I’ve been using my T430 for over 7 years now. I’m happy to say that it’s still serving me very well thanks to some key upgrades over the years. I don’t expect it to last forever but I’d be proud...
I’ve been using my T430 for over 7 years now. I’m happy to say that it’s still serving me very well thanks to some key upgrades over the years. I don’t expect it to last forever but I’d be proud to have it survive a decade of use.
The specs are passable for a mid range laptop today. 16 GB of RAM at 2133MHz, a quad core i7 (IvyBridge), 500GB SSD, 1080p IPS display, a backlit keyboard and most importantly - a TrackPoint!
I’m not sure I’d forgo a new laptop come 2023. But my priority will be in longevity. If I need to get a slightly older model to get it to last until 2030 then that’s what I’ll do. Not to save money, but for the pride of keeping something that is often a 3 year product alive well past its life expectancy.
In some ways, the slowdown of Moore's Law we've seen in the past decade has been a positive thing for reasons like this: there's no reason a desktop or laptop shouldn't last 10 years now,...
In some ways, the slowdown of Moore's Law we've seen in the past decade has been a positive thing for reasons like this: there's no reason a desktop or laptop shouldn't last 10 years now, especially if the owner had the foresight to either upgrade the device over time or spec the device appropriately on purchase.
It's not the Pentium-era days where everything was outdated in 3 years.
Solar mirror I think another thing to consider here is that for a good chunk of individual users, if you don't need a laptop, you can get a small desktop. Access to the performance level you need...
I think another thing to consider here is that for a good chunk of individual users, if you don't need a laptop, you can get a small desktop. Access to the performance level you need will be cheaper, at the cost of higher power consumption and loss of portability. But, when things break, it is easy to replace components and keep the build working.
I still have a ~2014-2015 laptop alongside my current desktop, that would still hold up perfectly fine for about 5 years or more with it's current specs. The problem is that I have opened it up...
I still have a ~2014-2015 laptop alongside my current desktop, that would still hold up perfectly fine for about 5 years or more with it's current specs.
The problem is that I have opened it up once (something was making a weird sound, was not the fan, so I opened it up more), and now I cannot close it back, because of three "Zero Insertion Force" cables (keyboard, touchpad, and the power button) that are absolutely horrible to put back together, where the cable is just long enough to reach the connector only when it's all closed.
I must've spent about half an entire day total just to trying to connect three cables (well, two. I had already given up on the touchpad because of some liquid damage that happened wayy earlier), and after feeling random spasms (?) on my arms after doing something as simple as stretching them out again after every time I tried, I finally gave up a week or so ago, harvested the hard drive and some other goodies that could work outside of the laptop, and shoved it into a bag where it's still opened and left it to die.
So, why did I write all this here? I don't really know. Guilt maybe? The thing still theoretically works, getting rid of it doesn't feel right, but on the other hand it does not work (at least not with my current skillset/equipment/patience), so I have no reason to keep it anymore. I don't really know what I should do with it.
On the other hand, I still have a dual-core Pentium E5300 (apparently launched '08, no idea when I got it) tower still running (as a home server), which is where the hard drive from that laptop is being used right now.
(The drive I got for this machine started spewing S.M.A.R.T errors, like, two days ago. Good thing I had no important data on it, though I should really unplug it at some point)
Anyway, while I am still rambling (it's 12 am, my thought filter got tired and gave up), I guess I should say that while a phone is enough for me currently, the thought of having something with a larger screen and better keyboard to just open up and do stuff with is neat, though I never had a laptop that did that (mainly because battery life, and the inconvenience of carrying a big laptop around). Maybe it could also be that I don't really "go outside", or "do work" enough for it to matter, don't really know.
I’ve been using my T430 for over 7 years now. I’m happy to say that it’s still serving me very well thanks to some key upgrades over the years. I don’t expect it to last forever but I’d be proud to have it survive a decade of use.
The specs are passable for a mid range laptop today. 16 GB of RAM at 2133MHz, a quad core i7 (IvyBridge), 500GB SSD, 1080p IPS display, a backlit keyboard and most importantly - a TrackPoint!
I’m not sure I’d forgo a new laptop come 2023. But my priority will be in longevity. If I need to get a slightly older model to get it to last until 2030 then that’s what I’ll do. Not to save money, but for the pride of keeping something that is often a 3 year product alive well past its life expectancy.
In some ways, the slowdown of Moore's Law we've seen in the past decade has been a positive thing for reasons like this: there's no reason a desktop or laptop shouldn't last 10 years now, especially if the owner had the foresight to either upgrade the device over time or spec the device appropriately on purchase.
It's not the Pentium-era days where everything was outdated in 3 years.
Solar mirror
I think another thing to consider here is that for a good chunk of individual users, if you don't need a laptop, you can get a small desktop. Access to the performance level you need will be cheaper, at the cost of higher power consumption and loss of portability. But, when things break, it is easy to replace components and keep the build working.
I still have a ~2014-2015 laptop alongside my current desktop, that would still hold up perfectly fine for about 5 years or more with it's current specs.
The problem is that I have opened it up once (something was making a weird sound, was not the fan, so I opened it up more), and now I cannot close it back, because of three "Zero Insertion Force" cables (keyboard, touchpad, and the power button) that are absolutely horrible to put back together, where the cable is just long enough to reach the connector only when it's all closed.
I must've spent about half an entire day total just to trying to connect three cables (well, two. I had already given up on the touchpad because of some liquid damage that happened wayy earlier), and after feeling random spasms (?) on my arms after doing something as simple as stretching them out again after every time I tried, I finally gave up a week or so ago, harvested the hard drive and some other goodies that could work outside of the laptop, and shoved it into a bag where it's still opened and left it to die.
So, why did I write all this here? I don't really know. Guilt maybe? The thing still theoretically works, getting rid of it doesn't feel right, but on the other hand it does not work (at least not with my current skillset/equipment/patience), so I have no reason to keep it anymore. I don't really know what I should do with it.
On the other hand, I still have a dual-core Pentium E5300 (apparently launched '08, no idea when I got it) tower still running (as a home server), which is where the hard drive from that laptop is being used right now.
(The drive I got for this machine started spewing S.M.A.R.T errors, like, two days ago. Good thing I had no important data on it, though I should really unplug it at some point)
Anyway, while I am still rambling (it's 12 am, my thought filter got tired and gave up), I guess I should say that while a phone is enough for me currently, the thought of having something with a larger screen and better keyboard to just open up and do stuff with is neat, though I never had a laptop that did that (mainly because battery life, and the inconvenience of carrying a big laptop around). Maybe it could also be that I don't really "go outside", or "do work" enough for it to matter, don't really know.
</rambling incoherent=1>