The Right Tool for the Job: A Lenovo IdeaPad Y560p

Last summer (2015, not 2016), I had a job to do. My son was going into the 7th grade and needed to carry a computer with him pretty much every day. The alternatives up to that point was to check out an ancient ThinkPad X61, complete with 1Gb of RAM out from school, or carry his 6+ pound, ThinkPad T500. So it was pretty obvious that those weren't good options! As you can see, I came up with a different answer in the form of an X220. It had an i5 "Sandy Bridge" CPU, 4Gb of RAM. Pretty good for $59. I put in another stick of RAM to get it up to 8Gb and installed a 120Gb Intel SSD in it and he was set to go. 

A year later..... this happened. Our school system decided that they'd issue and mandate the use of Chromebooks. BYODevice..... dead and gone. So, now a-days, I often see my son trying to play Minecraft or Terraria on the 12.1" screened X220. Even though, those games aren't particularly taxing to the integrated GPU of the Sandy Bridge i5, it was definitely not an optimal solution. 

So, over the course of the last month, I've been researching gaming machines that were a few years old..... along the lines of the "Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge" era. There was of course, the quintessential gaming machines of Alienware such as the M14x and the less expensive Lenovo IdeaPad "Y" Series among the ones I looked at. I set a budget limit of $300, so that eliminated all the Razer Blade machines and most of the newer Alienwares as well. But I was still interested in those, since on occasion, an older model can be found (often needing a little work) in the high $200. However, it was the Lenovos that really interested me. While I'm very familiar with their ThinkPad line, I'm the exact opposite on their consumer machines. What I found was that they've developed a decent reputation on selling capable gaming equipment at reasonable prices. There's no multi-colored keyboards and air vents, or super-cool MacBook looking machined aluminum cases, but they did bring the goods in the hardware department.

Although I had originally started looking at the IdeaPad Y500 and Y510p (I'm an optimist), I came across a Y560p on eBay that just wasn't getting any love! It's bidding price sat at around $50 for a long time, until it finally edged over $100 at the end. I paid $102 with $12 shipping. So for less than $115, I have my son's next machine. What is it and why did I hone in on that model, other than for the price that is....

When examined; it's not particularly remarkable for a 2010 machine. It wasn't impossibly thin like the Razer, or crazy cool looking like the Alienware. It did have some chops on the hardware front though:

• Intel i7-2630QM "Sandy Bridge" CPU
• DDR3 RAM 1333 up to 8Gb
• AMD Radeon HD 6570 GPU with it's own 1Gb of memory
• 15.6" WXGA (1366 x 768) display

Those specs are decent, with the exception of the screen resolution maybe, but there's a little something that's hidden under the skin which really helps. If you look closely at the motherboard up at the top, you'll see 2 PCIe/mSATA sockets. One is not only full-sized, but capable of taking mSATA devices.....

Which means this! I like using mSATA spec'd SSD storage. It allows a machine to have the benefits of solid state storage for things like the OS while keeping a traditional mechanical hard drive in the 2.5" SATA bay for mass storage. The smaller ones like this 128Gb Micron can often be found in the range of $25-35. That'll make the machine feel snappy while not having to spend a lot of money on buying a bigger (eg. 256Gb, 512Gb) SSD. 

Warts? Sure..... I don't like that there aren't USB 3.0 ports, really dislike low-res monitors in general or the shiny plastic deck. Otherwise; it's pretty OK. It's going to be my son's computer anyway, not mine!

ThinkPad T430s: The Source of My Computing Happiness

 

You can call me jaded, or simply a "crackpot", but I've gotta say, that I'm pretty happy these days. In the last post, I discuss my return to my computing roots by migrating from the X1 (not "Carbon") to the T430s. However, that post mostly discuss the philosophical/emotional sense of why making that move was a comfort zone thing for me and I really didn't discuss the machine much at all. Today, I'm going to get as close to reviewing a product as I ever get. So, here goes.

Let's start with a history lesson. My first ThinkPad was a 701c "Butterfly", which as an engineering "tour de force", but not really a full every day working machine. After a couple of years in the late 90's of using it as a coffee shop machine, I bought myself my first true ThinkPad love, the 600. It was just the perfect size to get work of all kinds done and was absolutely a "no compromise" machine. It's build quality was probably the high-water mark of all ThinkPads back in the day when IBM could and did charge $4000-5000 a-pop for their high-end machines.

Over time, I progressed to the T20 line that succeeded the 600, ultimately owning all the models in succession; T20, T21, T22p, and my favorite, the T23p. If you'll note the "p" suffix; it stands for "professional", and significantly for me, the model with a "high resolution" LCD panel, which at the time was 1400 x 1050. That's when I fell for the concept of high pixel density and screen real estate in the mid-sized (14") panel. I actually hung on to the T23p for quite some time, refusing to upgrade to the next series.

But, eventually, I gave in and moved on to the T4x Series. This next evolution was not only thinner (arguably started the current trend of "ultra-thin" notebooks), but marked Intel's return to power efficiency after the dead-end of using the P4 in notebooks. That was such a dark time that I'm choosing to not depict the T30 that I owned for less than a year! I would go on to have a T40, T41p, and (again my favorite of that generation) the last of model T42p. Yes, I'm aware that there was a T43, but I don't count that since it was really a cobbled together "transition" machine with a weird chipset that used a SATA hard drive on a PATA board! I feel better now... Oh yeah; then there was a the problems with the transition to lead-free solder as mandated by the Europeans which led to BGA issues with the ATI graphics processors. I was so put off by all this, I diverged onto the "X Series" for several years. 

Those were really nice machine, and in many ways reminescent of the "600" years, especially the 13" panels. Then the larger "X Series" went the "designer" route and.....

..... I 'm back. Back to where I started. The "mid-sized" machine that has all the more typical features without being too big or heavy to carry around. So, let's look at why this is a great machine for me. Let's start with the keyboard. I'm not wild about the layout, but it's the best "feel" (subjectively of course) of any ThinkPad I've owned since the 600x. I miss the page forward/back functions, but I like the optional back-lit, and the Delete key being on the end vs. in the middle of the keys. I really like the fact that it still has actual buttons for volume, mute and mic. I will never own a T440 because of Lenovo's ill-fated design mis-step of removing the mousing buttons. It was so poorly received, the they were restored the very next model in the Tx5x machines!

Other specs that I really love? Here's a list for ya:

• Way more screen real estate in 1600 x 900 vs. the 1366 x 768 on my X1. This is a really big deal to me! And on this screen, are honest to gosh latches! I like the old style ThinkPads where the fit of the lid became part of the rigidity of the entire unit when the machine is carried. The latchless screens are just something I didn't prefer. They simply didn't feel solid to me. These are like closing the door on a high-end German car.
• On board optical drive. Although I rarely used it, I like having it there. Especially since the penalty for it's inclusion is only a few ounces more weight AND virtually No footprint gain at all.
• UltraBay. This feature not only gave me the optical drive, but a flexible platform to put in another battery, or another hard drive. You might be wondering ..... why, on a machine that has the OS living in an 512Gb mSATA SSD, and a 2.5" SATA-3 bay holding a 600Gb SSD!?! It's not for storage. It's really so that when I'm at a client location, I can throw a client's drive into an adapter and access data as necessary. This is a bigger deal than you might think. I've found that, on failing drives, when an external enclosure fails to get it going, having it mount internally will often do the trick.
• Replaceable main battery is something I prefer. I know I can replace the internal battery in an "ultrabook", but I'd prefer to be able to just carry around a spare if I want/need to. 

And that I get all this at 3.9 vs. 3.7 pounds of the X1 is basically no penalty at all for me. Am I going to be able to tell the difference between the Sandy Bridge i5-2520m of the X1 to the i5-3320m of the T430s? I doubt it. I will say this (as small as it might sound), I'm really going to enjoy not having to pull out the rubber cover over the headphone jack though! This might be the single most annoying "feature" on the X1! What am I giving up? Probably the "cache" of owning a design-intensive "halo" product. But you know what? I'm 55! My days of wanting a product with "cache" are well-over..... if it ever was a thing in my world anyway...... 

My Electronic "Comfort Zone"

Today is literally the "last day of summer" for me. Tomorrow, I go back to work (not that today's teacher really has the summer off like they used to). So, it's appropriate that I'm "going home"..... in an electronic sense anyway...... 

Some of you might remember several years ago when I moved to the first of ThinkPad's real designer machines, the X300. They were super-thin (almost as thin as the MacBook Air of that era), but unlike the "MBA" had all the normal features plus the philosophy of the traditional ThinkPads: everything from screen latches, to every port under the sun and even squeezed in an optical drive that others were abandoning. This of course led to the X301, and then.....

..... the X1 (1st Generation), which is really a black MacBook Air that runs Windows. They went so far as to even put a rubber cover over the headphone jack and one of the USB ports. There were no access panels on the bottom, and the battery wasn't interchangeable. An "Ultra-Book" right in line with Intel's spec for that design philosophy. I used it for close to 2 years and just never became comfortable with it. Sure, most people who saw it, love it. But, in the end; it wasn't me!

So, today.... on the last day of summer (appropriately), I switch back to a traditional ThinkPad. It's a T430s. Yes, I'm aware that it's almost as thin as the X1 and that it's only the Ivy Bridge update to the Sandy Bridge generation processor (not even a full "tick-tock" of Intel's clock), and yes it has a "Chiclet" keyboard as well. But it's attitude is all "old school" ThinkPad! There's not a cover to be seen anywhere, it's thin, but it's about as squared-off as the the 765 above! AND..... there are LATCHES for the screen. The last ones of the line. None of the successors of the "Xx40", or "Xx50" line have them. Under the skin, it's very much like the X1. So much so, that it's OS is sitting on the 512Gb mSATA SSD that came out of the X1. It'll even get the 600Gb Intel 320 SSD as it's storage drive as well. The optical drive is back in an honest-to-goodness UltraBay. I'll probably pick up a 3-Cell battery to go in there in case I need more runtime, and an HDD adapter as well..... just in case 1.1Tb of SSD storage isn't enough!

And because it's a full-fledged working ThinkPad, there are Docks for it! I have the middle one; the Mini Dock Plus Series 3. 

Appropriately enough, I traded my Apple Watch for the T430s. Why "appropriately"? The same reason that the T430s is me and the X1 isn't. I'm not a coolest gadget guy. I use things as a tool, first and foremost. I just need them to make me more efficient. It's not that I'm too "old school" to use a smartwatch..... 

...... but this (the original Pebble) is my smartwatch. The simplest, might be the cheapest on the market. Why? Because it does everything I want it to do and nothing more and because of that, it has the longest run-time between charge of them all. 

I also appreciate the company. They keep improving their product instead of trying to make you buy a new one! Although they've come out with several since the original, when I charged it up last night when I made the deal for the T430s, that they had completely new software for it.... which improved it..... free of charge! Hopefully, you didn't miss that I was able to trade the Apple Watch for the ThinkPad! That's straight up 1 for 1. I had previously traded an old Core 2 Duo generation MacBook that I had trouble selling for that watch. So I tried out the watch throughout the summer and was ready to move on.....

The main reason I was ready to give up the Apple Watch? (other than the fact that I did't use 10% of the features). I'm about to give up my iPhone. Long story, but the short version is that it's going to my wife to replace her's. Does this mean that I'm about to buy myself a really cool new phone? One of those Samsungs that have the wrap-around screen? Ah.....No.

I went into my office closet and dusted off my wife's old Motorola Atrix HD from before we got the iPhones 2 years ago. That mean that this phone is something like 3-4 years old!?! Yup! I looked at it and it does pretty much everything that I need it a phone to do. It's that simple. 

If you've gotten the impression that this whole post has been about me getting back into the electronic version of my comfort zone, you'd be right. Although, I'm not exactly Mark Zuckerberg, this picture is completely appropriate for me. My favorite season is Fall, when I can wear my favorite closes.... jeans and sweats! The "last day of summer" is very symbolic of that for us teachers when we go back and get ready for the "fall semester". This year, it's going to be even more comfortable than most!

Home Audio 2.1 Real-World Whole House Audio and Tweaking

I can't help it..... I'm a tweaker. I can't leave things alone. In the last Blog-Post on Home Audio, I talked about finally getting out my other Griffin TuneDock from the closet and putting it to use in the downstairs system that's hooked up to the 5 pairs of in-ceiling speakers. Don't get me wrong, it was great! I've used it a lot and other people have been suitably impressed by the set-up. Then, my over-active thought processes got started and I decided that in the main system upstairs, I didn't like having to turn on the monitor just to use the iPod. I wanted something simpler that just connected the iPod directly to the system AND that it would be even better if that dock worked directly with my Onkyo/Integra equipment. ...... which then started a drawn out search for just the right one. Apparently, Onkyo made a number of them and the majority weren't simple. They were elaborate affairs that were often designed to work through Onkyo's own multi-zone systems. 

However; my labors eventually bore fruit in the form of the DS-A2X iPod Dock. All it does is to connect to the iPod, take it's signal and send it as a simple line-level source to a receiver..... any receiver. You don't have to connect it to a monitor to see it's menu. It has no menu. You just interact directly with the iPod or use the supplied remote to do the same thing. Given that the main system upstairs rarely, if ever will be used to distribute audio, I didn't need it's functions to be routed through a 48" TV! 

Then, that simplicity hit me. I didn't need my home audio to be more powerful and feature-ladened.... I wanted it to be simple and to only do what it needed to, not everything possible!

Although, most people (men pretty much) dream of having this in their house, experience and fiscal reality have gotten me to the point where I have a better grasp of needs vs. wants. My reality is this: 

• I have 9 zones of audio that are equipped with speakers. 
• Two of those zones are actually set up for discreet home theaters with preexisting speakers. Therefore, those 2 can be eliminated as they are run by the home theater systems in that location.
• Of the 7 other zones, 5 are located in what could be considered "public space", meaning areas of the house where non-family would typically wander when a gathering occurs.
• All of these above 5 zones are downstairs and wired to the same location which is the downstairs living room. 
• The two upstairs zones are: the Master Bedroom and Master Bathroom and they are wired to the upstairs Game Room/Home Theater. 

So, what can I conclude from all this?

An earlier form of me would have come up with some version of this solution.....

 Requiring something akin to this equipment.....

However, the more grown up me came up with something different:

• I really had 2 zones..... not 9.
• An upstair, largely for family movie watching.
• And a downstairs, that can serve as a home theater, but often a space where guest will typically congregate when we have people over. 
• It would be nice if the 2 talked to each other (actually, only the bottom to the top), but it really wasn't necessary.
• The 2 peripheral zones upstairs only come into play really when the family is using it as a home theater (eg. run to the bathroom during a movie), so the functionality of them ever needing to interact with the system downstairs is virtually zero.

So, here is what has come into being as our whole house A/V system:

• Downstairs- A simple surround system based off of an inexpensive Onkyo TX-SR303 receiver that serves that purpose. The "living room" areas that it resides in have the B&W LM-1 speakers mounted on the walls and a B&W ASW-300 sub.  It also serves as a source selector for all the 5 other zones downstairs as well. Each of these zones are run through the Niles RSL-6 speakers selector and QSC GX-3 amp that I discussed in the last post.
• Upstairs- This is the home of our main home theater which is run by an Integra DTR-6.3 receiver powering KEF "Uni-Q" main & center channel speakers and another set of B&W LM-1s in the surround channels, plus a B&W ASW-675 sub. Through the tape-loop (just like downstairs), the receiver sends a line-level signal to an old Sony STR-AV770 which powers the 2 remaining zones. As you can imagine, it probably won't be powered on much and if that receiver hadn't cost $25, I probably wouldn't bother with it at all!

Does this mean that I'm done!?! No more audio in this Blog space? Oh, there'll be a few things I'm sure. Just of the top of my head, I can see myself examining adding another sub in the main system to even out the bass up there. I might even go with a set of separates in it as well since I have a partially working Rotel RSP-1098 Pre-amp processor and a Rotel RB-976 Amp out in the garage. Plus I've always kind of seen the Dual 510 turntable as a temporary solution for my vinyl needs. So, you see, there are potentially some so big changes, but I wouldn't say any of it is eminent. These days, I'm just happily enjoying our fully working whole-house audio system as it is!