I’m in love with this big guy :)
And here are the upgraded components:
- 1080P IPS Screen
- 512GB SSD
- DVD caddy replaced by a HDD caddy (intalled an additional 512GB SSD)
- Processor upgraded to an i7-4712MQ
- Grizzly Kryonaut thermal paste upgrade
- US keyboard replaced by another one with Spanish layout (original, found on eBay)
- RAM upgraded to 12GB (enough for me)
- Brand-new original 9-cell battery (also found on eBay)
I don’t think I forget anything… well maybe the best upgrade: I use Arch, btw!
How hot does the CPU get under load? And does it have a GPU?
Kryonaut isn’t the best thermal paste for a laptop, particularly one that gets pretty warm under load. My Thinkpad P1 dried out/heat pumped out the Kryonaut in about 6 months to the point that I was getting REALLY bad performance. But this is also a machine that runs at 100c under full load. My old W540 would get well into the 90s which dries that paste out quickly.
If you ever notice any degradation I’d suggest a thicker thermal paste that’s less prone to drying out/heat pump under high loads. I believe Gelid extreme is what I bought for my normal laptops. I put the PTM 7950 stuff on my P1 and I’m never looking back.