Thinkpads Forum

Hi everyone,

I'm new here and completely new to the world of ThinkPad.

I've picked up a cheap T440p and I'm wanting to get into ethical hacking as a hobby with the machine. Now I know in its standard form it's probably not that capable however I have the following mods in mind to up the performance a bit.

Intel i7 4910mq CPU
2x8gb (16gb) RAM
Fast SSD

I was wondering if anyone is running Linux etc on their machine for similar uses as I'll be?

Thanks in advance

Shaun.

Hi and welcome to the forum.

T440p is perfectly capable even in this days, 13 years later, if you use UNIX-like distributions. Even older models. I have used many GNU/linux distributions on it and all runs well. There are some caveats:

If dual core CPU, better to be lightweight, maybe a window manager instead of a full desktop environment. Command line programs to run youtube videos. Light web browser. 8 GB RAM may be enough.

If quad core, almost any desktop environment will run fairly good. Just don't try to use heavy applications, unless you have also dGPU cooling fan (always recommended). 16 GB RAM it's more than enough.

I am writing this on my T440p with dual core i7-4600 CPU, 8 GB of RAM memory and 60 GB SSD laptop, with OpenBSD 7.8 stable installed.

i7-4702MQ or i7-4712MQ will run cooler (both 37W TDP) than i7-4910MQ (47W TDP).

RealBlackStuff wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 15, 2026 12:53 am

i7-4702MQ or i7-4712MQ will run cooler (both 37W TDP) than i7-4910MQ (47W TDP).

Hi,
Yeah ive been doing a bit of research and have read about those however from my findings the 4910mq is MUCH more powerful and out benches them both by quiet a considerable amount. Even if I undervolt the 4910mq in the hope of keeping temps down I think itll still be better than those two idk.