What hardware are you using?

Discussion of hardware related issues
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tlmiller
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

Ugh, I'm guessing it's exceedingly similar to the Elitebook/Probook bios, so yeah, they are horribly laid out for logic IMO. Lenovo's ThinkPads are much better IMO for that regard, but Lenovo has kinda lost me recently as they don't currently make anything that has AMD processor + 14" or smaller screen with AT LEAST 400-nit brightness + 64GB ram capable. HP's it (which is why the new laptop is an HP). Mind you, I'm deferring upgrading to 64GB until prices on 32GB DDR5 SODIMM are...MASSIVELY cheaper than they are right now, but it's an OPTION for me.

I'm really baffled by OEM's and their love of GARBAGE screens. Am I really the only person who find using a 250-nit, 45% NTSC color screen to be so awful that I'll just not use a machine that has that LCD (entry level LCD used on a LOT of Lenovo, DEll, and HP machines, probably others too)??
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crosscourt
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

Yes the Elitedesks bios is horrible from a users perspective but contains some nice features. Lenovos bios isnt great either as prefer Dells by far.

You are far pickier in regards to screens compared to most. I have laptops with excellent screens and others with poorer screens but it doesnt really bother me. Most of what I do doesnt require having a high quality display. Watching movies is about as close to that as I get. In most cases I save a lot of cash with hardware that isnt entirely high end. In fact thats why Im heading back to desktop use as I much prefer a larger display over a laptop screen.
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wove
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by wove »

I have often wondered why Lenovo, who is somewhat noted for making premium machines, never seems to pick a very nice screen and charges an arm and a leg to get a nice screen. They know what good screens are, they at least use to be one of very few manufacturers that include an icc profile for all of their screens. In many cases it is possible to get an exceptionally nice screen, but they really charge the big money for it.

This T580 has a nice and bright screen, it is easily readable in a sunny window without washing out. However, the color space is is horrid, you could never do any work prepping for publication. The IdeaCentre by contrast has a nice bright screen, very suitable work working in very bright space and it also has an excellent color space. The difference is readily visible when you display the same image on the IdeaCentre and the T580 side by side.

I would guess that Lenovo sees the office as their main market, assume color is just being used to create contrasting bars in an Xcel chart and that office lighting is generally so poor that trying to do color accurate work is all but impossible anyway.
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tlmiller
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

I update the spreadsheet in my signature today so that the hard drive column for all the laptops is a link to a benchmark (1G as it is the most common due to the best benchmarks) for that drive.
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crosscourt
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Re: What hardware are you using?

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Ill take a look.
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

Im using a wide range of hardware these days. Alienware R10 Ryzen 5600x system, Dell Optiplex 7010 MT third gen Intel i5, Lenovo Ideacentre M700 Tiny 6th gen Intel i5 and HP Elitedesk Mini 800 g3 6th gen Intel i5. Finally got my KVM switch up and running so I can use just one keyboard and mouse. Im also using Win7/10/11 and Zorin on my systems.
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

For 2023 will be heading more towards desktops and using my present systems more. Laptops Ill be thinning the herd even more and continuing to use some mini pcs. Big changes in 2025 as a lot of hardware will go and fewer better systems will come moving towards newer versions of Windows and future needs.
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tlmiller
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

So I bought one of the "980Evo" m.2 SATA 2TB drives from AliExpress. They had a sale so that AFTER shipping and tax, it was $35. And it ships via DHL, so supposed to be here by Jan 11. Obviously, I'm aware there's at least a decent chance it's a completely scam drive that's got a fake firmware and isn't actually 2 TB sized, but for $35, f it, worth taking the chance.

So since that's coming, I'm counting on it being an actual 2TB functional drive, so pulled the TeamGroup MS30 1TB SSD from my enclosure and put it in my Dere V14S laptop.
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crosscourt
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

I havent had a lot of good experiences with AliExpress so hope yours turns out well.
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tlmiller
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

I've only had a few bad experiences. That's where I got my Dere laptop, many of my wifi cards I've purchased over the years, a bunch of SSD's, one of the replacement LCD's that I just installed recently, most of my prior Chuwi laptops, the tape I needed to do the LCD installs (both the stretchy tape for the LCD itself, and the ultra thin tape for the LCD bezel sticker that's just double sided taped on).
Last edited by tlmiller on Sun Jan 01, 2023 4:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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