duel (ThinkPad X201/X200s hybrid)
Summary
Thinkpad X200s/X201 hybrid. Chassis and motherboard are from an X201. Display is from an X200s (1440x900).
Notes
Was my college machine. Second x200s I've owned. The first was bought new, and this was bought used, but in excellent shape. The Core 2 Duo X200 was becoming too slow so I upgraded the main board and lower chassis to an X201. Trade-off is a bit thicker chassis, and louder cooling while maintaining the hard to find high resolution display.
Hardware
| Make | Lenovo |
| Year | 2010 |
| Model | ThinkPad X201 |
| Chassis | ThinkPad X201 |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-560M |
| Memory | 8GB DDR3 1066 |
| Ports | 3x USB A 2.0 |
| 3.5mm Headphone | |
| 3.5mm Microphone | |
| RJ-11 Modem | |
| SD card slot | |
| USB C Power Input (mod) | |
| VGA | |
| RJ-45 LAN | |
| ExpressCard 54 | |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics |
| Storage | Crucial 256GB CT256 MX-100 |
| Display | 12.1" 1440x900 |
| Int. Peripherals | Conexant 20585 SmartAudio HD |
| Broadcom BCM2045B Bluetooth | |
| HDA CX20585 Soft Modem | |
| Intel 82577LM Gigabit Ethernet | |
| Intel Ultimate-N 6300 AGN WiFi | |
| Intel AX200 802.11ac WiFI 6 | |
| Ext. Peripherals | ThinkPad X200 UltraBase |
| CSEXCEL 87WH battery | |
| Lenovo 94WH battery | |
| Dimensions | |
| Length/Depth | 21 cm |
| Width | 29.4 cm |
| Height/Thickness | 3.9 cm |
| Weight | 1.33 kg (2 lbs 15 oz) - with 48WH battery |
Software
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Debian 10 (buster) | |
| Unique applications | - |
Log
Another X200s
I got rid of the previous unit sometime after 2011. I know it had an issue with the screen coating, but I can't recall if there were other problems.
Bought this one on ebay with 6GB memory, 160GB hard drive. I had one in the past. I was looking for this model because of its small size, and it has a higher resolution display than was typical in that era.
Board swap plus new case
New parts: x201 i5-560M motherboard, hard drive bay cover, x200 chassis, 6300 wifi, x201 heatsink, x201 palmrest. I think the chassis required breaking out a some internal supports.
WiFi 802.11ax upgrade
I got hold of a Mini PCIe Intel AX200 WiFi card. It seemed like a fun upgrade.
The old Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 came out (3x3 802.11agn). The new card just uses two antennas.
It seems the WiFI slot lacks USB, so the bluetooth is non-operational. The Lenovo Broadcom onboard device is still running though. Maybe I could move the card to the WWAN slot, but the physical WiFi switch is supposed to be tied to the first Mini PCIe slot.
I just did a quick performance test from the same location:
| Card | Down | Up |
|---|---|---|
| 6300 | 51 Mbps | 39 Mbps |
| AX200 | 95 Mbps | 65 Mbps |
About 6 feet from the access point I was pulling 380/270 Mbps.
I don't know if I had a whitelist BIOS on this machine. The card worked fine in Debian 12, and Windows 10.