Almost time for a new computer

[Nish]

A little more than what I was looking to spend but this might be a contender. https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops...4&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Siress]

A little more than what I was looking to spend but this might be a contender. https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops...4&gclsrc=aw.ds

Since you said you wanted build quality, I'll say this: My experience with that line of devices is that they include great hardware for a low price by cutting costs on the build quality. I wouldn't bet on more than ~3yr lifespan based on the build quality. The last person I knew with one didn't make it to 2yrs, but he traveled a lot.

[Nish]

Thanks!

[rawbutter]

Counterpoint.....I think Lenovos are awesome.

I've owned three Lenovo laptops in the past seven years. I bought an Ideapad for my wife in 2013 (an older version of the link in the OP) and a Yoga 11s for myself the following year. Last Christmas, I bought my wife a new Ideapad (very similar to the OP link). We still have her old Lenovo laptop, by the way, and it still works fine. We're probably gonna sell it on craigslist sometime when I get the chance. I only replaced it because I found a really great cyber-Monday deal, and sometimes she complained about the old Lenovo being too slow. (It did not have a solid state drive, and she was always jealous about how fast the Yoga 11 boots up.)

Anyway, in those seven years of owning these Lenovo laptops, we've had almost no complaints. My Yoga 11s did get some bad pixels on the screen shortly after buying it, but they replaced it for free. Otherwise they've been great. No broken keys. No failed network cards. All the ports still work. No hard drives dying. My Yoga has a weird rubberized surface instead of the usual hard plastic, and that's starting to wear off, that's just cosmetic. Even the batteries haven't died yet. Usually I have to replace laptop batteries every few years, but mine will still last for about three hours. Sure, it used to last for six hours when it was new, but still! Pretty good for how old it is. (I'm currently typing this response on the Yoga, by the way, and I have no plans to replace it any time soon.)

Both of these laptops were also regularly carried to and from work. Not every day, but probably once a week or so. I carried mine in a canvas messenger bag, and my wife carried hers in a backpack. And they haven't fallen apart yet.

So I think that if you're an average person who mostly just uses a laptop for personal use and work sometimes, that laptop you linked is a great choice. The only thing that kinda worries me is the hard drive. If you're actually going to use it for games, you might want something bigger since most games are 50+ gig nowadays. But if you're just using it for typical stuff, 500 gig is fine. You can always expand easily enough with a flash drive or SD card.

[Nish]

I think Siress wasn't complaining about Lenovo in general I think it was specifically that line.

[latches109]

Dell XPS line has always been great for me, as well as their monitors. You can typically find some deep discounts during the holiday season with coupon stacking.

[maggot]

I'm the kinda guy that buys $300 laptops and replaces them every 3 years. Mine is starting to fade and I had been starting to shop in Feb. Holy crap, Covid has changed a lot of things! Laptops are sold out everywhere, except for the the higher end stuff. The days of getting an average laptop on sale for $300 are over - pretty much everything starts at $500.
Supply and demand, I guess.

[rawbutter]

I'm the kinda guy that buys $300 laptops and replaces them every 3 years. Mine is starting to fade and I had been starting to shop in Feb. Holy crap, Covid has changed a lot of things! Laptops are sold out everywhere, except for the the higher end stuff. The days of getting an average laptop on sale for $300 are over - pretty much everything starts at $500.
Supply and demand, I guess.

Yup. So many schools went virtual this year, so parents started buying laptops for their kids. I don't think that's gonna end any time soon either. A lot of kids started off the year with a cheap Chromebook provided by school, but they've come to realize that's just not good enough to reliably do everything they need to do.

[Siress]

I know there's a super niche market for these things, but I'm going to shamelessly plug them anyway. These guys are amazing and I wish I had more money to support their efforts:

https://system76.com/

For anyone willing to give Linux a shot, their version (Pop!_OS) is fantastically simple and comes ready to run Steam, so don't let gaming hold you back.

[Nish]

I know there's a super niche market for these things, but I'm going to shamelessly plug them anyway. These guys are amazing and I wish I had more money to support their efforts:

https://system76.com/

For anyone willing to give Linux a shot, their version (Pop!_OS) is fantastically simple and comes ready to run Steam, so don't let gaming hold you back.

OK so talk to me like I'm an idiot, because I am...

[Siress]

I assume you want help getting Pop!_OS going, is that right?

1. Download YUMI, because anything worth doing is worth doing right. This is a portable executable that allows you to create a multi-boot environment on a single USB drive. (https://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-m...t-usb-creator/)
2. Download the latest Pop!_OS ISO file. (https://pop.system76.com/)
3. Run YUMI and follow the 3 simple dropdown box options to install Pop!_OS onto the USB drive of your choice.
4. Boot from the USB drive on the computer you want to install it on and follow the on-screen instructions. Typically you can select to boot from USB by holding F12 during startup; otherwise you will need to check your BIOS settings. If you need additional help, search around their extensive support site: https://support.system76.com/
5. RECOMMENDED: Run YUMI again and install Hiren's Boot CD PE on that same USB drive. (https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/) Hiren's is great for whenever you need a quick 64bit Windows environment to work in, do diagnostics on hardware, etc.

[Nish]

Question about Processors and this "boost" thing.

Is it mostly marketing Hype? Lets assume I have a processor that is 1.6 and boosts up to 3.9. I'm running a program that (according to smarter people than me) uses only the first core and needs a processor speed of 2.93... Is it going to run like crap?

[Seajay]

Question about Processors and this "boost" thing.

Is it mostly marketing Hype? Lets assume I have a processor that is 1.6 and boosts up to 3.9. I'm running a program that (according to smarter people than me) uses only the first core and needs a processor speed of 2.93... Is it going to run like crap?

No, and sadly it very much depends on the CPU. A single core can have varying levels of performance based on family and series. A single core from a Intel 9000 series is much faster overall than a single core from a 3000 series from almost 10 years ago. However that 3000 series CPU (like my 3770k) is still able to perform very well.

Plainly speaking, the boost lets programs that might not need all 4/6/8/64 cores to run and so gives the 2 cores it needs a little performance boost by running at a higher clock. The faster the clock the faster the process is performed.

To your question though, for a CPU at 1.6 Ghz running a program that requires ~3.0, yes it will probably run like crap. I can say this because no CPU within the last ~8ish years runs less than about 2.6 Ghz.

On older CPU's the boost feature was fairly dumb. Modern CPU's it is largely based on Thermal levels and different bin levels (increments of the clock speed).

[Nish]

So it's generally speaking, clear as mud.

[Nish]

Ended up picking up a Lenovo T495 on sale. We will see what happens when I get it set up but in theory it's going to be worlds ahead of what I had.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

[Scottybeans]

Ended up picking up a Lenovo T495 on sale. We will see what happens when I get it set up but in theory it's going to be worlds ahead of what I had.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Nice! Congrats on the new hardware!