sechs
Storage? I am Storage!
I've only recommended a Panasonic once -- to an army guy who really needed something practically indestructible, but nothing otherwise fancy.
For the rest of us, there's Lenovo and a warranty.
Recommend a Laptop / Notebook (v. $800 / 14" 16:10 screen)
- Thread starter Stereodude
- Start date
For the rest of us, there's Lenovo and a warranty.
sechs
Storage? I am Storage!
And, as technicians, many of us should appreciate that.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Sure, but as an IT guy, I have options to give my customers for those circumstances (he says, looking under his bed, where there are two T41s, an R41, and an R60).
Indiana State troopers carry Toughbooks. They're obnoxiously heavy and a bit underpowered. Sure, they're well built and durable, but most of us don't need to be able to throw our notebooks at cement, either.
Santilli
Hairy Aussie
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- Jan 27, 2002
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- 5,207
Panasonic does make the Semi-rugged line. Mine, the CF-51 was about 1300, with 1.25 gigs of ram, and 1400 with the SSD installed.
Panasonic does an excellent job of making a solid, large laptop.
I used it for teaching, hooking it up to a projector, etc.
http://www.trustedreviews.com/lapto...sonic-ToughBook-CF-51-Semi-Rugged-Notebook/p1
At the time, it was a great book, for a great price. It retailed at the time, so equipped, for well over 2 grand.
The below link has my thinking about a new laptop, until I check passmark:
http://www.refurb.buytough.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=8
Intel Centrino Duo Core 2 Duo U7500 1.06GHz
and find out it's barely faster then my current laptop.
Panasonic does an excellent job of making a solid, large laptop.
I used it for teaching, hooking it up to a projector, etc.
http://www.trustedreviews.com/lapto...sonic-ToughBook-CF-51-Semi-Rugged-Notebook/p1
At the time, it was a great book, for a great price. It retailed at the time, so equipped, for well over 2 grand.
The below link has my thinking about a new laptop, until I check passmark:
http://www.refurb.buytough.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=8
Intel Centrino Duo Core 2 Duo U7500 1.06GHz
and find out it's barely faster then my current laptop.
The lower end Panasonics are not very competitive any more. I almost bought several in the early to late 2000's.
I wonder if Panasonic will even stay in that segment. :sqnt: The real Toughbooks are mainly for commercial/institutional use.
I wonder if Panasonic will even stay in that segment. :sqnt: The real Toughbooks are mainly for commercial/institutional use.
Santilli
Hairy Aussie
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- 5,207
One of their saving graces is they did do an excellent job of chopping XP Pro down to a very fast, small, os, without adding bloat, or junk ware.
Right now, they are so far out of the processor race, well, they are out of consideration.
Only used, cheap refurbs appear to be worth it, and, even those, due to high replacement parts costs, and slow hard drives aren't such great values, either.
Right now, they are so far out of the processor race, well, they are out of consideration.
Only used, cheap refurbs appear to be worth it, and, even those, due to high replacement parts costs, and slow hard drives aren't such great values, either.
time
Storage? I am Storage!
Santilli said:
Total BS, I'm not sure which of you is worse.
The current models that I can see were released 1-2 years back, so they're probably due for a refresh (if that hasn't happened already), but that hardly makes them uncompetitive in their market.
The ultralight (<1.3kg with DVD) version has a 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo, pretty much the same as the offerings from Lenovo etc. It can also withstand a 75cm (30") drop - that would tend to differentiate it somewhat.
The "Semi-Rugged" model has a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo. Not an i3, i5, or Greg's holy grail - an i7 - but still more than adequate for most laptop tasks.
Just to make it clear, these are Core 2 processors with 3MB cache and two cores. Is that what you have in your laptop, Greg?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I've seen at least two Thinkpads take desk-height spills on to concrete with similar results. And Thinkpads have up to date hardware.
Here are some comments by a blogger paid by Lenovo regarding Thinkpad durability; basically, standard-model Thinkpads compete very well with semi-rugged Panasonics.
ddrueding
Fixture
Anyone know if the 1394 port on my T410 is FW800 or not? The service manual doesn't say...
Sol
Storage is cool
A co-worker once accidentally backed his car over his thinkpad. The screen had to be replaced but he used it for a week or so with an external monitor before it was sent off and there was no other damage.
BingBangBop
Storage is cool
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- Nov 15, 2009
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- 667
That reminds me of a Samsonite briefcase that my father owned. It was run over by a car, and showed cracks in the case but it still worked fine. I thought that Samsonite was way over-priced but a cheap briefcase would never have survived. To some extent, you do get what you pay for...
Stereodude
Not really a
I believe it's S400, not S800.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'm almost positive it's 400Mbps.
Santilli
Hairy Aussie
- Joined
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- Messages
- 5,207
Time:
I have a 1.6 ghz in my CF-51.
What would make me look at upgrading? Going mobile. Requires Wi-fi, and I'd need a satellite or cell phone I can use as a modem.
Must be able to play Bluray.
Since SATA SSD's are quite capable of exceeding SATA 1, looking for the higher SATA
standards, 3 being ideal.
Must be Skype capable.
Since I'm planning on a SSD, should have trim support, meaning Windows 7, or a non-Intel SSD.
Big battery is a plus.
So lets look at Passmark:
My 1.6 Centrino 401
Apparently Panasonic just upgraded processors on the CF-52
One site I could find base is 1800 with i3 2.13 ghz
Passmark 2001 NOT bad.
options
i5 520M 2.4 ghz 300 dollars
passmark 2375
995 dollars i5 2.53 GHz looks like a fancy screen, 512MV VRAM, 250 gig hard drive and Bluetooth.
passmark 2445
Ships with Vista, and XP downgrade option, so I suspect that would make it VERY fast, and, 4 gigs of ram is only 99 more dollars.
So for a i3 it's about 2 grand, certainly in the hunt, but, without a Bluray player.
For 2700 the F8 comes with a Core Duo SP9300
around 1500 on passmark.
Durabooks look really interesting. They have low base prices, nothing installed, and tough cases.
http://www.ocruggedlaptops.com/semi_rugged_laptops.html
The reason I've been looking at i7 laptops is they tend to include the features I'm looking for, though the faster SATA standard I have yet to find on any laptop.
i5's are nearly as fast, and cheaper.
After all this, it's still not at the top of my list. Adding the cheap, 100 dollar SSD
to the Cf-51 has increased it's functional speed in a HUGE way, and, for what I currently use a laptop for, it works just fine.
I might hook up my external Bluray player and see if that works, but, I wonder, since perhaps the USB is not 2, but 1, and, that may not be fast enough.
Yep, as mentioned, its "1394a". For verification, see the tabook
Isn't it apparent from the connector? Other than the Macs have there been any PC notebooks with 1394b?
ddrueding
Fixture
Interesting, looks like a good resource. Thanks.
It probably would be for people who are familiar with firewire connectors, but I've never used them for anything before now. I'm looking for a CF card reader, as my T410 only has a 34mm Expresscard slot, and the only reader I could find used the USB interface and was slow.
I'm running Sandisk Extreme Pro 90MB/s cards, and was hoping to see some of that on the PC side as well.
Apparently so ... I don't think I've ever seen a 1394b port/connector, so I wouldn't have known offhand, but the point is fair, as it is certainly a reasonable assumption that they would differ from the older one
I have no idea.
ddrueding
Fixture
Looks like a no then, not even my GA-X58-UD9 has 1394b (just a)
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
I've found it very rare to see FW800 onboard on any motherboard. Mostly if FW is even available, it's some *^%&%& VIA FW400 chipset.
Wait for USB 3.0 readers. They are coming.
time
Storage? I am Storage!
AFAIK, Gigabyte has been using a Texas Instruments 1394a chipset for some years now. They released an nForce 4 board with T.I. Firewire 800 back in 2005.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Good to know, thanks for the info.
TI sucked with many Oxford bridges so I used VIA-based PCI cards for FW400 back in the early-mid 2000s.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
DD: I have this one, and it's quite fast. It's FW-800, but comes with two cables that enable use with either a FW-800 port or FW-400 port on the host. Since the reader draws power from the FW port, the host port needs to be 6-connector ('alpha'). Or you'll have to use a FW hub that provides power to devices. I use mine with a desktop, so I don't have a problem. This was why I bought a FW-800 PCI-E card a while back (I created threads for it).
What are you using for the controller side? I was unable to achieve particularly good results on FW400, so I stopped using it.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
This post in this thread has the details.