I wonder when my A31 will come to the end of it's life...

[tbessie]

I've had my A31 for about 3.5 years, I think (could be longer, I can't remember), and it's been quite wonderful. I've used it as my main machine, and upgraded it about as much as I can (has 2 100 gig/7200 rpm drives, 2.3Ghz Pentium-M, although just 1.25GB ram... getting 2GB was overkill at this point).

I'm hitting it's limits... it's fast and wonderful, but getting into the world of audio and video processing (encoding/decoding DVDs, etc.), it's not quite up to snuff, and heats up quite a lot when doing those kinds of tasks.

It will be a sad day when I retire it... probably use it for a little local server or something, or perhaps donate it to charity or family/friends.

Will you ever get rid of your old A31, do you think?

- Tim

[Chiana]

I usually keep my old computers around for some use. My last laptop I would have kept but i needed a newer system and the funds were tight so I sold it. Got a good deal on it too on ebay. $800 for a two year old laptop that I paid $1200 for. A machine with your specs I would keep. Fats drive, fast processor, plenty of memory.

-Chris

[fongj]

TIm, I'm slowly nearing a situation simliar to yours.

I got my A31p in October 2002 (certified used 2653-XX9) for school (engineering). I used it the first year for "college stuff" and programming, and also for audio processing. The past two years, its been more video stuff (non-linear editing (NLE), and DVD authoring), though I'm upgrading at a much slower pace. I've got 1.5gb of RAM, a 80gb main HD, and a 2nd HD (20gb, salvaged from another laptop) for a scratch disk. I'm watching ebay for a good deal on a processor upgrade, and always have feelers out for a good deal on HD upgrades.

I'm curious about what/which laptop you think you'll upgrade to that'll be a step up from what you currently have, and still have some of the perks of the A31p (for me: excellent build-quality/reliability, great support via the website, firewire). I'd admit, not having USB 2.0 is a drag, but I work on most of my projects directly off external USB/Firewire hard drive for now, so I'm not limited in that regard. Its been great being able to edit with a mobile workstation, and (since I upgraded to a DVD burner) burn DVD's too. Render times aren't even that bad.

I don't forsee getting rid of my A31p for at least another two to three years (and I'm glad that I can confidently know that it will probably hold up that long, in terms of not falling apart). Since they came out, I've been thinking about an X-series Tablet (in addition to my A31p), though I've been so caught up with projects recently, I forgot exactly why...

[FuguTabetai]

Will you ever get rid of your old A31, do you think?

- Tim

I bought an A31 2652-D4U (1.6 GHz P4M) back in 2002, and loved it. I ran it 24x7 just about nonstop until now. Just recently I've had problems with it - the system will freeze, but I found out that it only freezes if it is using the video card (LCD or external monitor.) So I can still use it as a file server.

I just recently got a 15" PowerBook (last of the PowerPC machines) and want to use the ThinkPad as a file server for it (Fedora Core 4 with a samba / AppleTalk File Server / howl mDNSResponder / mt-daapd for iTunes server) since I have an 80gig HD in the fixed slot, and a 80gig ultrabay in the left slot with a 100gig ultrabay in the right slot.

I really love that I can have 3 hard drives in there, and so I just ordered a refurbished A31p UXGA laptop with firewire. I hope that machine lasts another 4 years.

I've looked at the newer IBM laptops, but don't see any that have a three spindle option.