| Adam Schaible via plug on 22 Jun 2020 10:06:45 -0700 |
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| Re: [PLUG] Fwd: Re: Inexpensive laptop |
Sorry for the slow reply here as I've been away from my desk for a few days but I have to chime in here from personal experience. I've owned a ThinkPad W520 for 9 years, bought it new in 2011. It's identical to the W530 except for the CPU (its i7 is a 2nd gen "Sandybridge" instead of the W530's 3rd gen "Ivybridge"). The "W" stands for Workstation, this is a real boatanchor "desktop displacement" laptop the likes of which have been out of style for some time now (Lenovo discontinued this family in 2015). Pros and cons from my 9 years of use: Pros: a) Still serviceably powerful even today, 8 threads and 16GB of RAM with USB3 was outstanding in terms of "futureproofing" for 2011. (And not just USB3, it's ports ports ports in general, SO MANY PORTS) b) More or less built like a tank, in the olden IBM style c) Very easy to get inside of and work on (like upgrading the RAM to 32GB maybe...) d) Keyboard is *phenomenal*, every single keyboard on every single laptop I've bought since this one has been a sad disappointment by comparison e) Screen is full 1080p and not the more commonly seen (for that time) 720p, with not a single dead pixel in 9 years Cons: a) Heavy (6lb by itself, add another pound for its huge charger), the obvious downside of "like a tank" b) Runs hot, not quite Pentium 4 "hairdryer" levels of heat but temps in the 90s centigrade are still fairly routine, even after a cleaning and fresh smear of CPU thermal paste. Fortunately the 3rd gen "Ivybridge" in the W530 is almost certainly several degrees cooler with its die shrink (remember those, Intel fans?) c) nVidia Quadro GPU in mine lost its "smoke" in 2018 so I had to disable its charred remains in BIOS and use only Intel integrated GPU (bye bye gaming). d) Even when the nVidia chip was working, Optimus support in Linux was abysmal at the time (yes I know that's nVidia's fault) and I can't imagine it's improved much since then, I think we've all just collectively moved on from that dumpster fire e) 2.4 GHz internal WiFi is super blah these days, get a 5GHz dongle My W520 is currently spending its (semi) retirement sitting with its lid closed on a shelf down in my basement as a hypervisor in my Proxmox cluster (as seen in May's PLUG North). $549 is way too much for its big brother the W530, that's typical eBay irrational/aspirational pricing IMO. But it might still be worth $200/$300, if you see one at a flea market somewhere, if only for that sweet keyboard :-) -- Adam Schaible plug@schibes.com On Tue, Jun 16, 2020, at 16:55, Lee H. Marzke via plug wrote: > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List" <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> > > To: "Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List" <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> > > Sent: Tuesday, 16 June, 2020 16:47:16 > > Subject: [PLUG] Fwd: Re: Inexpensive laptop > > > Something like this? > > > > https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-laptop-W530-Core-i7-3-60Ghz-1920x1080p-16GB-RAM-1TB-hdd-NVIDIA/142245819970 > > > > > ThinkWiki has a bunch of issue written against that one: > https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:W530 > > I'm not sure what "W" series are, I've mostly seen "P" and "X" units used. > > This site has some recommendations: https://linuxhint.com/linux_lenovo_thinkpad/ > > Lee > > > > > > > > > On 6/16/20 9:44 AM, Lee H. Marzke via plug wrote: > >> > >> > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >> > >> *From: *"Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List" > >> <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> > >> *To: *"Drew DeVault" <sir@cmpwn.com> > >> *Cc: *"Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List" > >> <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>, "Tom" <tlbox@verizon.net> > >> *Sent: *Tuesday, 16 June, 2020 02:48:39 > >> *Subject: *Re: [PLUG] Inexpensive laptop > >> > >> On Mon, Jun 15, 2020 at 10:08 PM Drew DeVault via plug > >> <plug@lists.phillylinux.org <mailto:plug@lists.phillylinux.org>> wrote: > >> > >> What I don't like to roll the dice on is Linux support. Drivers, > >> UEFI, > >> firmware, and more can be super spotty on a lot of laptops, and it's > >> hard to tell in advance if you'll get screwed. ThinkPads, on the > >> other > >> hand - I'm running Alpine Linux, NetBSD, Haiku, and Plan 9 :) > >> > >> > >> Pre/Post COVID, load a thumb drive with the live install of the > >> distro of choice. Take it to Best Buy and boot the display model of > >> the laptop you’re interested in from the thumb drive. If everything > >> works then you’re golden. The only caveat might be a password > >> protected BIOS that doesn’t have “boot from USB” enabled. Good luck > >> David > >> > >> > >> Used Thinkpad, they last forever. I've been through 6 or more units > >> for myself or installed Ubuntu on units purchased for friends. > >> The sub-model ( screen type, etc ) sometimes matters for compatibility. > >> > >> Yes you'll need new batteries, more RAM, and such, but still very > >> inexpensive. > >> > >> I've had luck with several X200 netbook size units, X-61 tab / > >> convertible, then upgraded to X-230 tablets. > >> For business use, I'm looking now that the newer X-1's but that is lot > >> of money. I just can't stand anything without a track-point. > >> > >> Lee > >> > >> > >> ___________________________________________________________________________ > >> Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- > >> http://www.phillylinux.org > >> Announcements - > >> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > >> General Discussion -- > >> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > >> > >> > >> -- > >> "Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of > >> iqlusion..." - Kryptos > >> Lee Marzke, lee@marzke.net http://marzke.net/lee/ > >> > >> > >> ___________________________________________________________________________ > >> Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org > >> Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > >> General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > >> > > ___________________________________________________________________________ > > Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org > > Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > > General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > > -- > "Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of > iqlusion..." - Kryptos > > Lee Marzke, lee@marzke.net http://marzke.net/lee/ > ___________________________________________________________________________ > Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org > Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > ___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug