this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
34 points (90.5% liked)

Asklemmy

43963 readers
1290 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Cloak@lemmy.ml
mekhos@lemmy.ml
tmpod@lemmy.pt
14specks@lemmy.ml
34
What laptop should I purchase? (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 year ago by ratboy@hexbear.net to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
28 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I haven't owned a functioning laptop in like, ten years because my phone does most of what I like, but I (probably) have tendinitis and carpal tunnel and need something more ergonomic for my terminally online needs. Arguing with strangers on the internet is not as effective on a cell phone lol.

I'm mostly streaming media, researching online and screwing around on lemmy. I'm interested in toying around with linux just to try it as an OS but would probably want to keep windows because Im not super tech savvy as people here seem to be. That said I can figure things out pretty quickly if I put my mind to it. I would like the ability to game if I wanted, but that might mean a whole different beast so if I could even run at least SNES roms or something like that that would be cool. I'd also like a decent sized screen, 16 inches at least. Hoping not to spend more than 1k if possible but I'm old and don't know what the average price is really for something that's upper-middle quality so whatever clever.

Thanks for any recommendations!

all 31 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] pezhore@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

If you're in the US, check out EPC's Online Store. They're an electronics recycler and they sell a ton of used electronics.

I've purchased three Lenovo micro PCs (now running my homelab Proxmox cluster) and a micro tower that is a dedicated Plex transcoder.

They have a ton of decent, 3 year old systems that would meet your needs:

  1. they're cheap
  2. most all come with windows
  3. Linux can more than likely be easily dual booted.

They even have some super beefy Xenon laptops.

Edit: this MSI laptop pretty much perfectly fits your reqs.

[–] Edgarallenpwn@midwest.social 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Damn never thought I would see a place I used to work in the wild. Most of their computers will be decent quality stuff that a company was getting rid of.

But holy shit does it suck to work for them. Super low wages compared to other similar positions in the area and hostile work environments perpetuated by Fox News watching managers and owners.

[–] pezhore@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was blown away visiting the showroom in St. Charles, MO - but I could easily see it being a rough place to work. It sucks though - I like how they're giving new life to systems that would otherwise be headed to a landfill.

[–] Edgarallenpwn@midwest.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I feel like it might be more of the area. St. Charles is the company HQ but a lot of the management and employers comes from the Wright City facility. I was based in STC but would have to go to the WC branch a few times a month and being a born and raised STL city boy, Wright City gave me Deliverance vibes.

Personally I hate St Charles in general, but the Wright City people are in their own little Tucker Carlson world and somehow made STC seem sane. Glad I'm at a job now where I can see the arch and actually have some diversity in my office.

[–] pezhore@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah... I'm lucky enough to be full time work from home, do I don't need to deal with any of the O'Fallon office crazies.

[–] ratboy@hexbear.net 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ohhh I never thought about a recycled laptop, that's a really great idea. I had a laptop that lasted me 8-9 years so 3 isn't a problem lol. Does double booting have to do with how much memory a computer has to be able to store both OS'?

[–] pezhore@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Dual booting is more about hard drive space. This is a fairly good write up on one way to do it - basically you get a Windows laptop, and then shrink the partition (say instead of 100% of the 512gb storage, you make Windows take up 50%) and install Linux along side the Windows operating system.

Every time you start the laptop, you'll then have the option to boot into Windows or Linux.

[–] ExLisper@linux.community 9 points 1 year ago

Second hand professional laptop like ThinkPad.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For software, something that plays nice with Linux.

For hardware, the M2 Air is a divine machine.

[–] buh@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I would advise against a laptop if ergonomics are a factor, they are slightly better than smartphones but still overall bad. Get some basic PC setup (if you don't want to build your own, I suggest an ASUS mini PC or mac mini) and spend the rest on getting a decent chair, a desk where the monitor and keyboard/mouse are at levels that are comfortable for you.

[–] ares35@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

i agree with opting for a desktop pc over a laptop here in this case.

  • the phone's worked for them for a decade, so i don't think portability is needed.

  • with being chained to a desk and chair for health reasons when using the pc, there's no point to a laptop other than for portability (which isn't needed)

  • it will be easier to configure the work space, and offer more flexibility on display size and quality.

  • a traditional desktop is easier to work on if something goes wrong or hardware upgrade is wanted down the road.

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

For carpal tunnel you want a split keyboard. I’ve used the kinesis freestyle 2 for many years and swear by it.

[–] ratboy@hexbear.net 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm hoping that as a good compromise, I can get a monitor and a keyboard to hook up to it for working at home, that would work out I assume?

[–] buh@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago

That’ll be fine. Just make sure you get a separate mouse no matter what your setup is to begin with. also you can get a laptop stand instead of a separate monitor, which will be cheaper while still improving ergonomics, though you will need to also get a keyboard

[–] JoeBidet@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

A second hand laptop like T430S

[–] nix@merv.news 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The framework 16 https://frame.work/products/laptop16-amd-7040

[–] SaveComengs@lemmy.federa.net 3 points 1 year ago

i would recommend the 13 but not 16, it literally hasn't been released yet and there's no reviews to base opinions off of.

[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

I think it sounds great too, but it's sold out for ages! And we don't have any reviews yet, so the smaller one is probably better to go with for now.

[–] SaveComengs@lemmy.federa.net 6 points 1 year ago

ThinkPad T430

pros:

  • old
  • extremely cheap
  • usable performance, can be upgraded to average performance
  • libreboot compatible
  • very compatible with Linux
  • great keyboard (if you mod it with a t420 keyboard)
  • trackpoint (controversial)
  • hot swappable batteries
  • repairable
  • display can be upgraded to IPS if you manage to find a converter board

cons:

  • old
  • bad battery life (if you keep the stock one)
  • TN panel
  • not blazing fast (more than enough for the tasks you mentioned though)
[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Here is a fantastic Google doc chart of good laptops and everything you would want to know about them that have an apu that is good for gaming without needing a dedicated gpu.

I would recommend the Acer Swift Edge 16, as it does pop up for $1,000 on sales, acer generally makes good laptops and don't have scummy things secretly baked in like Lenovo, has amd RDNA 3 apu for running stuff, and for future gaming while running Linux my gut says AMD apu will be better than Intel because Steam Deck and most certainly the future steam deck 2 use Linux with amd apu, so I think driver optimization under Linux or used alongside Wine will favor AMD.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1ap-mGyrNt723EO5v3B1nCW44R0XVMmOATpR-VZAXNgs/htmlview?pli=1

[–] ratboy@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago

Thank you for this!

[–] GlenTheFrog@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Maybe look into a used Thinkpad P series? They run Linux well, are typically more affordable than a new laptop which will definitely be 1K upwards, and have a 16 inch screen

[–] CorrodedCranium@leminal.space 2 points 1 year ago

Easy to repair and upgrade as well. Big fan of my Thinkpad T440P

[–] jungekatz@hexbear.net 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Try a lenovo yoga ? Its small ,sleek and has touch screen , can be carried around easily !

[–] jungekatz@hexbear.net 1 points 1 year ago

But wont fit the 16 in display !