Taking "The Backup" to the Next Level

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....

It might get the ThinkMods ExpressCard adapter or......

an ExpressCard to eGPU adapter! Probably though, a better question might be; what am I going to do with the T540p?Server..... maybe!?!

If that is the use-case, then; what OS?

As you can see; lots of scenarios and lots of options!

The "Backup" Computer

 

Virtually everyone knows what this is, but did you know that there are vehicles out there that doesn't have one!?! SHOCK! DISMAY! DISBELIEF! Yeah, I know.... A few weeks ago, a friend of mine had to cancel a visit because he got pulled into a disaster due to a car without a spare! Anyway, what does this have to do with a "backup computer". Well.... I'm glad you asked. 

Some of you are probably aware that my main computer at home would probably be considered a "workstation" and all that that implies. It's powerful (Intel Xeon 8/16 multi-threaded cores, 32Gb of RAM, 1Tb M.2 SSD boot and 5.5Tb of storage drives) and running multiple displays (1-28" 4K, 2-22" 1920x1200) etc. It's been dead reliable since it's last rebuild to this spec (other than a weird speaker issue), then yesterday.....it "blue-screened".....

..... but it wasn't this....

It could have been! Ya see.... I was online grading AP essays at the time and will continue through tomorrow! So, why wasn't it a bigger disaster?

When people say "backup" in the computing world, they think this:

Not me! When I see something like that as a "back up", it gives me images of those little "donut" spares that car have in their trunks. I want a full-sized spare, "in the trunk"; that's why I think a back up in the computing world should look like this!

What I call the "trunk" is on my side desk, ThinkPad T540p loaded up ready to go. So, let's look at this practice in the form of a personal little fun project. The machine is one of the last of the ThinkPad "T" series of laptops that were "end-user" upgradeable. It and it's brother, the T440p were the last of the mainstream machines with a socketed processor. They were Intel's Haswell (4th gen) of the Core family. By the following year/gen, Intel forced manufacturers to move to the "U" or "UltraBook" processors which were way lower TDP and WAY lower powered. On top of that, you couldn't replace the processors because the "Broadwell" (5th gen) CPUs were BGA (ball grid array) and soldered onto the motherboard! On top of that, these machines not only had the traditional 2.5" drive bay, but an M.2 socket capable of taking a 42mm SSD (SATA, not NVMe) plus a replaceable optical drive as well. This gives it an option to hold a boot and 2 storage drives if necessary. Why did I do the T540p vs. the T440p that's more common? The bigger 15.6/15.5" (more on this later) vs. 14.1" screen for my old eyes and a keyboard with a num-pad since I can "10-key". And.... I got it CHEAP, like $125 cheap!

What did I actually do to upgrade it since one of my reasons for buying it was it's "upgrade-ability"? 

• 1st was the RAM from 4Gb to the max of 16Gb.
• 2nd was to replace the mechanical spinning boot drive to an M.2, 256Gb SSD. Then a 1Tb/7200rpm mechanical HDD went in to the 2.5" drive bay as "mass storage".
• Next was the rather tedious replacement of the infamous "clunkpad" of the gen with a trackpad with true mouse buttons. This was a big deal for me!
• It also got a blacklit keyboard at that time.
• Then last to replace the 15.6" 1366 x 768 TN screen with a FHD 1920 x 1080 IPS panel. On this machine it means replacing the entire screen housing and signal cable as well.  

Then it moved into it's spot of the side desk next to the last of my workstation monitors.

Right where it was needed when the "big-boy" had it's blow-out.... So, here's the thing on the concept. You can't just have a computer that's going to be "OK", but it needs to be something that you can jump on and not lose a beat. Which is exactly what happened. Sure, I spent a few minutes trying some things including using a W10 bootable USB stick to try and do the W10 "repair", but when it didn't look like I was going to bring it back immediately, I was able to jump on the T540p and work without a hitch. Sure, I had the computer up and running a few hours later (because I had a clone of the boot SSD), but this allowed me to not loose several hours of work!

In today's world, can you really afford to not have a computing backup?