Ancient ThinkPad laptops, beloved by a certain kind of hardcore hardware fan, can be resurrected with a bespoke Meteor Lake mainboard, bringing the 2000s machine right up to date

Consider the humble ThinkPad laptops of yore—machines beloved of corporate types and those just into the unassuming robustness of a laptop brick. Just what secrets are those funky chunky machines hiding in that bulky form factor?

Well, if you’re a certain sort of sicko (like me) with deep pockets (unlike me), a custom motherboard bundle costing close to a grand (via Hackaday). The X210Ai from TP Art is designed to fit within the irregularly shaped innards of the Thinkpad X201 and 200, bringing the capabilities of the aging laptops from the tail end of the 2010s up to date.

Whether we’re talking about novelty or retrofit builds, the simple pleasure of ‘thing that looks like other thing’ is largely unmatched. When I first saw 2015 horror flick It Follows, I too clamoured over that seashell e-reader, and I’m not the only one still thinking about it a decade later. Honestly, I’m a little surprised I’ve not seen more builds-with-a-secret clearly inspired by it. Right here we have a project that’s decidedly much less dainty or delicate, but no less compelling.

The 2008 ThinkPad X200 and the 2010 X201 both shipped with different Core 2 Duo processors, which isn’t necessarily unusable today but is definitely limited. The X210Ai upgrades that aged CPU to a Meteor Lake Intel Core Ultra 7, gives you DDR5 memory, and even introduces two M.2 interfaces for modern SSDs.

If you fancy doing a bit of DIY on an already gutted ThinkPad, this motherboard (plus daughterboard, and a few other fittings) will set you back $1,300. If you want to do a bit less DIY, an already retrofitted laptop (sans memory or storage—but with a choice of displays) will cost you $1,700 ahead of a June ship date.

To state the obvious, you can find a solid laptop for much less. However, when it comes to the best gaming laptops, our top budget pick is the Gigabyte G6X (2024), which it’s definitely not impossible to find for a price that’s in the same ballpark as that swish motherboard bundle alone.

As for ye olde ThinkPad, there’s definitely no place in my backpack or my budget for it—a thing of beauty though this retrofit is. On the subject of improbable laptop innards, I also quite enjoyed this intrepid YouTuber’s quest to build a gaming laptop using only desktop parts. Indeed, one of my first news stories at this fine establishment was about an ambitious modder that managed to squeeze a desktop-sized RTX 4090 card into a custom-made laptop.

I’m also charmed by the attempt to give an ancient laptop shell a new lease of life. If you’re anything like our Jacob, you too find it hard to part with old hardware. If you’re anything like me, then e-waste is a subject that keeps you up at night. Though far from a perfect solution, retrofit builds like this at least keep older kit in circulation for longer.