~Toughbooktalk~

Hello everyone. Since I seem to have been stricken the T/B virus, I seem to be acquiring quite a few interesting (new to me) toys. My new experiment is going to be getting this CF-30 fully up and functional. For as little as possible. Starting with what seems to be a machine that is only missing a HDD caddy.
I've seen the Down and dirty CF-73 HDD caddy mod and it makes me think I can do same with this 30. I have quite a few 74 caddies and even more CF-19 caddies to use for parts. The connection strip for them are both sata in nature and will plug into the 30's connector. Just have to fab a decent case to house the hdd and ribbon in place.
I've already verified the connection compatibility of both ribbons. Used a HDD that had Linux on it and a set of long tongs to act as long skinny fingers for inside the opening. Machine booted with no issues at all. Just had a hdd hanging out the side of the enclosure by either ribbon. So on to the hard part, fabricating a sufficient carrier.
This ought to be a lot of fun.

Amendment: I do things like use Minecraft to test my experiments of this nature out. It did play but the game ran quite slow and jerky. However at this time I'll attribute that to not having connected to the internet and upgrading the OS's drivers. So it was functionally running in a limp home mode. Also tried a couple of live USB distros and know that it does run quite quick but has no touch screen at this time. Future upgrade maybe.

This is what the Configurator came up with for this particular machine.

Model Number:
CF-30G3SZZAM
Status:
DISCONTINUED
MSRP:
$3,499
Description: No Wireless, WinXP, Intel Core 2 Duo L7500 1.60GHz, No WLAN, 13.3" XGA Non Touch, 80GB, 1GB, TPM1.2, No Optical, No Bluetooth

Not exactly what is here in front of me. Unless that is what the baseline was for this model and the wireless, wired, and optical drive were probably added later.

Wish this could boot from either the CF card slot or the SD card slot. It does boot from USB so can run it from a live usb for awhile. However that isn't as good as an internal HDD. Both SD and flash drives have limited read/write lifespans.

Are you looking to make the caddy removable? If not, just pull the base off the CF30 and use high density foam cut to size. Then replace the base.

Shawn wrote:Are you looking to make the caddy removable? If not, just pull the base off the CF30 and use high density foam cut to size. Then replace the base.

I have seen this done before by sellers on ebay and not telling the buyers what they were getting. They are no longer selling on ebay now. Anyways it can be done safely but I would use a SSD since they run cooler.

I have used these before Silicone Protective Skin Case for 2.5" SATA IDE HDD

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Silicone-Protec ... 566af5923d

For minecraft add "optifine" mod it will help out a lot on a dual core machine.

Also how many 74/19 caddies do you have? Are they complete? You may have someone on here that may want to trade.

WOW. Ummnn yea. Kinda feel like the new kid in kindergarten that brought a bag of candy to class.
OK. I'll do a count on the carriers. Yes the majority of them are complete. I do have a gent that is going to trade for some of what I am looking for. TY. As for the 19's. I don't own a 19 and truly have no use for them at this time, and seeing as I was brought up old school, I'll gladly try to share the wealth. I'll end up making a list of TB goodies that I have just laying around. I had a bunch of the 74 caddies but can't seem to find that box at this time so just have a handful that are not being used right this min. I've looked on fleabay and seen that these are actually dang near worth their weight in gold. So to speak. But I'm such a non-fleabay or scamazon user that I do not have an account or one of those pay pal things. So that just means that pretty much anything I bother with would be good old fashioned horse trading.
As for mods for M/C. I just run the vanilla and don't bother with the mods. I also am almost strictly a linux user, I don't think that any of my microcrack systems have M/C on them. I will look at that optifine mod tho just for GP. I have noticed that it runs kind of lacking on my TB's but for the most part it runs smooth as silk on the ThinkPad t-61 I currently tote around in the bikes saddlebag. Now don't shoot me for the TP, I'd rather have the TP get destroyed than one of my TB's. Until just recently all I had was the 1 CF-74 , and did not want to risk it.

Optifine can be used in linux. Minecraft only uses one core. What this mod does is allow more fine tune setting in game, and lets the game use dual cores. One core for the playing of the game, one core for loading the chunks. It helps out a lot.

On the caddies the 74 caddies have become harder to find. We always joke there is someone out there that has a big box of caddies and no computers, lol.

Other computers are fine. I do desktops as well for gaming and collect old Alienware and Voodoo cases, then fix them up. My other travel laptop is a M11x but that is so I can game. It has a 335GT card in it.

Now if when you do get ready to trade I have 3 or 4 74's Mk1,3 with out caddies. I started parting them out when the kids got newer computers to use. That could give you another 74 or two to play with. If you don't have a 19 I have some of those as well I haven't finished re-building yet.

Well dunno about a big box of caddies but it looks like I can find 10 of the 19's out of an original 30 , 5 of the 74's that have NOT been DE-milled the HARD-WAY. That I can let find new homes. The hard way is a spike driven thru the carrier HDD and all crushed. I'll try to post a pic of what we call DE-milled the hard-way. An easy 20 dvd bays and I still have not counted the Power supplies yet.All are 74 & 30 type plug ins. I know there are more here. Unless like the wife thinks she might have thrown out "That box of junk". Sigh. Love that woman.

Here's a de-milled carrier that I'm actually going to end up using in one of my own machines. The first pic is of the aluminium side after I folded the hole closed and tapped it almost smooth.

Hope the pix aren't too big. Didn't realize they would be that big.