Salem's Lot6d ago
Gabriele Svelto

A friend needed a new laptop and was about to buy some consumer-grade garbage for ~500-600€. Fortunately he asked me before committing to it, and we found a second-hand AMD-based Thinkpad T14 for 300€. It's stupidly powerful for what he does, has much better connectivity and a much sturdier case. It was in really good condition too.

Long story short, stay away from consumer laptops. There's second-hand business machines that are both better and cheaper.

Nov 4 at 12:51pmWeb
Show threadGabriele Svelto6d ago
A few pictures of this machine and a few more ways in which this is better than a consumer one:
* the keyboard is solid and comfortable
* you get a touchpad with 3 separate buttons and a trackpad
* the hinges are sturdy
* it's very easy to open up for servicing
* the cooling system is well done and doesn't blow hot air on the screen
* the bottom case is solid magnesium
* you get USB A & C, HDMI and Ethernet ports, an SD card reader and a headphone jack
* the camera has a lid to block it
Show threadTyler K. Nothing6d ago
@gabrielesvelto I have advocated for the purchase of last gen enterprise hardware for many, many years. Aside from the solid hardware that is far more durable and reliable, the base Windows install (if that's your thing) is bloat-free. And if that's not good enough a starting point, I then hook them up with Titus Tech's WinUtil to clean out all the other junk that you can't simply remove. For the less tech savvy, I suggest you just run it for them, but it's easy enough for most people after a bit of guidance. https://github.com/christitustech/Winutil
GitHub - ChrisTitusTech/winutil: Chris Titus Tech's Windows Utility - Install Programs, Tweaks, Fixes, and Updates

Chris Titus Tech's Windows Utility - Install Programs, Tweaks, Fixes, and Updates - ChrisTitusTech/winutil

GitHub
Show threadxyhhx 🔻6d ago
@gabrielesvelto solid mg? won't the explode if it touches water? i did high school chemistry u can't trick me
Show threadPaul Bone6d ago
@xyhhx @gabrielesvelto sodium is the one that explodes on contact with water (the leftmost column of the periodic table does that). Magnesium, if you get it hot will burn with a bright white/blue flame
Show threadxyhhx 🔻5d ago

@pbone all alkali metals behave this way (except beryllium), with elements lower on the table having a stronger reaction

https://web.archive.org/web/20111005182238/http://www.rsc.org/chemsoc/visualelements/pages/data/intro_groupii_data.html

@gabrielesvelto

Visual Elements: Group 2 - The Alkaline Earth Metals

Show threadjan-erikNov 4
@gabrielesvelto thiiiiiis! I got my nephew a refurbished thinkpad. Same price range, so much more powerful than things he looked up before.
Show threadalec timmerman 🇪🇺🔒🌍📱🌳📰Nov 4
@gabrielesvelto My wife bought such a laptop and when I unboxed it, it instantly felt like garbage. All plastic, horrible keyboard and bad key travel, clunky trackpad and sub par screen. Holding it with one hand resulted in the screen flickering on and off.
Show threadGabriele SveltoNov 4
@altim I upgraded the RAM on an HP 15 recently and it was similar. Horrible keyboard. Brittle plastic case that flexes easily. These are supposed to be mid-range consumer laptops and yet they have a build quality that's lower than Atom-based netbooks of old.
Show threadalec timmerman 🇪🇺🔒🌍📱🌳📰Nov 4
@gabrielesvelto You've guessed it. It was a cheap ass HP that cost 600 euros. Total waste of money.
Show threadTokyo Outsider (337ppm)Nov 4
@gabrielesvelto Yeah, if you want a workhorse that's definitely true. If you want something with a decent graphics card, it can be a bit more tricky. But I've always found the makers that have a strong focus on business machines tend to produce better consumer kit because of it, so I always check them first and usually get something I'm happy with.
Show threadGabriele SveltoNov 4
@tokyo_0 well, if an iGPU is not enough there are business laptops with decent dGPUs. I don't know how much they cost second-hand though, nor if they're reliable given that both the thermal stress and the wear on the power circuitry will have been higher because of the presence of the dGPU.
Show threadDeepBlue V7.XNov 4
@gabrielesvelto My sibling asked me for what laptop to buy ages ago. I recommended them to buy a used Thinkpad at the time. They still use it today and I think it's been like 8 years or so at this point. (They did put Linux on it day one with my help and out of their own motivation, so the hardware aged kinda well!)

Not saying that Thinkpads are the solution, but buying high quality, older hardware can last you a long time!
Show threadGabriele SveltoNov 4
@deepbluev7 yes, absolutely. I got my hands on a Haswell-based HP ProBook and I was amazed by the build quality. I don't know if more recent ones are good enough, but generally speaking there's an ever increasing gap between consumer machines and business ones, and it's true of all vendors.
Show threadKerplunkNov 4

@gabrielesvelto

Long story short, stay away from consumer laptops. There's second-hand business machines that are both better and cheaper.

Absolutely agree, also recommend Think Pads. Mine, a T120 has stood up to some massive abuse while traveling.

Show threadLizzie vox populi, vox deiNov 4
@gabrielesvelto I had one Thinkpad...must have gotten the lemon. Crashed and died five months after purchase and no one could revive it. I was sad. I liked it very much.
Show threadnexNov 4

@Lizette603_23 @gabrielesvelto I never got into Thinkpads myself, but I know a few people who did, and they taught me that the “Thinkpad” brand by itself doesn't mean anything. Many Thinkpads are the kind of business machine Gabriele is recommending, but other Thinkpads are the kind of consumer laptops you should stay away from.

I know: it sucks. If it's any consolation: I use Apple bullshit and that isn't any better. “Pro” means nothing. You gotta study model numbers :(

Show threadGabriele Svelto6d ago
@Lizette603_23 second-hand gear always carries a risk, especially if it was treated poorly by a previous owner. A completely dead machine sounds like an issue with the motherboard power circuitry which is indeed one of the bits that's most likely to fail, especially if the previous owner had let it overheat.
Show threadLizzie vox populi, vox dei6d ago
@gabrielesvelto I bought it new
Show threadGabriele Svelto6d ago

@Lizette603_23 😭

Did you manage to return it and get a replacement?

Show threadLizzie vox populi, vox dei6d ago
@gabrielesvelto I chose not to get another one. I bought a whole other brand
Show threadVincent B. 🌱Nov 4
@gabrielesvelto My brother-in-law asked me for recommendations last month, and ended up with a used HP EliteBook with a good repairability index. Can’t really beat used laptops unless you have very very specific needs.
Show threadVincenzo FrascinoNov 4
@gabrielesvelto I have a soft spot for the #thinkpad family 😉 I use them for anything outside work and they never le me down 😊
Show threadLinh Pham6d ago

@gabrielesvelto I've been a huge fan of getting used corporate desktops, workstations and laptops for homelab use and for experimenting with stuff.

I picked up a T14 Gen 3 (Intel) that still had over a year left on the original warranty for almost half price. That laptop is how I figured out that I could switch from macOS to Linux as my primary at home.

I also got a really inexpensive T14 Gen 2 (AMD) that now serves as my Linux distro testing laptop (be it for pre-release versions of Fedora, experimenting with desktop environments or other distros).

The only new laptop that I got since was a Framework to turn into my primary laptop and the T14 Gen 3 is now what I use on the go.

Show threadPoloniousmonk6d ago

@gabrielesvelto

I got burned by a laptop that didn't have a mechanical power switch. One hack bricked it. Well, it required me to open the case and pull the power cable, but the manufacturer had booby trapped that action. Without a bespoke tool, I shorted something vital to the machine. I even offered to pay a college kid who knew how to wrench on microelectronics to fix it, but he couldn't. I gave it to him to strip for parts.