CF-50 - Any good?

Hi!

Whilst a wait for a verifable unpassworded MB for the CF-51, possibly a long one, I have come across a few CF-50's needing a good home.
There are some P4 2.2 models available. I think these will have the uxga screens although they have no wifi I think.
Are they worth bothering with, or should I just let them pass and use the funds to search for that 51 MB instead?

 

I would pass on the CF-50 and put it towards a CF-51. Not sure what the 51's cost on your side of the water but over here it would be cheaper to buy the whole 51 than just the mother board.

 

Everything costs a lot over here!
It is somewhat frustrating to see what things sell for in the USA, especially when its something you could do with! Ah well, at least our budget defecit is only in the billions rather than trillions!
Was contempating trying to make a CF-50.5 with perhaps the wifi parts from the 51. But I think you are right. Better to wait for a MB for the 51 as its more desirable at the end of the day.

 

I have shipped many parts to the UK for the 28, 29, 30 and 51's but the cost of shipping can be high on the bigger packages and then to get them there in one piece is another thing and no the one thing I do not have is a mother board

 

I have one CF-50 at home I haven't got to get my hands on yet to test it out (I am at work), but they seem like a good value. Right now the caddy's are pretty cheap. One guy right now on ebay has them for 25 bucks and another 30 bucks. I got one with the 9600 ATI video card, the CPU can be upgraded like the 51 from what I have seen in pictures of the unit. These I am listing below seems to be the best out of them.

CF-50D/E/F/G/H (Mk3) -- ATI Mobility Radeon 9000, 32MB or 64MB VRAM
Factory Pentium M Processor 1.4 / 1.6

CF-50L/M (Mk4) -- ATI Mobility Radeon 9600, 64MB VRAM
Factory Pentium M Processor 1.7

CF-50J/K (Mk5) -- ATI Mobility Radeon 9000, 64MB VRAM
Factory Pentium M Processor 1.5

If you shop around you can find deals on them on ebay. I have the parts to put together when I get home a 1.7 PENTIUM M, ATI 9600, and a new power charger for 78 dollars total. That is two dollars more than I have in just the caddy for my 51. I have a dual core 51 (core duo 2GHZ, 4GB ram, X1300 video) and a single core 51 (1.73 Pentium M, 2GB ram, integrated graphics) I plan on doing some testing but on paper it looks like the 50 single core will be very close to single core 51 performance wise. It looks like it may depend on how cheap you can get a 50 for, do they have the caddy with them? etc.

 

I was most attracted to the 2.2ghz models which I understood had the better screen. Unfortunately my trusty 72 has had a graphics failure I think so was looking for a replacement.
As much as I like the 72's, the 51 looks like its better constructed. So I was thinking that the 50 was similiar in construction to the 51 it would be better to move on. Worst thing about the 72 is the pathetic battery life of 1.2-1.3 hours. Even though I do have the second battery adaptor, its still a bit of a phaff! At the moment the MK5 72's are making good money, so was considering getting rid of a few!

 

I leave to go home on the 10th. I will have to put it together and test it but I can give you some side by pictures and my opinion of the 50 vs the 51 single core if you would like.

 

Holy crap $80.00 in US funds for a CF-50 and THERE IS A PASSWORD ON BIOS...NO HDD OR CADDY. What a rip off. God I feel sorry for you guys...hate to know what they would want for the caddy
PANASONIC 2.2 CF-50 TOUGHBOOK ONLY £49! | eBay

 

I made a cheeky offer which has fortunately been rejected, so I'll just have to be patient.
It is one of the mysteries of the World - Where do all the caddies go?

 

this tread made me want to pull my CF-50 out of the closet last night...
I had to install a HDD and wireless card in it and manage to get Ubuntu 11.04 installed and it runs quite well... problem is its too big and bulky for my taste... i do prefer my CF-18... It does make a good desktop replacement for small spaces if needed due to its large screen.

I paid 80$ for it about a year ago which is not too bad...

Andre

 

Be careful of the P4 cf 50's. I have found that they can be picky on batteries. The aftermarket batteries don't always work in them. Pentium M versions seem to be ok with the aftermarket batteries.

 

Thanks for the tip on the batteries. I liked the look of the Pentium M versions and was hoping it was close to performance to the single core cf-51's. I get to see if Panasonic's website got it wrong on the graphics card when I get home. I had bought a single core cf-51 1.73 and was suppose to have x300 graphics, misprint, had Intel integrated.