Would you upgrade your CF-30 to a CF-31

Do you think you would upgrade your CF-30 To a CF-31 or do you think the money the CF-31 cost..Would not be worth it?????

I thinking about getting a CF-30 as in the UK, i have seen them for around 1000.00 GBP and lastweek one was on Ebay and sold for 650.00BGP

Or save the money and get a brand new CF-31?? High spec one for 3090.00 GBP???Plus VAT

Just would like your thoughts

 

I upgraded my new CF-28 mk-2 to a new CF-29 MK-1 as the usb 2 and brighter screen were an necessary improvement

I waited for a while before the next upgrade and bought a new CF-30 mk-2
Improvements were the screen brightness and the ability to run Vista, and later W7,and finaly having a stock GPS that works well

For now I will stay with the CF-30 as the small increase in screen brightness of the CF-31 is not worth the extra

Other benefits are the ability to have more ram ,and a faster processor ,but for myself I don't use more than 1.4GB of ram and I use at most 75% of processor on the CF-30 when watching internet TV or watching Bluray movies

The CF-30 meets my current needs and I don't see myself upgrading for a least 2 more years, that will make my MK-2 4 years old when I replace it

My CF-19 tablet gets the most use @10,000 hrs on it since new

 

What will you do with the laptop, I think then we would be better equipped to give advise.

CF-31 is a full mobile processor, while CF-30 is essentially a net-book processor, that is a low voltage processor.

 

The CF-30 CPU is no ware NEAR the crappy performance of a netbook CPU man... The netbooks have 1.6 Atoms in them... The atoms are dog crap compared to the Core 2 duo's...

 

Bad karma to insult dog crap like that. Watch your step.

 

Got one of each, both have their merits. I think it boils down to what you want to do with the unit.

Personally, I prefer my 30 to the 31.

 

To answer your original question, I would go with the CF-30.

If money is not an issue, I would then go for the high-end CF-31.

 

Is the 31 still running extremely hot?

 

I'm happy with my CF-30. Coming up on 4 years old, fast enough for my needs when I'm not too lazy to keep it tuned up. IMHO the Toughbooks just seem less tough with each update. I'm definitely not a fan of fans in note books.
CAP

 

How do they keep the dirt and water out if its got a fan?????

Also i think they seem to be getting less tough i think the 29 is the tough one????

 

I think JB007Rules did a youtube on dragging a cf-30 around with a heavy chain behind an ATV that looked like it went over dirt mounds and through mud and water and still booted and ran and apparently is being used to date. He may have cracked the monitor outer cover at the hinges and might have cracked a screen but I'm not sure about that. I don't have a cf-30 yet as I have bunches of the cf-29's and am quite fond of these trusty little laptops and still have a lot to learn and upgrade and mod them. So I vote for the cf-29's, still, but I am biased in my opinion.........Driller

 

Air enters the fan, cools a heat sink, and exits the other end of the fan. So whatever smeg you dip it in is going to cycle through the fan and not enter the rest of the unit. Spraying water into the fan if it's running hot should actually help. I don't plan to try that.

 

The fan designed of all fully rugged toughbook either panasonic, dull, sh.tac, thrownic and the like was it is totally isolated/sealed from the inside of the electronic components. FYI.


ohlip

 

Did you ever own a CF-27, M34, or 28? I'm still not a fan of fans, and have yet to get involved in anything which made me want a much faster computer. My CF-30 happily plays HD 1080p downloads and Blue Ray rips. The other intensive applications I use have to do with downloading and the CF-30 is faster than any download source I have available to me.
CAP

 

My 29 and now loaned out 72 are mostly internet. The 29 was used for light gaming(Pentium III requirement games and a few Pentium 4) and even some music creation software that I barely even use. The 72 was just for GPS but I gave up and it's just a desktop internet unit.

 

i'd never spend more than 1500.00 on a new highend toughbook style laptop

toughbooks are really expensive for mostly outdated hardware.

 

Outdated Hardware? Compared to what a quad-core desktop or game laptop?

People don't buy toughbooks with the first intent of them to be smoking fast, they buy them because they don't break. If you want a plastic laptop go to Best-Buy if you want a big boy laptop buy a Toughbook.

 

I had a 31 here last week ordered it new for a customer of mine. The rubber port covers got a makeover, you now push down and then they flip out. The seal looks better then my 30 also. I had the i5 cpu and it was fast, overal in my opinion not worth the extra cash to swap out the 30.

My 30 does all it needs to do. I run CS5 and Auto-Cad on mine and it does the job just fine.

I think if you spent abit of cash on a SSD single level you will have about the same speed as the 31 for alot cheaper.

 

Yes but Panny says its within spec, aka no problem.

105C is out of spec for the i5. So I don't know what specs THEY mean.

 

I could see maybe trading for an HP ENVY so I could play DIRT right before I threw it against a wall..

 

yeap outdated hardware. I was amazed though that panasonic launched a i5 before dell.

the e6400 xfr still beats the cf30 spec wise and cost ratio.

 

Kids play with Dells, Big Boys use Toughbooks.

 

i think you got that wrong,

 

Nope, sounds pretty accurate to me. Lets drop a Dell off the roof of a car onto concrete and see how it fares.....

 

And grownups use both. :laugh:

mnem
The world's too big for only one solution...

 

get me a xfr and sure

 

I will stick to my Alienware thanks
Dell's rugged even though they spec out better than a Toughbook are a compromise
I am liking the hp elitebook 8540w dreamcolor II , about the same price as a CF-31
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5583

 

The 31 is worth it for the snappy port covers alone. You guys just won't admit it. Jealous much?

 

Toughbook,Toyo,Cap,Rob,and about 8 other members here bought CF-30's before I did
Yes , I will buy a CF-31 in a year or so

 

CAP paid around $1550 for his CF-30 at 1 year old like new with optical drive and 3 oem power supplies. In complete original packaging. Find me a deal like that and I might think about a CF-31
CAP

 

Sure, but then specs and price are nearly the same as a cf31, so why buy the Dell? I would rather stick with a company that has proven ruggedized computers as opposed to something "new" to the market.

 

A $5600 XFR, what happened to only spending $1500? How about we compare your $1500 unit to a CF30/31?

 

I have friends in IT that tell me their orgs have moved away from Dell over quality control issues.

 

easy I can get a fully loaded xfr e6400 for 1500.00 and thats including a touchscreen before a nice 15%+ discount

 

That CF30 (MK2??) with 290hrs on the clock looked like the deal of the century! When you run the model number through the configurator it's not that impressive. I've seen mark1's at 1,200 (GBP) that look like a better buy!

The V.A.T. (British Government Tax) increase next January hikes that 3090.00 (GBP) up another 20%

I'm not a computer whiz-kid & so not able to discuss the relative merits in the different chip sets & what-not. What I do know is that if you drop a 250(GBP) 29MK2 off the top of a mobile crusher in a mine site or a quarry it has the capacity to instigate uncontrollable foul & abusive language You're defiantly gonna scratch the top casing & possibly dink a door cover. If you drop a 1,200 (GBP) CF-30 in the same environment it has the capacity to instigate uncontrollable suicidal tendencies. So what happens when it's a 3,700(GBP) CF-31.

As already suggested, what you use it for dictates the necessity, but with that sort of budget your options could be:

(a) CF-31 ($5,900)

(b) 90% Stake Holding in BP

(C) All the Tea in China

Option (C) gets my vote!

 

If I were to drop my 30 onto your Dell only my Toughbook will survive.

 

Wish I had a rugged dell to compare. All I have is a insperon 5100 to go off of.

 

had to fix it for you

 

fans fans fans, why. i praise the toughbook because they dont really have any moving parts inside them, thus nothing to really break or have wear and tear at least with the cf 29. i guess the new processors need better cooling so they need active rather than passive.

are the fans made from metal rather than plastic, if the fins are plastic they would break over time? as well does dust get stuck inside the fans?

thats sad to know that the toughbooks have gotten less tough. i mean with a cf 30 you put an ssd in and then there is absolutely no moving parts, or at least i thought till i learned about fan cooling

so in the cf 30 the entire case is not a giant heatsink as it was with the cf 29?

 

It has all been downhill since the CF-17.

 

IIRC 31 is 1st Full Rugged of the pani line w/ fan.

 

Guys... I looked into this before the product was even released when RUMORS of the fan hit our little group. I've got some experience with industrial cooling; I KNEW it was possible to make a fan that could withstand the abuse of serving in the desert because I've MADE such fans and abuse-tested them.

EXACTLY as I suggested, Panasonic has designed the 31 with an industrial-type squirrelcage fan with enough horsepower to pull mud and sand THROUGH it, all housed in a high flow cavity sealed away from the internals of the machine and DESIGNED to be cleaned out with a hose if need be.

You can only dissipate so many watts of power passively with a chunk of metal the size of a ToughBook; the demand is there for more powerful processors and more powerful video, so there is NO CHOICE for Panasonic except to use active cooling.

You want to whine about the good old days... well, thanks to the durability of the ToughBook family, you can STILL have it; they're like the Energizer Bunny in that they keep going, and going and going. XP NOT Legacy enough for you? There are still Toughbooks out there running Win2000 or even '98... so dig them up and love them to death!

mnem
Big fan of old-school. And big fans.

 

It was belt/gear driven right?

In a few years we will have a "how to change out the water pump assembly" thread and can we just use the Prestone universal pre mix yellow stuff instead of the Pani fluid?

 

That is the best comeback of the year so far!

I myself, prefer the Toyota Red coolant

 

I'm a Subaru Super Blue just wish the price was lower.

Looks like my budget is going twards a 30 in a few months. 31 is still too new. Might have to sell my 29 and be stuck with a dull inspiron 5100 till I get it.

 

Does anybody know if the doors, or some of the doors on the 31 will work on the 30? I would imagine the HDD, and battery doors would. Unless they changed the hole pattern on the bottom with how they screw in.

 

Mnmenth. menthol I believe, are they using heatpipes adjacent the "air channel" to extract the heat from the cf-31? that idea does make sense that it is completely isolated with internals protected, thanks....Driller

 

Yup... they designed it exactly the way I speculated they would... and I don't have a problem with it IN THEORY. As long as it moves enough air to actually keep things at a safe operating temperature even in desert heat, I think it's the way to go.

I've already heard reports that it is designed to shut down non-critical components and fallback to lower-power mode (like failing over from the discrete high-horsepower video to low-power integrated video) for redundancy's sake; so it seems to me like the right mix of bling and grunt to bring ToughBooks into the 21st Century.

mnem
Bulldozer-Batmobile chic! :wink: