Ok before I get started, I’m sure people are going to wonder why I need yet another notebook (current GF included). Although I love my X and my U, neither sub-notebook can fill my computing needs…and both combined haven’t done it either. See, I can’t really sit on my couch and browse the net, IM people, or send short emails. The X’s keyboard makes it impossible to use without a steady surface, and the U gets tiring writing by hand. So I decided to get another sub-notebook, one with a normal located onboard keyboard.

The choices were limitless, there are plenty of notebooks out there…but I didn’t want to spend more then $350 on a notebook just for web browsing, e-mail, etc. After many sleepless nights of research, I chose the Toshiba Libretto 70ct. Now, I wouldn’t be happy if it was just a run of the mill Libretto, so I decided to make it completely solid state. Since the device does not include an onboard fan, I suspected the unit would be completely silent.

Here’s the specs on the notebook:

Pentium 120Mhz w MMX
32 MB RAM
6.1” TFT LCD Display
4GB HDD (upgraded by previous owner)
Size: 8.27"L x 4.53"W x 1.38”H
Weight: (Includes .33 lbs. standard battery) 1.89 Lbs.

I paid $165 for this mint notebook which included the standard port replicator, the optional docking station, plus a few other ‘extra’s’ that I had no use for.

On ebay almost every laptop of this age has a dead battery, so I needed to purchase another one. Beyond that I picked up the Toshiba floppy drive just in case, and the solid state HDD (flash). I went with an 800MB HDD for price reasons. I also picked up a simple 2.5” to 3.5” HDD adapter so it would be easy to install a new OS. With a case from Case Logic, I was below my $350 limit.

Here are some pics of the unit itself:

As you can see from the pics, the docking station has another PCMCIA port, so when it’s docked, the unit has 2 available.

Now before I go any further, I must say, I love flash. It’s no secret:

That’s close to 7 GB of flash, and that’s not all I own. I know I have been arguing on this board that a flash based notebook is not going to become the standard, and I still stand by this statement, but I can’t deny how much I like flash. It’s just too convinient.

Moving on…here’s a pic of the HDD that I installed:

On the left is the 4GB drive that came with the system I bought…on the right is the 800MB solid state drive, and below it is the adapter I spoke of.

Now, it’s all well and good, but I have no way to get online? Now here’s where it gets good. I purchased a SanDisk 802.11b + 128 MB CF card that fits in a PCMCIA port. This was perfect for fitting with my solid state theme.

I installed Win98 SE on the device and use 98Lite to trim down the OS. I ended up with a device with a shade over 250 MB free on the C after I installed Word, and 128 MB free on the D.

I get a little over 2.5 hours of battery life on the device with everything running (no power saving features at all). According to what I read, thats about a 30 minute jump in power from the standard unit. The unit is completely silent but runs rather warm. There is no onboard fan to cool the device (part of the reason I liked it because it would be silent).

I didn’t run any formal tests on the device, but I did use it for about 3 days before modifying it to make sure it was ok (ebay purchase and all) and I do notice that the device is a bit faster then it was before the Solid State. Of course, its nothing major and its not as quick as a modern PC by any means. Moving a directory from one part of the drive to another is just as quick as it would be on a regular drive.

Pros:

A bit faster
Decent increase in battery life
Completely silent
I can jog with it (lol)

Cons:

Less space

As for the 4GB drive…I purchased a 2.5” enclosure with memory card ports (CF, SD, MS, etc) and a battery. I can copy the contents of the card onto the HDD when I am away from a PC. I didn’t really need it, but I didn’t want to throw away a 4GB drive either.

For some reason this took a lot longer then expected. The install (physical) took 10 mins, the install of the OS, trimming it down, installing word, and getting the 802.11 card to work, took nearly 3 days. I rand into issue after issue…man I forgot how annoying 98 could be.

Erik

laptop whore ehhe j/k glad you found a good catch

  :shock: 

I had one, it was too heavy.

Erik

[quote author=“tifosiv122”]

Now, I wouldn’t be happy if it was just a run of the mill Libretto, so I decided to make it completely solid state.

Now before I go any further, I must say, I love flash. It’s no secret:

I can’t deny how much I like flash. It’s just too convinient.

Erik

My hero.

(TruthSeeker grinning big)

:D :D :D :D

do you notice the speed difference between solid state and regular hd’s? well.. for that computer

“I do notice that the device is a bit faster then it was before the Solid State. Of course, its nothing major and its not as quick as a modern PC by any means.”

I’m still torn between the idea of a multi-platter HD and solid state as to which would really be faster in the long run. The thing with solid state usually is that it gets bogged down quickly and can’t mulit-task well…at least that has been my experience.

If there was a reasonable priced 6-8 GB flash drive, we could easily load XP and play around with it, but right not it’s just not worth it.

Erik

[quote author=“TruthSeeker”]
My hero.

(TruthSeeker grinning big)

:D :D :D :D

I knew you would like this one. See, I’m not anti-flash, I just don’t see it becoming the standard anytime soon…or distant

Erik

Mechanical HD’s are faster, but this is not the reason for a solid state system.  As you can see, Erik was able to beat the original manufaturer’s battery times by 30 minutes!  That is huge for an old lappy!  Power consumption is by far the future in mobile computing.

[quote author=“tifosiv122”]
...or distant

Erik

I hope more people doing what you just did prove that to be wrong.  Could you imagine what the battery times would be on the new ‘T’ series with the extended battery if it were a solid state system!

Now, if only 20GB flash was cheap….....(Truthseeker not holding his breath)

libretto is such a classic… at that budget, i might just have to buy one for the bathroom…

What is used for a mouse on the Libretto?

Great job eric well thought out to suite your needs by upgrading a nice lil old machine :D BTW nice pics your good with the camera.

Gundam

The mouse is on the corner of the screen (you can see the two buttons on the lid and another when its opened).

I am actually going to sell the notebook pretty soon, if anyone is interested. I’m thinking about getting a new toy, sort of a secret for now, but if you are interested, send me a PM. Otherwise I think I’m going to ebay it in a month or so.

Erik

http://www.samsung.com/PressCenter/PressRelease/PressRelease.asp?seq=20060523_0000257520

tifosi, it’s time for a new laptop…. 

This is funny - I just threw my Libretto away thinking it wasn’t worth even listing it someplace.  Loved this - almost as much as my HP300 (which came all solid state - Windows, Word, Excel in ROM! with a 20meg card - 20 hours on 4 AA batteries) but I never liked the mouse on the libretto and leaned to use the keyboard but it would blue screen on my from time to time.

Bob