ProCoach

Mark, I saw yesterday the release of the new Samsung Ativ 9 Ultrabook is due this spring.

It has a unique feature of momentary brightness increase of DOUBLE the normal brightness, which is the same as the MBA. Might be useful. Or you might not want to wait...

TXE36

^This. But with some DIY, one can shave a bit more than 1/2 off the $400-500 figure .

If you are handy with computers, older Lenovo Thinkpads are a steal. I picked up a T500 for $145 with a 2.4G Core 2 Duo and 4GB ram. 1680x1050 15" screen with ATI Graphics. Got it cheap because the case was beat up - which to me is a plus as it is less likely to walk away - think "rat rod" of laptops. A T61 can be had for similar money in better condition - get one with Nvidia graphics. In these older machines, the ATI or Nvidia graphics is important, as it will allow the machine to play H.264 video files smoothly. These machines are all over Ebay. Core 2 Duos are more than enough CPU for this type of stuff. Many of these machines have SD card slots (I know the T61 and T500 do) and USB 2.0 ports.

They are built very well, are serviceable, and there is a deep knowledge base over at thinkpads.com. Service documentation is top notch - Lenovo even has videos describing how to disassemble the entire machine and parts are plentiful and cheap. There is a good info page for the T61 at T61 wikispace. These machines were $2500 or so when new. They are the Spec Miata of the laptop world. The diehards are even making "Franken Pads" by swapping parts from different Thinkpads to make custom machines. They use standard hardware and you can run any OS you want on them: windows (XP,7,8), Linux, or even OSX (Hackintosh).

With respect to track videos and GoPros, Handbrake is your friend. Handbrake is a free application that can recode GoPro H.264 video files to reasonable size without degrading the quality much if at all. For example, my last track weekend was 19.4GB of 720P60 GoPro video - after Handbrake it's 8.1GB. After compression, the files go on my media server and ones worth keeping are burned to DVD.

-Mike

M_Weining

Peter, thanks for the heads up on the new Samsung and dropbox use.

Mike, thanks for sharing the details on the older thinkpads. Seems like a great way to get a lot of bang for the $ with a little investment in time. Also thanks for lead on "handbrake".

ProCoach

Hah! I had a T61. Paid $2500+ for it loaded. Great machine! Screen was crap for outside use, which is why I moved on.


It's amazing the pace of technology!

cetom

thank you peter for your ideas on dropbox. it was the very last step that i was having trouble with . when i download the data from mxl to rs2 reviewing that data is obviously easy . but if i download to the dropbox folder it seems then i have to import the data rs2 to review
i wonder if it is easier to just let rs2 download as per usual but then at the end of the day or event export that data to the dropbox folder

Matt Romanowski

When you use Dropbox with RS2, you need to import the data files on any computer it wasn't originally downloaded on. Also, because AiM changes the files every time you open them, you can't search by the date the file was created on, so it's important to have the date in the file name when you download the files.

I work a little different doing everything on my laptop and then using a sync tool to put the files from the AiM directory to the Dropbox. This way my laptop is always up to date and then the files are made available to other people.

The most important thing is to develop a workflow and process that works for you.

TXE36

The real Thinkpad diehards replace screens too! I'll live with mine, since I'm not earning a living with it. I bought a T61 with Nvidia graphics in cherry condition for the wife for $150.

Actually one of the things that keeps these older machines viable is the speed increase of CPUs over the last 7 years hasn't been all that great. You have to be careful with low end laptops today as the CPUs in them are slower than top of the line machines from 2008ish and many of the current crop of cheap laptops are locked to Win8 and are missing a lot of ports. The performance increase from 2000-2008 (233MHz->3000MHz) was a lot better than 2008-today(3.0GHz -> 3.9GHz) and most laptops are still stuck below 3Ghz due to power and heat restrictions. The biggest increase since 2008 is multiple cores, but it is really hard for SW to use them.*

Integrated graphics have improved significantly, but that can be dealt with on a older machine by getting one with Nvidia or ATI accelerated graphics. Battery life is likely a bit better too on a newer machine.

-Mike

*The only app I have that uses them is Handbrake. My otherwise gaming rig, a 4.9GHz overclocked Sandybridge 2700K desktop, is a monster in Handbrake as it will use all 8 threads. It will leave any single/dual core in the dust encoding H.264 video.

ProCoach

So, what you're saying is that you have bought a 75 911 for the wife and your gaming rig is a 918 Spyder?

TXE36

More or less, but I don't daily drive the 918 .

When I bought the Sandy, I kept the old desktop machine for doing work as it was comfortably set up and plenty fast enough. It is a 4.25GHz Core 2 Duo and it still takes a speedy Haswell to beat it. The 918 is only for playing and video encodes. (It dawned on me that I spent more on the video card in that machine than both Thinkpads ). Generally speaking, just about any Core 2 Duo machine with mildly accelerated graphics and 4 GB of memory is plenty to do most PC tasks besides gaming. PCs pretty much hit "good enough" around 2008.

One machine that I bought that I'm disappointed with is a Dell Mini 10V netbook. It is a nice machine, small and incredible battery life, but it just doesn't play video very well. The screen is too small for real work. Paid about $400 for it new with an SSD in 2008 or so . The T61 is a hot rod compared to the Mini and my wife (a track habit codependent enabler ) is *very* happy with it.

Happy new year to you and the rest of Rennlist .

-Mike

ProCoach

stujelly

man we really need a dedicated section for vide/data here. How can we get that accomplished? DO we need to do a poll for the mods?

sbelles

So what are you installing this data and video system in Mark?

ShakeNBake

I went through this last spring. Two things I would highly recommend - a large SSD drive (you can retrofit later on most laptops), and a at least a 1080p resolution screen (or higher) in 15 or 17". SSD is important because mechanical drives are not going to survive being moved around the garage while on and packed up with your track stuff.

I started with a 13" retina Macbook (my work laptop), but, while the resolution was there, the screen was effectively too small for video & data side-by-side on the vbox. 15" retina was better. I wish they still sold 17" units. Watch craigslist for deals, there are a lot of leased units out of california getting dumped on the market, and they are typically high spec with applecare. I got mine for about half price. Once you are talking about SSD and higher specs, the price difference between apple and dell/hp/lenovo goes away.

ProCoach

^^This^^

M_Weining

Scott - I found a nice Euro 911 SC, so I will be in PCA E again.

Lots of great input. Thank you everyone.