Laptops...

[sdkid]

Don't know if you have a Micro Center close...

Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 15.6" Laptop Computer Platinum Collection - Black; AMD Ryzen 7 5800H 3.2GHz Processor; NVIDIA - Micro Center

Get it now! Run your favorite PC games smoothly, the way they were meant to be enjoyed with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor, DDR4 memory, and M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD storage.

www.microcenter.com

I finally had a chance to look at this--- I can have it shipped for $20..... in the cart, and I have an itchy trigger finger.

I realized I can give up the touchscreen if I have a 10-key pad in the keyboard. the MSI doesn't, and this does..... This ITCH is terrible right now...

EDIT:
This is starting to feel like an episode of Seinfeld, where he always finds some "flaw" to break up with some girl.

The screen on that Lenovo is max 250 nits brightness.... on the dark side for sure....but is it too dark?

 

[David L]

I finally had a chance to look at this--- I can have it shipped for $20..... in the cart, and I have an itchy trigger finger.

I realized I can give up the touchscreen if I have a 10-key pad in the keyboard. the MSI doesn't, and this does..... This ITCH is terrible right now...

EDIT:
This is starting to feel like an episode of Seinfeld, where he always finds some "flaw" to break up with some girl.

The screen on that Lenovo is max 250 nits brightness.... on the dark side for sure....but is it too dark?

I think it is a very good deal for it's price.

Here is more info. It is definitely Upgradable...keep in mind this video is from 2020 so an older model.

https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/IdeaPad/IdeaPad_Gaming_3_15ACH6/IdeaPad_Gaming_3_15ACH6_Spec.pdf

laptops and netbooks :: gaming series :: ideapad gaming 3 15ach6 :: 82k2 :: 82k200uwus - Lenovo Support US

pcsupport.lenovo.com

 

[David L]

Here is a Shell Shocker I just got this morning:

MSI Laptop Modern 15 A11M-004 Intel Core i7 11th Gen 1165G7 (2.80GHz) 16GB Memory 512 GB NVMe SSD Intel Iris Xe Graphics 15.6" Windows 10 Home (Free upgrade to Win 11) - Newegg.com No Ethernet Port or Graphics Card but does have Intel Iris XE graphics, 4 Core Proc.

 

[David L]

Intel Iris XE Graphics, Interesting:

 

[sdkid]

Intel Iris XE Graphics, Interesting:

This video is really good--- I had no idea they jumped the capability in on-board graphics so much.

I saw that shell-shocker deal this morning also--- if that thing had EITHER a 10-key OR a touch screen, I would order it. If Iris XE is that good- it makes me lean even more towards the lower end. In fact-- I am probably good with an i5-11th gen. I am just not going to ever do any real intensive tasks on this-- but getting one that is Iris-xe (11th gen or later) makes sense over the 10th gen units.

The search continues....

YET---- I keep up-selling myself on things... only $100 difference....

iris xe...versus RTX3050.... plus Ryzen 7 vs i5-11th

 

[David L]

This video is really good--- I had no idea they jumped the capability in on-board graphics so much.

I saw that shell-shocker deal this morning also--- if that thing had EITHER a 10-key OR a touch screen, I would order it. If Iris XE is that good- it makes me lean even more towards the lower end. In fact-- I am probably good with an i5-11th gen. I am just not going to ever do any real intensive tasks on this-- but getting one that is Iris-xe (11th gen or later) makes sense over the 10th gen units.

The search continues....

YET---- I keep up-selling myself on things... only $100 difference....

iris xe...versus RTX3050.... plus Ryzen 7 vs i5-11th
View attachment 124558 View attachment 124559

YET---- I keep up-selling myself on things... only $100 difference....

I did the exact same thing. I was weighing out is it worth the extra cost. I obviously caved in on the extra cost. I use to, way back in the day, buy a new PC every year selling my old PC for half of what I bought it for. I had built up a clientele waiting for when I sold them Then that went from every year to every other year, now I am about 5 years apart but giving away my old PCs to my grandkids Laptops I used for work, but now being semi-retired (less work), I am also about 4 to 5 years buying one. So what is hard is buying one that will last 4-5 years, that is why I went with 11th gen. or 5000 series.

I just built a 12th gen PC, replacing my 7th gen. It has 13 fans , crazy huh. My first white case, Corsair 5000x:
For the AIO I did a Push/Pull setup (6 Fans)
Talk about a cable management nightmare, 13 fans, each with two cables (RGB/PWM), 3 Fan Controllers, fun...

 

[SJGUSMC21]

Water cooling, love it. Got hooked on it and haven't stopped. Still use a few fans to move air though
.

 

[David L]

Water cooling, love it. Got hooked on it and haven't stopped. Still use a few fans to move air though
.View attachment 124770

Very Nice...I thought of doing a LED strip like you have...My Corsair Commander Core XT controllers has a plug for LED strips...

So my son did a build, now a few years ago, 9th Gen., he used Thermaltake's Tower 900 case, he wanted separate pumps, one for the CPU and other for the GPU. It turned out to be one of the craziest builds I have ever seen. He even cut acrylic tubing for a cleaner build. Ended up with all LED fittings for each tube, crazy, his two AIO's were 4 fans each, one on each side of the case. I seem to remember him telling me it weighs 60 pounds, he was going to put casters on it but ended up putting it on top of his desk. I have some of his build pics...Need to find final build pics...

This is how he did his drains for each AIO, since this was in the back of the case that you could not see he went with tubing like you have:







Thermaltake's Tower 900:




This is Thermaltake's Level 20 HT replacement for the 900 case, it is smaller:

 

[SJGUSMC21]

Very nice. Yeah, you can go really stupid with it, just like everything else. I had a HUGE freak'n case before and actually hurt my back lifting it (badly). So I downsized...a lot. I like the flexible tubing because it is easy, doesn't crack and I can always find it on sale. Now if I was single, no kids, and just had stupid amounts of time, i would do what your son did. But I don't, so this will suffice. For now.

 

[sdkid]

Well.... I took my time and looked at a lot of them, and I finally bought a laptop... That Lenovo Ryzen with16gb and the RTX3050.... It just was the best deal out of the 1.6 million GD different laptops I looked at.

I WOULD have bought a cheap one at $399-- but it was 8gb with 4 of the 8 being onboard soldered memory, and 4 in the slot, with a system max of 12.... I am still blown away with that design-thinking going on with RAM.

Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 15.6" Laptop Computer Platinum Collection - Black; AMD Ryzen 7 5800H 3.2GHz Processor; NVIDIA - Micro Center

Get it now! Run your favorite PC games smoothly, the way they were meant to be enjoyed with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor, DDR4 memory, and M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD storage.

www.microcenter.com

 

[tigerwillow1]

I am still blown away with that design-thinking going on with RAM.

When I worked in a group that was making PC expansion boards, we had an engineering vs. management mini-war over a couple of status LEDs on a board. The engineers argued that it cost 20 cents max to stuff the LEDs. Management (the winner) stood firm on the principle of the retail price being 10x the manufacturing cost, so 20 cents of LEDs adds $2 to the price of the board. On the soldered RAM issue, I think for the majority of users, any laptop they buy today will be in the landfill before they need more than 8 GB. The manufacturer might lose more buyers by increasing the price for a RAM socket than the few they will lose over not having it. These days I doubt most buyers even know what socketed RAM is.

 

[Flintstone61]

If you like modular laptops with "parts" they are less available as they were in like 2010. I have had some Dell Precision Laptops, where I could remove the GPU, the Processor, the ram, the dvd, etc....
Not sure what can be removed on todays Precisions, But they do have an ethernet port, and probably ram slots.

 

[David L]

Well.... I took my time and looked at a lot of them, and I finally bought a laptop... That Lenovo Ryzen with16gb and the RTX3050.... It just was the best deal out of the 1.6 million GD different laptops I looked at.

I WOULD have bought a cheap one at $399-- but it was 8gb with 4 of the 8 being onboard soldered memory, and 4 in the slot, with a system max of 12.... I am still blown away with that design-thinking going on with RAM.

Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 15.6" Laptop Computer Platinum Collection - Black; AMD Ryzen 7 5800H 3.2GHz Processor; NVIDIA - Micro Center

Get it now! Run your favorite PC games smoothly, the way they were meant to be enjoyed with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor, DDR4 memory, and M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD storage.

www.microcenter.com

I think you did great, made your budget and got a killer laptop, good job.

Let us know what you think of it's speed.

 

[Flintstone61]

Can you list the 1.599 million that you didn't buy?
Anyway glad you got something. so much junk out there.

 

[tangent]

Late to the party, but I found this youtube channel when I was trying to help a relative find a laptop last year. He does a good job reviewing laptops and has a low tolerance for things like terrible keyboards, terrible screens, or terrible build quality. He also does a good job of looking beyond the specs at power and thermal issues that actually dictate performance most of the time.

https://www.youtube.com/c/JustJoshTech/videos

There are more recent video that are may be more relevant to actually shopping for a laptop currently, but this one does a good job of summarizing why laptop shopping is frustrating.

 

[David L]

Well.... I took my time and looked at a lot of them, and I finally bought a laptop... That Lenovo Ryzen with16gb and the RTX3050.... It just was the best deal out of the 1.6 million GD different laptops I looked at.

I WOULD have bought a cheap one at $399-- but it was 8gb with 4 of the 8 being onboard soldered memory, and 4 in the slot, with a system max of 12.... I am still blown away with that design-thinking going on with RAM.

Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 15.6" Laptop Computer Platinum Collection - Black; AMD Ryzen 7 5800H 3.2GHz Processor; NVIDIA - Micro Center

Get it now! Run your favorite PC games smoothly, the way they were meant to be enjoyed with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor, DDR4 memory, and M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD storage.

www.microcenter.com

So??? How do you like it? Mine feels like a desktop, it handles everything I throw at it, very fast...Rarely does the fans cut on, or kick in to full speed...but I have not tried gaming on it, again probably won't. Your 5800H is a good match to my 11800H.

 

[dudemaar]

Great thread! lots of good info to know for my next laptop purchase. A few years back I purchased a open box lenovo p51 thinkpad ( i7-7700HQ) on auction for around $950 cad to replace my old beast of a intel 2600k gaming rig I built over a decade ago. Not much into the gaming scene anymore, so threw the beast into the basement for some occasional rally racing with my son Since the beast is gone ive got room on my desk for my blue iris PC now. (new hobby).

Lenovo ThinkPad P51 Review

Lenovo's latest industrial-strength mobile workstation delivers the goods for high-end rendering and media creation while being surprisingly portable.

www.pcmag.com

No real complaints against my P51, Its been dropped, thrown around, step on, juice spilled over the keys, but yet still keeps working. I mostly use it for on site work, some ipvideodesigntool work and occasional farming simulator with my son. looking to upgrade to something better within the next year or so.


The old beast


i7 2600K , 16GB ram, newer ish r9 390 8GB, dual link DVI to a 144hz monitoir. Still great for Dirt rally 2.0

 

[David L]

A little more info for those mounting AIOs (Radiators/Pump)

 

[David L]

Here is a nice looking 12th Gen.

MSI Crosshair 15 R6E B12UGZ-050 Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7-12700H (Up to 4.70 GHz) 15.6" Windows 11 Home 64-bit - Newegg.com

Buy MSI - 15.6" 165 Hz - Intel Core i7-12700H - GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU - 16 GB DDR4 - 1 TB PCIe SSD - Windows 11 Home 64-bit - Gaming Laptop (Crosshair 15 R6E B12UGZ-050 ) with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

140 Watts on the GPU:

MSI Crosshair 15 Rainbow Six Extraction Edition 12U – Aim To Perform

Crosshair 15 Rainbow Six Extraction Edition is a portable gaming laptop packed with up to 12th Gen. Intel® Core™ i9 processor and NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3070 graphics, cooled by cooler boost 5 for extreme performance. Best-suited for Rainbow Six Extraction.

www.msi.com

 

[hajalie24]

Don't know if anyone mentioned framework, but as a tinkerer (and I'm sure you all are as well) this laptop has got me excited.

Fix Consumer Electronics

We know consumer electronics can be better for you and for the environment. Unlike most products, ours are open for you to repair and upgrade

frame.work

It's designed to be easy to repair / upgrade. None of the BS of current laptops. I too had an issue with Dell where their support pissed me off. My trackpad died and they wouldn't replace it because it was 2 years. I couldn't find a replacement anywhere, I got one off Aliexpress but you can tell it was slightly off. And then somehow later it just died.. The framework has replacement parts available so if something does go wrong and it's out of warranty you can at least fix it yourself.

That said, despite being so close to buying a framework I ended up getting this MSI Summit lol. The price for what I was getting is just better, and the screen brightness is 500nits which is really appealing to me as I like to be outside when possible. Plus it's Costco so good warranty if something goes wrong.

I do think my next laptop will be a framework though. Hopefully by then it's more mass produced and cheaper.