I'm Thinking About Upgrading the Hardware of My Lenovo X200 Laptop/Tablet

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Because my device is 13 years old, and has gradually become slower and under-performing because of that, I would buy a more modern one to replace it. However, being that most (but not all) modern tablets are rather expensive, and I'd have to remove the proprietary software off of it again, I've decided to upgrade the hardware instead. While some things, like the keyboard, screen, USB ports, and battery (provided I keep it plugged in) all work fine, I want to replace everything else. Being that I'm not technical-oriented, I'd like everyone who responds to suggest the best but also most affordable hardware. I know I'd need to upgrade parts like the motherboard, CPU, RAM, and Memory (I know what those things are in name-only), but I don't know which other ones I'd need as well, so I'd appreciate it if someone could provide me a checklist. As far as putting the new parts in, I'll have a computer repair company like UBreakIFix do that for me.

In terms of vendors, I want to go with ones that specialize in hardware, but I refuse to shop at BestBuy because they engage in woke capitalism, and because numerous Chinese businesses are owned by the government, I refuse to buy from them as well. Because a Chinese business has a major stake in NewEgg, I'm hesitant to shop there. Are there other places I can buy from, or should I just go with NewEgg?

Edit: To clear up some confusion, I refuse to buy from Chinese companies directly. I know just about all computer hardware is made in China, but as long as I'm buying from a US retailer who sells Chinese hardware, that's fine.
 
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Are you wanting to buy a laptop or desktop? Lenovo must not be an option if you are not wanting to buy any Chinese hardware? I'm guessing you are probably looking for something not too expensive and since you don't like capitalism an option also would be is to look for a second hand laptop or desktop. There are enough companies that sell their laptops/desktops to a second hand store, sometimes you can still get quite a good system that isn't too expensive. They have that here so I'm sure they should have places like that in the US.
 
I have a similar Thinkpad.

The RAM can be doubled to an unofficial 8Gb.

Adding an SSD instead of a HDD will speed things up.
 
Are you wanting to buy a laptop or desktop? Lenovo must not be an option if you are not wanting to buy any Chinese hardware? I'm guessing you are probably looking for something not too expensive and since you don't like capitalism an option also would be is to look for a second hand laptop or desktop. There are enough companies that sell their laptops/desktops to a second hand store, sometimes you can still get quite a good system that isn't too expensive. They have that here so I'm sure they should have places like that in the US.

You seem to be misunderstanding my entire post. While I did say it'd be typical for me to buy a new device altogether, I never said I was actually going to do that. I don't know how you came to that conclusion.
 
The RAM can be doubled to an unofficial 8Gb.

Adding an SSD instead of a HDD will speed things up.

Do you have a link to where I can buy the RAM and SSD? Do you have any specific models in mind?
 
I am sure you will find most brands are made in china only mass market one I can think of that's not would be Samsung [but it will still contain Chinese parts ] there are others made in places like Brazil but they are not very good compared to the usual brands, there is very little you can upgrade in a laptop let alone a pad, as @arochester said Ram and a newer faster ssd, any thing else would be integrated or hard wired [solderd] to the motherboard
 
You seem to be misunderstanding my entire post. While I did say it'd be typical for me to buy a new device altogether, I never said I was actually going to do that. I don't know how you came to that conclusion.
As English is not my first language sometimes I misread things, also upgrading hardware can also mean replacing all of your hardware with something new I've see since that is technically an upgrade as well.
 
As English is not my first language sometimes I misread things, also upgrading hardware can also mean replacing all of your hardware with something new I've see since that is technically an upgrade as well.

Thank you for informing me on that
 
@f33dm3bits Your English is really good. Mixed race parents or just super talented. My grandparents on mum's side were mixed so I know a little native Afrikaans (similar to Dutch).

@SpongebobFan1994 Yeah, Samsung is S. Korean and make their own die. Dunno if they do their own storage/memory, but Micron does. Micron is an American die manufacturer and they own Crucial, so their memory and storage are top class! That's RAM, SSDs, etc.
Dunno why the anti-Chinese sentiment, but each to their own. Sadly, as stated, you won't easily escape Chinese goods. They have a good, low cost workforce and, like Japan in the 1980s, have started producing high-quality stuff.
AFAIK, being South African and not American, your best bet is an online retailer or buying directly from a seller of 2nd hand goods -- beware that!
As for upgrades, well, most stuff is soldered to the board except storage, memory (sometimes it is with 1 free removable slot), HIDs, and LED panel. IOW, you don't have a lot to work with. Your CPU and RAM speed are gonna still bottleneck you somewhat. Perhaps going to a lighter OS (if possible) would help.
 
@f33dm3bits Your English is really good. Mixed race parents or just super talented. My grandparents on mum's side were mixed so I know a little native Afrikaans (similar to Dutch).
I grew up abroad ;)
 
I grew up abroad ;)
You have done well then, my OH was born and bred in Lancashire [from a long line of Lancastrians ]
and after 45 yrs of marriage I still have the occasional problem understanding her,
 
@SpongebobFan1994 Knowing that you want to upgrade certain parts of your system. Laptops are pretty tricky to upgrade parts and some parts not even replaceable/upgrade-able. With laptops the most obvious things that you can upgrade are memory and replacing/adding another hard disk or ssd if there is space. Cpu and graphics card usually not easily replaceable, the graphics card in laptops are specially made for laptops so will be expensive to replace that as well as the paying for someone else to do it, I would say cpu same story.

I had a gaming laptop about 2 years ago and I ran into the problem that replacing parts was either hard or impossible so I sold it and replaced it with a desktop. Lastly as for your laptop being 13 years old, I would consider looking into replacing it with a second hand laptop. That way you will have an upgrade on all of your hardware and it won't cost you the full price. Just my two cents ;)
 
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Find a good second hand/refurbished Dell.

Search carefully.......you could even list the url of the page it is on for further opinions from the people here.

I dont know where @CarolQ lives, but he'she bought a refurbished Dell recently.

I mention Dell because they appear to have a good track record where Linux is concerned.

As for refurbishing your current laptop....13 years old....I foresee problems....lots of them.

Upgrading the memory if it is possible and putting in a SSD would be as far as I would go.
 
Dell have refurbishment centers around the world ..search Refurbished dell +[the country you live in] but as most of them are fairly recent machine, they are still not cheap . you would do better just to search for refurbished laptops [with your country] and look for one with at least 3 months guarantee,
As far as I am concerned, Dell are usually the best for linux but avoid any with celeron processors , HP,Acer,Asus,e-machine are all fairly problem free, then comes the other brands, and at the end of the list Mac, Google are usually slower due to choice of low power consumption parts and they lack the storage capacity
 
Yeah, Samsung is S. Korean and make their own die. Dunno if they do their own storage/memory, but Micron does. Micron is an American die manufacturer and they own Crucial, so their memory and storage are top class! That's RAM, SSDs, etc.
Dunno why the anti-Chinese sentiment, but each to their own. Sadly, as stated, you won't easily escape Chinese goods. They have a good, low cost workforce and, like Japan in the 1980s, have started producing high-quality stuff.
AFAIK, being South African and not American, your best bet is an online retailer or buying directly from a seller of 2nd hand goods -- beware that!
As for upgrades, well, most stuff is soldered to the board except storage, memory (sometimes it is with 1 free removable slot), HIDs, and LED panel. IOW, you don't have a lot to work with. Your CPU and RAM speed are gonna still bottleneck you somewhat. Perhaps going to a lighter OS (if possible) would help.

I don't know if this is a miscommunication on my end or your end, but I edited my original thread, saying I don't mind buying Chinese hardware just as long as it's from an American retailer. The reason for that is I don't want my own money fattening Jinping's wallet. If the retailer wants to do that with their money instead, that's their business.

As far as an anti-Chinese sentiment, that's putting words in my mouth. I LOVE the Chinese people for various reasons, and I love every other group of people for those same reasons. I DESPISE Chinese sweatshops and (not to get political) the Chinese Communist Party because they CONSISTENTLY engage in human rights abuse, and if you seen some of previous threads, you know very well that brings my piss to a boil. One of the last things I ever want to be accused of is being a racist or a bigot, because I've never been those either of those things.

Being that I'd have to replace most of the parts because they're all soldered together, I'll just replace it with a newer device, as suggested by @f33dm3bits after they thoroughly explained how that makes more sense.
 
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@SpongebobFan1994 Knowing that you want to upgrade certain parts of your system. Laptops are pretty tricky to upgrade parts and some parts not even replaceable/upgrade-able. With laptops the most obvious things that you can upgrade are memory and replacing/adding another hard disk or ssd if there is space. Cpu and graphics card usually not easily replaceable, the graphics card in laptops are specially made for laptops so will be expensive to replace that as well as the paying for someone else to do it, I would say cpu same story.

I had a gaming laptop about 2 years ago and I ran into the problem that replacing parts was either hard or impossible so I sold it and replaced it with a desktop. Lastly as for your laptop being 13 years old, I would consider looking into replacing it with a second hand laptop. That way you will have an upgrade on all of your hardware and it won't cost you the full price. Just my two cents ;)

Thanks for the advice
 
were discontinued by Acer in 2013
because they still turn up, As i said its a personal comment, and it will also depend on how many bucks you are willing to part with, As i have said on many occasions my dell is 10 yrs old and runs several versions of linux fine, [I have an eye on a replacement if it becomes available, my granddaughters amd 8 Hp, i cant have it for a few more years till she finishes school]
 
I don't know if this is a miscommunication on my end or your end, but I edited my original thread, saying I don't mind buying Chinese hardware just as long as it's from an American retailer. The reason for that is I don't want my own money fattening Jinping's wallet. If the retailer wants to do that with their money instead, that's their business.



As far as an anti-Chinese sentiment, that's putting words in my mouth. I LOVE the Chinese people for various reasons, and I love every other group of people for those same reasons. I DESPISE Chinese sweatshops and (not to get political) the Chinese Communist Party because they CONSISTENTLY engage in human rights abuse, and if you seen some of previous threads, you know very well that brings my piss to a boil. One of the last things I ever want to be accused of is being a racist or a bigot, because I've never been those either of those things.



Being that I'd have to replace most of the parts because they're all soldered together, I'll just replace it with a newer device, as suggested by @f33dm3bits after they thoroughly explained how that makes more sense.

Let me guess, most of your friends are Chinese?

ROFL, sorry, I had to take it, that line was begging me to take it. XD
Seriously, relax. I wasn't accusing you of anything. I love Chinese, too, I regularly eat Chinese (see, context). Oh, :sigh: this world is so friggin' over sensitive, context is soooooo forgotten. Everyone is so fcking scared someone is pointing the discrimination card at them.

Anyhoo, dude, you totes misunderstood me. I meant "anti-Chinese" market/products. Don't be so paranoid/scared someone thinks you're the R-word, and if they do, fck them, don't let sensitiveness and politics rule you. It's their problem if they missed nuance. :double sigh: It's so sad we gotta be so mindful of our language. I'm the last person I know IRL that when asked about how my choice of words may "trigger" (offend) people, I say IDGAF.

I think we owe an explanation...
Before clicking on the spoiler button below, please read the terms and conditions below it, By reading the below spoiler, you agree that you have read and understand the terms and conditions and are bound by them.
Kay, redacting 1 line as it may be considered offensive. The rest has zero politics (less than half the other stuff in some threads lately)
Code:
When I asked why ya don't like Chinese,
[I redacted this line, just to appease]
I meant it all in pure contexts,
Specific to the thread's tech subjects,
Now if I meant you were a racist, I'd just have said:
"Boy, you hate Chinamen, what's wrong in your head?"

Now I ain't prepared to watch what I say,
I don't give a fck about this age and day,
Them sensitives can stick it where the sun don't shine,
Coz censoring speech is where I'm drawin' the line!

Gotta problem with me? Well I got 2:
One's not me, and the others are you
Think my insensitiveness is a curse?
Well society's hypocrisy 10x worse!

Apologist, sensitive, politically correct,
All that shit just worsens the effect...
Of division and all human bonds which break,
Which are built on pretext and feelings that're fake.

We are what we are, worm food in the end,
It don't matter if your black, white, or even a blend,
And to all the very sensitive people out there,
I promise you this: the maggots don't care,
No matter your demographic, when you dead, you're done,
Destiny's something that no one can out run!

So don't be afraid to say what's true,
And don't cower in fear, for just being you,
Don't fear wrong context to a panicked state,
Don't say you "love" <3 those who people say you hate.

I'd choose right over popular any fcking day,
But you're free to disagree, in your unique way,
I can't force you to be right through agreeing with me,
But I'll pray your eyes open one day so you can see...

W E
L I V E
I N
A
S O C I A L
M A T R I X

And I'm a hypocrite for my disclaimer, too,
But at least I'm admitting it, what about you!

:mic drop:

Terms and Conditions (see below spoiler):
By reading the contents of the above spoiler, you agree to the following terms:

Users and Staff:
1. This is not personally targeted at you or any individual parties, but society in general and that the use of "you" in all forms is non-specific and generalised as well.
2. You further attest that you understand satire and are of at least consenting IQ for your country or region.
3. You will in no way hold me accountable or liable for emotional distress or disease caused by the truth.
4. You will take no action against me and uphold that this is satire, neither politics nor anti-politics.
5. You will not eat bananas nor logan berries between the hours of 17h00 and 19h00 every 4th Wednesday, GMT, as calculated counted from the 1st Wednesday of each year being January 1st, 00h01, GMT

Staff:
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PS: I also despise all forms of human and animal exploitation. Sadly, money talks, ethics walks. And ~100 years from now, my opinion won't matter, humans will be extinct for all the shite we did to this planet.
 
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