Laptops versus Notebooks
Although the title of this blog is for Notebooks, they are desinged for small portable PCs, but recently, I start delving into larger Notebooks that are better called Laptops because they are much bigger than pieces of paper.
Bigger Laptops have the ability to use faster CPUs , GPUs and more memories, because they can be cooled better, but they are usually more expensive and heavier.
The smaller notebooks such as Macbook Airs can cost much more but pricewise, they will never beat the monster workstations like HP Zbook 17 and Dell Precsion 17 workstations, because they can be equipped with the fastest but hotter CPUs and GPUs.
However, the prices of these workstations have gone done in the used market so that it should be better to buy them than to buy new but less reliable notebook PCs.
Of course, you must be prepared to upgrade these old Laptops and Notebooks with the fastest CPU that they can support.
Recently, I experimented with upgrading old Laptops with faster CPUs for these old Laptops that were used by my children. There are a few observations that I would like to note down.
These second hand business Laptops and Workstations are solidly built and should still last a few more years. Buying second and Dell Latitudes and Lenovo Thinkpads are cheaper than buying Netbooks. I once bought an IBM Thinkpad T60 for RM500 including postage all the way from USA. I bought it because it was the last IBM laptop and it has graphics processor although the graphic processor is useless because I cannot get any reliable driver for it. Those drivers are meant for Windows XP, but I run it using Windows 10.
A few weeks ago, I bought a Compaq Presarion C700 becuase I have one with a broken screen. While trying to upgrade its processor to T8300, I damaged the ribbon cable for the touchpad. Lucking the other ribbon cables were not damaged because I just rip them apart without release their latches.
This 2007 Compaq C700 is solidly built. It can still last a few more years. I am typing this blog using this laptop. It comes equipped with a camera and it is 15.6 in, not the smaller 14 in. I used to believe in notebooks, i.e. portable PCs less than 14 inches, but I realised that they cannot be upgraded and 15.6in is not too heavy. I got a 15.6in Lenovo Y50-70 that weighs 2.4kg and only 24mm thick, buts its body is not lasting. Its screw mounts had broken off at the hinge although it was bought in 2015 only whereas the C700 was bought 10 years earlier but sill look like new. C700 does not have any metal outside but its plastics is a type that is durable. Probabaly ABS, similar to the blue pipes.
I was trying to get 17 in workstations but its price is still too high but I ended up buying a Zbook 15, G1, for US 450 but I was asked to pay RM200 to process type approval. I used to buy a Lenovo W520 workstation for RM1300, but was not asked to pay for the type approval. Lucky, probably.
Both W520 and Zbook 15 use the 2nd generation Intel processors. I was impressed with the performance of the W520 with i7-2720 and SSD. It has 16Gbyte DDR3 RAM, but the Zbook has 32Gbyte RAM and i7-2800, sligtly upgraded i7 with more cache.
Bigger Laptops have the ability to use faster CPUs , GPUs and more memories, because they can be cooled better, but they are usually more expensive and heavier.
The smaller notebooks such as Macbook Airs can cost much more but pricewise, they will never beat the monster workstations like HP Zbook 17 and Dell Precsion 17 workstations, because they can be equipped with the fastest but hotter CPUs and GPUs.
However, the prices of these workstations have gone done in the used market so that it should be better to buy them than to buy new but less reliable notebook PCs.
Of course, you must be prepared to upgrade these old Laptops and Notebooks with the fastest CPU that they can support.
Recently, I experimented with upgrading old Laptops with faster CPUs for these old Laptops that were used by my children. There are a few observations that I would like to note down.
These second hand business Laptops and Workstations are solidly built and should still last a few more years. Buying second and Dell Latitudes and Lenovo Thinkpads are cheaper than buying Netbooks. I once bought an IBM Thinkpad T60 for RM500 including postage all the way from USA. I bought it because it was the last IBM laptop and it has graphics processor although the graphic processor is useless because I cannot get any reliable driver for it. Those drivers are meant for Windows XP, but I run it using Windows 10.
A few weeks ago, I bought a Compaq Presarion C700 becuase I have one with a broken screen. While trying to upgrade its processor to T8300, I damaged the ribbon cable for the touchpad. Lucking the other ribbon cables were not damaged because I just rip them apart without release their latches.
This 2007 Compaq C700 is solidly built. It can still last a few more years. I am typing this blog using this laptop. It comes equipped with a camera and it is 15.6 in, not the smaller 14 in. I used to believe in notebooks, i.e. portable PCs less than 14 inches, but I realised that they cannot be upgraded and 15.6in is not too heavy. I got a 15.6in Lenovo Y50-70 that weighs 2.4kg and only 24mm thick, buts its body is not lasting. Its screw mounts had broken off at the hinge although it was bought in 2015 only whereas the C700 was bought 10 years earlier but sill look like new. C700 does not have any metal outside but its plastics is a type that is durable. Probabaly ABS, similar to the blue pipes.
I was trying to get 17 in workstations but its price is still too high but I ended up buying a Zbook 15, G1, for US 450 but I was asked to pay RM200 to process type approval. I used to buy a Lenovo W520 workstation for RM1300, but was not asked to pay for the type approval. Lucky, probably.
Both W520 and Zbook 15 use the 2nd generation Intel processors. I was impressed with the performance of the W520 with i7-2720 and SSD. It has 16Gbyte DDR3 RAM, but the Zbook has 32Gbyte RAM and i7-2800, sligtly upgraded i7 with more cache.
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