Question Pimp My Ride for T480... Ideas, Please!

[NateB]

if you want high reliability, buy brand new laptop.

That would make sense, intuitively. I haven't found newer laptops with hot-swap batteries, though.

Also, just based on what I've bought and used over the years, the newer the laptop, the more finicky and easy to break down they are, cheaper components, less metal, etc. Maybe it's just me, and my bad luck, I guess.

Some of my carefully selected older hardware outperforms my latest and greatest purchases.

For instance, this laptop is for replacing a late model X1 Carbon, bought brand new directly from the manufacturer, whose reliability has been wretched.

 

[Aeacus]

I haven't found newer laptops with hot-swap batteries, though.

One such laptop is Panasonic Toughbook. Latest iteration, released in 2022, is Toughbook 40 and it's features are:

The Toughbook 40 has MIL-STD-810H, MIL-STD-461G, IP66 and optional C1D2 certification. The specifications of a Panasonic Toughbook 40 include a 14" FHD nit multi touch display, magnesium alloy chassis with handle, replaceable screen protector, user-removable xPAK's, RAM, keyboard, battery and caged SSD (with heater), reinforced locking port covers, a 5MP webcam w/privacy cover & tetra-array mic infrared with Windows Hello support. The Panasonic Toughbook 40 also includes an optional blu-ray drive with xPAK and optional DVD drive with xPAK.

Specs: https://eu.connect.panasonic.com/no/en/products/toughbook/toughbook-40

Another such laptop with replaceable battery is Dell Rugged Extreme laptop. Latest one is Latitude 7330, also released in 2022;
specs: https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/del...-13-7330-laptop/xctolr7330usvi?redirectTo=SOC

the newer the laptop, the more finicky and easy to break down they are, cheaper components, less metal, etc.

If you pay peanuts - you will get monkeys. It's that simple.

Also, most laptops aren't meant to be carried along to the hiking trip. For rugged conditions, there are purpose built laptops, like the two i linked above.

 

[NateB]

Finding one on sale is up to you.

https://www.x-kom.pl/p/1171753-dysk-ssd-transcend-2tb-m2-2242-sata-425s.html

789 zloty, which comes to about $200 USD, not even sure if they ship to the USA

https://www.cdw.com/product/transcend-425s-ssd-2-tb-sata-6gb-s/7548550 Backordered, not sure when it'll be available or shipped

The search continues.

 

[Aeacus]

The search continues.

If you're content with no-name Chinese one, then plenty of those in amazon.
E.g: https://www.amazon.com/KingSpec-2242mm-Internal-Solid-Ultrabook/dp/B08FT6WT25/
Another one: https://www.amazon.com/Dogfish-Internal-Solid-State-Drive/dp/B099WDXXQT
3rd one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BRSMH3MQ/

 

[NateB]

One such laptop is Panasonic Toughbook. Latest iteration, released in 2022, is Toughbook 40 and it's features are:

It just so happens that I had evaluated both of these already. It seems like you have some idea of my perspective for this.

I may get the $8.5k Panasonic, at some point, but for a 95% discount, the T480 is worth a try first, perhaps with a recovery toolkit involving a small GrapheneOS device, a foldable keyboard, and some NVMe cables.

The T480 is as close as one may come, I think, to a modular, high-reliability, highly upgradable laptop with commodity hardware and without the laptop being specifically designed for that, and has a discrete graphics card.

 

[NateB]

I finally got a Transcend 2TB SSD from CDW, took out the battery, unplugged the laptop, took off the base, unscrewed the WWAN card, replaced it with the Transcend card, and screwed it in.

But none of the operating systems I've tried will detect the new Transcend drive, even with the lspci command.

I wonder if I got a dud, or I bricked the Transcend drive somehow.

What do you think of this docking station to plug in the Transcend drive?

https://www.amazon.ca/Docking-Station-RIITOP-SATA-Based-Enclosure/dp/B09ZKN8YWH

 

[Aeacus]

I wonder if I got a dud, or I bricked the Transcend drive somehow.

What do you think of this docking station to plug in the Transcend drive?

https://www.amazon.ca/Docking-Station-RIITOP-SATA-Based-Enclosure/dp/B09ZKN8YWH

Test the docking station out with 2nd (or even 3rd) PC. It should tell if the issue is with docking station or not. Since when docking station doesn't work with other PCs, issue is most likely with it.

Also, did you follow the correct steps of using it,
1. Put the drive into docking station.
2. Plug the cable to docking station.
3. Plug the cable to the PC.

It should show up as removable media.
If it doesn't, look at Disk Management, since new drives aren't initialized, but instead unallocated. You have to create a partition and allocate the drive for Win to see it as normal drive, that you can access.