New Laptop Docs: Laptop Eval glossery

Laptop Catagories

Recycler: Any of the following:

No USB

Doesn't POST, isn't useful for parts

Doesn't meet any of the specs

Extensive physical damage

Parts machine

Has an outstanding issue we can't fix, but is (or has parts) rare/valuable enough to hold onto, and salvage as needed.

As-Is

One of 2 criteria

It does POST, but has a Pentium 3 or Athlon XP processor, or below

It does POST, but has an issue we can't fix

Scraptop

Doesn't even POST, sold with the As-Is.

Types of Storage

Hard Drives

IDE

The older of the two most common Hard Drive/disk interfaces. Characterized by two rows of exposed pins.

SATA

The newer of the two most common HDD interfaces. Characterized by two rows of pins set in seperate plastic tabs.

2.5"

The form factor for smaller, laptop size hard drives.

3.5"

The form factor for larger hard drives for desktops.

RAM Types

SD RAM

The oldest variety of RAM one could expect, it has a notch that is ~3.8cm from the side, when measured from the side closer to the notch. It is orginized by clock speed, such as PC100 (100MHz) or PC133 (133MHz)

DDR 1

The first version of DDR RAM, still common at Free Geek. Orginized by it's data transfer rate such as DDR-200 or DDR-333. It has a notch at 1.5cm from the shoter side. With laptops, the full name is SO-DIMM DDR.

DDR 2

The second member of the DDR family, it has a notch that is 1.6cm from the closer side.