Intel U-series CPUs, so still very, very good for a casual user - Don't ever buy a laptop, new or used, with an ultra-low power CPU, as it will age very, very poorly (so: say no to Atom-like parts, unless you have very specific use in mind) - Core 2 Duo chips are still decent enough for casual PCs, though many Linux distros drop i386 support - I use Lubuntu 18.04 on my C2D machine I worked with: i3-7100U (2016) ~= i5-5200U (2015) ~= i5-2520M (2011) > i5-3317U (2012) >>>>>> C2D T5470 (2007) >>>>>> AMD C-70 (2012) (that was a netbook, poor little CPU). Only the last one would choke on nowadays websites, pretty much freezing when wanting to run e.g. online shop or RU-vid. C2D T5470 handles 720p multimedia streaming, and anything above does 1080p without problems - use H264ify plugin for your browser to force video codecs supported by older hardware. I suppose stronger C2D CPUs could do better, as they shouldn't be much weaker than 3317U. Honestly, I was amazed how that entry level C2D from 2007 (?) is still much snappier than a Raspberry Pi - I have a 3B+ model, definitely not suited for web browsing. Pi 4 would be better for that, but not sure if snappier than my old C2D, though it seems to handle 1080p decently nowadays, as I heard. In the end I think that casual user will need more computing power than last decade CPUs offer only after the market will adapt to 4k(+) screen resolutions - when websites will use heavier, bigger images, and hi-res multimedia, and more convoluted structures and scripts... Also - light Linux distros prety much double the lifespan of any PC. Love them!

I just bought 10 laptops for $160. Wide variety some giant old old xp Era ones up to 3rd gen i5's. I think the less capable of the bunch will probably get this treatment!

nice

lubuntu or lxle for systems with less than 4gb of ram works great imo

Which OS is more power-hungry in your experience? Mint? Zorin? Or Win 10? In my experience with an X220 with a worn out battery, Win 10 says 90 minutes to go after a clean start up, while Mint says 60 minutes.

16:00 Tbh I used a chromebook that we bought for $110 as my daily driver for 2 years for school I installed windows 10 on it, got office 2016, installed everything and still had 2gb free on a 16gb drive :) also it only has 2gb ram and a celeron n2840 I gamed on that wanker too btw xDD Im proud of that ngl (acer chromebook 11 cb3-131 in case anyone wanted to know) the chromebook is about 4 years old now and the tab, search and z keys dont work most of the time but i say it did enough and lived long enough for the price lol I now have a proper laptop and desktop tho but i love that thing just due to how much i managed to do with it considering the restraints

Druaga1 did a review of an older version of Zorin OS and had left a CD of a game in the drive and he just double clicked on setup.exe and the game installed in Zorin with no issues. He then tried a few Windows game installs and they all seemed to work with the integrated Wine.

i got about same laptop i bought 5 months ago as Refurbished in store in my city. How did you get it so cheap i payed over $250 with upgrade ram to 8 gb

15:33 There is actually a way to get other resolutions for the os. I believe these machines were set at 1600*900. There is a way to do it btw.

i never turn off updates yes sometimes updates mess up it has happen to me

@Ryan Thomas video is what introduced me to used ThinkPads and @Sebi's Random Tech, @AA Computers and Technology, @Laptop Retrospective convinced me to get one.

I'm trying to find a lenovo that would be good for 3d rendering I was thinking the p51 but I'd like to get your thoughts

Thanks for the video man. Have a good day. How is coil whining in that laptop? I have the model with just Intel graphics and the noise is unbearable. Hot glue on the "non hot" inductors had only minor effects. Unfortunately the noisy ones are the hottest ones so I cannot really glue them down.

Is Zorin fast now? I tried using the free version years ago for low spec machines and it was slow. I put Cloud Ready on a couple of them and it was a great OS, they kept working with no update problems ever.

Have you heard of Ubuntu Web Remix? It's a unofficial flavor of Ubuntu that is trying to be a ChromeOS alternative but with Firefox.

My Thinkpad has Core 2 Duo 4GB Ram and Dual GPU it Runs Windows 7 64bit but Zorin OS i not used it there been some Rude People associated with it . Plus Linux it don't work so good with dual GPU and or my USB Wireless Card cause it has no support for Linux .

i keep my cdrom in i have some old games still cant buy online

Best qoute, get it installed and get shit done

conical is the company for ubuntu based distros like mint and zorin...and its not as trouble free as you stated in your reasons to use it...debian doesnt have those issues. and mx linux by far is the best ive ever used..the mx tools have many advantages over zorin..and most everything is quick and easy to install..with the newest ver 19.3 it even keeps the kernels updated by itself.

you dont have to login in windows when ever i have to reinstall windows i turn off my wi hi you can use offline account

Sad that thinkpad aren't as upgradable today... I guess we'll have to jump on the framework bandwagon.

So sad thinkpads are unavailable in my country, they are more expensive than brand new laptops

We're not going to talk about the fact that Zorin OS has Win32 App Compatibility with the WINE Package Pre-Installed.

Will it work on older ati fire pro graphics on older Dell precision i5 2nd gen laptops. Or work on slower older dual core laptops ?

try mx linux..fast simple to install and debian based.it updates automatically..ver 19.3.

Am I the only one seeing screen tearing on video playback? Might be Nvidia driver thing. I noticed the same, thought not as prominent, on my T440p with Nvidia under Mint 20.1 Cinnamon last weekend. I switched graphics to Intel card and long and behold, video seem to be smoother on a weaker GPU. Same laptop haven't had any problems playing RU-vid 1440p at 60fps. As much as I love and support Linux, unfortunately W10 sometimes just does better.

bootable zorin ssd

that laptop seems fast still

One recent disappointment is that Zorin stopped supporting its last 32-bit version, in April 2023... So using Zorin to revive older systems has become limited to only 64-bit machines. Which sucks for me because most of my 11 laptops are 32-bit! lol

Yes body come me!

i might do that to grandmas computer

"...Not made of unattainium..." 👍

How about Ubuntu web remix

Gotta disagree slightly about your hardware choice. I can't recommend the T410 any more because it uses first-gen Intel Core technology. Those chips ran HOT and are barely faster than the Core2 Duos that preceded them. For only a minuscule increase in purchase price, the 2n'd-gen CPUs used in the ThinkPad T420 series are a much, much better choice. It's 2021, after all.

The times when laptops have strange resolutions.

Fyde OS is still available. It's a chromium OS.

It would suck if Google snatched up Zorin. Lol.

And we're not going to talk about Windows 10 Lite or Windows 10 Ameliorated Edition.

it would be really cool if you had an update on your land you were clearing i thought it was soo cool

Chinesium? i get some AvE vibes here...

Arnold the bat chromium OS distribution

Too bad its still based on ubuntu 18.04

Why not just use windows 10? Most people are already familiar with it or older versions windows and it will have years of support.

The people I help are so hopeless I can't give them a linux distro at all. I have several people I help added to my teamviewer account so I can remote in without them having to click anything and I had a person call me crying yes CRYING saying they need to install microsoft teams because the web version didn't have some features and other times they forgot their password when the system prompted them to do updates. It's getting to the point where it's not even worth the money to help these people I just reinstalled windows 10 on their laptop and paused updates for as long as it would let me so microsoft doesn't have any opportunity to get in there and break anything.

Firefox is cancer. But Cool video bro!

You're concerned about Google when you have a RU-vid channel? Do you not know that Google owns YT?

umm, chile- am i listening to a rant or a how to video? literally every second this guy will either rant about everything at once. sis, all i want to know is to how to get a laptop for my parents, not to listen to this guy rant about how he hates windows 10 or chromebooks, lmao- anyways, bye sis- 💅💞🏳️‍🌈🤩