101–110 of 160 posts
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Yes - built-in kvm and built-in UPS. I had an old dell laptop that had a double-high pcmcia port and I inserted two xircom realport LAN cards and had a very nice router with three NICs and no dongles.
I usually pull the batteries out now after a spicy pillow incident.
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*without replacing the entire thing
If you’re planning on keeping it a long time, surely you’d get more RAM at purchase time? Minimum ram is never going to be good in 5-10 years.
ThinkPad X220i with 16GB RAM in 2011.
Macbook Air M1 with 16GB RAM in 2020.
In both cases it was the most RAM I could get.
I know framework is a popular company on tech forums but it's always felt like a solution in search of a problem. Laptops I own that only have a CPU are rarely computationally bounded in what I'm trying to do, by the time the CPU is showing its age the battery and case are usually showing their age too. But lets say I need the most up to date CPU and can't wait, why would I now need a desktop computer with no expanda…
Same with current macbooks, everything is soldered in and glued together, making repairs or upgrading impossible. the samsung notebook would work great as a second device or for one of my kids to learn. but because of some shitty anti-consumer-tactics and some saved cents, it can't easily be done.
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Yes, or servers. I've been searching for ways to convert an older Dell laptop mainboard into a simple server. It has great power consumption on account of being a laptop logic board, and enough power to run serious server workloads. Unfortunately, I do not think a universal product for reusing laptop logic boards exists. Although it might be easy enough to make. All ports on the logic board could be wired up to a bac…
You don’t need to re-case them. I had three old thinkpads as servers a few years ago. Took the batteries out and connected them to Ethernet switch. Built in KVM. Job done!
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I usually pull the batteries out now after a spicy pillow incident.
I heard about people who use simple timer sockets to mitigate that. The battery won't die nearly as quickly if it's not at 100% all the time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, or servers. I've been searching for ways to convert an older Dell laptop mainboard into a simple server. It has great power consumption on account of being a laptop logic board, and enough power to run serious server workloads. Unfortunately, I do not think a universal product for reusing laptop logic boards exists. Although it might be easy enough to make. All ports on the logic board could be wired up to a bac…
Interesting... don't most older laptops have some sort of docking mechanism that exposed basically every connection? The physical interface wasn't the same for every laptop, but with a common backplane it should be possible to make a seperate docking connector daughterboard for the most popular laptops taking up cupboard space. I would love to collab on an open-source dock that turns laptops into servers :)
You could probably use only one USB port on the laptop and integrate a hub into the case. But for ethernet, audio, and HDMI, you'd probably need cables. The nice thing about cables in the box is that adapters could be used. If a laptop comes with VGA out only, that can be adapted to HDMI. If there are separate audio out and in jacks, those can be combined with an adapter. If there is no ethernet jack, it could be added with a USB network card. There are also adapters for laptop power supply cables for the C13/C14 three-pin interface.
So a lot of work can be done inside the case by the person building a desktop/console/server out of a laptop. But no one is selling a universal case with a backplate. And desktop cases are difficult to work with because they expect a backplate from a motherboard.
Really, the product could be just an I/O backplate that mounts to standard ATX stand-offs/screws and takes extension cables, plus something to regulate fan speeds by temperature that also has fan headers. The power button might be a challenge for the builder to solve, but with very minor soldering, most power buttons integrated in any case would work.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
*without replacing the entire thing
If you’re planning on keeping it a long time, surely you’d get more RAM at purchase time? Minimum ram is never going to be good in 5-10 years.
I love what framework is doing but the fundamental choice of laptop for me is always battery life. If I can't pull the laptop off the dock in the morning and ride into the office without packing a charger, I'm not a buyer. MacBooks are the only laptops doing this reliably.
My ZenBook happily did 16 hours or more a few times (it claimed 22 out of the box though I never needed to ask it to while I was monitoring), though it doesn't seem to do as well now (it has seen regular use for about three years). There are other designs on the market with similar claims too.
Most people are looking for something that is just movable when getting a laptop though with power being available most of the time, so double a working day (or more) battery life isn't something that sells big (especially if there is the option to trade it for cost or weight) which is part of why you don't see many laptops even trying.
(gaming marketed laptops and other high-power units are a different kettle of fish, you expect and get less life with that sort of use case even with a huge heavy battery or two)
I really like this as a way to repurpose old hardware; I have known many laptops that end up sitting around in cupboards after their 'useful' life is over, that could probably still comfortably be serving as lightweight desktops even today.
Yes, or servers. I've been searching for ways to convert an older Dell laptop mainboard into a simple server. It has great power consumption on account of being a laptop logic board, and enough power to run serious server workloads. Unfortunately, I do not think a universal product for reusing laptop logic boards exists. Although it might be easy enough to make. All ports on the logic board could be wired up to a bac…
Though take care with the batteries. Left plugged in 24/7 some turn a bit fiery after a time, or just fail in a way that takes out the device at an inconvenient time.
Some remove batteries from laptops used this way for that reason, though that throws away the built-in-UPS benefit. Another option to mitigate the issue is a timer switch that disconnects power for an hour every few, this works well while the battery still has enough life in it at all.
If you are a smart-home-hacker you could rig a controlled plug up to the battery state so you can flip power back on/off when the battery hits a certain level, rather than relying on a fixed time period, though I'm unsure whether that is worth the effort in terms of preventing potential faults and preserving battery life (IIRC charging up to 80-to-90% and discharging to ~40% is considered optimal for prolonging the useful life of modern batteries?) or if it would “just” be an interesting nerd project.
I know framework is a popular company on tech forums but it's always felt like a solution in search of a problem. Laptops I own that only have a CPU are rarely computationally bounded in what I'm trying to do, by the time the CPU is showing its age the battery and case are usually showing their age too. But lets say I need the most up to date CPU and can't wait, why would I now need a desktop computer with no expanda…
Laptop still works but it's painful to use in a now converged USB-C world.
With my frame.work if I get loose USB-C port, I just have to buy a new 10-20 EUR USB-C card, plug it and problem fixed.