[LAD] How well do thinkpad notebooks work for audio?

[hollunder at gmx.at]

On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:10:50 +0200
Fons Adriaensen <fons at kokkinizita.net> wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 12:27:12AM +0200, hollunder at gmx.at wrote:
> 
> > It feels like my several year old PC will crap out soon for one
> > reason or another, so I need a replacement, better sooner than
> > later. This time it should be a laptop and I heard that formerly
> > IBM and now Lenovo thinkpads are of good build quality, even if
> > they only come with intel CPUs and cost an arm and a leg.
> > 
> > So, do you have any experience with those for audio work?
> > I'd be most interested in the T and R series and more recent models.
> > Also helpful would be some data that's impossible to find on
> > websites:
> > - What chipsets are built in?
> > - do the usb buses and the like share interrupts with something
> > nasty like graphics?
> 
> I've been using my R51 for five years or so (and this message
> is sent from it), and it has never failed to do what I wanted.
> This one is from the IBM years, and it's certainly solid and
> dependable. The only thing that has degraded so far is the
> battery, down to more or less half its original capacity.
> I don't know if Lenovo is up to the same standards. Never
> used the modem, but all the rest has worked nicely. Also
> never used any 3D-graphics drivers.
> As for audio I've mainly used it with USB cards, either for
> recording or mixing, always with -n 3 -p 256 and that worked
> very well. I've used it to mix 24-track Ardour sessions.
> 
> Of course chipsets etc. change faster than you can imagine
> and current machines from the same stable could and will be
> entirely different. But I can't say anything bad about this
> one.
> 
> Some additional info:
> 
> fons at zita2:~> cat /proc/interrupts 
>            CPU0       
>   0:     424020    XT-PIC-XT        timer
>   1:       1803    XT-PIC-XT        i8042
>   2:          0    XT-PIC-XT        cascade
>   3:     129145    XT-PIC-XT        uhci_hcd:usb3, ohci1394, ipw2200
>   4:          2    XT-PIC-XT        uhci_hcd:usb2
>   7:          2    XT-PIC-XT        parport0
>   8:          0    XT-PIC-XT        rtc0
>   9:       9402    XT-PIC-XT        acpi
>  10:     670962    XT-PIC-XT        yenta, uhci_hcd:usb1,
> radeon at pci:0000:01:00.0 11:          2    XT-PIC-XT
> ehci_hcd:usb4, Intel 82801DB-ICH4, Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Modem 12:
> 97569    XT-PIC-XT        i8042 14:      13348    XT-PIC-XT
> libata 15:     122766    XT-PIC-XT        libata
> NMI:          0 
> LOC:          0 
> ERR:          0
> MIS:          0
> 
> fons at zita2:~> lspci
> 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O
> Controller (rev 03) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM
> Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel
> Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller
> #1 (rev 01) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM
> (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01) 00:1d.2 USB
> Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M)
> USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel
> Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
> 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev
> 81) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC
> Interface Bridge (rev 01) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation
> 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 01) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel
> Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller
> (rev 01) 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation
> 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
> 00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M)
> AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller:
> ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] (rev 02)
> 02:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4520 PC card Cardbus
> Controller (rev 01) 02:00.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments
> Unknown device 802a (rev 01) 02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel
> Corporation 82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Mobile) (rev 03)
> 02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG
> Network Connection (rev 05)
> 
> fons at zita2:~> lsusb
> Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
> Bus 003 Device 002: ID 1668:2441 Actiontec Electronics, Inc. [hex] 
> Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
> Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
> Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
> 
> 
> Ciao,

Thanks to you and everyone else who replied on and off list so far.
It seems like your R51 is equipped with TI chipsets while the newer
T61s have Ricoh. TI seem to be the best working ones and only some
ricoh seem to work, and I don't know which ones.

I found some IEEE 1394 specific information here:
http://ffado.org/?q=node/251
There's some valuable information on all of those things
here: http://www.lenovo.com/psref/
but sadly the chipset vendor/model isn't listed.

That it works well enough with usb is also helpful, thanks.

Is there someone with the most recent models like T400/T500, R400/R500?

Thanks,
Philipp