T480 After a Few Months – Upgrades, Performance and Undervolting Advice?
Been rocking my ThinkPad T480 for a few months now (screen swap was a bit after I got it), and honestly, this thing still goes hard. It’s just one of those machines that feels solid, upgradeable, and built to last.
Specs/Upgrades so far:
• CPU: Intel Core i5-8250U
• RAM: Kingston Fury 64GB (2x32GB) DDR4 3200MHz – overkill, yeah, but super useful for my pentesting VMs
• Storage: Crucial P3 500GB NVMe – fast enough for my needs Wi-Fi: Intel AX210 – Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth 5.3, just works
• Screen: Innolux N140HCG-GN1 – easily the best upgrade, colors and brightness make it feel like a brand-new laptop
• Battery: Running 24Wh internal OEM + 48Wh external OEM, but finding good new ones is a nightmare
Been running Arch on it with BSPWM, super snappy and minimal, no unnecessary bloat. The keyboard is perfect, and having real ports is something I’ll never take for granted again. Everything just flies, but I still need to tweak undervolting to keep throttling in check.
So here’s my question: is undervolting actually worth it on the T480 with the i5-8250U? I’ve seen mixed opinions on whether it helps much with temps/throttling. Also, any good software recommendations for tweaking it? And if you’ve done it, what settings worked for you?
I was also considering swapping in an X1 Carbon trackpad, but since I mostly use a mouse, I’m not sure if it’s worth the hassle. Anyone made that swap and felt it was a game changer?
Would love to hear your thoughts also, feel free to ask me anything about my setup.