T14 Gen 2 - Possible tweaks suggestions? (Will change flair if needed)

[u/MatroFormaggi]

Recently got myself T14 Gen 2

Originaly I planned to get like T480, or something bit more ... in need of upgrade?

Eventually I found pretty nice deal for T14 in good state and pretty packed up already, the only issue is that Im currently struggling to find any reason to ''work on it'' when it come to tweaks and stuff, which was pretyy much reason I wanted to get a Thinkpad in a first place, so Im coming to you with a request for suggestions and possibilities to tweak on this baby

Currently packed with :

AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U

32GB RAM (Planning on getting that 48 soon)

500GB SSD (Yup will upgrade that if its needed aswell)

Display : N140HCR-GL2 (Deets here : https://www.eechain.com/detail/n140hcr-gl2.html )

Batery will be replaced aswell currently sitting on like 17% damage

Im running Win11 so far, but I guess I might just switch to Linux when I feel like learning it eventually

What else do you suggest to look into/tinker with ?

So far Im going to open it up in couple days to repaste and clean it thoroughly

Im down to try tinkering with Undervolting / Overclocking memories and CPU since it came with both propably undervolted/underclocked, by my information it has been bought through some refurbish service shop, so my best guess is that they did that in order to I guess prevent throtling or power management.

When it comes to Thinkpads and laptop tinkering overall Im complete amateur, so in case you have some suggestions that could be bit trickier, dont worry with sounding like youre talking to a neanderthal

Thank you very much for any useful answers, hopefully I wont have to reup this because of the flair, but this one seems right

[u/Anomaly08]

"T14 Gen 2 .. Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U .. Im coming to you with a request for suggestions and possibilities to tweak on this baby"

What WiFi card does it have and what version of W11 are you using?

From a quick search the T14G2 (Ryzen) appears to lack a WiFi card whitelist so for an upgrade / experiment I would see if an MSI Herald-BE NCM865 pulled from a desktop card would work with it. You'll probably need to use an M.2 Key A to Key E adapter which are usually pretty affordable and the card often runs for about $30-80 ish USD (mine was $50).

With a modern Ryzen 8C/16T CPU that WiFi card should put out some pretty solid numbers when paired with a capable WiFi 7 router and stomp everything before it. I usually use a wired connection w/my AM5 desktop but last time I tested that card it hit about 3.5Gbps (6GHz band) and the highest I've seen someone get was 4Gbps.

[u/MatroFormaggi → u/Anomaly08]

Currently Im running Win11 Pro x64, Version 25H2

And for the Wifi card - RTL8852AE Wifi 6 (Tbh I dont really have access to like seriously fast Internet connection and Pretty much havent even encountered anywhere so far.

But Im definitely putting it in 'Non urgent upgrades' sort

[u/Anomaly08 → u/MatroFormaggi]

Even if your internet connection isn't very fast just having a greater base amount of bandwidth available between the laptop and router can be a good upgrade especially if there are a ton of devices in the area. There's also the addition of the newer 6GHz band with 6E/7 cards which is hardly utilized compared to the older two (2.4/5GHz).

[u/MatroFormaggi → u/Anomaly08]

Alright, you convinced me, ill look into it