Thinkpad T480 – Ultimate laptop upgrade, detailed replacement/installation guide

The T480 is often said to be the last or one of the last “tough” thinkpads, as it has a lot of replaceable components. In this article I will share my experience of pumping this ultrabook

The laptop is disassembled quite simply – we unscrew 6 screws (they do not fall out of the case), we pass along the edges of the laptop with a plastic card, mediator or special tools, open the back cover. Done, the laptop is open! Remember to disconnect the battery before installing/replacing components

RAM

The T480 motherboard has 2 slots for DDR4-2400, officially the processor supports a maximum capacity of 32GB. But in practice, you can install even 64GB into it, everything will work fine. With memory boards with a frequency higher than 2400 MHz, there will be no problems either.
The best solution would be to install two dies of the same volume to enable dual-channel mode
I put myself 16 + 16 RAM

Batteries

The T480 has 2 batteries: internal 24Wh and removable (24Wh, 48Wh or 72Wh)
Usually, a laptop has a removable 24Wh battery, it is equal in height to the case, but the 48Wh and 72Wh versions stick out, so they have rubber feet

Through the Lenovo Diagnostics Tool and Aida64, you can check the condition of the batteries. If you need to replace the battery, you should carefully consider the purchase. Check reviews, usually in the cheapest lots there are fake batteries that will not hold a charge well. In the case of removable batteries, before buying, it is recommended to connect them to a laptop and check their performance. There are many fake batteries on sale without a power controller, T480 will report this when turned on and refuse to charge them

To increase the life of batteries through the Lenovo Vantage program, you can set a limit in the discharge / charge of batteries in 75-80%. In this mode, they will last longer.
In the intel drivers, you can enable switching the screen refresh rate, then the network will be 60 hertz, and when running on battery 48, this will increase battery life

I use two external batteries: 24wh at home and 72wh when I take my laptop somewhere

Cooling

I made an article on this topic: Thinkpad T480 – comparison of laptop cooling options (MX4, PTM7950, liquid metal, different radiators, etc.)
In short, in the version of the laptop without a discrete graphics card, you can put a heatsink from the version with a discrete mx150 card, this will greatly lower the temperature and completely eradicate throttling. And instead of the usual thermal paste, it makes sense to put PTM7950

solid state drive

The T480 was produced in a huge number of configurations, so the main drive can be a SATA SSD, M2 SSD, or even a regular laptop HDD
The best option, of course, is to install an M2 drive

Mini PCI-e slots

The motherboard has two Mini PCI-e slots, one of them has a wi-fi board, and the second is most likely free. Or there may be a mobile communication card in it, in fact, this is one of the options for using this slot. Next to the removable battery connector is a slot for a sim card, put a sim card with a tariff and use the mobile Internet
But there are alternative ways to use the Mini PCI-e, I preferred to install an additional SSD in it. The maximum disk capacity in this slot is 1TB, the size is 2242. Be very careful when choosing such a disk, not every SSD is suitable! For example, many people accidentally buy sata3 ssd of this format, the laptop will not see it
Video with a detailed guide on selecting and installing an SSD in a WWAN slot

I took a cheap KingSpec 512GB 2242, since its description indicated that it was compatible with the thinkpad t480

Dock station

A friend let me test his docking station. It’s simple, we plug power into it, insert the necessary devices into the connectors (mouse, keyboard, monitor, internet cable, etc.) and connect it via a laptop via thunderbolt. Thus, you can conveniently organize the workplace. As a result, the docking station did not come in handy for me, since there is a regular PC

Soft

It is recommended to authorize your laptop on the lenovo website and install the drivers. Pay attention to the intel drivers and the above aida64, Lenovo vantage, Lenovo Diagnostics Tool
You can also install throttle stop and lower the voltage to reduce the heating of the processor, set -90mV in my laptop
Detailed guide to throttlestop

I installed my own operating system on each SSD: the main one is win10, and the additional Linux Manjaro Gnome

Mods that I have not personally tested

Display ReplacementA: On the T480, you can change the display to 2k or even 4k, but keep in mind that the higher the resolution, the shorter the battery life will be. In addition to resolution, an important display parameter is its brightness, it makes sense to choose a model brighter than it is now.
WiFi board replacement: it can be replaced with intel Ax200NGW to increase wi-fi speed
Installing a smart card reader: on the left side, in the drain there is a plastic plug
Touchpad replacement: many people change the stock touchpad to the touchpad from “Thinkpad X1 Extreme gen 1”, as it is more pleasant
Replacing a regular keyboard with a backlit keyboard: on a backlit keyboard, the characters are laser engraved, but on a regular keyboard they are simply drawn on, therefore they can be erased over time. Therefore, many install a backlit keyboard, even if they do not plan to use it. In my case, initially there was a keyboard with backlight

little things

Touchpad sticker and penny “ThinkShutter” 😀
And a type-c corner adapter to make it more convenient to use native charging

Prices

I took out this item separately, since they are constantly changing, in my case it turned out:
SSD kingspec 512gb – 2200 rubles
Radiator with two copper tubes – 2100 rubles
16gb RAM 3200mhz – 3100 rubles
Battery 72wh – 2500 rubles