Looking for a replacement for my old faithful laptop..Travel and need one with demonstrated better than usual Wi-Fi connectivity built in. Presently use some excellent USB units..but still would like something built in which will perform well. Thanks in advance..
Since you are just now upgrading to built-in wifi, I presume you are like me and don't mind using slightly older tech if it does the job and saves money. I upgrade just like anybody, but to 3 yr old machines. Let the previous round of expensive machines depreciate and then buy the ones with good track records for 1/3 the cost - that's my philosophy.
I think that the best value in fully functional used notebooks (w/USB
2.0 and built-in wireless) is the IBM Thinkpad R51. Good wifi performance, great keyboard, decent battery life, sufficiently modern to do most everything except CAD and gaming. Easily maintained, parts available everywhere. There are many coming off corporate lease nowdays and you can get a 14" one for $250- $350 with XP pro and decent RAM if you look around. You might even find one still under IBM warranty. They came with 3 years.If you want a UXGA screen with performance graphics and bluetooth, the R50p (p is important) is my pick at $500
Again, I'm assuming a lot. Maybe cost isn't an issue. If you want new for cheap...I'd probably suggest an R60-61 for economy. Haven't used them, but they are said to be good for wireless as well.
Steve
I am quite impressed by the WiFi performance of the built in WiFi on my Lenovo Thinkpad T60p. The service manual shows that there are two internal bar antennas, one along the top left of the screen, and on along the right side of the screen, at the top. This laptop gets solid connections at ranges where my DLink DWL-122 USB won't even find them on a scan, even with a coffee can reflector.
11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Express Adapter ar5211.sys (5.3.0.18, ... drive, maybe the chip, from SMC.
This advertisement?
or this story?
No way. Water does a really impressive job of blocking 2.4GHz transmission. A wet towel will block the signal. Neither video shows the laptop working underwater. I looked for other videos showing underwater operation, and couldn't find any.
Oops, sorry, mixing threads. I don't know if the underwater operation included WiFi, I'll accept your postulation that it doesn't.
I could be misremembering... I see "spill resistant X Series". <
Which is the youtube that you cited, and admonition that it is an exaggeration.
But I recall a swim-suited guy tippy-tapping... The astronaut is a little over the top ;-) there are some other cute outrageous videos on that Lenovo page.
Since I live near a beach and yacht harbor, I get a repair a few laptops, cell phones, PDA's, boom boxes, and iPods. The best case is getting a panic cell phone call announcing that some device has just taken a salt water swim and asking what to do next. Depending on the degree of immersion, I usually suggest that they *IMMEDIATELY* wash off the device with clean water. If immersed, they get to hose it off in the sink, or for some devices, total immersion. If they let the device somewhat dry out, there will be corrosion damage. I've done the submarine simulation with several laptops. That sometimes destroys the keyboard and speakers, but not much else. The bad news is that it takes about a week to dry out, even after partial disassembly and accelerated drying with an air hose. I've never tried to actually operate a laptop under water, but I suspect it's fairly safe. The only thing I would expect to fail is the CPU fan, which is made to push air, not water.
Ever wonder what's the difference in circuit design between a device that craps out under water and one that easily survives? It's the maximum allowable input impedances of various devices. If the design is intentionally all low impedance inputs and busses, then the small leakage resistances caused by water immersion will have no effect. (Hint: I used to design marine HF and VHF radios for Intech Inc).
Reminds me of a Youtube where there ran a desktop immersed in oil
here it is
Cute. That's what the overclockers and gamers do to keep their CPU's cool. It works, but is a mess to clean up. I prefer circulating water cooling, although it's somewhat noisier.
I've done the mineral oil imersion trick and experienced a few suprises that didn't show up in the videos. After about 24 hours of operation, both the power supply and CPU fans blew up. My guess is that the drag created by the oil increased their current drain until the switcher inside blew. The computah ran fine without the fans anyway.
One of my friends tried the same thing with vegetable oil, peanut oil, or something similar. Those also worked fine with one big problem. The heat from the CPU and PS caused the oil to evaporate, which filled his office with the smell of rancid oil. He also made the mistake of taking the wreckage to the local e-waste recycling center, which refused to take it as they had no idea what manner of chemical (oil) was oozing out of the boards and PS.
Incidentally, my water cooled contraption worked just fine, with only two disasters. It sprung a leak, which dripped antifreeze all over the carpet. I also had the heat exchanger fan blowing directly into the drapes, which became scorched and in danger of catching fire.
On Jun 1, 12:06 pm, snipped-for-privacy@01.usenet.us.com wrote: ......
I'd say so. One difference between the newer T6X and older T4X is that the T series had the premium metal construction lids. IBM/Lenovo discovered that the metal hindered wifi reception somewhat and altered the construction in the T6x series to reduce/eliminate any shielding effect.
On the other hand, the R series, being thicker and cheaper came with a plastic lid. So while the T4x s are known for great reception, the R5x, R6x and T6X are somewhat better still.
Don't believe it. I know that the T6x (and R6x?) series has now been engineered to drain spills, but I doubt they could handle getting the MB wet any more than their predecessors. I spilled coffee on my R50p last month and it took out the motherboard before I got it powered off. Luckily, they are easy to replace and not too expensive.
Steve
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