We need to (fairly urgently) replace a few old computers in our physics lab. They run control software for a few devices (usually based on LabView, provided by device manufacturer). They don’t need to be powerful. They need to be utterly reliably. Right now we mostly have Latitude laptops for stuff like that. But they’ve started dying (plus they run Windows XP so that’s another reason to change at least the OS).
So long story short, we’re replacing 4 laptops and we’re looking for something cheap but very reliable. It will stay in place on a laptop support above the optical table, never really moving much. We need about 8-16GB RAM (we don’t need much for the software, this is me accounting for Windows). I’ll look into installing Windows 10 LTSC if that’s still possible.
But my main decision is about which laptop to take. We don’t have a very large budget, we can spare around 800-850 per laptop. I’m seriously considering getting a bunch of FW12. While you do pay a premium, you have easily available spare parts. I’m just not sure what the reliability is in practice. My FW16 has been very reliable but I’ve seen plenty of people having issues. We really need the laptop to stay on 24/7/365 with occasional shut downs due to power cuts. We can restart it if it gets laggy but the less we do that, the better.
Any advice on whether to bite the bullet and get it?
Some lab hardware/software requires a computer running Windows XP. Make sure to test them on a computer running Windows 11 or 10 LTSC before buying a Framework because Framework computers aren’t compatible with Windows XP
Hi,
Yes, I’ve checked already, the software can run fine on Windows 10 and 11. Not sure about LTSC cause we don’t have those. But worst case scenario, 10/11 is fine.
Unlike Windows XP, Windows 10 and 11 have more bloatware that consume your CPU when idling. On my FL13, after AFKing for 5~10 minutes on Windows, the fan spins like crazy and the CPU temperature went to only 5°C below gaming temperature. This is not related to Framework. Any computer, especially laptops with less heat dissipation than desktops, suffer from this when running Windows and stay on 24/7/365 may worsen its reliability. Since I only running Linux continuously for more than 24 hours and always shutdown or at least disconnect the power adapter when away on Windows. I personally don’t know much about debloating, so you may want to search for that.
With that being said, there’s no solid proof that whether Windows bloat will definately reduce the longevity of your computer, but at least you should clean dust and monitorSSDhealth more often.
I have an FW12 and it’s very reliable. There are no random crashes or anything. If you put the laptop into sleep mode though, it will randomly go into hibernation instead; however this is not destructive as it just means it’ll take longer to start back up from time to time. There are no other major issues.
Basically the only problems I ever have with my computer have something to do with Windows, not the laptop itself. I’m assuming you’ll have the software side of things figured out though.
BTW if you plan to keep the laptops permanently docked then make sure to set up battery limiting to ~60% at all times to preserve the battery’s health in case it’s needed in the future.
Yeah, I can limit battery charging, it’s nice to have a bit of battery life left. Some of the laptops in the lab have a few minutes or even seconds of battery life in them.
Not random. On battery power it’ll hibernate when standby consumed 5% (or 10% I can’t remember) of battery. On AC it’ll never hibernate and will heat up due to telemetry eating up your CPU to gaming levels. If OP is collecting real-time data on their lab, this may lead to irregular data due to background bloat displacing CPU cycles from the lab software. Non-real-time simulation calculation shouldn’t be affected aside from longer time to finish.
I see. Do you have a source for those percentage claims?
Also yeah I have no doubt the processor keeps doing things even when in sleep mode lol, if I leave the laptop alone in my backpack for like an hour in sleep mode it’s still a little warm under the CPU when I pull it out.