D620, D630, or E6400 - Which one would you choose?

[io5150]

The BIOS reports the Video as the Crestline, BIOS ver 1466, 8MB, 14" LoRes WXGA, 1280x800 as the native resolution.  I can check the other 630 for the Vid (in case it is the HiRes - but doubt it). 

 

The RAM is DDR2-667.  The wifi is the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG card.

 

There are no bluetooth models in any of these systems (unless there is one in the 6400?).  They deployed mostly 620s, then a hand full of the 630s, and then even less of the 6400s before switching over to other brand models.

 

Other than the rare DVD-RW drive on an occasional model (which are already gone), they were ordered with the same configuration for that model.  Standardized support and creation of system images for rebuilds (hard drive retention policy).

 

I'll get that BIOS Loaded today and check the Video resolution on the other D6xx models.  I'll have to swap the LCD (if not just the the whole lid) if I do find one.

 

 

Thanks again for all the input and direction.

 

io

[Bronxteck]

yes if your going to do an LCD swap you are better off with a complete lid replacement since you also need the high res LCD ribbon/cable as it has more wires for the high res model. just swapping the LCD display is not sufficient.

[io5150]

Bronx ... I'll keep that in mind if I do find a HiRes LCD on one of the models.  Thanks  

[io5150]

No HiRes LCDs in any of the models we have in the office.  BIOS is updated to A17.  Now I need to order that SL DVD from Apple before I can move to next step.  I will follow the BIOS settings in the sticky

 

In planning for the build, would it be possible to have a shared data partition between all three OSs (what format would it have to be to read and write for all OSs?)?  Or would it be better to keep them all "self contained" in their own corner of the HD?  Maybe share an external drive?

 

io

[Hervé]

Same HDD NTFS-formatted partitions are Read-Only by default in OS X, unless there's a fancy tool to allow it. From Windows, MacOS-formatted partitions are unreadable by default, but MacDrive tool (not free) allows full access to them. No idea from a Linux partition.

 

Maybe a FAT partition could be RW from all OSes but I don't know.

 

I'd keep them self-contained if I were you, best way to avoid issues.

[io5150]

Herve ... I was thinking about tracking down a BT module.  I looked up the DW630 and couldn't find anything.  How would I tell the difference between models on ebay or amazon?  Do you have a BT module in one of your 630s?  They usually just say "compatible with xxxx model of laptop" without stating the model or p/n.  

 

I remember reading something about exfat being supported by both OSX and Win7 ... not sure of Linux though.  I believe both can read Fat32, but would be limited to the 4GB file size (so large image files would be beyond Fat32).

 

 

Thanks,

io

[Hervé]

Fat32 should get you up to 32GB or thereabout; I've used a 32GB USB key formatted fat32 before and I think it was RW-able from MacOS (but can't remember).

 

Regarding BT modules, look here: https://osxlatitude.com/index.php?/topic/1824-bluetooth-adapters/ All my D6x0 run a BT module (4 fitted with DW360, 1 with DW350).

[io5150]

Thanks for the BT link.

 

I was referring to the maximum file size under Fat32, which is around 4GB - the drive size can be quite larger (used to be a 32GB partition limit on Fat32 - not sure if there is a work around for that now, but assume so).  Ran into the problem when I was trying to copy some stuff to a W98 machine years ago and had to format an external drive to Fat32 - ended up have to break apart the file (a disk image of 10 or 11GB) into smaller chuncks (used winrar or some other file splitter).  

[bobdamnit]

Use exFAT. All Linux (All major flavors, anyway), OS X (10.6.5+), and Windows (XP+) operating systems support exFAT.

 

It allows disk sizes up to some insane number, like 64ZiB, with file sizes up to 54Tb. I've got my external hard drive formatted in exFAT, specifically for this reason. It works flawlessly with Windows 7 and OS X Lion having read/write support natively.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT

[io5150]

Thanks Bob ... will keep that in mind as well. 

 

Ok ... have the OSX-SL disc now and an 8GB Cruzer thumbdrive.  Ready to begin this project in earnest.

 

First and foremost - since I traded for the Macbook and had no idea what was hidden in the nooks and crannies - I did a fresh install of SL (with a disc erase to start with) and setup it up with our Apple account (our iPhone/iTunes).  Install went great, but wouldn't update the latest firmware for Superdisk when running all of the system updates.  Will need to do some research on that one.

 

A couple of quick questions before I move forward:

 

1.  Should I get the Superdisk firmware issue on the Macbook resolved before moving forward?  Will this affect the creation of the usb boot drive (myHack)?

2.  Should I wait until I find a compatible Bluetooth module before starting?  Would it be a quite a hassle to add the module later? 

 

Thanks.