Changing function of hard drives.

[NigelC]

I'm pretty sure my newish i7 Thinkpad W520 is as as good for lightroom/photoshop as my 3 year old vista running desktop with a 6600 processor and 2 x 640GB Hds in a RAID 0 array(same 8GB memory, more up to date graphics card with more memory). What i planned to do in the coming year to simplify things is to "retire" the desktop and use the laptop at home in "lid down" mode with external monitor and keyboard/mouse/tablet.

What i also hoped to do was to make use of the hard drives in the desktop (yes I know HDs are cheap but times are hard!) by saving all the image files elswhere, "de-raiding" them and then connecting them as 2 self-standing external hard drives to the laptop - is this feasible without specialist knowledge?

[Steve Weldon]

Accepting that our definitions of "specialist" can vary I'll say that the tasks you describe should be able to be handled my anyone with basic computer skills.  You'll need to pick a type of enclosure for your old hard drives and the fastest interface as possible with that enclosure.  If your W520 has USB 3.0 look for a USB 3.0 enclosure.  If not, consider getting one anyway and adding a USB 3.0 PC card to your shopping list. 

[jeremypayne]

I've been "temporarily" using two ThinkPads as desktop replacements for a couple years now.  Been surprised how little need I feel to upgrade to newer tech.  I have them running W7|64bit with 8GB of RAM and SSDs ... they came with decent video cards and have been remarkably reliable.

One piece of advice - keep the fans clean and they will run forever.  Let the fans get clogged with dust, and they will become ovens and eventually fry themselves.  I regularly blow air through all the vents and take them apart once a year to really get inside and clean them up.

I've currently got 4 thinkpads in service a t60p, W500, t43 and a t42P.

The tasks you describe are all definitely doable by a non-professional. 

[degrub]

If you have the version with the Intel Core i7-2760QM chip, the CPU performance alone is a little over double the Q6600 assuming you were not overclocking. If you have the W520 with the Intel Core i7-2640M version, you may not notice much difference - maybe 25-30% faster on CPU bound programs. So either way, as long as you can keep it working in memory, it will be faster. The video card will not matter at all unless you plan to game on the system. If you replace the laptop HD with a SSD, it will be even faster. Use the eSATA/USB3 port for your external hard drives mounted in a multibay eSata drive enclosure. Just check to make sure the onboard eSata/USB3 combo port supports port replication. It may not. Otherwise single external eSata or USB3 drive cases.

In the meantime, you can back up the data you want off the raid, and de-raid them while still in the PC. You can keep them there as long as you like just running the old pc when you need access. I am guessing that you may have an internet connection for both. So with a lan cable, plug the laptop into the router (usually faster and more reliable than wireless) and share the hard drives or just some folders on the drives over the local network via the router. There is also a way to do it directly between the two PCs with a specific crossover type of lan cable if you don't have multiple ports on your internet connection . Windows is set up to do this. example here:

http://www.techtipsgeek.com/connect-two-windows-7-computers-on-lan-using-ethernet-cable/13349/
If both computers are connected to the internet and booted up, then ignore the part about setting IP addresses - your router already did this for you. The "workgroup" names will have to match, however.

Frank

[John.Murray]

I'll agree with Steve - put the drives in external enclosures and use your laptop's eSATA port http://shop.lenovo.com/us/ww/pdf/w520_datasheet.pdf.  Although you could connect via network share to your existing desktop machine, pretty much any home/soho class router will limit you to a 100Mbs wire speed.  You'll find yourself very frustrated dealing with anything other than modest files over the network share...

[B-Ark]

Also don't forget, you have the mSATA slot, so you can add an internal SSD if you really feel the need for speed. That's on my shopping list for when I eventually install LR4.

[Steve Weldon]

I'll agree with Steve - put the drives in external enclosures and use your laptop's eSATA port http://shop.lenovo.com/us/ww/pdf/w520_datasheet.pdf.  Although you could connect via network share to your existing desktop machine, pretty much any home/soho class router will limit you to a 100Mbs wire speed. You'll find yourself very frustrated dealing with anything other than modest files over the network share...

1.  Nice catch!  Definitely the way to go in this case, especially if he has the Ultrabase docking station.

2.  I love my NAS's for archiving and backup storage.. or even as media servers for streaming music or videos.  But the ones I have (really old ones) are way too slow at 20MB/s to use as a work drive.  As most notebook drives are in the 45-60MB/s range, I would think 100MB/s is sufficient?

 This chart with speeds for many current NAS's also lists the speeds in MB/s and most of the <$500 models are limited to 12-20mbps.  An exception is the WD Mybook Live at 43MB/s.. it's pretty fast, not so far off a 2.5" laptop drive.  The top models are right over 108MB/s which is nearing the limitation (125MB/s) of the gigalan standard anyway.. hopefully we'll see the new standard out soon.

So if he's used to 2.5" laptop drive performance already, he could reasonably achieve at least close to that with a WD Mybook Live.. a 3tb version is going for $219 on Amazon.. not unreasonable.  The new Duo's give you a 6tb RAID for under $500..  

Still not my first choice, I still think working files should be through SATA, a minimum of USB 3.0.. but depending on a persons needs and ability to tolerate 2.5" speeds NAS storage becomes feasible.

I've been wanting to get my hands on a Mybook Live to see how capable their FTP functions are.  Have you seen one?  I've been dreaming about a Synology 2411+.. but a couple of the Duo's might be a decent stopgap if the FTP functions are sufficient.