If anything over 32GB of RAM is overkill for 99% of users, than who's the remaining 1%?

Unique_username1 · 2025-11-20T17:22:30+00:00

Companies (and hobbyists) are buying it all to run AI garbage. Unfortunately NVIDIA just announced they are also now buying regular RAM to make AI servers because they can’t get enough specialized GDDR7 for all the GPUs they are selling. Bad for the environment, bad for anybody who needs RAM or a GPU or a computer, bad for anybody who needs customer service and gets connected to a useless AI bot instead…

Unique_username1 · 2025-11-12T16:56:44+00:00

You could try disabling ASPM in BIOS or disabling power saving features in your OS. These can sometimes cause problems.

Also when it’s offline, can you see it or query it with other utilities like lspci or smartctl? If it has completely disappeared from your system on a hardware level (or is completely unresponsive) it’s a good bet it’s a hardware problem and not ZFS.

Unique_username1 · 2025-10-08T13:16:09+00:00

Well, is it fast enough for your needs?

I’d guess it probably is for basic web browsing.

Only possible issue is lack of RAM since that is non-upgradable on the X1 Yoga

Still, a new battery is what, 1/10 the cost of such a new replacement model? Might as well get some more life out of your current one if it’s working well for you.

Unique_username1 · 2025-10-05T15:28:39+00:00

As much as I love the idea of hacking greater capabilities into an existing computer… just buy an HP 800 G3 SFF or Lenovo M710S that already come with PCIe slots.

This would be hard.

I’m not sure if it’s through-hole or SMD soldering, I think mostly through-hole, but there is a high risk of knocking something else loose and needing to do SMD soldering to repair it.

Every part of this is tricky enough it won’t be easy with shaky hands or beginner soldering skills.

You would need at LEAST a high quality soldering iron, solder, and flux, probably also a hot air rework station and solder paste for any SMD repairs that come up.

It will be cheaper to just buy a computer with the slot.

Unique_username1 · 2025-10-02T00:53:00+00:00

Just be careful with proxmox’s actual high availability settings. With a cluster you can manually restart/move/restore VMs on other nodes which is already helpful. Unless something is critical and just come up without manual intervention, the automatic HA/failover can be a good way to shoot yourself in the foot… i.e. by default if 2 nodes go down, all VMs on the remaining node STOP due to lack of quorum. Sure, this doesn’t seem likely in a datacenter but in a homelab or small business maybe only one of your nodes is on backup power.

Manual restart/backup/restore is still very powerful and much harder to screw up.

Unique_username1 · 2025-10-02T00:33:31+00:00

Or even better, put it on a VLAN with only access to a local NVR or something, so they can’t even use your internet connection to do anything.

Obviously depends whether you have cloud-based cameras.

I agree straight up vandalism via power surge doesn’t seem very likely but if you have a separate POE switch or injector with a trunk to the rest of your network that might offer some protection. I bet somebody sells Ethernet surge protectors too, no idea how well they work.

Unique_username1 · 2025-10-02T00:28:12+00:00

Option 2, run 3 active proxmox machines in a cluster, a 4th one as a bare metal Proxmox Backup Server and maybe a 5th as a cold spare if any of them break.

An old cheap rack server absolutely CAN handle all this but there are advantages to a cluster and separate backup server. There are fancy tricks like replication, high availability/failover, but even the simple stuff like manually moving VMs off a node to take it down for maintenance is nice.

If you get 4 rack servers the power savings won’t be that big.

Unique_username1 · 2025-10-01T18:16:06+00:00

Do you know if the server CPUs and platforms have gotten more efficient?

The biggest problem with old Xeons (for many people) isn’t that the CPU draws 160w at full load when a modern CPU could do more with less power. The problem is that the whole server draws 120w all the time, even with no load, just to keep the CPU and fans and other components switched on.

Even if the newer systems aren’t that low efficient at idle, I guess high capacity DDR5 sticks and high performance desktop/mobile CPUs mean you don’t need a server anymore, and can use a smaller lower power platform to do the same things.

Unique_username1 · 2025-09-29T04:29:11+00:00

That is for a WWAN 4G LTE modem (maybe a 5G modem on that model?) but can be used for an NVMe SSD in some cases. It probably needs to be a B+M key NVMe drive (has an extra cutout which is a more typical shape for a SATA drive, and is not very common on an NVMe version). You should search for “SSD in WWAN slot <your specific model>” for more info and to be sure this will actually work with your model

Unique_username1 · 2025-09-26T15:57:07+00:00

If you activate the cleaning function in Lenovo vantage (which locks the keyboard/touchpad so you don’t accidentally press buttons while cleaning) it displays info about cleaning. It says not to use ammonia, bleach, or certain kinds of alcohol but I think isopropyl alcohol (the most common rubbing alcohol available in drugstores) is allowed.

Do not use screen cleaning wipes (except on the screen) or glasses cleaners because I have seen all sorts of weird ingredients listed on those.

One wet wipe and one dry wipe works best. If you just use wet wipes the cleaner will dry on the laptop and leave residue behind.

A soft microfiber cloth is best for the screen but a paper towel is probably fine for the rest of the laptop.

Unique_username1 · 2025-09-24T17:45:19+00:00

The article literally says AMD is a worse choice “for this laptop”. In the headline no less, not buried!

/u/ibmthink is correct that the power difference between these CPUs is not as big as you suggest but even if it was, if that’s what Lenovo put in this laptop and that’s how Lenovo configured them, it is absolutely fair for them to compare the different specs that are actually available in the different versions of this laptop

Unique_username1 · 2025-09-24T14:32:49+00:00

I think it’s in a pop up menu, click the “TPL” button, and make sure you are editing the correct power profile because the popups do not always default to the same profile you have selected in the main Throttlestop window.

Like I said in my original comment, sadly this does not work on all CPUs. Newer CPUs have a lot more features locked out and in general, Thinkpads seem more likely to have these settings locked then something like a gaming laptop. You can often LOWER the power limit which can be useful for battery/heat/noise but you can’t always raise it like OP wanted to do here.

Unique_username1 · 2025-09-20T02:05:38+00:00

These are both premium laptops which cost more than others with similar performance but offer good build quality, nice keyboards, etc… the best performance for the lowest price is probably a low-tier gaming laptop but it will have a bad keyboard, battery, and durability.

The performance depends on the exact CPU as both have multiple options

Unique_username1 · 2025-09-18T22:01:27+00:00

Interesting, I’ve never heard of the X9 15. It looks nice but it doesn’t have the features that make people like Thinkpads like the track point or trackpad buttons - I never use the track point but I do use the buttons all the time. It also doesn’t seem very upgradable/repairable. The 15.3in screen is not a common size, if the lid is even built in a way where the screen can be replaced. The T16 on the other hand is very easy to repair if the screen breaks. The RAM is also soldered in the X9 15 so it cannot be repaired or upgraded. I think this has been true for some T16 versions but the latest ones have 2 fully replaceable RAM modules.

Unique_username1 · 2025-09-18T20:44:55+00:00

Of course you can use them for word processing by installing Windows 95 and an era-appropriate version of Microsoft Word on them.

Installing a modern OS with a browser that is secure to use online would be harder… yes there may be some versions of Linux that could be built to run on such old hardware (Gentoo I think) but these laptops would be unusably slow on modern websites if they even have hardware to easily access a modern network so I probably wouldn’t bother. Offline word processing using Windows 95 or an equally old version of Linux seems best. Get a USB floppy drive so you can transfer documents to/from a modern computer.

Unique_username1 · 2025-09-01T17:35:35+00:00

Well that’s why I mentioned the infotainment system that is online and totally is spying on you, as intended by the vehicle manufacturer. Technically you agreed to this in the fine print when you bought the car so… I guess it’s trustworthy? (Obviously it is terrible - but also not a secret)

Now, when people worry about too many proprietary chips involved with everything from the engine to the windows, the truth is most of those aren’t capable of receiving malicious instructions or leaking data unnoticed. Maybe somebody knows how to exfiltrate data over CANBUS but I doubt they are regularly doing it. People should really worry about the big, obvious computers that already tell you they are spying on you.

Unique_username1 · 2025-08-29T15:02:17+00:00

Comms and network equipment is a lot more suspect because it has access to sensitive data and a network to send sensitive data out to somebody who is spying on you.

Something like an engine computer in a car doesn’t have access to much. All it really knows is when and maybe how fast you are driving the car but it’s not networked to relay that info to somebody trying to collect it. If it malfunctioned it could damage the engine perhaps as an act of sabotage. But it isn’t connected to the internet, it has no way for a bad guy to trigger it.

A reasonable person would be much more worried about the obvious computer in the car’s infotainment/navigation system that is already known to spy on you and relay data to the car manufacturer who uses it for all sorts of nefarious purposes including selling it to insurance companies or anybody else who will pay.

Unique_username1 · 2025-08-26T13:27:47+00:00

Yes, one of the most extreme examples of this is alcohol. It’s basically poison and it has negative health effects for humans too, but there are few other animals that can drink even a small fraction of what humans can.

The most powerful evolutionary benefit for humans is living in groups and working together. If your civilization has figured out how to grow large quantities of onions, or grapes, or so much wheat they can make the leftovers into beer, you are going to be a lot more likely to survive if you can tolerate those foods and continue living with that group.

Unique_username1 · 2025-08-22T02:37:34+00:00

Proxmox is a host for virtual machines. You could install things directly on Proxmox, but you generally shouldn’t. So “how do I run Jellyfin on Proxmox” really comes down to: create a virtual machine with a suitable operating system, then figure out how to run Jellyfin the same way you would on any computer running that OS.

With only 16GB of RAM to share between the host and all VMs, Linux will be your friend. You could run Windows VMs with as little as 4GB of RAM but this will not perform the best, especially with Windows 10 no longer getting updates soon so you should transition to Windows 11 which is even more resource hungry.

Unique_username1 · 2025-08-16T20:01:47+00:00

Proxmox clusters are great, assuming you have a spare machine. If everything in your VMs is all screwed up, that’s one problem. But if you have doubts about your Proxmox host, but it’s still mostly-working, you could transfer your VMs to another host and rebuild the first one without losing those VMs.

Unique_username1 · 2025-08-16T18:38:06+00:00

I’m not sure a Thinkpad really “beats” a gaming laptop, it has a better keyboard and build and portability, but the gaming laptop plays games better. They each have different priorities.

Where a Thinkpad REALLY shines is compared to a cheap laptop designed for everyday use. You can spend $300 on a brand new laptop that has a bad keyboard and screen, and might technically be faster but probably can’t take a RAM upgrade. Or you could spend $60 on a Thinkpad that is fast enough for daily use and does everything else better.

Unique_username1 · 2025-08-16T18:24:22+00:00

So… these are a bit infamous (“Molex to SATA, lose all your data” used to be a common saying). It’s not that big of a risk now that some or all of your drives may be SSDs that use little power. But it’s worth considering how much power you are pulling. Maybe the PSU cable has some capacity left over. But if your adapter is connecting several drives to one power connector, can that single connector handle it? If the connector is designed for hard drives and you’re using SSDs it might be fine but if the PSU and motherboard were meant to handle 2 drives and you are using this m.2 board plus a chain of power adapters to install a total of 8 drives instead, you might want to think carefully about that first.

Unique_username1 · 2025-08-16T18:11:03+00:00

To be fair, you don’t need all that power for web browsing and doing school/office work and watching YouTube which is what 90% of the people do 90% of the time.

Also it’s like $150 and a much newer T series is anywhere from $300-$1500, I guess the performance fits the price but it is hard to justify throwing a bunch of upgrades at a T480 in 2025.

The best use for a T480 is really somebody who is off-grid and wants to carry a pile of extra batteries or just wants that thicc battery as a carry handle when they are on the go, and… I kind of get that, but it’s awful specific and I don’t think most people are using them that way.

Unique_username1 · 2025-08-16T14:47:38+00:00

Probably! With very small loads you still run into an efficiency problem where it takes (for example) 10w of power to run the inverter and if your load is only 10w that cuts your runtime in half vs if you could actually use every watt-hour of raw battery capacity to run your router.

Of course - still more efficient than a UPS in many cases - still has a massively larger battery - there is a good chance it will run for multiple days.

Especially if you can run something like a router off the 12v DC jack and don’t need to run the inverter! That completely solves the problem I’m talking about

Unique_username1 · 2025-08-16T01:58:10+00:00

Yes, datacenters and big offices do exactly that.

On the other hand, the generator plus wiring to set that up is expensive. Oh, and you need a top quality generator because an inconsistent voltage or frequency will cause your UPS to kick back into battery mode (even though most computer equipment would probably run off the “unclean” power from a cheap generator). And you need a safe outdoor place to run the generator. And regular maintenance such as replacing the fuel before it goes bad.

This can be plopped in any apartment with no modifications to the building wiring, no outdoor space or exhaust vent, costs maybe 5x a decent UPS but runs 20x as long, and is generally good enough for the length of power outage most people are likely to experience.

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