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A few years ago, Lenovo decided that it needed/wanted to shake up it's ThinkPad Line some. Enter the ThinkPad Edge, range of notebook computers. I was only mildly interested since I rarely if ever dabble in the lower end of their offerings anyway. Never the less, the Edge machines were on the edge (unintended pun) of my awareness, but remained there until very recently.
Other than eBay, I often go to Goodwill's online entity, which is called "shopgoodwill.com". Mostly, I go there to find old, obscure cameras for my little collection. Sometimes, if they aren't well known (such as Petri, Fujica, Yashica), or unpopular (Minolta, Konica) they can be had cheap. And cheap is right up my alley! I don't have expensive things in any of my collections. On occasion, I'll look at computing equipment there as well, and sometimes I'll even find something that's the right combination of interesting and inexpensive. One caveat for any of you who are thinking of trying it out. Their shipping charges tend to be on the high side.
On this occasion, this is what appeared to grab my attention. OK.... not literally, this machine, but one like it; a ThinkPad Edge 15, which is appropriately enough, a notebook computer built around a 15.6" screen. The most generic size of notebook computers being sold today. I have 4 dead computers of that screen-size sitting in my office right now. What really got my attention was that it was receiving very little action even, though the price was cheap and it was relatively new (Arrandale Core generation). It came in at $34.08 with about $15 cost for shipping and arrived at my house under the magic $50 "impulse buy" mark! The reason an i3 Core machine from a major manufacturer was less than $50?
There ya go. I'm not even going to bother you with the image showing the hole where it continued into the screen. Why, someone would choose to take a machine out of service by drilling a hole through it is beyond me! But like I said, I've got several of that size screen and similar vintage sitting in my office waiting for disposal. Given the price-point that this machine sold at, I was betting that unlike, real ThinkPads, these were made up of rather generic parts with some ThinkPad like part(s) grafted on (e.g. TrackPoint, ThinkPad badge), and sold basically as a marketing ploy!
Yup; sure enough..... when I got the thing apart, it's construction, layout and design was almost completely identical to the Lenovo IdeaPad that I recently bought my son. So; you're thinking: you threw $50 down the tubes to prove a point!?!
You guys are probably aware that I'm a sneaky bugger and had something up my sleeve..... and you'd be right. A working relatively recent (less than 5 years old) notebook computer is typically worth something like $150. One carrying a well-known and respected name is generally worth a little more. If it has a recognizable performance buzz-word labeling associate with it.... say "Intel Core i5", then that's even better.
Through the magic that is eBay, I bought the following:
- ThinkPad Edge 15 motherboard (without the hole feature)- $25
- ThinkPad Edge 15 display cable (also without the hole)- $4.95
- Intel Core i5-520m CPU- $8.25
From my the amazing Frugal Propellerhead Scrapyard:
- Working 15.6" WXGA screen (again, without the hole)- $0
- 120Gb HDD- $0
Which brings the whole exercise to just south of $90 spent. I may sell it, or maybe use it as a "spare/loaner" machine. Who knows; but now I know more and got to spend some good fun time this last weekend.
There's lots of choices out there for server operating systems..... much of it free! Some of you might remember that last year I did an experiment using one of my old ThinkPads (an A31) to build a "proof of concept" for a Portable Server. I used an older distro of CentOS, installed several random drives into it's UltraBay and the one in the 2631 Dock as well. It all went fine, and the thing works. However; at the end of the day, it's still an old P4 computer that interfaces with drives via IDE, and there-in lies the issue. Well.... that and the fact that it's P4 is a single core processor and most OS's these days require a dual core. Oh yeah; there's also 2Gb limitation on RAM which pretty much eliminates anything like FreeNAS using ZFS.
So, if I want to go FreeNAS, which by the way is what I use at home, I'm going to have to do something about using hardware up to snuff. Duel Core, processor and at least 4Gb of RAM, maybe more.
The other direction I could go is to pull out my copy of MS Windows Home Server 2011 of which I own a license. Doesn't need as much RAM, but has other demands. So, let's look at the candidates to replace the A31.
In one corner, stands my old ThinkPad Z61m. It has a T7200 Core 2 Duo processor and the ability to have 2 drives onboard. It's really a nice machine complete with titanium LCD lid that's beautiful and unique. However, a quirk of that generation's chipset is a memory limitation to 3Gb regardless of what the RAM sockets have in them!
And in the other is the new-comer, an R500 that I was given this last summer. For some of you who don't deal with ThinkPads on a regular basis, they may seem very similar, but conceptually here's the difference that we're dealing with. If the Z61m is a BMW SUV, the R500 is a Chevy Suburban...... with bench seats! You might be able to see that it's so chunky, that the USB ports are standing on their sides! This machine can also take 2 drives internally, but you can get 8Gb of RAM in it.
I guess what it'll come down to is this. If I want to go with FreeNAS, then it's a no-brainer. I go with the R500. Max out it's RAM, put two drives in the SATA bays and the OS onto a USB stick. Attach one or more external drives and call it a day. However, if I do Windows Home Server; I'll use the Z61m. The 3Gb of RAM isn't really an issue, put a system drive of 160Gb in one bay and a bigger drive in the other one for storage as well as USB or Firewire external drives.
Which then brings on the deciding factor.....networking. Which OS is going to be friendlier as a stand-alone system and be able to server files creating it's own network.
Sometimes I feel like the closet in my office is this; where the toys are various old ThinkPads and ThinkPad parts. The other computers...... Dells, HPs, Toshibas.......? Yeah, they get sold off, if they are of the slightest value, given away if anyone at all wants it or thrown out otherwise. In my world, ThinkPads only, are good enough to occupy the precious little crevices under, between and on top of the other stuff!
I also don't mean my small (and I mean that literally, consisting of 3) collection of classic ThinkPads, a 701c, a 765xd, and an X20. No, I mean relatively recent vintage machine.... although, I did dig out a couple of things that will go in the museum; the WorkPad C505/C500 and 1st gen, ThinkPad Android Tablet.
I mean more along the lines of these machines.
e.g. at least of the Core/Core 2 Duo generation. These are all usable in some way or have their parts harvested for use. My question becomes: what do I do with these things?
I've so far, been unable to convince the powers-that-be to let me and my machines go up in the International Space Station, although they appear to have enough of them already!
Lenovo thinks that something like this would be a good idea. My wife says otherwise.....
I lean towards these sorts of projects, but one can only have so many computer photo-frames and yellow T60s.....
If my imagination/skill-set was better, it might be things like this....
Last year, I did the "turn an A31 system with 2631 Dock in a server" thing using CentOS, but that concept has been proven and I failed to find a practical use for it...... at least in my world. So now what?
I can do that all over again using the now, rather long-in-the-tooth Z61m with the gorgeous titanium lid into a mobile server and since it has a dual core processor, I can even use the languishing MS Windows Home Server 2011 license that I have sitting around.
I could use either that, or the also sitting under my desk gathering dust cousin, the R500. It's another member of the "Team-Too-Chunky-To-Travel-Well" category! However, the R500 is of the Penyrn generation, and thus newer and more usable for other pursuits.
Then there are the others (no, this isn't my pile.... at least, not yet) that a project isn't so imminent....
