My ThinkPad T470 is beginning to show its age I think. It's had a
replacement keyboard and a replacement screen in the last couple of
years and now (see other thread) one of its disk drives has failed.

So I'm thinking about what I might replace it with.

I've gone through quite a few ThinkPads, started with a couple of
X201s, a T430 then the T470. My wife now has an X13 which is quite
nice.

My eyes are ageing so a slightly bigger screen might not go amiss,
I'll go for refurbished as usual (can't afford a new computer),
budget is probably in the œ200 to œ400 sort of area.

So, what's good for Debian/Linux in the newer ThinkPad models? Are
T15/P15 OK, will Debian cope well with the Nvidia graphics on the P15
series? ThinkPad P15v seem remerkably cheap compared with others, is
there some issue with them?

Are there any other reliable laptops that work well with Debian (e.g.
Dell models)?

--
Chris Green
ú

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

My ThinkPad T470 is beginning to show its age I think. It's had a
replacement keyboard and a replacement screen in the last couple of
years and now (see other thread) one of its disk drives has failed.
So I'm thinking about what I might replace it with.

I'd vote for replacing the disk. It's much easier and cheaper. ?
Oh, and it's good for karma, of course.


=== Stefan

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

At Mon, 25 May 2026 10:53:46 -0400 Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:

My ThinkPad T470 is beginning to show its age I think. It's had a replacement keyboard and a replacement screen in the last couple of
years and now (see other thread) one of its disk drives has failed.
So I'm thinking about what I might replace it with.

I'd vote for replacing the disk. It's much easier and cheaper. ????
Oh, and it's good for karma, of course.

I agree. So long as the motherboard & processor are still working well, there is no real reason to upgrade. Everything else can be easily replaced. I *guess* getting a machine with a larger screen might be a reason, but otherwise...

== Stefan

--
Robert Heller -- Cell: 413-658-7953 GV: 978-633-5364
Deepwoods Software -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Linux Administration Services
heller@deepsoft.com -- Webhosting Services


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Mon, 25 May 2026 14:03:42 +0100
Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

So, what's good for Debian/Linux in the newer ThinkPad models?

https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki might have some ideas. In any
case, a useful resource.

--
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 5/25/26 06:03, Chris Green wrote:

My ThinkPad T470 is beginning to show its age I think. It's had a
replacement keyboard and a replacement screen in the last couple of
years and now (see other thread) one of its disk drives has failed.

So I'm thinking about what I might replace it with.

I've gone through quite a few ThinkPads, started with a couple of
X201s, a T430 then the T470. My wife now has an X13 which is quite
nice.

My eyes are ageing so a slightly bigger screen might not go amiss,
I'll go for refurbished as usual (can't afford a new computer),
budget is probably in the œ200 to œ400 sort of area.

So, what's good for Debian/Linux in the newer ThinkPad models? Are
T15/P15 OK, will Debian cope well with the Nvidia graphics on the P15
series? ThinkPad P15v seem remerkably cheap compared with others, is
there some issue with them?

Are there any other reliable laptops that work well with Debian (e.g.
Dell models)?

I agree with other readers that replacing the failing second disk drive
would be the simplest and lowest cost option.


STFW "ThinkPad T470":

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadt/thinkpad-t470/22tp2tt4700#tech_specs

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-t-series-laptops/thinkpad-t470/20hd/document-userguide

That should be sufficient for a Debian daily driver. I am curious --
how did you install a second disk drive?


Do you have a workload that requires more processor, memory, storage, graphics, whatever?


Looking at eBay, there are many used ~17" laptops available within your
price range, but only a few refurbished. At that size, it should be
possible to find one that supports two or more drives. I own and
recommend Dell computers. Debian GNU/Linux and FreeBSD work without significant issues. Lenovo seems to be another good choice. HP seems
to have incompatibilities, even with Windows. I have little recent
experience with other laptop manufacturers.


David

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

That should be sufficient for a Debian daily driver. I am curious -- how
did you install a second disk drive?

AFAICT, it has both a 2?" SATA bay for an HDD (or old-style SSD) and an
M.2 port for NVMe.


=== Stefan

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 5/25/26 14:57, Stefan Monnier wrote:

That should be sufficient for a Debian daily driver. I am curious -- how
did you install a second disk drive?

AFAICT, it has both a 2«" SATA bay for an HDD (or old-style SSD) and an
M.2 port for NVMe.

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-t-series-laptops/thinkpad-t470/20he/20hes23b18/document-userguide/doc_userguide


Looking in the service manual:

1. It looks like these is an either/or choice for "1050 Internal
storage drive" -- 2.5" HDD/SSD or M.2 SSD. I expect this is the system
drive.

2. It looks like there is an either/or choice for "1080 M.2 solid-state
drive in the Wireless-WAN-card slot". I suspect this is the second drive.


David

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Mon, 25 May 2026, at 22:09, David Christensen wrote:

At that size, it should be
possible to find one that supports two or more drives.

My current (old) 17" laptop was sold with a hard disk & a
DVD drive in it; I changed the hard disk to an SSD.

Since I rarely use CDs/DVDs (& have an external USB-attached
CD/DVD drive) I replaced the built-in DVD drive with a caddy in
which is mounted a second SSD. Its interface - specced just
to support the DVD - is slower than the hard disk interface
but I don't care; I only use the second drive for backups.

--
Jeremy Nicoll - my opinions are my own.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> wrote:

On Mon, 25 May 2026 14:03:42 +0100
Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

So, what's good for Debian/Linux in the newer ThinkPad models?

https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki might have some ideas. In any
case, a useful resource.

Thank you, that looks like a really useful resource.

--
Chris Green
ú

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:

My ThinkPad T470 is beginning to show its age I think. It's had a replacement keyboard and a replacement screen in the last couple of
years and now (see other thread) one of its disk drives has failed.
So I'm thinking about what I might replace it with.

I'd vote for replacing the disk. It's much easier and cheaper. ?
Oh, and it's good for karma, of course.

Well I would but although it only cost me œ47 back in 2024 the same
disk drive now costs over œ150. That's a big chunk of the cost of a
new (to me) laptop!

The joys of the AI boom!

--
Chris Green
ú

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> wrote:

On 5/25/26 06:03, Chris Green wrote:

My ThinkPad T470 is beginning to show its age I think. It's had a replacement keyboard and a replacement screen in the last couple of
years and now (see other thread) one of its disk drives has failed.

So I'm thinking about what I might replace it with.

I've gone through quite a few ThinkPads, started with a couple of
X201s, a T430 then the T470. My wife now has an X13 which is quite
nice.

My eyes are ageing so a slightly bigger screen might not go amiss,
I'll go for refurbished as usual (can't afford a new computer),
budget is probably in the œ200 to œ400 sort of area.

So, what's good for Debian/Linux in the newer ThinkPad models? Are
T15/P15 OK, will Debian cope well with the Nvidia graphics on the P15 series? ThinkPad P15v seem remerkably cheap compared with others, is
there some issue with them?

Are there any other reliable laptops that work well with Debian (e.g.
Dell models)?

I agree with other readers that replacing the failing second disk drive would be the simplest and lowest cost option.

STFW "ThinkPad T470":

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadt/thinkpad-t470/22tp2tt4700#tech_specs

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-t-series-laptops/thinkpad-t470/20hd/document-userguide

That should be sufficient for a Debian daily driver. I am curious --
how did you install a second disk drive?

It's an M2 format SATA disk installed in the M2 WiFi slot, it's a 2242
size one. Simple installation, basically remove the bottom panel,
plug it in and it works.

Do you have a workload that requires more processor, memory, storage, graphics, whatever?

Larger brighter screen is probably all I'd like/need. The T470 is
plenty fast enough.

Looking at eBay, there are many used ~17" laptops available within your price range, but only a few refurbished. At that size, it should be possible to find one that supports two or more drives. I own and
recommend Dell computers. Debian GNU/Linux and FreeBSD work without significant issues. Lenovo seems to be another good choice. HP seems
to have incompatibilities, even with Windows. I have little recent experience with other laptop manufacturers.

OK, thanks for the ideas.

--
Chris Green
ú

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Hi,

On Tue, May 26, 2026 at 08:16:24AM +0100, Chris Green wrote:

David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> wrote:

how did you install a second disk drive?

It's an M2 format SATA disk installed in the M2 WiFi slot, it's a 2242
size one. Simple installation, basically remove the bottom panel,
plug it in and it works.

You are probably aware but this once confused me so in case anyone else
is wondering: these M.2 wifi slots are usually only 1 PCIe lane, as
opposed to a normal motherboard M.2 which would be 4 PCIe lanes. A usual
M.2 NVMe SSD would be able to make use of 4 lanes and would be
constrained by 1 lane. A native SATA SSD also would probably be feaster,
but an M.2 SATA on a single lane which would be limited to about 600MB/s
is obviously still much faster than a HDD.

Thanks,
Andy

--
https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> wrote:

I am curious -- how did you install a second disk drive?

On 5/26/26 00:16, Chris Green wrote:

It's an M2 format SATA disk installed in the M2 WiFi slot, it's a 2242
size one. Simple installation, basically remove the bottom panel,
plug it in and it works.

On 5/26/26 00:11, Chris Green wrote:

... it only cost me œ47 back in 2024 the same
disk drive now costs over œ150. That's a big chunk of the cost of a
new (to me) laptop!

The joys of the AI boom!

The Lenovo T470 Hardware Maintenance Manual indicates the secondary SSD
goes in the wireless WAN slot (WWAN; e.g. cellular telephone network),
not the wireless LAN slot (WLAN; e.g. Wi-Fi, BlueTooth). See sections
1070 and 1080 of the HMM:

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-t-series-laptops/thinkpad-t470/20hd/document-userguide


See also:

https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/e38mga/add_2nd_ssd_to_new_t470/

Larger brighter screen is probably all I'd like/need. The T470 is
plenty fast enough.

OK, thanks for the ideas.

Additional ideas:

1. Use a USB HDD for backups. HDD's should be cheaper than SSD's.

2. Use a USB flash drive for backups. To avoid "letting the smoke
out", only connect it when running back ups or restores, and consider throttling transfer rate for long duration operations.

3. Two or more USB drives would facilitate on-site/ off-site rotation.

4. 14" laptops with FHD displays have tiny on-screen text. I connect
mine to my KVM. I support one user who bought a 27" monitor. Text is
nearly twice as large, the image is bright, and the usage experience is
very nice.

5. The laptop specifications indicate it may have a USB-C/Thunderbolt 3
port suitable for a charging docking station. This would complement a keyboard, monitor, mouse, USB drive, etc..


David

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)