Cheap Computers

Silvia jumped off my speakers and landed on my laptop, causing the LCD to fracture…. So now I’m up trying to route a board with a broken LCD, as my layout tech has to make a run to the Bahamas on a troubleshooting mission. Can it rain anymore???

While waiting for the net check, its the big debate as to what to do. Do I go pick up another machine, or put in a new/used LCD. I’m a big fan of IBM, but even they are going cheap. Its frustrating.

First was a Tandy 200, it was cool, you turned it on and it worked… no waiting, but horrors is your document was more than a couple pages. At least one could get new batteries at a convenience store.

Next, a Tandy 8086 built by Grid was amazing. It survived thousands of miles, rain and grease in the pits when I was involved with racing. Even a generous coating of sand from Daytona. It kept on running.

Then came the Zenith 286 laptop, this one still is used in my business, although not for travel. It runs DOS, and keeps on ticking away.

Then I thought, hey lets get a Dell, its survived numerous repairs by me when they were incapable of fixing it. It still runs today, although being a 486-50 is limiting. Its been through 4 case replacements, but the LCD never died.

My old 755CD is space qualified, back in 2001, there were 4 of them on the International Space Station. It was built like a tank. It survived numerous drops, 7KV on the comm port, when a protection circuit vaporized on a plasma etcher, lightning hits, sand, and dirt, rain, and it kept on going. Unfortunately It could not survive the bloat of software, so it got sidlined.

My 770 was really cool, it cost close to $7000 back in the late 90′s. It too was pretty bulletproof, but not quite as rugged as the 755.

Then I got a T20, its lighter, smaller, and was only $4000. But the case flexes a bit, and when Silvia’s paws hit the top, their went the LCD.

So now I go to IBM’s web site… Lots of cool stuff, non with a serial port, and they look wimpy, and they are much cheaper than the ones of old….

Fixing the T20 is starting to look pretty appealing right now. In fact, I can buy a few refurbed T20′s for a very good price…. As I’m not yet to the point where my EDA tools require the latest and greatest hardware platform,