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A Drawer for your Desktop — Parallax Forums

A Drawer for your Desktop

ercoerco Posts: 20,244
edited 2017-05-25 16:59 in General Discussion
DVD drives are so last millennium. Join the Kool Kidz, chuck yours to make way for this cool storage drawer for your fidget spinners. Coming soon, a cupholder/ashtray for your laptop!

http://www.frys.com/product/7961320?site=16web052517

7961320.01.big.jpg

Comments

  • Dang - that won't fit in my laptop. I wonder how many of these they sell?
  • KeithE wrote: »
    Dang - that won't fit in my laptop. I wonder how many of these they sell?

    I used to have a server case with 5 bays, and if you could motorize and control the drawers. Better than empty space.

    No beige?
  • Erco, what is a "desktop"? I thought it was where my laptop docking station sits?? LOL, I haven't had a desktop computer as a work PC for about 15 years. My current "desktop replacement form factor" laptop is an HP EliteBook 8560p. Even has a DB9 serial port on the back! With my secondary battery pack, it's a bit heavy, but I can use it anywhere in the building. (but I only have dual screens at my desk, :-( unless I connect to one of our conference room TVs)
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    Erco, what is a "desktop"?

    C'mon Andrew! You know very well what a desktop is!

    desktop.png
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  • The last time I had a "workstation" I put it out in the garage where the noise wouldn't disturb anybody. It was mostly empty space inside, but a drawer wouldn't have been of any use to me.
  • I had a Thermaltake Armor case that came with one of these. Now that I see it again I kinda miss it. Good place for a Prop Plug!
  • tonyp12tonyp12 Posts: 1,950
    edited 2017-05-26 20:24
    Desktop with (a single) 24"+ screen and mechanical keyboard is way better for productivity.
    I have two desktops, one at office and one at home-office, let OneDrive sync and don't have to lug around a laptop.

    Can get a desktop for $200 with intel i5, slap in a 128gb boot ssd and upgrade to 8G (or select 8G only) and system fly.
    https://www.dellrefurbished.com/desktop-computers?dir=asc&filter_brand=188&filter_processor_brand=356,357&order=price
    Extra 40% Off Sitewide with Free Shipping using coupon code "PROUD40DELL". through May 30th.​​​

    Will pay for itself in increased productive if you value your time more than $7.50/hr.
  • Or you could use it as a Zubal Bank (a brand of lathe only guys would keep in the machine shop) to keep a couple of C-notes hidden from the Misses...
  • DVD? Desktop? Gack! I've heard about Dodgey Vintage Discs before and occasionally people even ask me to "burn" one for them. If I had one I would probably burn it too but they can go burn their own. If they want photos or files then it's Flash or Cloud, or even their own portable hdd, take it or leave it.

    Actually I do have a desktop of sorts, and on it is a small form factor PC with lots of USB ports but I'm considering downsizing and upgrading to a fanless PC like this.

  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    edited 2017-05-27 13:43
    Peter, Those are nice. And can you believe there is still room for upgrades. The space is mostly needed for connections access. What will you do with the extra desk space?

    BTW: I don't exspect an answer to that dumb question. ;)
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  • Any options for 7 inch bays?


    I bought the case for this VGA monitor:

    https://www.amazon.com/thermaltake-a2413-7-inch-drive-monitor/dp/tech-data/b000ka7yja
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  • Don't you non-desktop users worry about quickly replacing a failed part?

    I couldn't imagine being locked into parts I couldn't replace locally. I suppose you could always have a spare laptop...

    Those fanless PCs are nice!
  • That would be great except that my last two main personal workstations were a laptop and now a tablet.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    xanadu,
    Don't you non-desktop users worry about quickly replacing a failed part?
    No.

    Traditionally PC's have been huge, heavy, ugly, noisy, power consuming monsters. The insides of which are mostly air.

    I have been living with a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 for one year now and can't imagine I'll be going back to my big old PC's. This thing is small, light, mobile, silent and performs well enough for my use, better than my last PC. Not to mention having much better graphics capability.

    If it breaks down it will still be under guarantee and get fixed/replaced by the local PC super store or I just get the boss to shell another one :)

    Meanwhile for industrial applications we use tiny ruggedized PC compatible machines.
  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    edited 2017-05-28 13:10
    It's a shame, I always liked rolling my own PC from separate parts. I always had a sound card from Creative, a video board from ATI or NVIDIA. The memory and HDD I wanted. Down to the power supply to make sure you have enough for future add-in's. When the machine was put together and the OS was up and running, there was a feeling of great accomplishment. A closeness to the machine that you can't buy off the rack. I hope the desktop don't go away completely.

    BTW: I left out the most important item, the search for the perfect case. There may not be one though.
  • tonyp12tonyp12 Posts: 1,950
    edited 2017-05-28 21:05
    HP i5 3rd gen, 8gb with a empty 5.25 slot for above mentioned drawer. $154 (no os but should have serial sticker)
    https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5965RC0553&ignorebbr=1

    or something even cheaper:
    http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/150839/HP-Pro-6305-Refurbished-Desktop-PC/
  • Hmmm. Well I have PC at home, and I VPN into it from various tablets and laptops, so I guess I have the best of both worlds.

    Here's a nice boat anchor for you. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811352030

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  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    edited 2017-05-28 15:06
    Got one of those size anchors to, running XP, Definitely more room than is needed these days.

    BTW: a good place for those extra refrigerator magnets.
  • I used to build my own computers. In fact, I still have an original IBM PC-XT case which has been waiting for decades to be used, although nowadays I suppose I'm more likely to use it as a flower pot than build a computer into it.

    I got my first practical laptop in 2003, because I needed a computer I could use on a few trips. It was miserable to use on its own but could use an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and it still had a real serial port which was a necessity in those days. It was the first time I had to evacuate for a hurricane when I simply unplugged all the cables, folded it up, and tossed it in the car that I realized I would never own another desktop case PC again.

    The old laptop --not the 2003 one, the one that replaced it -- is still sitting under my new tablet; I bought that laptop in the final weeks of Windows XP availability. IIRC it cost around $900 back in the day. It's been quite serviceable, despite the cooling fan getting clogged with dust, and the LCD backlight inverter going out twice. It finally died the No Windows XP Updates Any More death and I bought the tablet.

    The tablet cost $200. It has more RAM, more CPU cores, and is faster than the laptop. It doesn't have a hard drive and only has 32 Gb flash, while the laptop had an 80 Gb hard drive, but the tablet also has a Micro-SD socket. 64 Gb card installed it has more mass storage than the laptop. Windows 10 can move My Documents and Music and Pictures onto the external card, and if anything ever happens to the tablet I just pop the card and put it in the new one. The whole tablet with all accessories cost less than a hard drive did not that long ago.

    In fact, I got this tablet because I got one at work first and I liked it so much. Unlike most solid-state netbook computers it has a 1080p 11.6 inch LCD, which means that with reading glasses on I can set it up in a hotel room and treat it like a full machine with a 1080p monitor. (Of course it came with big icons and big fonts and big everything assuming I was going to use it as a tablet, but it was easy to fix all that.) And while at home it's HDMI to an actual monitor, USB to actual peripherals, and it runs all my software -- even, since it's running the "crippleware" 32-bit version of Win 10, stuff that "won't run on Windows 10." That's a nice buffer between the old world and the new, since I have a couple of those old apps I will probably need to be able to run for at least five more years. Industry is different from consumerland.

    The tablet runs the PropTool, SimpleIDE, and Brad's Spin Tool without trouble. All the USB-serial solutions work with it. Being a tablet it also has bluetooth, and I love my new bluetooth headphones not being tethered to the damn desk where the computer is as I move around the office. And oh yeah, the thing will also run over six hours on its battery.

    It is, of course, most emphatically not upgradeable or repairable. And I don't care. The upgrade will be to a new tablet or solid-state laptop. I have decided I will never have a PC with moving parts to worry about ever again. Because it was built for battery life instead of cutting-edge performance it runs cool, despite being much faster than the hot-running machine it replaced.

    I just had a funny conversation with my wife. Last year we replaced an old but perfectly good refrigerator with a newer model because she was just tired of it. This afternoon we were talking about how new appliances don't last and she wondered aloud if it was the refrigerator that was responsible for our electric bill going down so much. It had to be; there were no other changes. So yeah, we spent $700 to replace a perfectly good refrigerator, but the new one will pay for itself in reduced electric usage within two or three years. Even if we have to replace it in five years instead of twenty, it's a win.

    Same with this tablet. It just works, in a form factor and on power sources I never thought might be practical. Building a computer from components is so 1990's when things like this are available.
  • So Roger, what is this magical tablet?
    Jim
  • RS_Jim wrote: »
    So Roger, what is this magical tablet?
    Jim


    I bet it's a Surface Pro with Win10.

    I recently sold a small Samsung tablet, the only thing I was using it for was reading. Android doesn't do much for productivity, at least for me.

    My wife has a Win10 Nextbook, with detachable keyboard. I do see it's advantages. But it suffers from a lack of USB ports though. And when you start plugging things in, you have lost portability.
    I have a heck of a time with it in tablet mode, the real problem is how the OS is set up. I'm constantly minimizing - maximizing or some other thing, I don't want to do.

    Frustrating, I guess I can get used to it. We did evolve from front panel switches, and look how long keyboards have been around.
  • http://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-11-6-tablet-32gb-with-keyboard-black/5255800.p?skuId=5255800

    It's a lot cheaper than a Surface :-) I rarely use it as a tablet, since the two USB-A ports are on the docking keyboard. The advantage it has over small netbooks like the HP Stream series is the 1080p display; this is the only thing near its price range I've found with that high a display resolution.
  • I was at my cousins earlier, and he showed me my grandfather's Thinkpad. My dad spent 30 something years at IBM and never mentioned it. I thought it was funny.

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  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    edited 2017-05-29 23:26
    ThinkPad Reserve Edition

    This model was initially known inside of Lenovo as the "Scout." This was the name of the horse ridden by Tonto, the sidekick from the 1950s television series The Lone Ranger. Lenovo envisioned the Scout as a very high-end ThinkPad that would be analogous to a luxury car. Each unit was covered in fine leather embossed with its owners initials. Extensive market research was conducted on how consumers would perceive this form factor. It was determined that they appreciated that it emphasised warmth, nature, and human relations over technology. The Scout was soon renamed the ThinkPad Reserve Edition. It came bundled with premium services including a dedicated 24-hour technical support hotline that would be answered immediately. It was released in 2007 and sold for $5,000 in the United States.[79][80]

    Find!

    Did you get to play around with it? May have top secret info on it, and IBM wants to retrieve it at any cost.

    I'm guessing, this is IBM's version of a Palm Pilot.

    EDIT: 2007 and 5 grand doesn't seem right.
  • I did get to play around with it. This is the kind of notepad used with a writing utensil. Late '50s. The pages were filled with notes about travels around Denmark, and drawings of horses and horse stuff.

    I'm going back to pad and pencil. Throw in some index tabs and I think we have something here.
  • I'm going back to pad and pencil. Throw in some index tabs and I think we have something here.
    Lol
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    xanadu,

    Those are beautiful pads. IBM should be manufacturing them for us today!

    Coincidentally, whilst at the Maker Faire I got chatting to a guy about some classroom robotics thing he was doing. Turned out his dad had worked for IBM for decades. He showed me a photo of his fathers IBM briefcase from 1951. A beautiful leather bound affair.

    Thing is, in the photo it was open, showing that inside was a gorgeous selection of screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers and such. All the tools an IBMer needs to service an IBM card punch or card sorting machine!

    Wish I'd though to ask him to post the picture online someplace.
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