I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012 • Hacker News Board

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#281

Post by unethical_ban » Mon, Jan 10, 2022, 4:05 PM UTC

MR4D wrote: post #274

Shorel wrote: post #262

> I’d like to thank Intel here for making this possible. The CPU innovation stagnation between 2012-2017 has resulted in 4 cores still being an acceptable low-end CPU in early 2022. Without this, my laptop would likely be obsolete by now. Hahaha, this last sentence seals the overall tone of the article.

This. Last January I converted my old (2012) quad-core Intel desktop and gave it to my son for gaming. The only thing I had to do was add a 1-TB SSD and put in an RTX-3060 Ti, and it runs every game (Fortnite, CoD, etc) at 100+ FPS without any issues. I'm still amazed that a simple GPU change and the machine keeps up with his friends brand-new AMD box (not sure what chip, just that it was new in 2021). When the 12th…

What other metrics are there for a processor in gaming, if not (compute) power per core, as well as core count?

Sure, a gaming computer doesn't need 8 cores as much as an encoder, but AMD's single core performance is right up there with Intel, for much less money.

Disclaimer: AMD fanboy and stockholder

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#282

Post by vxNsr » Mon, Jan 10, 2022, 4:06 PM UTC

300bps wrote: post #242

gruez wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you deal with the noticeable latency? It's pretty annoying even on LAN with RDP. I imagine it'll be worse on the cloud.

I don’t notice any. I also don’t use RDP - for Amazon Workspaces I use their app that utilizes the PCoIP protocol. Other than that my last job was working at one of the largest banks in the United States. We were 100% virtual desktop since 2014. My current employer just switched to about 95% virtual desktop. Nobody ever complains about latency. I think it’s a given that literally everyone will switch to this method a…

Everyone I know who works in VDI complains about latency. My wife’s whole company uses virtual desktops, and anytime she’s working from and I look over her shoulder I shudder, it’s incredibly noticeable.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#283

Post by chucksmash » Mon, Jan 10, 2022, 4:11 PM UTC

perth wrote: post #251

black_puppydog wrote: post #65

I find it funny how people seem to fixate so much on the fact that the author upgraded various components to say the title is misleading. As someone with apparently similar requirements, the take-away from this should be this: Even though significant work is required to keep these old machines working, some people prefer to do so. Crucially, they prefer it not because they love tinkering, but simply because the value…

Pro Tip: get Dells business models like the latitude series The business Dell laptops blow anything lenovo has ever made out of the water in terms of specs, build quality, and serviceability. Also Dell’s bios is way better and easier to do stuff in. I’ve had a t420 and I thought it was crap compared to the Dell business laptops. The cooling, plastic casing material, and serviceability just isn’t there. On the T420 my…

This has been the move for me.

I have a Carbon X1 running Windows through work and Latitude running Linux at home. It's not fair to compare the two because they are different weight classes and running different OSes, but the X1 battery life and performance have really put me off the smaller form factor. It's puny and it regularly gets ~2 hours off a charge versus 4-8x that on the Dell, all just to save a kilo.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#284

Post by localhost » Mon, Jan 10, 2022, 4:14 PM UTC

There's a post[1] from 2019 about a group in Shenzen who update classic Thinkpads to modern specs. It's also been mentioned here a bunch of times [2-4]. I got an email from the group just a couple of weeks ago and they're building another batch. It's a bit sketchy with the Western Union funds transfer but I'm seriously considering it. I love the build quality of the x220s that I still have here, but would love to have better internals.

[1] https://geoff.greer.fm/2019/03/04/thinkpad-x210/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19246406 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19246406 [4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19413436

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#285

Post by terminalcommand » Mon, Jan 10, 2022, 4:15 PM UTC

MR4D wrote: post #274

Shorel wrote: post #262

> I’d like to thank Intel here for making this possible. The CPU innovation stagnation between 2012-2017 has resulted in 4 cores still being an acceptable low-end CPU in early 2022. Without this, my laptop would likely be obsolete by now. Hahaha, this last sentence seals the overall tone of the article.

This. Last January I converted my old (2012) quad-core Intel desktop and gave it to my son for gaming. The only thing I had to do was add a 1-TB SSD and put in an RTX-3060 Ti, and it runs every game (Fortnite, CoD, etc) at 100+ FPS without any issues. I'm still amazed that a simple GPU change and the machine keeps up with his friends brand-new AMD box (not sure what chip, just that it was new in 2021). When the 12th…

Was it a Xeon processor :)?

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#286

Post by 627467 » Mon, Jan 10, 2022, 4:15 PM UTC

I've got a T430 as my personal laptop (although I still use the work one more than I should) 2-3 years ago specifically because of its upgradeability.

Since then I found myself having the haul the laptop enough times to wish for something smaller and lighter so acquired a smaller X240.

I don't plan to move away from (these) ThinkPads until the arm-based improvements make it compelling enough. Hopefully someone will make a arm-based laptop that is as modules/thinkerable as ThinkPads.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#287

Post by goodpoint » Mon, Jan 10, 2022, 4:19 PM UTC

JKCalhoun wrote: post #241

fho wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with these projects is that they are all the hype for a while and after the hype dies down you are left with laptop that is only in theory upgradable.

Why not instead someone just market a replacement keyboard for one of the more popular laptops? It sounds as though modern keyboards are the primary pain point for newer laptops. (Or if a 3rd party had marketed an inexpensive replacement power-brick for the author's 2001 Apple iBook perhaps he would still be using it.)

Patents, followed by a small battalion of lawyers.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#288

Post by goodpoint » Mon, Jan 10, 2022, 4:21 PM UTC

cehrlich wrote: post #109

notRobot wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love frame.work as a concept, but it's definitely not a "proven" concept at the moment. The company could very well go under or choose not to support upgrading the laptop.

Even assuming Framework shuts down tomorrow and destroys their existing stock of replacement parts and the specs for making new ones, I would argue that you can at the very least assume permanent availability of RAM, SSD, Display (it uses a commodity panel), fan, and battery (there are knockoff batteries for much more obscure laptops). I would assume that keyboards, trackpads, etc. will also be available as some lapt…

> you can at the very least assume permanent availability of RAM, SSD, Display

Quite the opposite. That would only apply to a very popular laptop like some thinkpads.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#289

Post by mikepurvis » Mon, Jan 10, 2022, 4:23 PM UTC

MR4D wrote: post #274

Shorel wrote: post #262

> I’d like to thank Intel here for making this possible. The CPU innovation stagnation between 2012-2017 has resulted in 4 cores still being an acceptable low-end CPU in early 2022. Without this, my laptop would likely be obsolete by now. Hahaha, this last sentence seals the overall tone of the article.

This. Last January I converted my old (2012) quad-core Intel desktop and gave it to my son for gaming. The only thing I had to do was add a 1-TB SSD and put in an RTX-3060 Ti, and it runs every game (Fortnite, CoD, etc) at 100+ FPS without any issues. I'm still amazed that a simple GPU change and the machine keeps up with his friends brand-new AMD box (not sure what chip, just that it was new in 2021). When the 12th…

My wife has been gaming on a fourth-gen i5 + RX 570 for a few months, and it was mostly fine until Halo Infinite— with that title it was pretty clear that she was CPU bound, with the system chugging on open areas, mob AI, particles, etc.

We upgraded her to a second hand B450 mobo + Ryzen 2400 and that's been fine. Still running on low settings due to the limited GPU, but everything is at least playable. And this motherboard has FW updates that support 5xxx series Ryzens, so there's upgrade headroom there now as well.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#290

Post by pdimitar » Mon, Jan 10, 2022, 4:23 PM UTC

unixhero wrote: post #39

iamevn wrote: post #19

A couple months ago I pulled my x220 that I hadn't used in 3 years out of the closet and got it all updated to do some hobby programming while visiting parents. My only other laptops were a work machine (X1 Carbon, I want to say from 2019) that I didn't want to travel with and a Surface Go that I didn't want to wrangle into having a decent dev environment. When I booted it up, I checked the most recent entry in pacma…

Well of course you fixed your arch install in a matter of an hour, you're a Haskell developer.

Anecdote: I use Manjaro on my home server and on a laptop and it's rock-solid. Not sure why people look down on Arch, I only had good experiences and I'm very far from a seasoned sysadmin.