Frugal Propellerhead: September 2022

Last time I wrote on this blog, I was going on about having the computing work version of a "full-sized" spare. Today, I'm going to discuss this concept at a whole new level..... more along the lines of having a back-up vehicle!

If you were to use the vehicle analogy for the computing world, I'd say that my Xeon powered desktop workstation to be along the lines of a 3/4 ton heavy duty pickup truck. Since that time, my ThinkPad T540p has served well as a backup the few times that I needed it; such as during our move this summer.

Since I picked it up a couple of years ago, it's original spec has been upgraded to include an M.2 SSD boot drive, display from TN 1366 x 768 to IPS 1920 x 1080 panel, and most importantly, the i5 2-core processor to an i7 4-core/8-thread one. However, there was always an itch that I couldn't quite scratch: that of a "mobile workstation". When the T540p came out, there was a W540 workstation version, but a few months later Lenovo launched the W541 variant which came from the factory with the corrected touchpad....

In 2013, Lenovo bravely went where no ThinkPad had gone before which turned out to be a horrible design error; that of removing the mouse buttons from the Trackpad. It was so poorly received, that they immediately reversed course and restored the buttons. It was such a disaster that they didn't even wait the full year, creating a mid-cycle model (W541) with the singular change being the restoration of the aforementioned mouse buttons! So, not only did my "workstation" itch include the usual more RAM sockets, better displays etc, but also included the now corrected Trackpad. Oh, don't get me wrong, I've long-since replaced the hated "clunkpad" on my T540p with one from the "x50" series, but that whole scenario makes the W541 even more interesting and desirable.

And last week; it happened.... I ran across a partially stripped W541 for less than $100! It was more than the "save it from the landfill" part of me could stand and I bought it! Although it didn't come with the correct 135w (or 170w) power adapter, this one came with 16Gb of RAM already onboard in 2 modules (making it ready to take the full 32Gb) and the optional 9-cell (99wh) battery, which turned out to have less than 10 cycles on it! I was able to pick up a 170w charger on Facebook Marketplace for $25 shipped the next day. What am I going to do with it, and another almost identical to my T540p machine?

To be honest; I'm not really sure. I do know that I'll spec it out as a full-on "workstation" with maxed out RAM at 32Gb, lots of storage including multiple SSDs. From there, I'm not sure....