laptop shopping
Fri Oct 16 11:29 EDT 2015
I bought myself a new laptop overnight - woot! again, Lenovo ThinkPad 11E-G2 11.6" Ultraportable Business Notebook, AMD A4-6210 Quad-Core, 500GB SATA, 4GB DDR3, 802.11ac, Bluetooth, Win7Pro. (It should be here next Thursday?) I'm sticking with the 11.6" (29.5cm) screen for portability; I can carry this on a bike without much trouble. Fits into panniers, easily into a knapsack; easy to take out on the deck, or to Pennsic. Finding a case designed for something this size was a challenge, but I've already got one. This is a faster processor, 1.8GHz vs 1.33GHz, 4 cores vs 2 (but 4 threads), and drawing less power. 4GB RAM again, but will take 8GB.
I've had my current laptop, an Acer Aspire 1830 TimelineX, almost 5 years, so it's not unreasonable to be replacing it. It's been dropped a few times, and there's cracks in the case, and it flexes a bit if I pick it up by a corner (which you can do, with a small laptop). The left click-button was never quite right, even when it was brand new, and it's worse after it got banged up a bit when the case was open on a long drive. There's some play in the hinges. And the thing is almost always running in turbo mode, and hot (and short battery life). I do love that its LEDs are orange and blue, rather than red/green. (The links on my icons appear to have gone stale, but there's still a couple of reviews out there.)
The Lenovo should be much more rugged (although anniemal's has still been really abused).
I've been wanting a 1TB disk in this small a package, but not finding it. I may decide to replace this 500GB disk.
CPU comparisons (old Acer Intel, new Lenovo AMD):
AMD A4-6210 vs Intel Core i3-3227U
Intel Core i3 3227U vs AMD A4 6210
If you're thinking "The old Acer could be his web server", that's a possibility, but its wired ethernet was never supported by Ubuntu. I missed it only when I needed to reconfigure Mom's WiFi router, and her iBook was there for that. I haven't needed the wired connection at home*, but it would be preferable for a web server. I'd still rather grab anniemal's old Lenovo (with the bad screen and trackpad) for the web server, since the screen, keyboard, and trackpad won't matter once it's set up. The Acer would have twice the disk space, though.
*We can get an ethernet cable out to the deck or the yard, and it might do better than WiFi through the house's brick walls. (That was set up before we went to WiFi, when we had cables inside to the few places we'd use computers.)
Search engines don't always get it.
lenovo thinkpad "11e-g2" reviewsNo more results. Try:
lenovo thinkpad 11e-g2 reviews
lenovo thinkpad 11e-g2 reviews of windows
lenovo thinkpad 11e-g2 reviews for the martian
lenovo thinkpad 11e-g2 reviews of perfect
lenovo thinkpad 11e-g2 reviews of pan
Sunday 17:52
I've been trying to find out more about the laptop - the stuff you'd want to know before you bought something. As for replacing the 500GB disk with 1TB, Lenovo seems to use disks with special firmware. You may have read that "an accelerometer detects movement and stops the drive when a fall or similar event is detected." I'm left to wonder why that capability shouldn't be in all drives' firmware. Anyway, I'm trying to figure out how to buy a compatible drive. If opening the case voids the warranty, maybe this is something that should wait a while anyway.
I was trying to find a manual on line, and matching models up is a challenge. It looks like the battery isn't removable. (Another iBook "innovation".) That's something I would avoid, but I never got spare batteries for any of our post-Apple laptops. I expect not having a removable chunk makes it easier to design a stronger case and stronger hinges. The battery may be fine for 5 years, by which time I'll probably be wanting a new machine again.
Monday 11:26
My new laptop is here. anniemal found it on the porch. It wasn't where she would necessarily have noticed it, so it might have been here since Saturday. (I think I looked out the front door over the weekend, and I hope I would have noticed a box.) We don't even know who (FedEx, UPS, US Post) delivered it. There's no tracking info on the website yet. I ordered it wee-hours Friday, so a Saturday delivery would be amazing. Even Monday (today) is still pretty incredible.
The overall laptop is slightly larger than the old Acer. The keys are smaller, but the spacing appears the same (so full-sized keyboard). The Function and Control keys on the left side are swapped. The functions on the function keys are all different.
Monday 22:55
Now that the laptop is here, I can see that it is a "Type 20ED" in the 11e family; "11e" seems to be a lot of different things (including one from their "yoga" line, where the screen flips all the way back so you get something like a tablet with an extraneous keyboard on the backside; I can't see wanting that).
And I've found a 1 TB 7mm Drive for ThinkPad 11e (Type 20ED), which costs more than half the price of the entire computer. And I'm not seeing anything on the site that indicates that their Lenovo disks have the special firmware to park the heads when signaled by the accelerometer.
Tuesday 01:59
The new Lenovo is a bit too big for the case I sometimes used for the old Acer. It will do - better than nothing - in a pinch. The 10.2" (25.9cm) sleeve I favored for the Acer was a very tight fit on it, and eventually the stretching broke the zipper. This Lenovo would never have gotten in it. And I have a claimed 13" (33cm) sleeve that was generous on the Acer. The Acer in the 10.2" sleeve fit nicely in the 13" sleeve; very padded. It's only a little big on the Lenovo. I suspect a 13" computer would not fit in it.
There's still no tracking info on the website, where it still says "Estimated delivery date: Thursday, October 22, 2015".
Tuesday 03:36
I'm reading the Lenovo's manual (https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/thinkpad_11e_yoga_11e_ug_en.pdf), and it says only the Yoga version has the accelerometer. That conflicts with things I've read elsewhere. But if it's true, there's no reason to get a special disk drive.
Tuesday 12:58
Computer vendors: It is very hard to buy a home computer that does not have some version of MSWindows installed. Nonetheless, some of your customers are going to replace Windows with something else (e.g. Linux). Don't you think it would be appropriate for your documentation to indicate content that is Windows specific - statements that are not applicable when Windows is not running? Another OS may or may not have the same functionality, and if it does have it, it might not be accessed the same way.
Tuesday 20:00
I'm really having trouble finding out details about the disk I need for the laptop. There's 7mm- and 9mm-thick drives. If I go for 7mm when 9mm will fit, am I spending extra money? Will I get a loose fit? Better - or worse - cooling? More vibration? Early failure? I found Lenovo's Option Compatibility Matrix, listing what components, options, and accessories can be used with each computer model, but I can't find this computer on the chart. ☹ The most reliable answer would probably come from opening the case to find out what's in there now, and then replacing it with the 1TB equivalent.
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/pd027784
Lenovo page about ThinkPad Hard Drives - Overview and Service Parts:
I did find the DVD I burned for installing Ubuntu on anniemal's new laptop. It's recent enough that I needn't bother with burning another for the latest release. (And it will also be good for the web server, if I decide I want a fresh install for that.)
Thursday 23:00
There never was a tracking link added to my order info. There is a tracking number that says "AMAZON LOGISTICS". I saw an Amazon delivery van on my way to work today. I'd forgotten that Amazon has started doing its own delivery. And Amazon bought Woot!. So quite likely Amazon did the delivery of my laptop. And if they can do all their deliveries that fast, they're going to be even more attractive. This was Woot!'s standard $5/whole-order shipping.
A lot of clothing I haven't worn since winter is very loose on me now.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/774267.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
I bought myself a new laptop overnight - woot! again, Lenovo ThinkPad 11E-G2 11.6" Ultraportable Business Notebook, AMD A4-6210 Quad-Core, 500GB SATA, 4GB DDR3, 802.11ac, Bluetooth, Win7Pro. (It should be here next Thursday?) I'm sticking with the 11.6" (29.5cm) screen for portability; I can carry this on a bike without much trouble. Fits into panniers, easily into a knapsack; easy to take out on the deck, or to Pennsic. Finding a case designed for something this size was a challenge, but I've already got one. This is a faster processor, 1.8GHz vs 1.33GHz, 4 cores vs 2 (but 4 threads), and drawing less power. 4GB RAM again, but will take 8GB.
I've had my current laptop, an Acer Aspire 1830 TimelineX, almost 5 years, so it's not unreasonable to be replacing it. It's been dropped a few times, and there's cracks in the case, and it flexes a bit if I pick it up by a corner (which you can do, with a small laptop). The left click-button was never quite right, even when it was brand new, and it's worse after it got banged up a bit when the case was open on a long drive. There's some play in the hinges. And the thing is almost always running in turbo mode, and hot (and short battery life). I do love that its LEDs are orange and blue, rather than red/green. (The links on my icons appear to have gone stale, but there's still a couple of reviews out there.)
The Lenovo should be much more rugged (although anniemal's has still been really abused).
I've been wanting a 1TB disk in this small a package, but not finding it. I may decide to replace this 500GB disk.
CPU comparisons (old Acer Intel, new Lenovo AMD):
AMD A4-6210 vs Intel Core i3-3227U
Intel Core i3 3227U vs AMD A4 6210
If you're thinking "The old Acer could be his web server", that's a possibility, but its wired ethernet was never supported by Ubuntu. I missed it only when I needed to reconfigure Mom's WiFi router, and her iBook was there for that. I haven't needed the wired connection at home*, but it would be preferable for a web server. I'd still rather grab anniemal's old Lenovo (with the bad screen and trackpad) for the web server, since the screen, keyboard, and trackpad won't matter once it's set up. The Acer would have twice the disk space, though.
*We can get an ethernet cable out to the deck or the yard, and it might do better than WiFi through the house's brick walls. (That was set up before we went to WiFi, when we had cables inside to the few places we'd use computers.)
Search engines don't always get it.
lenovo thinkpad "11e-g2" reviewsNo more results. Try:
lenovo thinkpad 11e-g2 reviews
lenovo thinkpad 11e-g2 reviews of windows
lenovo thinkpad 11e-g2 reviews for the martian
lenovo thinkpad 11e-g2 reviews of perfect
lenovo thinkpad 11e-g2 reviews of pan
Sunday 17:52
I've been trying to find out more about the laptop - the stuff you'd want to know before you bought something. As for replacing the 500GB disk with 1TB, Lenovo seems to use disks with special firmware. You may have read that "an accelerometer detects movement and stops the drive when a fall or similar event is detected." I'm left to wonder why that capability shouldn't be in all drives' firmware. Anyway, I'm trying to figure out how to buy a compatible drive. If opening the case voids the warranty, maybe this is something that should wait a while anyway.
I was trying to find a manual on line, and matching models up is a challenge. It looks like the battery isn't removable. (Another iBook "innovation".) That's something I would avoid, but I never got spare batteries for any of our post-Apple laptops. I expect not having a removable chunk makes it easier to design a stronger case and stronger hinges. The battery may be fine for 5 years, by which time I'll probably be wanting a new machine again.
Monday 11:26
My new laptop is here. anniemal found it on the porch. It wasn't where she would necessarily have noticed it, so it might have been here since Saturday. (I think I looked out the front door over the weekend, and I hope I would have noticed a box.) We don't even know who (FedEx, UPS, US Post) delivered it. There's no tracking info on the website yet. I ordered it wee-hours Friday, so a Saturday delivery would be amazing. Even Monday (today) is still pretty incredible.
The overall laptop is slightly larger than the old Acer. The keys are smaller, but the spacing appears the same (so full-sized keyboard). The Function and Control keys on the left side are swapped. The functions on the function keys are all different.
Monday 22:55
Now that the laptop is here, I can see that it is a "Type 20ED" in the 11e family; "11e" seems to be a lot of different things (including one from their "yoga" line, where the screen flips all the way back so you get something like a tablet with an extraneous keyboard on the backside; I can't see wanting that).
And I've found a 1 TB 7mm Drive for ThinkPad 11e (Type 20ED), which costs more than half the price of the entire computer. And I'm not seeing anything on the site that indicates that their Lenovo disks have the special firmware to park the heads when signaled by the accelerometer.
Tuesday 01:59
The new Lenovo is a bit too big for the case I sometimes used for the old Acer. It will do - better than nothing - in a pinch. The 10.2" (25.9cm) sleeve I favored for the Acer was a very tight fit on it, and eventually the stretching broke the zipper. This Lenovo would never have gotten in it. And I have a claimed 13" (33cm) sleeve that was generous on the Acer. The Acer in the 10.2" sleeve fit nicely in the 13" sleeve; very padded. It's only a little big on the Lenovo. I suspect a 13" computer would not fit in it.
There's still no tracking info on the website, where it still says "Estimated delivery date: Thursday, October 22, 2015".
Tuesday 03:36
I'm reading the Lenovo's manual (https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/thinkpad_11e_yoga_11e_ug_en.pdf), and it says only the Yoga version has the accelerometer. That conflicts with things I've read elsewhere. But if it's true, there's no reason to get a special disk drive.
Tuesday 12:58
Computer vendors: It is very hard to buy a home computer that does not have some version of MSWindows installed. Nonetheless, some of your customers are going to replace Windows with something else (e.g. Linux). Don't you think it would be appropriate for your documentation to indicate content that is Windows specific - statements that are not applicable when Windows is not running? Another OS may or may not have the same functionality, and if it does have it, it might not be accessed the same way.
Tuesday 20:00
I'm really having trouble finding out details about the disk I need for the laptop. There's 7mm- and 9mm-thick drives. If I go for 7mm when 9mm will fit, am I spending extra money? Will I get a loose fit? Better - or worse - cooling? More vibration? Early failure? I found Lenovo's Option Compatibility Matrix, listing what components, options, and accessories can be used with each computer model, but I can't find this computer on the chart. ☹ The most reliable answer would probably come from opening the case to find out what's in there now, and then replacing it with the 1TB equivalent.
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/pd027784
Lenovo page about ThinkPad Hard Drives - Overview and Service Parts:
- ThinkPad 320GB 7200rpm 7mm SATA3 OPAL,
- ThinkPad 500GB 7200rpm 7mm SATA3,
- ThinkPad 1TB 5400rpm 9.5mm SATA3
I did find the DVD I burned for installing Ubuntu on anniemal's new laptop. It's recent enough that I needn't bother with burning another for the latest release. (And it will also be good for the web server, if I decide I want a fresh install for that.)
Thursday 23:00
There never was a tracking link added to my order info. There is a tracking number that says "AMAZON LOGISTICS". I saw an Amazon delivery van on my way to work today. I'd forgotten that Amazon has started doing its own delivery. And Amazon bought Woot!. So quite likely Amazon did the delivery of my laptop. And if they can do all their deliveries that fast, they're going to be even more attractive. This was Woot!'s standard $5/whole-order shipping.
A lot of clothing I haven't worn since winter is very loose on me now.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/774267.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]