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The last time I saw someone refer to Skype in a serious sense, besides this thread just now, was two years ago by some bulgarian Java developer who thought Java 8 was too new and not stable enough (I'll save you the Google - Java 7 went EOL 18 months ago) Apparently it's wildly successful in Bulgaria though
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Oct 13, 2020 12:20
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sephiRoth IRA posted:Related to this, is there a good way to ensure you're getting a quality product from eBay? We're looking for a laptop for school use and I figured one of the old school thinkpads would be ideal, but I worry about security, or that the laptop will come with malware, etc. Look for a seller with 1000+ transactions in the last year and 99.95%+ positive feedback. Buying from one of those guys is safer than buying new as they want to keep their rating
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Oct 13, 2020 21:19
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sephiRoth IRA posted:Thanks for advice, friends. I was looking at this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-T44...4gAAOSwzatfhNMi The T440 and X240 have notably bad trackpads, which is why I explicitly suggested the T450 and X250, as the trackpad design was reverted/fixed. The T440 trackpad was so bad, people posted tutorials on how to retrofit a T450 trackpad in their T440 Since you have the luxury of choosing the correct trackpad from the start, and the price delta between the 40 and 50 is so small, I'd not recommend that T440 Other benefit of the 50 is it's a year newer, and lithium ion batteries degrade over time, so you're getting a much healthier battery as a result
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Oct 13, 2020 23:44
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If you're doing a lot of photo editing, then yeah get the XPS 13, if not I'd look at the X13, X395, X390, X280 XPS models still have a weird thing where they don't actually sleep, so if you close the lid the battery will run down overnight, eating up an entire charge cycle (of which you only get about 400) Which reminds me, I need to slap my XPS 15 back on the charger, it's been more than 12 hours (not even joking)
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Oct 14, 2020 14:17
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Which model do you have specifically
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Oct 14, 2020 14:25
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bull3964 posted:I REALLY cannot overstate how much I hate my work T480. Sounds like your IT department overloaded your laptop with too much monitoring crap, and you have a garbage docking solution Also it's possible your laptop is full of pet hair/dust clogging the cooling. What you're describing is abnormal
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Oct 15, 2020 22:45
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If your wife hangs on to laptops for 5+ years, she might as well accept USB-C and adopt a USB-C dock and get over it, usb-A is not coming back
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Oct 26, 2020 05:30
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The only non-USB-C device I've bought in the last two years was some lovely no name $25 wireless microphone for my wife's vlogging project, it uses a USB-A to micro usb cable to charge It gets plugged into a surge protector that has a bunch of USB-A ports, because why would I ever use my laptop to charge devices in 2020 Even my USB-C devices mostly only have the port for charging; other than the rare external hard drive and logitech wireless mouse adapter, I don't think I've ever plugged anything directly into my laptop before, and both of those normally go through the usb dock anyways
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Oct 26, 2020 17:29
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etalian posted:Note another advantage from Costco is they offer a 2 year warranty which goes beyond the manufacturer warranty for laptop failures. Probably the wrong year to be pushing a premium travel charge card, but the platinum amex is one of the few cards that still covers electronic items for a year after the mfg warranty. You'll have to read the fine print but it's a pretty nice perk if say, you're buying an apple device which only has a 1 year warranty. The platinum card is pretty pricey ($500/yr) on it's own, but if you break down the perks (and Covid ever ends and we can travel again) it almost breaks even; an apple care plan would probably push you in to net positive. I think the gold and lower tiers dropped their extended warranty stuff in the last year so it's just platinum now.
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Nov 2, 2020 04:04
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In my experience no quality items go on sale, black friday electronics, at least in the hundreds of dollars electronics segment, are off brand, or if name brand, near the bottom of their product line You get what you pay for
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Nov 10, 2020 20:26
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MrOnBicycle posted:Good stuff usually gets discounted (in my experience) when they want to get rid of stock because there is a new version of the good thing coming out. They disguise it as Black Friday etc. Yeah this We have been expecting, and I've had my eye on this camera for family photos that was released in 2018, it suddenly went $300 off, so we went ahead and bought it The next week the company released two more-consumer focused models with largely the same features as my camera, but in a smaller form factor Dell usually dumps their XPS 13/15 stock right before a new model comes out too, yeah
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Nov 11, 2020 07:37
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Veloxyll posted:Okay: The OP is still valid Are you looking for a 15" gaming laptop or what
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Nov 12, 2020 20:56
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Yeah the M1 from Apple has gotten universally good marks from everyone. That's not totally suprising, if you're going to release a competitor to Intel, it ought to blow it out of the water, otherwise there's not much point. They're quite good. My guess is that Apple is selling these things at a loss right now, just to get the volume up to make economy of scale work. That said, for pro apps, you're probably going to want to wait at least a year before buying an M1 powered laptop. But I'm seriously eyeing a macbook air as my next non-gaming laptop. Call me cautiously optimistic.
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Nov 19, 2020 02:10
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DildenAnders posted:Maybe this isnt the right place to ask this, but is there any way to boot an old Thinkpad 600E off a flash drive? I'm curious to see how Linux works and I don't have any other machines with a CD/DVD drive. Most computers will boot off an IDE -> CF (compact flash) adapter I suspect the CF card + adapter shouldn't set you back more than about $10, but don't expect the CF card to last more than 6 months-1 year of daily use due to inherent CF reasons. You can just plug the CF card directly into where the old hard drive went using the adapter
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Nov 23, 2020 03:50
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This is the first I've heard of the neo What was it supposed to be? Some sort of clamshell ipad with a start button, it looks like?
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Nov 24, 2020 01:26
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3D printing is so ubiquitous these days that nobody immediately called it out as a Photoshop
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Nov 24, 2020 21:37
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Hadlock posted:Yeah the M1 from Apple has gotten universally good marks from everyone. That's not totally suprising, if you're going to release a competitor to Intel, it ought to blow it out of the water, otherwise there's not much point. Well after a week in the wild, people online just seem really impressed with the M1 apple laptops; no fan, no overheat issues, very little thermal throttling, great (initial) battery life etc etc I'm curious to see how people like them after the honeymoon phase wears off, in say 90 days, but otherwise the M1 models are definitely looking like strong potential contenders I still haven't seen one in person, but we're also in the middle of the "uncontrolled spread" part of the pandemic, but based on what I've seen, lookin' good
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Nov 25, 2020 00:03
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8gb is plenty fine for that kind of workload I have a Thinkpad and I'm pretty sure it only has 8 and I do all sorts of stuff with it 16 is really luxurious, but 8 is plenty these days thanks to microsoft trying to cram windows 10 onto cheaper and cheaper computers in the third world where 2 is the norm and 4 is doing pretty good
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Nov 25, 2020 07:06
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Friends don't let friends buy laptops with rotational hard drives
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Nov 25, 2020 07:23
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Just get an X280 with the IPS screen
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Nov 25, 2020 09:12
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MrOnBicycle posted:I'm more worried about the vertical bending of the port on uneven surfaces (like laps, beds, etc). Maybe I'm worrying for nothing, but the part is soldered to the motherboard and not a separate daughterboard which makes replacing it hard if it were to break. Obviously I'm careful not to bend it, but it will inevitably happen sometimes. I've been using USB-C on all my devices for about three years now ) laptops, cell phones, nintendo switch, Oculus quest, headphones, battery banks, tablets, e-reader etc etc) I've yet to have a flakey connection Google saw some really bullshit USB-C port designs initially, so they designed and patented a super cheap, extremely rugged design and even pointed out "if you really really really wanted to cut costs further without impacting durability much, do it here" etc etc, and then they released the patented design royalty free I'm sure somebody has a USB-C horror story, but I've never heard of one personally It's generally a non issue. I pick up my cell phone by the cable all the drat time and use my USB-C laptop plugged in on my lap all the time
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Nov 26, 2020 22:49
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Yeah that looks flimsy Performance, price, build quality Pick two Fake edit: this is in the op
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Dec 8, 2020 07:32
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One of my pre covid hobbies was picking up laptops in Best Buy buy the palmrest in front of it keyboard, and then waving it around and listening to how much the plastic frame would creak under the strain, even over the din of the HVAC, in store music and children screaming. On some of the 15" models the frame would flex an entire half inch in either direction if you started waving it around By contrast, you'll never hear an apple laptop or Thinkpad creak, or flex, for that matter If the laptop is struggling to literally hold itself together just picking it up, that should be an indicator of long term durability
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Dec 8, 2020 08:48
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Happiness Commando posted:Anyone have suggestions for a USB-C hub/dock? I tried the Vava 8-in-one and it's getting returned because it fails intermittently. Take a look at the stuff Lenovo and Dell make. Expect to pay $100 for a top quality one I have a Lenovo Thinkpad branded Thunderbolt 3 dock I paid ~$230 for and it does 100W power delivery, and it uses a detachable cable so I can stash it away and out of sight
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Dec 10, 2020 03:05
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bull3964 posted:It's not uncommon for thunderbolt docks to have short cables as the bandwidth requirements make longer cables quite expensive. Yeah the active (not passive) 40gbps 6', 100w PD cable I bought for my thunderbolt 3 dock was $80 usd; but I've had it for three years now and it's worked flawlessly so far It's also Super Nice to have a single cable for power/data/monitor/networking etc The dock lives in a cabinet next to my desk, and the 6' cable snakes between my naked laptop and the dock in the cabinet. The inevitable rats nest of wires is safely concealed in my cabinet where I only have to look at it a couple times a year when plugging something new into one of the USB hubs in there Given how much time we spend on laptops, it's probably worth the extra $100-300 to get a good dock and setup that you're literally not tripping over I suspect that USB4 full speed cables will cost less, as nearly every laptop will come with USB4 within two years. Thunderbolt 3 is pretty popular in high end laptops but pretty rare on midrange consumer laptops still, which drives up prices
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Dec 10, 2020 19:42
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Cheap docks tend to fail early The Lenovo and Dell docks are designed for their enterprise users who expect years of service. My ~3 year old Lenovo TB3 dock got a firmware update via windows update a couple months back. Try matching that with your $30 generic device
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Dec 10, 2020 19:54
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Mimir posted:I checked previous posts and I just want to confirm: y’all like the T490, right? I’m looking at one of the refurbished ones and I just want to make sure it’ll be easy to repair once it’s out of the 1-year warranty. Yeah
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Dec 10, 2020 20:03
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ant mouth posted:I am looking for a new windows laptop. I'm not aware of any other color accurate windows laptops, so dude it looks like you're getting a Dell Fake edit: Lenovo P series might be available with a calibrated display
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Dec 10, 2020 22:26
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If you liked the X220 you might look at the X13 which is extremely similar footprint to the 12.5" x220, due to smaller bezels on the 13" model. I had the X230 (same chassis as x220) for a long time and upgraded to the X390 which uses the same chassis as the X13 X1 carbon is a good choice as well if you want a larger screen
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Dec 15, 2020 18:41
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Actually, a really solid option might be to get one of those M1 macbook air. Fanless, fast as hell, solid aluminum construction
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Dec 15, 2020 20:51
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Dr. Habibi posted:X13 is tempting, now that I’m looking at it. I don’t get machines too often, so I’m trying to dance between CPU/RAM options that are good but not going to be irritating in the near future. Imagine sticking with the i5 10210U or 10510U and 16 or 32GB will be more than enough for my needs? I’ve grown used to 32 on my work machine, but is 16gb the “minimum” like all these reviews are saying now? I have 8gb in my x390 (X13) and it's just fine, seems to me like the OS will only use 10 of 16gb typically. 4gb is too little, but it's up to the user to decide if they need the extra 8gb for an extra ~$250 The nano looks cool but that's a lot of money for basically a Thinkpad chromebook with an i5 in it, I might loop back around and look at those when the price comes down. That looks like a $1100 laptop to me, priced at $2000
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Dec 15, 2020 23:19
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Killer_B posted:Which brand rates well so far as used for running Linux, and is more semi-recent? Red Hat issues all their developers Thinkpads, so they're the Linux laptop gold standard, it's not really worth discussion past that bullet point
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Dec 17, 2020 10:33
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Fun fact the X390 and the T490S share the same repair manual AFAIK the T490S is an X390 with a 14" screen, and a larger chassis to accommodate said screen
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Dec 17, 2020 23:38
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Coil whine is a warranty covered issue for Dell, you shouldn't hear it
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Dec 19, 2020 11:18
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Literally A Person posted:Uh, can I ask a really dumb i-am-not-computer-person laptop question itt? Yeah sure octoyam posted:Do Lenovo laptop prices usually go down after X weeks/months, or does it depend on what other laptops they're selling at the same time? Their online store is a loving mess, I think 95% of their direct sales are through corporate/enterprise deals, or supplying legacy brick and mortar, the retail website is mostly an afterthought What the other guy said about hills and roads
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Dec 19, 2020 21:25
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Literally A Person posted:Can I put an SSD into this: https://www.newegg.com/white-sony-vaio-nr-series-vgn-nr185e-w/p/N82E16834117610 That's a really old laptop with practically no value. Core 2 Duo is probably 2007? You'd be better off buying a refurbished Thinkpad, probably, than attempting to limp that along any further. You can get a refurbished T430 on eBay for $120 and it might already come with an SSD in it Another option is look at a used Chromebook for $99, depending on what you want to do with it
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Dec 19, 2020 22:59
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Oscar Wild posted:When is the best time to buy a laptop? I was looking around the black Friday and cyber Monday sales and didn't see anything that looked spectacular. When would be the next good window to shop for a laptop? Answer in two parts Newest laptops: Generally new laptops are announced in June-September and actually land in customers hands late October to February. Once you get in to April, you're getting close to when new products are being announced That said, there's been a global cpu shortage for 2+ years at this point and it's hard to buy a laptop with the latest cpu in it. New laptops under $800 usually have a cpu model that's 3 years old at this point. Getting a laptop with a 2020 year model cpu gets pricey fast due to limited supply driving prices up Apple bought 100% of the output of a major taiwanese fab for an entire year which is not helping things. Intel can't get their poo poo together and has been producing CPUs below expected rates for nearly 5 years now, no wonder they've been through 3 CEOs in that time frame Cheapest laptops Only crappy, high margin laptops go on sale. It's rare to see the XPS and good Thinkpads go on sale more than $100 off Hadlock fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Dec 22, 2020 |
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Dec 22, 2020 20:36
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It's probably fine Most developers target the Nintendo switch as a build target which is about on par with a Pixel 2 phone from a few years ago, or whatever Modern laptop will eat that for breakfast
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Dec 23, 2020 13:48
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LionArcher posted:Cheapest laptop to run halo and age of empires half life games on, that doesn’t weigh a thousands pounds. (I use macs for work but realized I would prefer a computer for games that aren’t on my switch PS5 over an Xbox) Half Life 1 will run on some literal toasters now Half Life 2, portal etc will run on any laptop built after 2010 no problem I didn't know they made halo games for non xbox platforms until just now, so can't speak to that or whatever the latest AoE game is out
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Dec 25, 2020 23:10
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LibCrusher posted:This is an era in which watching a YouTube and shopping online with a word document open can max out 8GB. I don’t have any specific laptop recommendations, but a discrete GPU and 16gb of ram under 1k won’t be hard to find. I have both an 8gb thinkpad and a 16 gb XPS 15 and I honestly cannot tell the difference between the two. And I'm a computer toucher for my day job 16gb is nice, but it's definitely in the "luxury decision" category. If you were arguing 4 vs 8, would totally side with you 8gb is fine for all but the craziest power users
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Dec 26, 2020 13:38
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