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Notes on Windows 7, Win7 compatible software and hardware, reviews, tips and more.

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Tiny Quiet Capable ThinkCentre neo 50q

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OK, then. I finally got around to unboxing and setting up the 1L (1000 cc) mini PC that Lenovo sent to me a couple of days before Christmas. I’m pleased to say the unit is reasonably speedy, tiny and amazingly quiet in operation. Indeed, the tiny, quiet capable ThinkCenter neo 50q is the first — and only — mini-PC built around Snapdragon X that I’ve been able to lay hands on. First, Qualcomm bailed on its developer kit; second, Geekcom last year promised but never delivered a mini-PC with Snapdragon X innards. Now I finally get to see how this Qualcomm CPU and chipset serves outside the laptop space…

Deets: Tiny, Quiet Capable ThinkCentre neo 50q

It’s a bona-fide Copilot+ PC. Here’s what’s inside (including ports):

  • CPU: Snapdragon X X1-26-100 (2.97 Ghz, 8 cores)
  • OS: Windows 11 Pro (24H2 Build 26100.7462 delivered)
  • RAM: 1x16GB LPDDR5 8448
  • NVMe: Samsung OEM 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 TLC Opal
  • Wi-Fi: Qualcomm Wi-Fi 6E & Bluetooth 5.3
  • Dimensions: 179×182.9×36.5mm (Lenovo says “1L”; it’s ~1.2L)
  • Front ports: USB-A (10Gbps), USB-C (10 Gbps), mini-RCA
  • Rear ports: 4xUSB-A (10 Gbps), HDMI 2.1, DP 1.4a, GbE (RJ-45)

What’s startling here is no high-speed USB-4 (or 5) ports. No Thunderbolt, either. That means no high-speed video links via USB-C. That’s not great. But it also means no access to USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 docks from this unit. That’s not great, either.

A similarly equipped unit, but with 32GB RAM (not 16GB) goes for US$559 at the Lenovo Store right now. That seems like a good value proposition for a machine like this one. That said, I don’t understand why USB4 is MIA from this unit, even if only through a front port. On the plus side, there’s an open M.2 2280 NVMe slot into which you can plug another drive.

Initial Impressions: Speed, Capacity & Oomph

This is a peppy little PC. It blasts through a restart cycle (restart, boot, Windows startup, desktop) in 30-35 seconds right now. CrystalDiskMark shows decent but not killer numbers from the OEM Samsung MZVL81T0HDLB-00BLL 1TB PCIe x4 SSD:

During initial setup, I was able to download and install what I needed without experiencing any delays or noticeable (local) lag. A quick trip into DriverStore Explorer (RAPR.exe) showed only two out-of-date drivers amidst a collection of 269 items (1.24 GB total size: fairly small). The OS was pretty much up-to-date, but I did have to kill and clean up McAfee (which Lenovo ships pre-installed in trial form). Lenovo Vantage didn’t show an update button, so I had to download and install the Service Bridge and Lenovo Update to check the device to make sure everything was caught up (it was).

Net-Net: Nice But No Powerhouse

Whaddya expect for US$550? It’s pretty much on precise par with the ASUS Zenbook A14 I just picked up (for the same price, give or take, though the ASUS offers 2 USB4 capable USB-C ports at Best Buy). It looks like an eminently capable mini-desktop for run-of-the-mill users who don’t need lots of horsepower or storage space.

But so far, the Neo 50q seems like a great choice for SOHO and plain-vanilla home users. My wife has had aDell OPtiplex 7080 for 5 years now and loves it (curiously, it too qualifies as a “1L” mini-PC). I’m sure she would feel likewise about the Neo 50q, too.

As I get to know this PC better, I’ll write more.It’s been a small and quiet joy to set up and learn about so far…

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Copilot Assisted RAPR Analysis

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Yesterday, I found myself revising a story for ComputerWorld. The topic: cleaning up Windows driver bloat using DriverStore Explorer, aka RAPR.exe. Along the way I found myself wanting to count the drivers in that store, and to identify duplicates for possible removal. Performing what I’m calling Copilot assisted RAPR analysis, I had it craft some Powershell for me. Came in really handy, so I’ll explain and illustrate what I used…

Enumerating Copilot Assisted RAPR Analysis Items

I used two one-liner PowerShell commands, plus one script, to do the following:

  • Provide a count for the number of drivers in the store (found in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository)
  • Display the total file size of the store’s contents (same place)
  • Enumerate and identify the duplicates in the store (script)

These items are helpful because running the first two one-liners let me quickly count items and obtain their overall file size. Handy for before and after comparisons. The script was useful because it let me identify duplicates in the store, which RAPR does not always remove when you use the “Select (Old Drivers)” and “Delete Driver(s)” buttons for clean-up purposes.

If you look at the lead-in screenshot it shows the one-liners for making a count and getting size verbatim, and calls a script named dupdrv.ps1. The results also appear as well. These all represent post-cleanup results, FWIW.

PowerShell Details: One-Liners and Script

To obtain the count, PowerShell runs through all instances of signed PnP drivers in the store, and tots them up:

(Get-CimInstance Win32_PnPSignedDriver).Count

To get the size of the overall DriverStore, PowerShell examines each file, gets its size, adds it to a growing sum, then shows it in GB units:

(Get-ChildItem "C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository" -Recurse -File | Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum).Sum / 1GB

The script is longer and a little more complicated. Basically, it iterates through all files in the DriverStore, builds a table of unique entries by name, and counts all instances it finds. It reports only on instances that have counts of 2 or more (indicating duplicates).


pnputil /enum-drivers |
Select-String "Published Name","Original Name","Provider Name","Driver Version" |
ForEach-Object {
if ($_.ToString() -match "Published Name\s*:\s*(.*)") { $pub = $matches[1] }
if ($_.ToString() -match "Original Name\s*:\s*(.*)") { $inf = $matches[1] }
if ($_.ToString() -match "Driver Version\s*:\s*(.*)") { $ver = $matches[1] }
if ($pub -and $inf -and $ver) {
[PSCustomObject]@{
PublishedName = $pub
InfName = $inf
Version = $ver
}
$pub = $inf = $ver = $null
}
} |
Group-Object InfName |
Where-Object { $_.Count -gt 1 } |
Select-Object Name, Count, @{n="Versions";e={$_.Group.Version}}

These tools come in nice and handy when using RAPR to clean up a driver store. Indeed, they even extend its capabilities beyond finding old and obsolete drivers. They also identify duplicates as well. Sometimes, those too can be cleaned up. Good thing that trying to delete a driver in actual use in RAPR won’t succeed unless the “Force Deletion” option is checked. I don’t recommend using that unless you know you must for some good reason. I certainly didn’t need that here.

Benefiting from Copilot Assist

For updating this story, Copilot made it faster, easier and more convenient for me to do what I needed to anyway. That’s good. But it also let me step beyond what I’d been able to do by way of driver debloating in the past, and tackle duplicate elements as well. That’s about as good as things ever get, here in Windows-World. I’m jazzed!

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More Spurious Win 11 Reclaimables

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Don’t ask me why. But every now and then, MS drops a couple of old, outmoded, and obsolete packages into its Windows 11 updates. They also show up should you perform an in-place upgrade repair (“Reinstall now” via Settings > System > Recovery). Ditto for a clean install. I call them spurious reclaimables because they shows up in DISM … /cleanup-image if you run /analyzecomponentstore. Well, they showed back up on my Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra yesterday. With more spurious Win 11 reclaimables to clean up, that’s just what I did. Here’s how…

Handling More Spurious Win 11 Reclaimables

Through repeated exposure to this phenomenon, and repeated prior cleanups, I’ve learned the names of the packages involved. I’ll also note they come in both AMD64 and ARM64 flavors. If you look at the lead-in graphic you can suss those names out. I repeat them here for readability:


Package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~26100.1742.1.10
Microsoft-Windows-FodMetadataServicing-Desktop-Metadata-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.26100.1742

These go into the following DISM command for easy removal (if they’re not present, the command will fail gracefully with no damage to a Windows image):

dism /online /remove-package /packagename:

Paste the package name right after the colon at the end of the string (no spaces). For ARM64 installations change the “amd” in “amd64” in the preceding package names to “arm” (e.g. “arm64”). That’ll do it.

Note: upon double-checking this info on another PC just now, I observed that removing the rollupfix package also removes the FodMetadataServicing package. Thus, a manual attempt to remove the latter fails. Never fear: a quick check of reclaimable packages in DISM shows the count at zero (0). Good-oh! On ARM64 PCs, however, both items (with the stipulated replacement above) MUST be done separately.

Why Do These Spurious Reclaimables Occasionally Come Back from Oblivion?

Copilot explains this as something that’s a “known defect baked directly into the original Windows 11 24H2 installation media.” Apparently this means they will come back in 24H2 and 25H2 images from time to time. When updates that include them are applied, it’s like the movie Poltergeist: “They’re heeeeeere!”

When that happens you can leave them alone. Or, if you tend toward OCD in seeking clean Windows images, you can use DISM to return them to the oblivion they so richly deserve. That’s the way things go occasionally, here in Windows-World. I enjoy such things, in case you can’t tell…

Note: I’ve written on this topic repeatedly. Run this Google search if you’d care to scan some of my other musings on these little zombies.

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OCuLink versus Thunderbolt

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I just learned something new (to me, anyway). In reading about a mini-PC at Neowin today, I ran across mention of an OCuLink port. It looks alot like DisplayPort (full-sized) but it’s not. As Sydney Butler at How-to Geek explains things “OCuLink…[is] short for ‘Optical-Copper Link,’ [and] is a peripheral connection standard that allows you to connect PCIe devices using an external cable rather than an internal slot.” Thus, it uses raw PCIe signaling instead of protocol based channel communications, which makes it faster and cheaper than Thunderbolt 4 (but not 5. where it’s cheaper but slower).

Why Compare OCuLink versus Thunderbolt?

OCuLink can do many of the same things that Thunderbolt does — notably make fast NVMe and eGPU connections — often more cheaply. It can handle external GPUs (eGPUs) faster than TB4 (not TB5), and at lower cost.

OCuLink is not as widely used in laptops, however, and depends on a PCIe (X4 or X8 usually) adapter to make such ports available for use. A new standard, called CopperLink, is on the way to support PCIe 5.0 and 6.0 (and compete directly with TB5). Indeed you can even buy an OCuLink eGPU dock with dual OCuLink and TB5 ports, an M.2 NVMe SSD slot, 2.5Gbe (RJ-45), and even dual USB 3.0 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports for US$240. That’s about half the price of a TB5 dock (e.g. CalDigit, Anker, Lenovo, etc.) nowadays…

Does Slow Thunderbolt Uptake Open a Door?

A good TB4 enclosure costs upward of US$60 these days, and includes a cable. A good TB5 enclosures costs upward of US$150 and includes a cable. A decent OCuLink enclosure costs US$40 or so, but needs a US$20-40 cable to work. It runs faster than TB4 but slower than TB5. The same general scenario applies to running external GPUs: here again, OCuLink falls between TB4 and TB5.

For desktop and mini-PC users with access to open PCIe X4 slots, OCuLink is worth considering. Laptop and tablet owners will probably opt for TB4 because that’s what the majority of OEMs support nowadays. In the future, it’ll be interesting to see if CopperLink gains traction at the expense of TB5. It’s an Open Standard, so OEMs don’t have to pay to license the technology for inclusion in their devices. On such small factors big decisions sometimes rest here in Windows-World. Let’s see what happens!

 

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Undisappearing X13 Gen 6 PING

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I’m getting ready to return the sweet little review unit Lenovo sent me six weeks ago. It’s a ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 (see First Look from November 7). It’s endowed with an Intel Core Ultra 7 255U, 16GB RAM, and an 0.5 GB NVMe SSD. For size and heft, it’s a nominal 13″ ultra-portable (933g/2.05 lbs) that’s easy to pack up and take with you wherever you go. As I was preparing a final once-over, I found myself faced with undisappearing X13 Gen 6 PING. Let me explain…

Why I’m Undisappearing  X13 Gen 6 PING

For some odd reason, Lenovo instituted firewall rules on this eval unit that I’ve never run into before. You can see them in the lead-in graphic where they show — in brief — that for both Private and Domain LAN namespaces, inbound PING is disabled for both IPv4 and IPv6. That means this PC won’t respond to incoming PING requests from the LAN. Sigh.

That’s how Advanced IP Scanner finds PCs (among other techniques). It also explains why IPconfig on the X13 Gen 6 happily reported itself at a private IP address, but didn’t show up in the scans that tool made on my desktop. Sigh again.

This is easily fixed by changing those firewall rules to enable (YES) them, instead of disabling (NO) same. But I wonder: why did Lenovo do this? I can see this applying to boundary devices (e.g. firewalls) and servers, but haven’t really run into it much on end-user PCs. They’s usually safe behind one or more layers of external protection (2 in my case), and don’t get external PINGs. Maybe it’s a “coffee shop” scenario…? But PING is disabled on Public networks anyway. Go figure!

Closing Thoughts on the X13 Gen 6 ThinkPad

As I get ready to box this unit up, and ship it off, I’ve come to some conclusions. On the plus side, it’s light, compact and reasonably capable. I’d be inclined to upgrade the 0.5 GB SSD to 1.0 GB or bigger (with budget 2.0 GB units selling for under US$100 right now, that’s not a big stretch). Otherwise, it’s more than acceptable as-is.

On the minus side, the X13 is a little behind the curve technology wise. Alas,  this model is NOT Copilot+ capable. With its price now over US$1,500 (+US$8.45 at Best Buy, +US$138.22 at Staples) it’s nowhere near as good a deal as a lightweight Snapdragon X-equipped model in that general price range (e.g. Lenovo ThinkPad 7X or Asus Zenbook A14).

Such models usually come equipped with 1 TB SSDs from the get-go, offer better battery life (12+ hours for SnapdragonX models vs. 7-10 hours for the X13), and are on par or better for performance and capability. That said, ARM PCs still have their Windows quirks and limitations, too. Here in Windows-World choosing a laptop always involves certain trade-offs, eh? I’ve come down on the Copilot+ side of things, and remain amazed that less than 2% of new PC purchased globally qualify as such. Given MS’s emphasis on AI, why buy anything else?

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ASUS A14 Zenbook Travelogue

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From December 7 to 16, my wife and I drove to California to pick up son Gregory upon moving out of his dorm on the 11th. For this 10-day odyssey, we took the new Snapdragon X laptop along. This blog post provides a kind of technical ASUS A14 Zenbook travelogue, as we used that machine in the car, and in 7 hotels on our trip. TLDR version: works well, great battery life, and easy to pack and tote. That said, everybody noticed — and missed — touch screen support.

Snippets from ASUS A14 Zenbook Travelogue

Day 1 (Home to Las Cruces, NM): Unbelievably fast Windows Hello facial recognition. Used less than 15% of battery with Kindle Reader in 4-6 hours in the car. Tried to drive interface with finger on screen only to realize this otherwise excellent US$550 lapop does NOT include a touchscreen. No issues using hotel Wi-Fi.

Day  2 (Las Cruces to Phoenix, AZ):  Took less than an hour to fully recharge PC after extended use in car for reading. No 5G support meant I used my iPhone as a wireless hotspot for Internet access in the car. No issues using hotel Wi-Fi, except I had to run thru the hotspot to grab my Hyatt loyalty club info before I could get free, high-perf access. Sigh: it’s always something…

Days 3 – 6 (Los Angeles/Hollywood, CA): Wife Dina and I made regular use of the A14 in the Loews Hollywood Hotel. Easy Wi-Fi access, decent performance for the lo-fi connection (until I figured out we got high-fi because of our room deal). Only had to charge the laptop once during our entire stay. Great battery life!

Into LA, Then Back Home

Day 7 (Hollywood to Bakersfield): The family indulged my burning desire to visit Cafe Pyrenees and tackle more food than you can believe is included in a “dinner setup” (costs US$24.95 by itself). The garlic fried chicken was astounding, and the A14 likewise, with easy Wi-Fi hookups and great web performance.

Day 8 (Bakersfield to Kingman, AZ): The Holiday Inn Express was a big disappointment. The A14 was not: another day of great battery life, easy Wi-Fi hookup, good Web-based Outlook access and performance, and more. I’m now completely comfortable claiming that for light-duty computing (e.g. email, surfing, basic apps and applications) this laptop can run for a long day (12 hours) on battery. Just in case, though, I brought a RavPower RP-PB41 on the trip (its 26,800 mAh capacity can charge the A14 to 100% in about 7 hours: it’s slow because it outputs 5A where the A14 expects 4X that level).

Day 9 (Kingman to Big Spring, TX): We doubled up the driving for a 12-hour day on Dec 15 (we’d originally planned to stop in Albuquerque, NM). The A14 ran all day during our 12:15 drive, with about 17% battery remaining when we pulled into the beautifully restored Hotel Settles around midnight that day. Phew!

Day 10 (Big Spring to Round Rock, TX): The ~5hr drive home drew only about 25% of battery capacity, as I surfed and looked at the 1,015 email messages waiting for me in my inbox at the Webmail server for edtittel.com. I knew the next would be busy as I chewed through that imposing list, to filter the wheat from the chaff.

Final Thoughts and Concerns

Gosh! I’m hard-pressing to ding the A14 for much at all, except for its lack of touchscreen support. Copilot tells me that such capability adds US$75-150 to the cost of a laptop, but I didn’t really stop to check if that was an available option or not when I jumped on its Best Buy Black Friday pricing. As Copilot would have it, buying a touchscreen A14 model would add anywhere from US$259 to US$500 to the US$550 I paid for my current unit at Best Buy. So much for Copilot’s obviously optimistic US$75-150 incremental cost estimate, eh?

All in all, I find this laptop to be eminently suited for mobile, portable use — as long as you have a cellphone that can provide a mobile Internet hookup. Alas, ASUS does not offer an in-PC M.2 slot into which one might insert a 5G card. So it goes, here in Windows-World. Net results: mostly positive, with only a couple of niggles. Love this new laptop: will keep using it as a road machine.

 

 

 

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ASUS Zenbook A14 Intake

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In hopes of bootstrapping one ARM laptop to another, I decided to acquire another Snapdragon-based machine this weekend. Thanks to an early “Black Friday” deal I picked up such a machine for under US$600. Here’s the story of my ASUS Zenbook A14 intake, with extra observations about the OOBE (out of box experience) during initial set-up.

Working Thru ASUS Zenbook A14 Intake

Except for the shrinkwrap around the inner box, the packaging for the A14 was all paper: environmentally friendly, for sure. I got to the OOBE by plugging in the brick, inserting the power lead into one of the USB-C ports, and turning on the power. Interestingly, even though the battery showed fully charged when checked, I had to plug the brick in and power up before the unit would turn on.

This unit is incredibly light: 2.18 lbs (990 grams). It’s also got a ceramal, aka ceraluminum, (ceramic aluminum alloy) skin that is strong and fingerprint indifferent. Mine came in a neutral gray color called “Iceland Gray” (shown on the keyboard deck in the lead-in graphic). It’s a tasty machine, with a nice bright display, a decent keyboard and great battery life (real world analyses claim 15 hours for web browsing, and 23 hours for video playback at 50% brightness). It’s completely on par with the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X I blogged about last July, in fact.

Speeds, Accoutrement & Feeds

Speccy couldn’t tell me much about this PC, so I turned to the ARM version of HWiNFO instead. Here’s what it told me:

  • CPU: SnapdragonX Plus X1P-42-100 (8 cores)
  • RAM: Single module 16GB LPDDR5X 8448 MHz
  • Storage: Crucial MTFDKBA512QGN-1BN1AABGA 512GB
  • Display: Samsung SDC420D (10x30cm, 1920x1200px)
  • Ports: 2xUSB-C 40 Gbps, 1xUSB-A 10 Gbps, HDMI 3.1, 3.5mm audio
  • Wi-Fi; Qualcomm FastConnect Wi-Fi 6E Dual Band
  • OS: Windows 11 Home (I immediately upgraded to Pro so I could use Remote Desktop Connection over the LAN for access)

I wouldn’t call this a truly powerful laptop, but I’m comfortable with its performance and capabilities, especially in view of its extended battery life. If I can switch out the SSD without losing my mind, I may bump it up to 2 or 4 TB instead of its current 0.5 TB level. Everything else seems adequate and usable.

The Real Reason I Bought This…

I’ve been trying to resuscitate my ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 (my “other ARM laptop,” on loan from Lenovo). I hadn’t been able to build recovery media on x64 Intel or AMD PCs to bring the T14s back to life through alternate boot via UFD. By building the Lenovo Recovery Media on that machine for the T14s, I was able to reinstall and recover that machine in working order on my next try. As compared to the day-and-a-half or so I spent trying to use MCT, Ventoy and Rufus to build bootable ARM media, it was a  cakewalk.

Here in Windows-World, incredible contortions may sometimes be needed to bring a dead laptop back to life. So it was with the ARM-based ThinkPad T14s, which roared back into action after I put the A14 to work building recovery media. Go figure!

 

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ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 First Look

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Although it showed up two weeks ago, yesterday was the first day I had open enough to unbox and bring up a brand-new ThinkPad. It’s a svelte (thin-and-light, in fact) 13″ laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 7 255U CPU, 16 GB RAM, Hello-capable IR camera and fingerprint reader, WUXGA (1920×1200) IPS 13″ display, and 512 GB PCIe x4 NVMe SSD. As configured, the Lenovo Store price for this unit is $1,269.33 this morning. As the ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 first look gets underway, I’m looking for answers to these questions:

1. Is this a Copilot+ PC?
2. What kinds of users is the X13 best suited for?
3. How does the unit perform on basic tasks? more demanding ones?

Digging in For a ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 First Look

Let’s answer those questions:

Copilot+ PC Status

The Intel Core Ultra 7 255U does have an NPU but it delivers only 12 TOPS. Copilot+ requirements call for 40 TOPS. So no, the X13 Gen 6 is NOT a Copilot+ capable PC. That’s not shocking — right now only about 1 in 50 laptops sold globally is Copilot+ capable (Copilot says it’s 1.9% of global PC sales, and 2.3% of Windows PC sales).

Who’s the Target Audience?

Based on the unit’s size, weight and configuration it’s an entry to mid-level laptop, designed for portability over power and capability. With a smallish 13″ screen, overall dimensions of 29.93 x 20.7 x 0.99-1.78cm / 11.78 x 8.15 x 0.39-0.7″, and a weight of merely 2.03 lbs (0.92 kg) it’s clearly a grab-and-go unit from start to finish. To me, that aims it squarely at an audience that needs computing mostly on the go, but not a whole lot of it.

IMO, that means this laptop aims at students, mobile office workers, and SOHO workers who need to pick up and carry it around rather than sitting always at the same desk. OTOH, this makes it an excellent “road machine” for users who want to carry something light and compact when they travel, but who may not use this laptop as their primary work PC.

Task Performance

Given its relatively modest processing, storage and memory endowments, the X13 Gen 6 configuration I examined — and the whole product line, in fact — aims to support users who want to surf the web, read e-mail, and handle routine productivity, media, and entertainment workloads. I wouldn’t recommend it to those who need to run large or demanding workloads including serious programming, local AI models or other big datasets, or heavy-duty 3-D graphics (which knocks it out of consideration for media, gaming, CAD/CAM, and so forth). If you want more performance nuts-n-bolts see this July 2025 review at Gigazine.

The built-in NVMe is a Lenovo model RPETJ512MMW1MDQ (M.2 22380 with Gen3/Gen4 level performance. It’s reasonably quick, but nowhere near state of the art. The unit relies on a built-in Intel graphic processor in the Xe-LPG family. It’s designed to run on par with entry-level discrete GPUs, and thus, to handle light gaming, media editing and AI workloads. Squares entirely with my subjective impression in watching YouTube, installing and using apps, and bringing the PC current with WU.

Initial Impressions: Nifty, Not Gnarly

The unit itself is incredibly light, but feels sturdy and looks good. I didn’t feel much flex in the keyboard or monitor decks as I picked it up and moved it around. The Windows Hello capable IR camera and fingerprint reader are both fast and easy to set up. Amusingly, I found it difficult to switch from my primary MSA to other accounts at login after I’d set the camera up, because it would log me in faster than I could click the lower-left icon for an alternate account at startup.

I couldn’t log into my ASUS AX-6000 802.11ax router on the 5GHz channel for some reason or another. The unit’s Wi-Fi6E Intel worked just fine with the 2.4 GHz channel, and performed well as I downloaded and installed a raft of updates and software apps.

The X13 has 2 USB-C ports, one of which goes to power unless you dock it up and get power that way. Both are USB4/Thunderbolt 4 capable. It also has 2 USB A 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports as well, along with HDMI 2.1 and 3.5mm audio (mini-RCA jack). It’s not overly endowed with ports, but they are sufficient for ordinary users’ needs.

First Look Takeaways…

Overall, this is an eminently portable and usable light-duty laptop. I’d buy one for my about-to-graduate college offspring, except I opted to spend $450 less to buy him the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Copilot+ laptop in May. It lacks USB-A and headphone jack, but offers longer battery life and better AI capabilities.

 

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ThinkStation P3 Ultra SFF G2 Intake

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A couple of weeks ago, the nice folks at Lenovo Reviews contacted me by email. “How would you like to try out the newest ThinkStation P3?” they asked. I already had the first generation model in house, so I boxed it up and sent it back. A few days later the new model arrived, and I got going on ThinkStation P3 Ultra SFF G2 intake. Here’s what I’ve learned so far…

Working Thru ThinkStation P3 Ultra SFF G2 Intake

At first glance, there’s no obvious difference between the Gen1 and Gen 2 models in this series. But I show the back of the unit because it’s immediately obvious that Lenovo made some substantial changes there. Let me list them out:

  • Went from side-by-side 2.5 GbE & 1 GbE RJ-45 ports to a single 1 GbE port
  • Switched from 8 mini-DP ports for video to 3 full-size + 4 mini DP ports
  • Changed the interior layout so it’s even simpler to switch out SSDs and RAM modules without using (too many, or any) tools

Of course, as you’d expect the innards got a bit of a facelift in climbing the generational ladder. That said, this compact workstation, while powerful, is NOT a Copilot+ PC. Here’s a list of key components:

  • Intel Core Ultra 9 285 (Arrow Lake, 8 P & 16 E cores: 24 total)
  • 64 GB (2×32) DDR5-5600 RAM
  • Graphics: Intel Arc Xe-LPG & RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation NVIDIA GPU (20 GB RAM)
  • Single 1 TB Samsung OEM SSD, to which I added a Samsung 950 EVO 4TB SSD (Higher speed options, including 10 GbE, available)
  • Wi-Fi: Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 2×2 BE vPro & Bluetooth 5.4
  • Ports: 2x USB-C/USB4/TB4 (front), 1x rear (top left, next to Wi-Fi antenna port), 2x USB 2 Type-A (mouse & keyboard), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-A
  • Power goes to a 300W external brick (far right, top row)

As configured, the unit comes with an MSRP of $3,915. As per typical ongoing Lenovo discounts, it will cost you $3,054 at the Lenovo store. The unit is new enough that third-party resellers — and different prices — are not yet widely available.

Doing the Intake Thing

It was absurdly easy to remove the 2nd SSD from the old Gen 1 instance and install it into the Gen2. Took less than 2 minutes all told. I’ve not yet tried my 96 GB memory kit on the machine, though (Gen 2, like Gen 1, maxes out at 128 GB RAM). Getting the machine up to snuff has been a pleasure: it’s every bit as fast and powerful as its predecessor. So far, I’m loving working this beast, just as I enjoyed the older model.

Make no mistake: even though this PC is not Copilot+ capable, it’s still a powerful albeit compact (SFF means “small form factor” after all) PC. It can drive lots of monitors, handle lots of intense demanding work, and do those jobs with ease and panache. A worthy successor to the Gen 1, the Gen 2 is a kick-butt little workstation.

 

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Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

DIMM and Dimmer: My Memory Misorder

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It’s been bothering me for the past couple of weeks. I ordered a pair of memory modules to bump up RAM in the Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra. I used the same part number for what’s installed, thinking that it would guarantee a perfect replacement/addition. So wrong! I just happened to glance at the package the modules arrived in and saw something serious. Doh! It’s a case of DIMM and Dimmer — my memory misorder completely explains everything. Take a look…

Why I’m DIMM and Dimmer: My Memory Misorder

The upper left corner of the package says it all: 96GB kit. I thought I was ordering a 64GB kit and got a 96 instead. No wonder the P3 Ultra wouldn’t POST with those modules in place! Its max RAM capacity is 128GB. With 64 GB already installed, adding 96 takes the total to 160GB, or 32 GB over the top.

I have to laugh. If I take both existing modules out, I can get a 32 GB bump anyway. Or if I replace the too-big modules with what I should’ve gotten in the first place, I can get up to 128 GB, just like I’ve got on my Flo6 desktop.

I’ll have to think about this for a while. In the meantime, I’m laughing at my own idiotic failure to doublecheck what I wanted against what I got delivered to me. Just because I used the same part numbers to place my order doesn’t mean that’s what I got back. Go figure!

Here in Windows-World, things aren’t always as they seem. And sometimes that’s because yours truly isn’t paying enough attention to what’s right there in front of him. Sigh. But at least I now know why the PC wouldn’t POST with all four modules in place. That had been driving me ever so slightly bonkers…

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