Suggest a replacement for x61s

[Lars]

I have had a whole bunch of x6's. But now I think it is time to replace my x61s.
I travel a great deal, on bicycle, and do not want anything too heavy. Besides daily writing my journal on the laptop I often watch movies on it, since I travel alone and spend many evenings in cheapo hotels in small towns. Probably the most intensive processes I do on it is editing pictures

The x41 was too slow and the x61s has been running needlessly hot. I think I have liked the x60s the best. They are becoming hard to come by, and the ones I have have faulty fans.

Could you please recommend something?

[jaspen-meyer]

Could you please recommend something?

Get a new x60s fan, add a piece of hide-leather above the right palm rest and lower txpower of wifi card to the minimum (1mW on my machine).

[Shredder11]

Is this the kind of thing you mean to lower the WiFi power output?

https://forums.kali.org/showthread.php? ... l-Strength

[jaspen-meyer]

Code: Select all

iwconfig wlan0 txpower 1
iwconfig wlan0 power on

First command sets TX power of card wlan0 to 1mW.
Second command enables power management for wlan0.
Change 'wlan0' to your actual card...which you can check with 'iwconfig'.

These require running 'iwconfig' as root or sudo. In Debian, iwconfig is in the package 'wireless-tools'.
Check your settings before and after.

Before:
wlan2 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"Wifi"
Bit Rate=18 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
Power Management:off

After:
wlan2 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"Wifi"
Bit Rate=18 Mb/s Tx-Power=0 dBm
Power Management:on

'iw' could be used but I'm not certain of the syntax.

[brchan]

If you want to get something a bit faster, an X200/s would be a nice upgrade. Similar footprint and you can even get a 1440x900 display for some 's' models, or swap the whole lid into a standard X200. An X201 would be a significant upgrade, but idles about 50C.

[exTPfan]

Nothing is as compact as the X61/X61s but the X1 carbons are no heavier and have a larger screen (84 sq in vs 70; 6.9 in tall vs 7.3).
The X220 has a smaller screen than an X61 (66.8 sq in vs 70.3; 6.1 in tall vs 7.3), but some are IPS, and they have very good keyboards, and are quite fast.

[Dekks]

x220

[Lars]

Thanks guys. I'll keep an eye out for x220. Getting a replacement fan for the x60s is quite expensive, and a pita to fit.

[excal32]

x130e/x131e!

X220 and X201 are also a great machines but don't overlook the x131e. Awesome small form factor machine.

[jaspen-meyer]

Thanks guys. I'll keep an eye out for x220. Getting a replacement fan for the x60s is quite expensive, and a pita to fit.

I just got a used fan (with heatsink) from ebay for < 4 euros, free shipping.

Installing it means removing 12 screws from the bottom of the machine, remove keyboard, bezel and speaker, disconnect power jack, unplug wifi and lcd cable, extract motherboard and remove heatsink. That can't be a PITA, it's just one sentence of work.

The 220 is a great machine also.

[ZaZ]

x130e/x131e!

X220 and X201 are also a great machines but don't overlook the x131e. Awesome small form factor machine.

While I can't argue the form factor, if memory serves me correctly, the X130e and x131e were, at almost four pounds, at bit chunky for an 11" notebook and the OP did state they'd prefer something lighter.

I'd guess I'd vote for the X220 offering the best balance of cost and features. The factory IPS screen(highly recommended) is a huge upgrade over anything offered on the X61s, even the UltraLight screen. The ability to a mSATA SSD for the OS and conventional hard drive is a nice bonus.