Suggestion for adding drivers to toolkits

Some bits are super niche and do not make sense to include in the basic kit for now - you can include them in a fix kit if someone needs them, but at some point they need to be added. The issue I’ve noticed is if you don’t redesign the case and break compatibility with the old driver kit to add all of the new bits, some have to go — 64 bits is as big as it gets without losing the extender, redesigning the inside and moving it to the roll (and something else having to give) or making the entire thing incompatible with the old Pro Tech where we need a 3rd generation one to do it. It means a new purchase for a few niche bits for now -- yes, I own both the Pro Tech and PTG but I also wouldn't run out and buy Gen3 because iFixit added Torx Plus because I have no need for it right now -- if they did and I needed it sure I will buy another Pro Tech but what in the world am I going to do with Torx Plus being it's rare and frankly, is just going to make the old driver kit incompatible like going from Pro Tech Gen1>Gen2?

Take a look at this guide for example: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/How+to+rebu...

Did I include special tools that I deemed needed? Yes. I included this:

• a cheaper soldering iron given the value of those laptops
• breaking down the cheap soldering kit in the event of a stock shortage and so people can mix and match what they want
• cutters I noted were needed for the tab part due to the metal hardness issue the iFixit ones do not do well with. No, I do not expect them to make a rebuild kit for a $20 laptop I bought on eBay to show the community how to rebuild a CMOS battery - that doesn't make sense, so just chose to put what I felt was needed, as well as the kit - and optimized the "non bundled" tooling for cost as much as I can. Did I leave the Fluke out as a hard need? YES, because you don't need a 3000FC for this as a DIYer - I needed it for the display but mine is good and paid for so I used it. A cheaper meter is fine but I set the bar at TRMS and CatIII for a reason -- accessibility.
• Other guides like this just fit the normal toolkits well and didn’t need adjustment: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/HP+Pavilion... -- it can be done with the EET or PTG, but I went to the PTG for the price difference across my older guides.

While it’s not something i would want to write unless there was demand this guide uses a tool that has external monitoring support through a report server: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Erasing+use...

In this example it just needs to listen on a network, and save sanitization logging. If I specified a 11th gen+/Ryzen 5000 or better for this because the spec would be comfortable for years, but I would get chewed out for my initial spec choices because 11th gen+ Intel/Ryzen 4000 or 5000 is overkill for a reporting server unless your shop or use case needs it and it reduces the pool of reusable devices in the official spec. I would specify the following:

• Windows 11 outcast (CPU or TPM): 6th-7th gen Intel/Ryzen 1000/pre-2600 (Zen1/+) -- basically quad/hexacore is the floor here.
• Older but W11 compatible 8th gen or newer/Ryzen 2000 or newer -- same quad/hexacore floor.
• Avoid:
  • 5th and older gen Intel (largely quadcore, but aging and Meltdown/Spectre did a number on them so you need to disable the Spectre patch and risk it or take the hit)
  • Any AMD A series (FMX/AM4 machines stuck on the A9/12)
  • Bulldozer
  • Yes this would be a shake on the idea of reuse, but the technical reason for this is fully justified. Ask someone who lived through FM1/2/2+ for the A series or AM3/3+ for Bulldozer, the many (still terrible) refinement chips, Carizzo and then Excevator (and Excevator+ for AM4). The A series on AM4 was a failed last ditch effort fix to save a failed architecture that was based around Bulldozer but also OEMs needed CPUs to pick from for DDR4 for AMD… Same for Haswell/Broadwell and older — not bad but you had to pick carefully and those chips are hitting a wall even in Linux to a lesser degree then FX or the A series is known for. Fine for a hobbyist PC but not prod. It's not called AMD's "Pentium 4 moment" for nothing... Let the fact some FX CPUs needed 220W(!!!) speak for that cut in this example.
• 16GB with 8GB being serviceable and anything else that's oddball being on the table — this is a line I’d hold firm on in the sense 8GB is the absolute minimum given you need to be very careful below that even in pure Debian, but really if you do something like 12GB, it's fine. The main dictator here would be the GUI and distros demands on top of the mesh VPN and always online nature.
  • CLI only would knock it down to an easy 4GB, but you would need to know every command vs specific commands like sudo apt-get install curl and then you'd have to key in the full Curl command for Tailscale, then activate it on another PC, and then sudo tailscale up on the PC OR you use a light GUI and leave the CLI up 24/7 AND if you need to run anything else you need to "break" the PM report server and relaunch it once you are done but once you add Python3 and a mesh VPN for iOS/web monitoring, you hit a brick wall under 8GB even with Linux.
• 512GB class SSD — this is the only line I’d hold firm on for a guide but also if you do it at home and needed it for home processing, 256GB class (240/250) is fine.
• Decent onboard IGP for a 1080p display — if you want to push 1440+ resolution you need to scale up as I did to a 8th gen i3 with at least 12GB+ for RAM to account for display VRAM sharing, or use a "display driver" GPU that's basically sold as a display extender.

Would I demand a Threadripper? NO! Threadripper is excess. I wouldn't refuse a cheap Threadripper for that but I also wouldn't require it.