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MechaX
Nov 19, 2011

"Let's be positive! Let's start a fire!"

Lockback posted:

Yes, get a 3060 for your use case if you can. 2060 is still really good but the 3060 is a solid step up. Asus Rog G14/G15 would be the direction I'd point you. Usually there's 1 soldered and 1 open DIMM for RAM, which honestly should hold pretty well.

5-7 years is a long long time for laptops, most laptops made 5-7 years ago (860m or 960m, maybe a 1060 if you cut that down t0 4 years) wouldn't be keeping up super well in modern games. You won't find something that will be a guaranteed but if you want something mobile the 3060 is a good bet.

Thanks for the quick response, my Lenovo has a 960m, 8 Gb of Ram and a 6th gen Intel CPU so yeah, modern stuff in maybe the past year/two years has been pretty dire without significant graphical cuts.

The ASUS ROG G14/15 has definitely been one that I have been eyeing a lot the past day (no built in webcam is a small bummer given zoom is how I talk with my family given COVID, but I’ll just go ahead and pick one up, no big deal), but now I think I’ll cement that deal pretty soon

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papa horny michael
Aug 18, 2009

by Pragmatica
How can i figure out what ram will work in my old-rear end laptop?

It's a Samsung Notebook7spin with model number 740U5L-Y02US. HWINFO tells me that the current ram is two 4gb DDR4-2132 / PC4-17000 DDR4 SDRAM SO-DIMM.

I'd like to buy throw 16gb in.Thanks much.

Bofast
Feb 21, 2011

Grimey Drawer

papa horny michael posted:

How can i figure out what ram will work in my old-rear end laptop?

It's a Samsung Notebook7spin with model number 740U5L-Y02US. HWINFO tells me that the current ram is two 4gb DDR4-2132 / PC4-17000 DDR4 SDRAM SO-DIMM.

I'd like to buy throw 16gb in.Thanks much.

You could try Crucials system advisor and see if it has your model https://www.crucial.com/store/advisor. Corsair has a similar one on their website, too.

Roluth
Apr 22, 2014

So, I'm trying to clean out some space on the tiny SSD drive my laptop has alongside a big HDD, so I can run a few things faster, but I'm not sure what's taking up so much space on the SSD. Is there a good program that can determine what's the biggest thing on it?

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Roluth posted:

So, I'm trying to clean out some space on the tiny SSD drive my laptop has alongside a big HDD, so I can run a few things faster, but I'm not sure what's taking up so much space on the SSD. Is there a good program that can determine what's the biggest thing on it?

Wid Dir Stat ... I highly recommend it.

https://windirstat.net/download.html

papa horny michael
Aug 18, 2009

by Pragmatica

Bofast posted:

You could try Crucials system advisor and see if it has your model https://www.crucial.com/store/advisor. Corsair has a similar one on their website, too.

Neither worked unfortunately. Guess I have to figure out what all the numbers mean on ram now lol.

Ugly In The Morning
Jul 1, 2010
Pillbug

sigma 6 posted:

Wid Dir Stat ... I highly recommend it.

https://windirstat.net/download.html

Seconding this, I’ve used it for more than a decade and it’s wonderful.

ilkhan
Oct 7, 2004

I LOVE Musk and his pro-first-amendment ways. X is the future.

Roluth posted:

So, I'm trying to clean out some space on the tiny SSD drive my laptop has alongside a big HDD, so I can run a few things faster, but I'm not sure what's taking up so much space on the SSD. Is there a good program that can determine what's the biggest thing on it?
Windirstat is the go to, but wiztree is the same thing without being stupidly slow.

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

Pretty much everything at ninite.com is a wonderfully useful tool and effortless to install

Saukkis
May 16, 2003

Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

papa horny michael posted:

How can i figure out what ram will work in my old-rear end laptop?

It's a Samsung Notebook7spin with model number 740U5L-Y02US. HWINFO tells me that the current ram is two 4gb DDR4-2132 / PC4-17000 DDR4 SDRAM SO-DIMM.

I'd like to buy throw 16gb in.Thanks much.

Here are the Kingston products that are pretty close.

Science_enthusiast
Dec 2, 2018

TECH(no) WOMBLE
Hey guys. My wifes 2011 macbook is apparantly packing it in and I am looking in to a replacement.

Definately dont want to replace it with a mac (cant afford and from what ive seen planned obsolescence is a bigger thing)-

Looking for suggestions. She mainly uses it for writing application- so photoshop/ indesign. Some very light video editing.

Basicslly something that would perform as well as what she had before but running windows that is on the cheap side but might last/ is relatively robust. Any tips?

Lockback
Sep 3, 2006

All days are nights to see till I see thee; and nights bright days when dreams do show me thee.

Science_enthusiast posted:

Hey guys. My wifes 2011 macbook is apparantly packing it in and I am looking in to a replacement.

Definately dont want to replace it with a mac (cant afford and from what ive seen planned obsolescence is a bigger thing)-

Looking for suggestions. She mainly uses it for writing application- so photoshop/ indesign. Some very light video editing.

Basicslly something that would perform as well as what she had before but running windows that is on the cheap side but might last/ is relatively robust. Any tips?

I'd actually look hard at the M1 MacBook air. If you didn't say "no macs" I'd push you in that direction, it's not expensive, and if she went ten years on a single macbook that is kinda amazing. A pc isn't going to be better.

Otherwise, what kind of budget are you thinking?

Science_enthusiast
Dec 2, 2018

TECH(no) WOMBLE

Lockback posted:

I'd actually look hard at the M1 MacBook air. If you didn't say "no macs" I'd push you in that direction, it's not expensive, and if she went ten years on a single macbook that is kinda amazing. A pc isn't going to be better.

Otherwise, what kind of budget are you thinking?

Hmm- yeah i replaced the ram for her and cleaned it out a few times for her. It still works okish but constantly overheats (i had to cheese it when updating the os recently by blasting a room fan at it overnight) and is generally threatening to die.

Preferably looking at sub 700Euros (we live in germany). Generally against mac because there is now zero possobility to fix anything without paying apple a tonne of cash- as far as i understand it.

Are there no other companies that have good build quality? Are thinkpads poo now?

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

I would just buy her the new mac

Other than that two year stretch where Apple hadn't yet fired Johnny Ives and they had terrible keyboards, it's really unlikely that your laptop is going to fail before the last one did.

Sounds like your wife's macbook has an air ingestion problem, probably due to literally a decade's worth of dust. The new macbook air m1 has no fan, no vent holes to fill with dust. It's a little suprising to me that your wife's laptop is so reliable it finally succumbs to death via dust accumulation, and you're like :argh: stupid thing broke on me when in reality "death via dust is a stupid way for a laptop to fail" is like saying "i don't want to live to 100, because my hair might go gray"

Thinkpads are fine now. Good luck dealing with a frustrated wife who now has to learn a completely new OS after literally a decade. If price really is that much of an issue for a device that is proven to last a decade, I guess, look at an edu discount, apple is pretty liberal with those

Radiohead71
Sep 15, 2007

Would like some laptop help please. My nephew is going to college in fall. He plays games and will do school work on laptop. Does this one look pretty good?

New Dell G5 15 5505 Laptop
$1,241.10

AMD Ryzen™ 7 4800H Mobile Processor with Radeon™ Graphics
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit English
AMD Radeon™ RX 5600M 6GB GDDR6
16GB, 2x8GB, DDR4, 3200MHz
1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive

or would this one be better?


ASUS - ROG Zephyrus G15 15.6" Laptop - AMD Ryzen 7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 - 1TB SSD - Brushed Black.
$1,399.99

Radiohead71 fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Apr 5, 2021

great big cardboard tube
Sep 3, 2003


The 2021 Zephyrus g14 has a better CPU better GPU and is smaller and lighter than either of those for $1500, if that's the class of laptop you're looking at I think it's worth looking at. It's also actually in stock at best buy unlike most 2021 models.

The 2020 g15 you linked also had reports of Asus intentionally blocking some of the air vents which is... Yeah.

Science_enthusiast
Dec 2, 2018

TECH(no) WOMBLE

Hadlock posted:

I would just buy her the new mac

Other than that two year stretch where Apple hadn't yet fired Johnny Ives and they had terrible keyboards, it's really unlikely that your laptop is going to fail before the last one did.

Sounds like your wife's macbook has an air ingestion problem, probably due to literally a decade's worth of dust. The new macbook air m1 has no fan, no vent holes to fill with dust. It's a little suprising to me that your wife's laptop is so reliable it finally succumbs to death via dust accumulation, and you're like :argh: stupid thing broke on me when in reality "death via dust is a stupid way for a laptop to fail" is like saying "i don't want to live to 100, because my hair might go gray"

Thinkpads are fine now. Good luck dealing with a frustrated wife who now has to learn a completely new OS after literally a decade. If price really is that much of an issue for a device that is proven to last a decade, I guess, look at an edu discount, apple is pretty liberal with those

It works very slowly and with regular overheating- BECAUSE i have replaced the RAM/ cleaned it out/ replaced thermal paste. My issue is that from my understanding it is no longer possible to carry out any repairs yourself, so when it dies you have to pay quite a bit for repairs.

She uses windows at work i believe. Its not that different...

a cat
Aug 8, 2003

meow.
I just got a place with a large sunny balcony and I'm looking for a laptop with a screen that's somewhat nice to look at in the sun, to replace my desktop.
The desktop I'm replacing has a AMD Ryzen 9 3900X and 32gb of 3200MHz ram and a lower end graphics card.
I'm a programmer, I don't game but I like having decent specs to abuse when I want to.
Anything I should consider before pulling the trigger on this? Should it be a decent replacement for most of what I can do with the desktop specs? The price is right in my range and it seems good to me just wondering if I'm missing something that will obviously be a better pick.
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/ThinkPad-P15-Mobile-Workstation/p/20SUS5W300

CFox
Nov 9, 2005
If it meets your needs, which based on what you listed for your wife means it does, the M1 Mac is simply better than any other Windows laptop you can compare it to. The new processor technology they put into it is just that good when it comes laptop workloads since it's powerful without being power-hungry. This isn't the Mac thread and it's not full of Apple fanboys or anything you're just getting the best recommendation based on what you're wanting. There's the education discount that would help with the price and the M1 Macs are also starting to trickle out into the Apple refurbished section so that can save you some money as well.

As an aside there's a shortage of Windows laptops due to Covid demand, you're not going to find a good deal on anything that isn't cheap junk.

KYOON GRIFFEY JR
Apr 12, 2010



Runner-up, TRP Sack Race 2021/22
Granted my laptops live a fairly punishing life but my company buys expensive high end Windows laptops (Lenovo Carbon X1s, mainly) that are roughly the same price as Macbooks and we're very fortunate to get three years out of one. I don't think you're going to get a decade out of anything that isn't a Mac.

You can repaste the fanless cooler on the Macbook Air in the event that it starts having heat management issues. You can't add RAM but if you spec it at 16gb up front, that costs you $20/year over the projected lifespan of the machine.

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

CFox posted:

If it meets your needs, which based on what you listed for your wife means it does, the M1 Mac is simply better than any other Windows laptop you can compare it to. The new processor technology they put into it is just that good when it comes laptop workloads since it's powerful without being power-hungry. This isn't the Mac thread and it's not full of Apple fanboys or anything you're just getting the best recommendation based on what you're wanting. There's the education discount that would help with the price and the M1 Macs are also starting to trickle out into the Apple refurbished section so that can save you some money as well.

As an aside there's a shortage of Windows laptops due to Covid demand, you're not going to find a good deal on anything that isn't cheap junk.

Yeah

If you don't have a hard windows/gaming/chromebook requirement that discounts Apple, and your budget is approaching $999, there's not a better consumer laptop on the market. My wife loves hers

I (sort of) get the repair concernes, but modern Apple stuff is so drat reliable, it doesn't seem like a criteria worth using

Thinkpads are designed to be repaired in the field but with modern integrated everything there's not much to repair. My daily driver is a X13 thinkpad but my next laptop might be a M3 macbook air

Dr. Fishopolis
Aug 31, 2004

ROBOT
It's a valid concern. The SSD is soldered to the board and encrypted, so you better be backing that poo poo up because if anything goes wrong there's no saving the data. If you spill something on your machine, it's gonna cost upwards of $750 to fix it through Apple regardless of what's actually broken, and good loving luck with an AASP.

They're great machines, for sure, and they could potentially last a long time, but they won't last as long as older models just based on parts availability alone.

KYOON GRIFFEY JR
Apr 12, 2010



Runner-up, TRP Sack Race 2021/22

Hadlock posted:

Yeah

If you don't have a hard windows/gaming/chromebook requirement that discounts Apple, and your budget is approaching $999, there's not a better consumer laptop on the market. My wife loves hers

I (sort of) get the repair concernes, but modern Apple stuff is so drat reliable, it doesn't seem like a criteria worth using

Thinkpads are designed to be repaired in the field but with modern integrated everything there's not much to repair. My daily driver is a X13 thinkpad but my next laptop might be a M3 macbook air

poo poo my X1 is equally not repairable other than an M2 drive slot, which i guess is a little useful but certainly wouldn't drive a purchase decision

KYOON GRIFFEY JR
Apr 12, 2010



Runner-up, TRP Sack Race 2021/22

Dr. Fishopolis posted:

It's a valid concern. The SSD is soldered to the board and encrypted, so you better be backing that poo poo up because if anything goes wrong there's no saving the data. If you spill something on your machine, it's gonna cost upwards of $750 to fix it through Apple regardless of what's actually broken, and good loving luck with an AASP.

They're great machines, for sure, and they could potentially last a long time, but they won't last as long as older models just based on parts availability alone.

"back up your poo poo" isn't exactly revolutionary advice

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

Dr. Fishopolis posted:

It's a valid concern. The SSD is soldered to the board and encrypted, so you better be backing that poo poo up because if anything goes wrong there's no saving the data.

Yeah that's fair. I've been backing up anything I want to keep since I was 16 to an external source. That's probably not true for most people.

My wife loaned her old 2013 macbook air to my brother in law and it came back with an incredibly persistent Chrome browser trojan horse thing. I had to wipe it, and I was really impressed with how well the icloud backup system was able to restore everything faster than I could get my manual SSD backup plugged in and start copying stuff back. So icloud might be an option in that case

I've never spilled a drink on any laptop so I can't speak to that. Accidental electronic device damage is extremely dependent on the user. Does not sound like his wife is super accident prone with an 11 year old laptop still kicking

TITTIEKISSER69
Mar 19, 2005

SAVE THE BEES
PLANT MORE TREES
CLEAN THE SEAS
KISS TITTIESS




https://i.imgur.com/ayYTBbq.mp4

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004


:golfclap:

Dr. Fishopolis
Aug 31, 2004

ROBOT

KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:

"back up your poo poo" isn't exactly revolutionary advice

i mean, i've worked as a computer fixer for a very long time and the single most common sad person i encounter is a person who spilled something on their laptop and didn't back poo poo up.

it's not great having to tell them A: data recovery is literally impossible and B: the only thing wrong with your machine is one cheap little power management chip, but it has to be scavenged from a working board at great expense because Apple locked up the supply chain.

it's tough because the M1 Air is a genuinely amazing machine that should be a slam dunk, but apple's open hostility to 3rd party repair is an actual concern that makes me not want to buy it.

MechaX
Nov 19, 2011

"Let's be positive! Let's start a fire!"
Sweet Jesus trying to find anything within my budget and wishlist (at this point I have completely given up trying to get a Ryzen as my priority, I'll settle for a 10th gen intel CPU at this point with an RTX 30 series GPU) has been... frustrating, to say the least. And I'm going to go absolutely insane if I see one more person on other forums be like "just wait for the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro bro" as I consider to wade through pages and pages of "SOLD OUT." So I guess I'll just eye what I'm really eyeing at this point:

1. If the ASUS ROG Strix G17 2021 model was in stock anywhere, I'd probably get that. Seems like a really, really good deal for $1,700 and the 17 inch screen seems nice. But it's not anywhere and no one seems to have any idea when/if any more will get made. I do see some sales for the 2020 models with a RTX 2070 and 32GB of Ram for $1,599, but I keep reading that the old Strix had some heating issues and that this is technically overpriced (I guess in comparison to the still out of stock 2021 model).

2. The ASUS ROG G14 is too small for me, but the G15 is cool. Just not really finding any with current cards for below $2k

3. This HP Omen with the Ryzen 9 (seemingly not that much better than the Ryzen 7 option, but I waited on that too long and now the only one available is the 9 for $200 more bucks) and 3070 has been in my cart for the last 2 days. $1,800 and while I would prefer a 17 inch, 15/16 is fine. Close to pulling the trigger on this but having to wait until HP ships the thing in May is... a mood.

4. Not too keen on Alienware because I do want to upgrade my RAM someday and I guess you can't on these new models, and I read one too many reviews of the MSI stuff overheating or just being too hot in general, so that doesn't inspire me with a lot of confidence.

5. This stupid old Lenovo Legion 5 with a 2060 for $1,299 is tempting me just to be done, even though I know it is absolutely not a good decision.

So yeah, anything under $2k is kinda where I'm at now and I've seen one too many "just wait for the restock, eventually"

a cat
Aug 8, 2003

meow.
Will one of these easily be able to run a large external 4k monitor, with simultaneously video playback and web browsing? Or do I need a better graphics card https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/ThinkPad-P15s-Gen-2-15%E2%80%9D-Intel/p/22WSP15P5S2

Alternatively, what's the absolute best windows laptop for non gamers for under $2200?
I just want the best possible screen for sunny outdoor use, and then being able to plug into this monitor and never experience lag during normal (chrome/videos/programming) usage. And then the rest of the money would go towards beefing out the rest of the specs for fun.

etalian
Mar 20, 2006


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXp3BXTPesQ

Worf
Sep 12, 2017

If only Seth would love me like I love him!


Thats funny, I reposted the lap-trap gif in a small discord and somebody responded with that same video

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound
What's the current recommendation for a low budget laptop and an external monitor for document work and low-demand gaming (sims, stardew valley, etc)?

Lockback
Sep 3, 2006

All days are nights to see till I see thee; and nights bright days when dreams do show me thee.

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

What's the current recommendation for a low budget laptop and an external monitor for document work and low-demand gaming (sims, stardew valley, etc)?

Depends on low budget. Probably something on sale most of the time. I avoid Acer, you can usually find cheap HPs that fit that mold pretty well. Or used, if you don't care about gpu the cpu doesn't grow in leaps anymore.

For something generally useful I like the lenovo flex, basically you can turn it into a big tablet when you want. Get it with an amd cpu and it's got a little gaming potential.

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

What's the current recommendation for a low budget laptop and an external monitor for document work and low-demand gaming (sims, stardew valley, etc)?

What's your budget, how big of a screen so you want? Most laptops these days would satisfy those requirements

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound

Hadlock posted:

What's your budget, how big of a screen so you want? Most laptops these days would satisfy those requirements

don't know, asking for a friend . Cheapest price/efficiency balance point i guess.

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

Whatever has the biggest rebate at best buy then? Preferably with an i5 or whatever the current amd alternative is. Maybe any of the Thinkpads mentioned in the OP if durability is a concern

Lockback
Sep 3, 2006

All days are nights to see till I see thee; and nights bright days when dreams do show me thee.
Here's a great deal of your looking for cheap (in this case cheap means coming with a $200 Costco credit which is as good as cash for most people or could be sold for a quick $175)
https://www.costco.com/msi-gf75-thi....100579310.html

Cheap laptop deals are a little scarce right now, but troll best buy/slickdeals for a couple weeks and you'll find good deals.

Ugly In The Morning
Jul 1, 2010
Pillbug

Lockback posted:

Depends on low budget. Probably something on sale most of the time. I avoid Acer, you can usually find cheap HPs that fit that mold pretty well. Or used, if you don't care about gpu the cpu doesn't grow in leaps anymore.

For something generally useful I like the lenovo flex, basically you can turn it into a big tablet when you want. Get it with an amd cpu and it's got a little gaming potential.

2nding avoiding Acer, their QC has taken a huge poo poo and died over the last few years and the customer reviews for a lot of their products have a substantial amount of bricked laptops.

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Lockback
Sep 3, 2006

All days are nights to see till I see thee; and nights bright days when dreams do show me thee.
Yeah, they definitely have some decent models but at this point I can't be arsed to keep track of which is good and which is crap and I think they even shift every year so it's easier to just avoid them entirely. I got my mom one a few years back and it was a terrible terrible mistake.

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