The New Workhorse

A draft/cart/heavy/work-horse is by definition bred to do hard work.

Every few years, in the computing world, a design comes along that is exceptional in not only performance, but longevity. When that's combined with a particularly well-matched operating system of the same characteristics..... it's like, Patton and the tank, Nimitz and the aircraft carrier, Jordan and Pippen, Aikman and Smith and Irvin..... whatever analogy you want to use..... it like magic! 

In this case, it's Microsoft's Windows 7, and Intel's LGA 1155 generation processors. Why not the 1156, or 1150 you ask?

Unlike the 1156 that went before, and the 1150 that came after, this was a relatively long-lived socket. Much like the 775 that was home to the Core Duo/Core 2 Duo family of processors, it defined the DDR3 (vs. DDR2) generation of computers. It was not only powerful but long lasting as as well. Running Windows 7, the processors of that generation still make very viable machines to this day. They're versatile.... and they're cheap! My main workstation runs an i7-3770 on a Z77 chipset, and I've got i5s and i3 as well as Celerons of that generation scattered throughout the house. We recently finished the conversion of our laptop fleet to that generation of machines as well, sending the last of the Penryn C2Ds to retirement.

What brings on this post to extol the virtues of this "obsolete" socket? Price, of course! My bedroom HTPC started acting funny last week, so I've been looking at options versus simply reloading it. While in the midst of looking around to see what's out there, I ran across the above; a Gigabyte B75TN. It's a little bit of an odd duck and not something that most folks would probably be familiar with, even it they build their own machines. It's not "odd" due to the Mini-ITX form-factor. That's pretty mainstream these days. No, this board conforms to a "thin" Mini-ITX form-factor that Intel set forth some years ago. They are really designed to go inside of all-in-one machines. Since the MBs on those things ride "piggy-back" behind the monitor, they needed to be small AND thin, thus the squashed down I/O area and SO-DIMMs. Why this board? They're cheap right now. I am frugal you know! This one is on eBay for $29 (before shipping).  

Anything else about these board? They are designed from the ground up as "low powered". If you look carefully at the image, you'll see that it isn't set up to use a regular power supply. Instead they are spec'd to take "wide-range" DC input. I'm using an old 16v ThinkPad PSU on a similar board right now. So obviously, the perfect match for it would be one of the low-powered i3 or i5 processors from that generation. Besides the 65w "S" spec'd cpus, Intel also created the "T" spec'd processors that have TDPs of either 35 or 45 watts! That's low! If you throw a mSATA on there (boards of this spec have that), these things will make a heck of a small form factor, low-draw HTPC!

When you consider the other end of the spectrum is my workstation residing in the ginormous Cosmos II case, the versatility is undeniable!

Family Upgrade Time

You might be thinking to yourself; why is he showing us two images of the same computer? Actually, the upper is the ThinkPad T61, of which we have 3 in our house (more on that later). The lower image is the T500, of which we now have 1 that is partially disassembled here by my desk. Although there seems precious little to give between the two (as anyone can see), there are some key items that make a change worthwhile.

I'm sure that most of you readers know that Intel majorly changed the computing world when they brought forth the "Core" chips back in 2006. For notebook computing, that was the "Yonah" (32-bit), then on to the dual-core (but still 65nm) "Merom" (64-bit), then on to the "Penryn" (45nm) processors before the line move on to the 2nd generation "i" Core, "Sandy-Bridge" series. The ThinkPad T61s have the same CPU socket, but some will only run the late "Merom", and not the "Penryn" processors. I don't know whether that's due to not being able to run the lower voltage (25 watt "P" chips) or it's a "whitelist" issue, but it's a shot in the dark on which machines will upgrade to which CPU. This is where the T500 come into our picture.

If somebody backs me into a corner and forces me to respond to what is the most important factor in terms of a successful Windows computer, I'm going to say..... RAM! Lots and lots of RAM: as much as I can stuff in a machine. Well..... what does one have to do with the other? What I know about ThinkPads is this: the series that were originally equipped with last of the Core 2 Duo processors (Penryn-3M, 45nm/25tdp) will generally come on machines that have a chipset which take DDR3. So, it's not really the processor at all that's the issue; it's the major change in the RAM that it'll take. To put it in dollar terms, what you'll spend in buying a 2Gb module of DDR2 SO-DIMM for your laptop will roughly get you 4Gb of DDR3! To me that's a big deal. A T500 is basically a lighter (slightly), T61 with the fastest/coolest running Core 2 Duo processors which will take DDR3. That's it.... that's all it is..... plus; they can also be bought at almost the same price!!! As an example; I just bought a T500 locally (completely loaded with activated Windows 7, power adapter, 2Gb RAM, 160Gb/7200rpm HDD) for $125. I got home and put a single 4Gb RAM module in it, and it's about to replace my wife's T61 which I'll have no trouble selling for a profit on the turn-around. 

As you know; I tend to do things in a series. So, over the course of the next several weeks or months, I'll probably do the exact same thing with my son's T61, and my daughter's X61. I've already done a little research and found that the X200 (above) can often be had around the $100-125 mark as well. 

The only real question for me is, whether I should go ahead and switch the daughter to a MacBook now or later. She already exhibits all the indicators of an "artsy" child who also loves computers. That's an Apple product wielding kid if I ever saw one. Now, there's a friend of mine who has/had a dead MacBook Air which he may or may-not be able to find. If that comes to fruition, there's clearly a challenging new project, which might cause me to succumb to the Siren call of the devil himself.......

I know that it's not nice to speak ill of the dead, but.... can't you just see the horns sprouting from his head?

Today's Sweet Spot in Daily Laptops

Yesterday, as I was discussing updates it occurred to me that I haven't updated that which this Blog is pretty much all about! ...... What's the best technology deals out there right now for the average "Joe". A few posts back, I had briefly discussed the Dell Latitude E6400 and how it was a really good deal for my clients, but even then I didn't get into the nitty-gritty of the specs and what-all that means. 

In my opinion, right at this moment, there's not a better deal than the Intel Core 2 Duo processor'd machines. We're at a point where many (if not most) mainstream software can take advantage of more than one processor core. And the ones that can't, can run on one, while the machine can continue to do other tasks. Now this is anecdotal evidence of course, but on a fairly regular basis, I work on people's machines (as well as our stable of them too). As far as doing things on them, I can break them down into 3 groups. Single core, P4/P4-M, and Pentium M machines. "Core" Duo/Quad machines, and newer i3/i5/i7. Although, I don't deal with the latter much; I do, on occasion end up working on them as well. What I've found to be the case is that there's a huge difference between the 1st and 2nd group, but little between the 2nd and 3rd. Now before you get yourself into a twist, let me note that, we are talking about, a decent amount of RAM (3 to 4Gb), running an operating system that won't bog it down, meaning XPP for P4/P-M, and Windows 7 for Core Duo/2nd Gen Core machines, AND doing typical tasks, like downloads, Internet, etc. NOT, Photoshop and transcoding video! 

The big factor is this; an adequate amount of RAM that isn't going to kill your budget. Not only do P4-M/P-M machines run slow, single-core processors, they use the older spec DDR (or DDR1) RAM in them. Sure, you can get 1Gb sticks, and get those machines up to 2Gbs total, but the cost of 1Gb DDR is pretty much the same as 2Gb DDR2! So, the irony is that the cheaper machine to buy is more expensive to upgrade. Besides which, the chipsets typically limit them to 2Gb total anyway, even if you could afford to buy bigger modules. So, here's how it works out in $$. You can go buy a T42 for say, $50, then you want to max out the RAM so it'll run decent with XP/SP3. That'll cost you about $70, making your total $120. Whereas on any given day, you can buy a T60 for about $75, or better yet, the T61 that I just bought for $90. You and put 2Gb of RAM into it for anywhere from $25-30 making your total somewhere around $100, or if you want to spend as much as you would have on that maxed out T42, you'd have a T60/T61 with 4Gb of RAM in it. Plus it'll have a Core Duo, or might even have a Core 2 Duo in it which is WAY faster than your P-M. ....And I haven't even gotten into the cost to size differential between the PATA that the T42 uses versus, the SATA that the T60/T61 uses!

The thing that made it jump out at me was that last week, I had a client who asked for a decent laptop to use for the next 2-3 years. They had a $200-250 budget, so I started looking around in the C2D type of corporate machines which are about 3 years old. Within minutes of each other, I was able to find both a Dell Latitude E6400, and a ThinkPad T61 for less than $100 shipped. Both were fully equipped, with hard drives, at least 3Gb of RAM. The ThinkPad had a bigger 15.4" screen and the dell had the bigger hard drive. I got them the Dell because it was smaller and lighter. If it hadn't been someone who was expecting to travel constantly with their machine, I'd have probably done the more rugged ThinkPad with the magnesium skeleton, instead of the Dell with the Magnesium outer casing. These are both "business class" machines that sold for between $1500 and $2000 originally. They'll certainly be tougher than the typical notebook that they'd been able to buy at Walmart for $400-500!

These are the computers I recommend because they offer the most "bang-for-the-buck" and they are what I have my family using. Both my wife and son use the bigger 15.4" ThinkPad T61. Granted they are the higher end ones with discrete graphics chips, high resolution screens and have upgraded SSD boot drives, but the guts of those machines aren't any different. 

I have my daughter on the X61 from the same generation. Similar technology, but in a smaller package that's easier for her to handle. These things are also great deals, in that they are often found in the sub-$100 range as well. Yes, I have her RAM maxed out and an SSD in there as a boot drive as well, but those are pretty cheap upgrades if you know where and how to buy.

In the meantime, I'm already scouting out what we are going to do when it's time to upgrade. There'll come the day when DDR2 won't be worth it to buy compared to DDR3, so it pays to be prepared! But for right now: this is the Sweet Spot!