New Laptop!

[DAVESOUNDS SERVICES]

As ive been busy of late ( And my collection of vintage laptops was ever growing!) Ive treated myself to a new laptop.
Its a Panasonic TOUGHBOOK cf-29 and i must say im most pleased with it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v201/DAVESOUNDS/DSC07648.jpg
Its a solid metal lump which can be dropped , Knocked about and even driven over by a car!
(after all you never know what could happed whilst gigging!)
So far so good ive gigged it Thursday and its very stable!
Im not sure i should be online though at the same time.
I must point out i could never afford a new one this one was
a Flea-Bay buy

Cheers

[Dynamic Entertainment]

Whats the spec on it?

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Well whats important is that it does the job but its an ugly looking thing isnt it.

[djsteve10]

My dad has had Panasonic Toughbooks through work since they came out.

Very good laptops especially the ones with the touch screen facility.

[Dynamic Entertainment]

They really are bomb-proof Neil...just every one I've looked is seriously under spec'd

[DAVESOUNDS SERVICES]

Lifted from the Panasonic site

Mines the Touchscreen ( Big deal) But its a compact 12.1 inch screen)

Description
Out in the field or down in the dirt, the durable Panasonic Toughbook 29 is built to take a beating. MIL-STD-810F-tested for ruggedness, this brawny workhorse is encased in magnesium alloy, with durability designed into every seal, hinge and connector. Plus, as the industry's fastest fully-rugged mobile PC, it's built for lightening-quick processing and wireless connectivity. Communicate in real time from remote areas, access databases online and run sophisticated software applications even in the harshest environments.


This model has the factory option of FULL TOUCHSCREEN, great when you have gloves on etc, BUILT IN BLUETOOTH.


CF-29 - Specifications THE LATEST & GREATEST LAPTOP OF ALL TIME!



CPU
Intel® Pentium® M 738 Processor

L2 (second) Cache Memory
2 MB1

Memory
1 GB1 / 1536 MB1 Maximum

Video Memory
UMA (64 MB1 Max)2

LCD
Type
12.13" XGA type (TFT) with Touchscreen

Displayed Colours3
65,536 / Approx. 16,777,216 colours (800 x 600 / 1024 x 768 dots)

External Display
65,536 / Approx. 16,777,216 colours
(800 x 600 / 1024 x 768 / 1280 x 1024 / 1600 x 1200 dots)4

Hard Disk Drive
60 GB5

Keyboard
87 Keys Backlit Rubber Keyboard


Slot
PC Card Slot
Two Type I or Type II or one Type III

RAM Module Slot6
200 pin, 2.5 V, SO-DIMM, DDR SDRAM, PC2700 compliant

Interface
Parallel Port
Dsub 25-pin female

External Display Port
Mini Dsub 15-pin female

Serial Port
Dsub 9-pin male

Microphone Jack7
Miniature jack, 3.5 DIA

Headphone Jack
Miniature jack, 3.5 DIA, Impedance 32 ohms, Output Power 4 mW x 2

Expansion Bus Connector
Dedicated 80-pin female

USB Port
4-pin, USB 2.0

Modem
RJ-11 jack, Data: 56 kbps (V.92 & K56 flex8)

LAN
RJ-45 jack, IEEE 802.3 10Base-T, IEEE 802.3u 100Base-TX

External Antenna Connector
Dedicated 50 ohms coaxial connector

Wireless LAN (only for models with wireless LAN)



Pointing Device
Touch Pad
Touchscreen [Anti-Reflection, Stylus (included) touch capable]

Sound
WAVE and MIDI playback, Monaural Speaker (built-in)

Battery Pack
Li-ion 11.1 V, 6.6 Ah

Operating Time9
Main battery: Approx. 5 hours – 8 hours10 (Approx. 7 hours11)

Main battery + Second battery: Approx. 8 hours – 13.5 hours10 (Approx. 10.5 hours11)

Charging Time9
Power On
Main battery: Approx. 7 hours

Main battery + Second battery: Approx. 11 hours

Power Off
Main battery: Approx. 4 hours

Main battery + Second battery: Approx. 7 hours

Clock Battery
Coin type lithium battery 3.0 V

AC Adaptor12
Input
100 V – 240 V AC, 50 Hz / 60 Hz

Output
15.6 V DC, 5.0 A

Power Consumption13
Approx. 35 W14 / Approx. 60 W (maximum when recharging in the ON state)

Environment
In use
Temperature
5 ºC to 35 ºC (41 ºF to 95 ºF)

Humidity
30% to 80% RH (No Condensation)

Not in use
Temperature
-20 ºC to 60 ºC (-4 ºF to 140 ºF)

Humidity
30% to 90% RH (No Condensation)

Dimensions (W x H x D)
302 x 64.3 x 273 mm / 11.9" x 2.6" x 10.7" (excluding protrusions)

Weight
3.62kg / 7.98lbs.

Operating System
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (SP2) with Advanced Security Technologies (NTFS File System)

Utility Programs
Setup Utility / DMI Viewer / Adobe® Acrobat® Reader / Intel® PROSet / Wireless Software15 / Panasonic Hand Writing / PC Information Viewer / Hard Disk Backup Utility16 / Hard Disk Data Erase Utility16 / Icon Enlarger / Loupe Utility / Hotkey Settings


It was ram jam full of car- clocking software when it arrived ( I HAVE removed that!)
it runs really well

[Charlie Brown]

Did you buy it new?

I'm after a new lappy but I like a biggggg screen.

[Corabar Entertainment]

Did you buy it new?.



I must point out i could never afford a new one this one was
a Flea-Bay buy:whistle:

[Charlie Brown]

:whistle:

Cheers. :beer1:

[Dynamic Entertainment]

See, that processor only runs at 1.4GHz...i need 1.6 minimum...and their lies my problem :(

[Digital Jack]

My dad has had Panasonic Toughbooks through work since they came out.

Very good laptops especially the ones with the touch screen facility.


Does your dad work for a breakdown organisation ?

[yourdj]

See, that processor only runs at 1.4GHz...i need 1.6 minimum...and their lies my problem :(

Yep minimum for Serato. OK for media player however.

I would not use less than 2.5 Ghz personally.

Much better for track loading and stability.

[DJ Jules]

See, that processor only runs at 1.4GHz...i need 1.6 minimum...and their lies my problem :(

Speed is less important than processor family. i.e. a 1.8Ghz T8400 will FAR outperform a 2.5Ghz T2700 processor.

I've just been through the whole laptop buying thing myself and to be honest, I'm not convinced that even Intel understand which processors are faster than others in their own range.

I ended up with an HP 6930p (ex-corporate from Fleabay for £275). T8700 processor, 250gb hard disk, 3Gb RAM. Loads and analyses a 10min track in virtualDJ in about 2 seconds.

The toughbooks have always been at least a year behind in terms of processor/memory specs (something echoed in the second hand market, even more so because they cost so much in the first instance so people tend to hang on to them). If you want a laugh though, google the tests that the Gadget show did on the toughbook a few years back - they pitted a Tosh laptop in a protective carry case against the Toughbook, and among other things, soaked them, run them over, set them on fire, and finally, blew them up!!

Julian

[DAVESOUNDS SERVICES]

Speed is less important than processor family. i.e. a 1.8Ghz T8400 will FAR outperform a 2.5Ghz T2700 processor.

I've just been through the whole laptop buying thing myself and to be honest, I'm not convinced that even Intel understand which processors are faster than others in their own range.

I ended up with an HP 6930p (ex-corporate from Fleabay for £275). T8700 processor, 250gb hard disk, 3Gb RAM. Loads and analyses a 10min track in virtualDJ in about 2 seconds.

The toughbooks have always been at least a year behind in terms of processor/memory specs (something echoed in the second hand market, even more so because they cost so much in the first instance so people tend to hang on to them). If you want a laugh though, google the tests that the Gadget show did on the toughbook a few years back - they pitted a Tosh laptop in a protective carry case against the Toughbook, and among other things, soaked them, run them over, set them on fire, and finally, blew them up!!

Julian

Edit: Mods - feel free to delete my previous post... think I hit the quote button, not edit!! *duh*

Thats the thing Jules
whatever you buy is no guarantee the thing will process music satifactorily.
Ive had really good spec machines that think its perfectly cool to stop for a breath halfway through every track!. Before shelling out my Toughbook cash i borrowed the same model ( from a well known communications company)
and it blew the doors off anything ive used before .
Next thing is.....i need to load my PAT Testing software but thats another day!
As an aside i allways found Dell to be good at music...and Toshiba to be good at nothing ( just my own opinion)
Cheers

[DAVESOUNDS SERVICES]

As an aside
( and maybe to help other buyers )
How about a "Show Your Laptop in action " thread?
just a thought
DAVE

[Jonathan Ford]

Next thing is.....i need to load my PAT Testing software but thats another day!

If you're gigging with the lap top, is loading PAT software the best idea?

[DJ Jules]

Thats the thing Jules
whatever you buy is no guarantee the thing will process music satifactorily.
Ive had really good spec machines that think its perfectly cool to stop for a breath halfway through every track!. Before shelling out my Toughbook cash i borrowed the same model ( from a well known communications company)
and it blew the doors off anything ive used before .
Next thing is.....i need to load my PAT Testing software but thats another day!
As an aside i allways found Dell to be good at music...and Toshiba to be good at nothing ( just my own opinion)
Cheers

Ah, I forgot to mention... I've also seen a lot of posts and announcements on forums for VirtualDJ, PCDJ, Serato, etc about issues with AMD processors causing drop outs and stuttering with low latency USB sound cards and USB controllers.

Julian

[DAVESOUNDS SERVICES]

Ive got the thing on my kitchen table playing oldies
( and charging the massive battery) And with Windows Media
playing / Wi-Fi searching for networks its
47 processes CPU around 12 %
on the crossfade both tracks playing its around 25 % for a short while
as the fade kicks in. then back to around 12 % after.
When track searching its around 48 % so the machine seems pretty stable
so far ....
Maybe id better keep my PAT Stuff away from it
( thanks for that idea Mr Ford )

DAVE