The Frankenstein Laptop Buying Diary

My dad needed a laptop. Requirements:

1. Cheap, because it might end up shared at his workplace and get lost easily.
2. Low-key, nothing too flashy.
3. Fast enough to browse the web and chat.
4. Tough, because the work environment is pretty rough.

So I dug around online for a while and picked up a rebuilt ThinkPad T500, P8600 + 2G + 160G, for 900.

The machine looked basically new when it arrived. It’s a rebuilt refurb, sure, and there’s a noticeable cleaning smell inside. The battery is completely dead. Screen brightness is fine but the panel itself is mediocre — nowhere near IPS colors, though 1280x800 is plenty. The keyboard was probably swapped for a new one, no shine on the keys. I opened it up and the insides had been cleaned, pretty tidy. For a rebuild, the condition is okay.

I had 2G of RAM and a KingSpec 128G SSD sitting at home, so I popped the back open following the screw diagram and installed them. Dead easy.

Set it up with Windows 8.1, disabled every unwanted feature I could, installed the two Chinese programs my dad actually uses — Kuwo Music and Meitu — then imported all the certificates from those programs into the blacklist.

Yeah, it runs well. Honestly the T500 keyboard feels great to type on — this post was written on it. Easy to disassemble, parts are easy to find, and when it gets slow down the road I can drop in a T9000-class CPU for under 100 and it’ll be good for a few more years.