I think my 1.7 GHz T41 laptop running Win2k has finally died. Its USB ports have been dead for a while; now it consistently gives the 1-3-3-1 beep codes (bad RAM) and won't boot up. (It occasionally gave the 1-3-3-1 code in the past, but would come back if I let it sit for a few days.) I could probably replace the motherboard for around $100, but at the moment I don't think its worth it. The batteries are weak, it's heavy and sort-of slow, so it's probably not worth the effort.

(If someone is interested in trying to resurrect it, let me know and I'll send you the details.)

A week or so ago, my $350 Lenovo S12 running XP took a few hours of my time, with me trying to get the hard drive working again (scrambled FAT32 after a sleep session). I eventually succeeded, but I've got to spend more time reinstalling stuff. In the process of swapping the HD in and out several times over several days I ended up losing a trim piece that goes between the buttons and the keyboard. :-/ I love the form factor, low cost, long battery life and lightness, but it's slow for anything other than e-mail and non-Flash web stuff.

My dual core 2.5 GHz T61 running XP is probably the machine I use most these days. The last week or so it's been losing its network connection and acting weird. (The wireless connection will drop in the middle of grabbing mail from a POP server. Once the connection is lost, FF and TB won't close completely and it can't be restored without a reboot.) I think it's related to Symantec AntiVirus, but I'm not sure. (I have always hated Symantec because it's such a pig but it's free via work, and AVG Free was very annoying IMO.)

I had previously installed Registry Mechanic on the T61 to try to fix some font issues. It seems like a good tool, but it "expired" a while ago and has been nagging me ever since. SBS&D's TeaTimer grabs 130MB of RAM for no apparent reason. I installed a simple configuration utility for my UPS, and it has a memory leak that can grab hundreds of MB of RAM when it's not actually connected to UPS.

The T61 takes longer and longer to boot up, and reboots are becoming annoyingly familiar. It's got a nice screen, but it's a 15" and it's far too heavy to drag around much.

And BTW, Windows memory management sucks. On every machine I have (2GB - 3GB with 32-bit Winders), as soon as the memory monitor hits 50%, the machine slows down. That basically means all the RAM is being used. But since the default startup load on my machines is something like 47%, doing much of anything memory intensive instantly involves swapping. Why on earth does a PDF viewer (I'm looking at you Adobe) require 35 MB of RAM to put an empty window on the screen?

In short, I'm getting sick of PCs and PC laptops. I was looking around NewEgg a little last night. Fujitsu has a 13" Core i5 box for about $1300 (I think it was $1250 last night?!), but few details are given on the screen and it seems to be crippled by lack of RAM (1 GB installed, 4 GB max), and it's on the heavy side (3.75 pounds). http://www.newegg.co...m=N82E16834110401 . Intel is engaged in obfuscation, too. You've really got to do your homework to know which i5 chips are dual core and which are quad, which have HT and which don't, etc. http://en.wikipedia....iki/Intel_Core_i5 I don't want to play that game right now.

Unfortunately, I need to be able to easily run Windows, so good virtualization is a must.

So, where's my 13" 8 GB max, 3 pound, 3+ GHz quad-core laptop with a 1280x800 or better LED backlit screen and 6+ hours of real-world battery life? If Apple had one now, I'd probably buy it even if it were $2k. I'll probably go back and forth between trying to buy a previous 2.4-2.5GHz 13" MacBook/MBP and waiting to see what the new machines are like. But I really want a higher than 4 GB RAM limit, so that means a current machine or waiting.

Ah, the continuing joys of computers... ;-)

Cheers,
Scott.

But that's only a dual core. ;-) Yeah, Apple really gets you on branded memory, but PC vendors do lots of squeezing there too.

I honestly doubt that Apple will have a 3+ GHz 13" quad core MBP in the next refresh. It would probably grab too much of their desktop business. If they do make such a beast, I expect it'll be one of the 17" machines that cost over $3k and I'm not going there (and only as a desktop replacement) unless I win the lottery.

A $1k 2.53 GHz 4 GB dual core 13" MBP would be very tempting in the meantime. I doubt Apple will take $400 off the current models when they introduce the next refresh, though. We'll see.

Thanks.

Cheers,
Scott.

It's astounding how much cheaper AMD's stuff is now. And you can get a 3.4 GHz quad core AMD CPU (Phenom II x4 965, 125W - $185 boxed) while Intel doesn't even offer one clocked that high. E.g. a Core i7 950 3.06 GHz 130W - $570. (The Intel box will benchmark higher, and may have lower power consumption in some situations, but you'll pay a lot more for the privilege (3-way RAM, etc.).)

I really wish someone would make a reasonably cheap dual- or quad-socket AMD Phenom II motherboard. $300 for a Tyan S4985G3NR is superficially reasonable, but the cheapest Socket F quad core Opteron chip is $260 each and it's only clocked at 2.0 GHz. Yeah, I know that's a server board and CPU. But AMD would do well to attack markets that Intel isn't concentrating on, and inexpensive super desktops would be one of those.

Maybe Bulldozer will make that approach moot, but mid-2011 is a long way off - http://www.anandtech...owdoc.aspx?i=3674

Cheers,
Scott.