What hardware are you using?

Discussion of hardware related issues
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crosscourt
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

Ive been testing my Dell E4300 laptops with W@in10, Zorin OS 15.3 and feren OS 20.04 and was really impressed with how they did. They are running 2.5ghz core 2 duo cpus, 8gb of ddr3 ram, and 128gb ssd drives with Linux and a 500gb standard drive with Win10. No issues with hardware, no issues with sluggishness or loading. Online performance is good so it is possible to run older hardware for everyday use and save some cash.
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wove
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by wove »

A while back I rescued (literally pulled it from the trash at the local thrift store) a 17" MacBook Pro 2008 model with specs very similar to your Dell E4300. It has a 2.6GHz core2duo processor, maxes out at 6GB of RAM. It runs whatever I have put on it very well. Some Linux distros have trouble with its version wifi and its efi boot, but generally they run well. Using drivers from Apple's boot camp software, Windows 10 runs like it was made for the machine.

This machine was originally a build to order model, which has an ungraded processor (I really must be missing something, for I find it hard to understand why a person would pay and extra $260 to go from 2.5ghz to 2.6ghz) and a 1920x1200 mate screen panel (doing lots of graphics I can understand why this panel cost an extra $400), and whoever bought this paid a whopping $3500 for the beast. Even being 13 years old that is a yearly cost of ~270/year, so in a cynic's perspective you could buy this beast or a new ChromeBook every year for 13years.

I installed Mac OS X Catalina, which is really a joy use. I have really enjoyed Pop OS' gnome window manager extensions, I find that OS X is oh way so much better, smoother, and easier to use. Overall I am not sure what to do with this beast. My last experience on Mac was around the time this was a new machine and any software I had from then no longer works. It weighs 7lbs so I named it half-a-stone on the network.

bill
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crosscourt
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Re: What hardware are you using?

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7lbs???? Ouch! I havent used an Apple system since my Apple II. Ive gotten a lot of my systems from the trash or from people in my community. Im amazed the things they throw away including 5 tvs that Im presently using in my home from 27-32 inches. Most of my monitors from 19-22 inches as well.
Damaged systems I pull as many parts as I can get from them to use later.
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crosscourt
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Re: What hardware are you using?

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Not sure how long Ill keep using my older laptops. At some point Im probably going to ditch it all and go with something newer that will last me a while.
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wove
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by wove »

Got any models you are leaning towards? Thinking of business class, or ultra portable, 2 in 1, detachable?

bill
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crosscourt
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Re: What hardware are you using?

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Business class, and it will be used just a lot newer than what I have. Nothing older than a E7480 at this point.
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crosscourt
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Re: What hardware are you using?

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Im typing on my Acer Chromebook as Im cloning the hard drive on my Win10 gaming system, using a hard drive external dock with USB 3.0
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crosscourt
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Re: What hardware are you using?

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Took 13 hours to do the clone so next time Ill have to setup to use SATA.
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tlmiller
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

crosscourt wrote: Sat Feb 06, 2021 5:07 pm Business class, and it will be used just a lot newer than what I have. Nothing older than a E7480 at this point.
You can find T495's fairly cheap, they're pretty modern, and obviously have Thinkpad keyboards (the main draw towards them). A485 if you like having dual batteries and don't mind the Zen instead of Zen+ cpu's. The newer Dell models I'm honestly not that impressed by as much as some of the older ones.

If you go Dell, go xx90 instead of 80. 80's had athe Kaby Lake chips, still dual core, 90's had Kaby Refresh, so quad core (literally identical chassis and everything, just a refresh for the newer quad-core i5/i7 chips).
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

Its as much about the hardware as the price. I dont use my laptops for anything major so price takes a larger lead than whats inside. Looking to make a move maybe end of this year, so Ill see where prices go at that point.
Ill give the T495 a look as Im not that familiar with Lenovo's product lines.
Agree with you about Dells more recent product lines as I like the older models a lot more.
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