mikeymikec
Lifer
I use my desktop PC or my phone for the vast majority of my needs. The PC gets used for: Gaming, average uses and work, the latter involving connecting customers' drives to my PC to diagnose / virus scan / back up.
I have a USB 3.0 docking bay for connecting drives up (obviously my PC has USB 3.0). It can be irritating doing this for two reasons: 1 - Win7 has a bug whereby chkdsk uses all the available memory when running a full check during a Windows session, so I try to avoid doing this while I'm using the computer. 2 - If it's a failing disk, then it can cause general system I/O to grind to a halt while the system tries to query the disk.
Neither problem is serious enough to warrant having a new, separate PC to do this job, nor does it happen often enough (though I would say chances are that I'm connecting a disk to my PC every week, sometimes more, and usually I want to get the work done sooner rather than later), but I have an opportunity to have a separate PC take on this work.
I have two PCs available to me. A customer gave me their old Dell Latitude E4300. I've stuck a spare disk in it (the original had died and they had bought a new laptop long before consulting me), it appears to work (using Vista currently, the laptop's own licence). It's a Vista era laptop with a C2D in and it can do AHCI. I also have a spare Win8 Pro licence and the laptop already has 4GB RAM. It's also a smaller laptop than average so its more portable.
However, the laptop needs some parts to make it more suitable (for example, occasionally taking it on-site to do more thorough tests of a customer's wifi). It needs: Main battery, charger*, cmos battery, a USB 3.0 ExpressCard, off the top of my head (USB 3.0 is really handy for faster backups). I've also noticed that the screen seems to have brighter vertical stripes in two places, but it's not immediately obvious/noticeable nor does it currently impact on my ability to use it. I wonder whether it'll need replacing at some point though, whether it is steadily dying.
The desktop isn't much to speak of, normal ATX size, C2D again, similar era. The desktop has upgrade advantages I suppose but obviously not portable. I kept it for reasons like being able to test out a potentially iffy stick or DDR2 or something, or that it's currently running Win10 RC to satisfy my curiosity on that point.
One thing I'm not sure of is whether the laptop's ExpressCard port will be able to make good enough use of the USB 3.0 card (ie. will a HDD be able to go at 100% of its potential). I suppose a secondary possibility is that even though the interface might have the throughput, the CPU might not be beefy enough to allow it to run at its full potential.
Thoughts?
* - It needs a new charger because the laptop takes an age to show Dell's "we can't identify the charger you're using" screen, one reason why I hate Dell but hey ho. The charger cable is also wearing thin to the point that the customer had wrapped electrical tape around near the connector.
I have a USB 3.0 docking bay for connecting drives up (obviously my PC has USB 3.0). It can be irritating doing this for two reasons: 1 - Win7 has a bug whereby chkdsk uses all the available memory when running a full check during a Windows session, so I try to avoid doing this while I'm using the computer. 2 - If it's a failing disk, then it can cause general system I/O to grind to a halt while the system tries to query the disk.
Neither problem is serious enough to warrant having a new, separate PC to do this job, nor does it happen often enough (though I would say chances are that I'm connecting a disk to my PC every week, sometimes more, and usually I want to get the work done sooner rather than later), but I have an opportunity to have a separate PC take on this work.
I have two PCs available to me. A customer gave me their old Dell Latitude E4300. I've stuck a spare disk in it (the original had died and they had bought a new laptop long before consulting me), it appears to work (using Vista currently, the laptop's own licence). It's a Vista era laptop with a C2D in and it can do AHCI. I also have a spare Win8 Pro licence and the laptop already has 4GB RAM. It's also a smaller laptop than average so its more portable.
However, the laptop needs some parts to make it more suitable (for example, occasionally taking it on-site to do more thorough tests of a customer's wifi). It needs: Main battery, charger*, cmos battery, a USB 3.0 ExpressCard, off the top of my head (USB 3.0 is really handy for faster backups). I've also noticed that the screen seems to have brighter vertical stripes in two places, but it's not immediately obvious/noticeable nor does it currently impact on my ability to use it. I wonder whether it'll need replacing at some point though, whether it is steadily dying.
The desktop isn't much to speak of, normal ATX size, C2D again, similar era. The desktop has upgrade advantages I suppose but obviously not portable. I kept it for reasons like being able to test out a potentially iffy stick or DDR2 or something, or that it's currently running Win10 RC to satisfy my curiosity on that point.
One thing I'm not sure of is whether the laptop's ExpressCard port will be able to make good enough use of the USB 3.0 card (ie. will a HDD be able to go at 100% of its potential). I suppose a secondary possibility is that even though the interface might have the throughput, the CPU might not be beefy enough to allow it to run at its full potential.
Thoughts?
* - It needs a new charger because the laptop takes an age to show Dell's "we can't identify the charger you're using" screen, one reason why I hate Dell but hey ho. The charger cable is also wearing thin to the point that the customer had wrapped electrical tape around near the connector.
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