laptop thoughts/suggestions

[bruce]

Hi.

thinking of a new laptop

base specs

at least 4 core
at least 8-12G with ability to expand to 16/32
1TB
and SSD would be ok
bluetooth
17"
usb/hdmi of course
i'd prefer new, as opposed to used

and of course as cheap as possible

thoughts/comments

[Richard Shaw]

Is the 17" negotiable? Looking at Amazon, a Ryzen 5 3500U would be a
good option but the 17" raises the price by ~$200.

Thanks,
Richard

[John Mellor]

On 2020-03-26 3:26 p.m., bruce wrote:
>  Hi.
>
>  thinking of a new laptop
>
>  base specs
>
>  at least 4 core
>  at least 8-12G with ability to expand to 16/32
>  1TB
>  and SSD would be ok
>  bluetooth
>  17"
>  usb/hdmi of course
>  i'd prefer new, as opposed to used
>
>  and of course as cheap as possible
>
>  thoughts/comments
>  
I'm assuming that this machine will run Linux.  Its unfortunate that all 
the machine choices will probably have Windows preloaded on it, so blow 
it away.

Find an AMD Ryzen-powered machine.  You will get decent built-in 
graphics, better battery life and a much better processor.  The graphics 
work out-of-the-box, even for intense games.

There are previous-generation AMD machines on the market, but these are 
not as good as the Ryzen for several reasons.

If you end up going intel, the inboard graphics are suitable for office 
use only.  AMD actively helps opensource, while nVidia tries to make 
operation as difficult as possible.  If it has an added nVidia or AMD 
graphics chip, the battery life will suffer. And most of the processor 
exploit attacks are for intel processors.

If you end up with an Arm-powered machine, the battery life will be 
extremely impressive.  I have not use chromebooks et al, and cannot 
comment further on that choice.

Good luck!

[George N. White III]

On Thu, 26 Mar 2020 at 16:28, bruce <badouglas(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  Hi.
>
>  thinking of a new laptop
>  
It is hard to make suggestions without knowing how it will be used: games,
development, number crunching, neural nets, data bases, ...

Do you hope it will last 3 years (big technology improvements) or 5 years
(after 5 years, support for older hardware becomes sketchy)?


>  base specs
>
>  at least 4 core
>  at least 8-12G with ability to expand to 16/32
>  1TB
>  and SSD would be ok
>  bluetooth
>  17"
>  usb/hdmi of course
>  i'd prefer new, as opposed to used
>
>  and of course as cheap as possible
>
>  thoughts/comments
>
>  
-- 
George N. White III

[Roger Heflin]

On your 17" make sure it has the right resolution.  Last time I looked
(about 8 months ago), there were cheaper 17" with 1600x800 (or less)
vs 1080 displays.  My eyes suck but I can generally see a 1080 17".

If you are only doing GIMP and no games the basic (non-amd/non-nvidia)
chip should be good enough.

On Thu, Mar 26, 2020 at 2:28 PM bruce <badouglas(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>
> Hi.
>
> thinking of a new laptop
>
> base specs
>
> at least 4 core
> at least 8-12G with ability to expand to 16/32
> 1TB
> and SSD would be ok
> bluetooth
> 17"
> usb/hdmi of course
> i'd prefer new, as opposed to used
>
> and of course as cheap as possible
>
> thoughts/comments
>
>
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