🚀 go-pugleaf

Somewhere on teh intarwebs Mark P. Nelson wrote:
> "~misfit~" <sore_n_happy@nospamyahoo.com.au> wrote in
> news:huuf0s$u4l$1 @news.eternal-september.org:
>
>>>
>>> And of course I remember her.
>>
>> I'm impressed! Pretty good for a guy your age. ;-)
>
> Hey, a little respect, kid!
>
> ;ţ~

Heh! You most certainly have my respect. I only hope that I'm as in control 
of my faculties as well as you are if I reach your age. <g>

LOL, the newsgroup's been a bit quiet these last couple days huh? I mean, 
I've been busy[1] the last 24 hours but I've still had time to play a little 
and keep posting. ;-)

Time to get a little OT I think while the coffee kicks in..... Wait a sec, 
I'll start a couple clone-sit games first...... Done.

[1] I 'obtained' another Core*2*Duo T7400 (2.13GHz / 4MB L2 cache) laptop 
CPU, (which one of my ThinkPad T60s is already running). The other two were 
running T2xx Core(not 2)Duo CPUs, a 2GHz and a 1.83GHz which, apart from 
being 20% 'slower' clock-for-clock and only having 2MB L2 lack the Intel 
EN64T instruction set which allows you to run a 64-bit OS. Also the T7xx 
series run less core voltage per clock which is impressive considering all 
the extra transistors on-die for the twice-as-big L2 cache.

I was given a Sony Viao laptop to see if I could fix but it's terminal 
(damaged motherboard / scratched screen / keys missing / scuffed case), they 
might look all bling and be light and all but they sure as hell aren't 
rugged). It had the T7400. I swapped a T2500 (2GHz) in my second 15" T60 out 
and fitted the T7400 (above mentioned advantages plus 2.1GHz), then swapped 
the T2500 into my 14" T60 to replace the T2400 (1.83GHz) that it had fitted 
(all of my T60s have the max RAM, 3GB). Finally I put the T2400 into the 
Sony (which does actually boot but not all the way into windows).

So I've upgraded two of my best laptops, I'm quite pleased about that. While 
the second upgrade wasn't a significant one (just a small speed increase 
rather than going up a 'grade' in CPU) it's still important to me. I'll be 
keeping these T60s for the foreseeable future as they're rugged and 
relatively powerful, although they don't have high-end graphics (only ATI 
X1400 / 128MB VRAM). They're hardly gaming machines, rather built to be 
solid reliable corporate workhorses.

(The Txx range was [and still is, although I'm not sure if Lenovo are 
keeping up standards since they took over completely from IBM] the top of 
the ThinkPad stable and as such were twice the price of the 'consumer' 
models. They feature magnesium alloy chassis' and carbon-fibre reinforced 
plastic lids and shells. The lids used to be magnesium alloy as well but as 
wireless became common and as the anntenna for the wireless are mounted in 
the lid they reverted back to reinforced plastic for better wireless 
reception. That said I do also have a rather nice *R*51 laptop, it has a 
beautiful screen, hi-res [1400x1050] IPS [same as my 15" T60s] but from a 
different manufacturer. The colours, clarity and viewing angles have to be 
seen to be appreciated.)

I tell ya man, I'm realy impressed with the ThinkPad T60s. They're the last 
of the 'standard ratio' screen laptops in the ThinkPad range, although the 
last couple variants did have widescreen but were rare (and I dislike 
widescreen laptops very much, too much like toys IMO). I fix quite a few 
laptops, either for neighbours or buying 'fixer-uppers' from Trademe, NZ's 
version of ebay, and the only ones[2] I'm tempted to keep are ThinkPads.

Pretty much every other brand and model I've taken a screwdriver to has been 
lacking in one or more respects in comparison. Sure, they might look flashy 
or even have slightly more features but they just don't have the feel of a 
Txx ThinkPad. A mate of mine told me that, as he was about to walk down the 
(carpeted) stairs in his home the other day in the middle of reading email 
on his T60 he took a mis-step and dropped it. (He'd closed the lid but it 
was running. The lid has little tabs that lock into recesses in the body 
making the whole thing very rigid.) He said that it bounced all the way down 
the stairs, around the corner and ended up on the tiles of the hallway / 
entraceway to their house.

His wife freaked but he wasn't worried. He picked it up, opened the lid and 
carried on checking email. They have accelerometers in them that detect if 
it's in free-fall (as little as 30cm) or if it takes a knock and almost 
instantly parks the HDD read / write heads to prevent damage to the 
platters. I believe him (not that he's prone to lying, LOL), I've opened 
enough of these babies to see how well-built they are.

Can you tell that I'm a real fan of IBM / Lenovo T60 ThinkPads? (Especially 
the ones with the 1400x1050 IPS displays.) There are well-informed people 
who are of the opinion that they are / were the pinnacle, the absolute 
zenith of laptop design and build. Since the T60 even the ThinkPad range has 
succumbed to the cost-cutting and general demise of good design and pride in 
build quality that is the result of Joe Public wanting ever-cheaper (and 
disposable) consumer electronics. People these days are quite happy to buy 
new every two or three years and don't give a rat's arse about longevity or 
good design (other than looks).

The best thing about this? My T60s were made in 2007 which means that there 
is a relative glut of them on the market at the moment as corporates tend to 
have a three-year replacement cycle (at least here in NZ, it's about when 
tax depreciation makes it most economic to upgrade as they're worth very 
little on the books). The other thing is that they were made at a time when 
CPU power was well over-and-above what most people would ever use (with the 
obvious exceptions) so there's no reason why they can't be usable for 
another decade! I have one running Windows 7 Ultimate and it handles it 
easilly, even running a full XP Pro install in it's 'XP Mode' VM. The only 
downside (and it's not really a huge one unless you're prone to running 
multiple VMs) is that they are limited to 3GB or RAM.

My advice to the wise; Get a good 15" T60 ThinkPad (with ATI graphics [they 
were also made with integraed Intel graphics] and the 1400x1050 [SXGA+] IPS 
display) and upgrade the RAM to 3GB if it's not already (as DDR2 RAM is 
getting more expensive by the week as DDR3 takes over). Hell, do what I've 
done and get two or three! You'll not regret it, I give you my word. If 
you're young (obviously not you Mark <g>) your peers with their shiny flimsy 
bling 'laptops' might look at you askance but you'll be laughing in five 
years time when they've had to buy two replacements and your T60 is still 
going strong.

If possible buy one with a C2D T7xxx CPU but, if you can get a good one with 
the 15" IPS display but only a T2xxx CPU at the right price grab it anyway, 
the CPU is (relatively) easilly upgradable and the required CPUs are only 
going to get cheaper (for about two years, then they'll get more expensive 
and a lot harder to find if past trends are anything to go by). If you have 
no intention of running 64bit software then tha T2xxx will probably be fine, 
just not as powerful as a T7xxx. Not only is the T7xxx the next gen but it 
has double the L2 cache which makes it more responsive again. The T7400 
2.13GHz is the best price-point upgrade. There is a T7600 2.3GHz in the 
range which is the fastest CPU a T60 will take but they command a huge 
premium and frankly the extra bit of speed won't be anywhere near as 
noticable over the T7400. It's the '2' part in the Core2Duo and the cache 
that makes the upgrade worth it.

<phew> Ok, time for another coffee and to face my Sunday (NZ time...) I was 
just so pleased to turn my machines on this morning with their newly-fitted 
CPUs knowing that now, if I so desire, I can run 64bit OS' on both my 15" 
models and my 14" T60 has a faster CPU that I had to share and you folks 
were in the wrong place at the wrong time. <g> (Did I mention that there are 
downloadable hardware maintenance manuals available for ThinkPads that makes 
working on them a breeze?)

May all your runes be high and all your drops be golden.
-- 
Cheers,
Shaun.

"When we dream.... that's just our brains defragmenting" G Jackson.