Lol that does look pretty hilarious
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<Patrician|Away> what does your robot do, sam
<bovril> it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls

Ok I am getting the shits with my poor old laptop. It is a early 2011 macbook pro and it has served me well for the past 3yrs but its had a hard life and its now really starting to get annoying.

Battery is down to about 30min, the screen is coming out of its bezel (been dropped a few times) hard drives are both full and all round its starting to just get a bit slow. Its still fine to use 90% of the time I just want something with a bit more power that's in a reasonably transportable form factor. So am not sure if I should upgrade the laptop or go for a semi-portable desktop PC.

At the moment I am strongly considering the middle of the range Mac Mini. To do what I need processing wise and I was also thinking it could be a low end SteamBox when its not used for that. Thoughts?

I have looked at getting a new MacBook Pro but Retina ones are mid-lifecycle and the cost of 16gb of non-upgradable ram puts me off. (I have 16gb now and can't go down).
I am not sure what the alternatives are I am not attached to Mac more than happy to run linux but need something that is reasonably portable can't be > $1500.

Steve
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Look at the 2nd hand Thinkpad market.

http://budgetpc.com.au/refurbished-products/refurbished-notebooks.html?manufacturer=983


For $600, you get an i7 with 8G ram and a 500gb HD.

Add in $150 for a 240gb HyperX SSD and you're in light-speed territory. I just put an SSD in my old T60 (2003 Vintage), and its easily tripled its speed and it outruns most new HD laptops in general responsivesness.

Yes, thats an *11 year old laptop. No wimpy consumer-grade 3 year working lives here, These are Thinkpads. They are unquestionably the best made laptops on the planet.

Free service manuals available detailing every part, construction and parts quality to rival a swiss watch - If/When you take one of these apart, a tech will realise the incredible detail and engineering that goes into them. *every screw is nylon-coated so it doesnt vibrate loose, Chassis that are made of Magnesium or titanium, a thousand and one little details that just make them "nice" to work on. Drivers available for practically everything for any OS.

The best keyboard that has ever been fitted to a laptop - Almost as good as the legendary model-m clicky boards. The controversial "Trackpoint" (red Button pressure-sensitve pointing stick)- spend a few days practicing with it and get the feel of it (dont forget to tweak the sensitivity to your personal preference and change the tip for a fresh one (about $1)and chances are you will never plug a mouse into your laptop again. Even when mine is living on the bench for a while, I still just use the Trackpoint. they are *that good once you get used to them.

"ThinkPads are popular with large businesses and schools. Older ThinkPad models are revered by technology enthusiasts, collectors and power users due to their durable design, relatively high resale value, and abundance of aftermarket replacement parts. ThinkPad laptops have been used in space, and was by 2003 the only laptop certified for use on the International Space Station.[12]" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinkpad

There are lots of places that sell refurbs. Some even have a few months of factory warranty left on them (How many new laptops come with a 3-year manufacturers warranty ?)

Once youve owned one, I'll bet you would never own anything else. I know I wouldnt.

*Edit - There are many thinkpad series with different form factors and feature mixes - I prefer the top-line "T" serie for general purpose laptop work. The "R"s are cheaper, but heavier and thicker. The X models are the super-portables, with no CD and no touchpad (just the trackpoint). 12" screens - some touch screens/digitisers (x230 eg) , lightweight. Supposedly the newer W models are good too, but I havent owned one.

Best value mobile computing power for the $ bar none.
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Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people

Last edited by Spockie-Tech on Sun Dec 21, 2014 3:26 pm; edited 3 times in total

Agree. I've used and owned various Thinkpads and they are always my first thought when it comes to laptop style hardware.
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<Patrician|Away> what does your robot do, sam
<bovril> it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls

Yeh there is definitely some tempting thinkpads out there and they seem relatively cheap second hand unlike anyone who has ever tried to buy a MacBook second hand.

Will keep my eye out after Christmas would like a new one but don't think I can justify that right now.

Steve
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

meh don't bother new, the later models aren't made as well anyway
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon might be down your alley...
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/hands-on-new-lenovo-thinkpad-x1-carbon-reignites-my-love-thinkpad-love-affair/
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https://www.halfdonethings.com/

I was excite at $1200 for the base model until I looked at the AUS price.

Also I can't get 16Gb of ram and its 8gb is soldered on.
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

So can youtube vids be embedded on this forum anymore?
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www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

Tracking down some cheap ddr2 for a dumpster build, anyone got some lying around ? Will have to double check and see if i can do a 64bit linux distro on it or not, going to try wine.
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YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

quote:

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Originally posted by dyrodium:
going to try wine.

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Think I threw all my old PC bits out.
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Stay with mac Steve... what are you thinking? he he… i am bias....have you chucked a solid state in that macbook pro ? that might speed things up.

Jules 2013 retina is fast as... it was $3k though…and wireless is fussy.
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Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

quote:

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Originally posted by dyrodium:
Tracking down some cheap ddr2 for a dumpster build, anyone got some lying around ? Will have to double check and see if i can do a 64bit linux distro on it or not, going to try wine.

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I may have some, I'll have a dig around.

if its ddr2 odds are it'll have an x64 cpu in it
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets