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Should I build my own media server or buy a NAS?

That intel card should be good, but double-check for driver availability. Newegg shows that it is vista certified but does not mention windows 7, so it is possible that intel never made win7 drivers for it. Poor drivers could completely eliminate any benefit you'd get from using a good network...
- flensr
- Post #7
- Jul 19, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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Critique this build please

I'd probably get the 1TB Caviar Black because I hate running out of storage space. Try the on-chip graphics first and then see if you need to upgrade. The shuttle case will limit your ability to upgrade the vid card somewhat, but an even worse restriction may be from the power supply. So give...
- flensr
- Post #3
- Jul 16, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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Should I build my own media server or buy a NAS?

Almost forgot to mention that many of the reasonably priced pre-built media servers and NAS boxes are badly hardware limited. Network performance for the cheaper NAS boxes can be absolutely terrible compared to even a stripped down "real" computer. If you don't already use them, make sure...
- flensr
- Post #5
- Jul 16, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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Should I build my own media server or buy a NAS?

Some might disagree but I wouldn't consider i3 to be overkill. i3 plus cheapish mobo won't cost a ton more than cheaper solutions, but then you're guaranteed to not be cpu limited for a long time. 4GB of ram is plenty. Consider a real intel based NIC instead of the crummy realtek NICs...
- flensr
- Post #4
- Jul 16, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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T420s amateur field report

The resolution is 1600x900 and it's the only resolution offered. I do not have the "screen door" complaint that other people have with the other LCD panel used with the T420s, so I'm happy with the resolution. The X220 thread is here (I think)...
- flensr
- Post #6
- Jul 12, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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chromebook reviews?

Anyone know of any sites with chromebook reviews? Maybe a comparison between the ACER and Samsung chromebooks? I found a few sites that compare the specs, but none that did a real review or detailed comparison...
- flensr
- Thread
- Jul 10, 2011
- Replies: 0
- Forum: Laptops
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T420s amateur field report

I bought a Lenovo T420s to replace my now deceased IBM T41p, and I’ve used it enough to write a somewhat rambling field report. First, the short version. Pros: Keyboard, size, weight, overall feature set, keyboard, speed, keyboard, styling, keyboard. (You can probably tell that I...
- flensr
- Thread
- Jul 10, 2011
- Replies: 12
- Forum: Laptops
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Am I seriously being forced to buy a Macbook air?!

Isn't the lenovo X1 out already? It's a modern squared-off macbook air wearing a suit and tie. Looks awesome and has up to an i7 cpu.
- flensr
- Post #64
- Jul 10, 2011
- Forum: Apple Laptops and Desktops
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Replace broken HD in old Laptop

I like western digital scorpio drives. If you can afford the scorpio black then get it, otherwise the scorpio blue is almost as fast but a bit cheaper. You should test the old laptop drive in another computer first though. You can probably put it into a desktop computer that has SATA, and...
- flensr
- Post #4
- May 10, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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Advice required.

There are toshiba R830 models with i7 cpus. You might need to go to toshiba's web site though, and they cost more of course.
- flensr
- Post #7
- May 9, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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Notebook (Acer Aspire 5532) Performance Increase

All of my laptops have received noticeable benefits from upgrading to better hard drives than the oem ones that came with them. My favorites are the western digital scorpio black drives for sata, and scorpio blue for ide. You can get a decent drive for well under $100.
- flensr
- Post #2
- May 6, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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Ultra portable for college

Try the toshiba portege 830. Or go for one of the older 700s if you can find one for a discount. They have optical drives but are very small/light with a 13"ish screen and plenty of both cpu power and battery life. If you get the basic core i3 version you should have enough left over for the SSD.
- flensr
- Post #4
- May 3, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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lenovo X1

If it has a crappy screen then nobody will buy it, I think.
- flensr
- Post #3
- Apr 25, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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lenovo X1

Sexy beast, lenovo X1 on anandtech front page! http://www.anandtech.com/show/4283/lenovo-x1-leaked-sandy-bridge-gets-thin Macbook air thin, thinkpad styling, sandy bridge i5. I think that the screen quality will make or break this one. It's only 1366x768 but if it has a high quality...
- flensr
- Thread
- Apr 25, 2011
- Replies: 4
- Forum: Laptops
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4lb 13/14" w/ hybrid graphics

I just ordered a thinkpad t420s. 14" matte screen 1600x900, hybrid gfx (business class nvidia but faster than integrated gfx), under 4 lbs, 1" thick. You'll have to remove the optical drive and put in a second battery to get anywhere near 8 hrs though, since the t420s has a fairly wimpy main...
- flensr
- Post #3
- Apr 25, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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strange t41p problem

Thx, that seems to make sense. I'll try putting in a spacer over where the heatsink covers the gpu.
- flensr
- Post #3
- Apr 25, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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stupid ordering mistake

I was able to change the order, no problem. The reason I was worried is because under the "cancel my order" link on the website, it implies that orders can't be cancelled after "a short time" after the order is made. So their site specifically says that changing or cancelling orders might not...
- flensr
- Post #3
- Apr 25, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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stupid ordering mistake

Gotta rant... Made a dumb ordering mistake. I put a T420 and T420s into my lenovo shopping cart, and was trying to decide between the two, when my old laptop decided to play "not gonna boot up" for 3 hours. Enough is enough, time to order. It was early and before breakfast, so I apparently...
- flensr
- Thread
- Apr 24, 2011
- Replies: 2
- Forum: Laptops
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strange t41p problem

Maybe some of you guys have heard about this problem. My t41p will work fine for hours or even days, but then it'll crash and for the next hour it sometimes won't even boot. I suspect a hardware problem because sometimes typing on the keyboard, or using the mousepad, or even adjusting the...
- flensr
- Thread
- Apr 24, 2011
- Replies: 2
- Forum: Laptops
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almost bought t420s today, but...

http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithcombs/archive/2011/04/16/lenovo-thinkpad-t420s-mini-review.aspx 2 hrs and 15ish minutes on the movie. I priced out the t420 for about $150 less, with a bigger hard drive and about double the battery life, at a cost of 1lb weight and a bit larger chassis. Still...
- flensr
- Post #3
- Apr 19, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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almost bought t420s today, but...

Priced out a nice T420s with the NVS 4200M graphics and i7 cpu, and it fit within my budget. But... The advertised "rapidboot" tech isn't available yet. It uses an SSD in addition to the normal hard drive to decrease boot times to as low as 10 seconds. Seems like a nice option, but it's not...
- flensr
- Thread
- Apr 19, 2011
- Replies: 2
- Forum: Laptops
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MacBok Air alternative?

If I wanted something "just like" a macbook air, I'd probably just suck it up and get a macbook air. If it had to run windows, I'd install boot camp or parallels. The air is a really nice machine if that's what you need. I need an optical drive so I don't need one, but everyone I know who has...
- flensr
- Post #19
- Apr 15, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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MacBok Air alternative?

Front page of anandtech has a quick blurb on the new toshiba portege r830 line. One of those might work great. They're lightweight but powerful. Stuck with integrated graphics I think, but sandy bridge integrated graphics are not bad. Or wait another week and see how the new thinkpad lineup...
- flensr
- Post #11
- Apr 14, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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strange lenovo thinkpad marketing

Ran across some strange lenovo marketing... Their youtube marketing channel had an intro to the T420s, which seemed pretty nice until the end. The guy showing the laptop was talking about the HD camera, the HD microphones, and the 16:9 HD screen format "just like your TV". That's all great...
- flensr
- Thread
- Apr 2, 2011
- Replies: 2
- Forum: Laptops
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Thinkpad t420s available, but no i7 until April 19

He's talking about the T420s... It's priced nearly double what a T420 or T520 costs.
- flensr
- Post #5
- Mar 30, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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Thinkpad t420s available, but no i7 until April 19

Title says it all... Thinkpad T420s is on sale now but no i7 or discreet graphics until April 19. Looks nice, but priced nearly double of the T420 and T520. Sales rep says "no BD drives on business line". Stupid, absolutely stupid. I didn't get a macbook air because I didn't want an...
- flensr
- Thread
- Mar 29, 2011
- Replies: 8
- Forum: Laptops
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Thinkpad or EliteBook

Look at the thinkpad edge E420s... Sexy beast, not quite as cutting edge tech as the T series but it is more stylish. Only thing about the Edge is that they're phasing in the options... The spec sheet says i7 and discreet graphics available, but right now they're only selling integrated...
- flensr
- Post #6
- Mar 28, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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IBM T41 palmrest replacement and other questions

As for memory, crucial 1gb sticks worked fine in my t41p.
- flensr
- Post #5
- Mar 26, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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IBM T41 palmrest replacement and other questions

Some t41 palmrests are interchangeable, but you need to get the service manual and look up the part number to make sure. There is a complete list of part numbers in the service manual, available for download from lenovo support. I had to get a replacement palmrest for my t41p and I got it on...
- flensr
- Post #4
- Mar 26, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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Thinkpad partition question

I like the idea of buying a second hard drive before doing any of this... My original t41p hard drive went from just fine to unreadable in less than a day, and I ended up losing the whole thing including the recovery partition. I had been unable to burn that partition to CD earlier (it would...
- flensr
- Post #10
- Mar 25, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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Looking for a laptop, is this too much to ask for?

Look at the lenovo t-series thinkpads. T410 if you want a heavily discounted last-year's model, T420 for sandy bridge, or wait for the T420s. That said, the T410s was heavily criticized for short battery life, so a T420s might only barely meet your runtime specification especially if you go...
- flensr
- Post #11
- Mar 24, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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T410 "CPU whine"

If you're within the usual 30 day no questions asked return window, then you may be in luck. If not, I think you're sort of stuck with it. My t41p has a loud ethernet port, believe it or not. Whenever there is a lot of network traffic, I hear a squealing sound from the vicinity of the lan...
- flensr
- Post #2
- Mar 24, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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T420s specs out

I like the specs better on the regular 420 and especially like the use of a regular hard drive on the 420, but the t420s is about the same size as my t41p but almost a pound lighter, and I've gotten so used to the t41p that I really don't want to carry around anything heavier. The t41p is...
- flensr
- Post #7
- Mar 24, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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T420s specs out

Website says available "late March", which is soon, right? :) http://shop.lenovo.com/us/products/p...20s/index.html It has just about everything on my wishlist. Anti-glare screen, I7 cpu, usb 3.0, 3x3 wireless N, SD card slot, etc etc. It looks like the main drawback is going to be...
- flensr
- Thread
- Mar 23, 2011
- Replies: 12
- Forum: Laptops
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Lighter 13" laptops with a Core i3/5/7 and 1920 screen?

Maybe try looking for a closeout bargain on a toshiba portege R700. Cpu options from i3 to i7, which determine the price. Lower screen resolution and quality than the mbp but it weighs a full pound less and costs a lot less too. Downside is it uses the older cpus, not sandy bridge (yet), but...
- flensr
- Post #14
- Mar 7, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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when are laptops with the new core i5's coming out

T420 should have dedicated graphics available as an option, if I read the site's preview info correctly. I expect that the low-end models will simply use the (much improved but still mediocre) integrated HD graphics on the cpu itself. For many people, the improved integrated graphics will be...
- flensr
- Post #24
- Mar 4, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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Netbook question

high def netflix will require a good cpu and vid chip. I built up a previous gen htpc using a dual core socket 939 cpu and a reasonably up to date AMD low power vid card, and netflix would drop to lower definition until I found the exact right combination of drivers and codecs. Don't waste...
- flensr
- Post #9
- Mar 4, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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when are laptops with the new core i5's coming out

I checked the specs of the T420 and it looks nice, but I'm concerned about screen quality and lack of newer features like USB 3.0. It does have an esata port but the rest seems like a feature list from a mainstream dell. It does have the legendary thinkpad construction but otherwise the...
- flensr
- Post #21
- Mar 4, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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Common for laptops to overheat as they age?

I almost forgot... yes, that is "normal", from the perspective that fans and cooling solutions can degrade over time. My thinkpad's cooling fan died after 5 years and when it did, I had to replace the heatsink and fan together since they come as a unit. My wife's toshiba laptop cooling fan...
- flensr
- Post #8
- Feb 28, 2011
- Forum: Laptops
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Common for laptops to overheat as they age?

The cooling fan might have even completely died, or isn't turning fast enough. Some laptops have 2 fans and if one dies you might not hear it since the remaining fan will be running full-speed to try to cool everything down. Depending on the laptop you might be able to open it up and fix it...
- flensr
- Post #7
- Feb 28, 2011
- Forum: Laptops

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