Need a new laptop

[scottm]

Wow this might be my first post in a couple years.. Anyway I need a new laptop - pc/windows, 15-16 inch monitor, 32 gb ram, 8+gb video for cad graphics. What's the latest news? A year ago everything was out of stock and prices were up. Are prices still up due to supply chain issues? My current one is an Asus, about 6yo with no hardware problems (just os issues due to ms forcing me to upgrade to windows 10). I have also had good luck with Dell and Alienware. Any good deals now or should I wait til after xmas?

 

[Doom!]

I just picked up a 17" HP laptop with 64gb ram and am very happy with it. I do lots of large format color work which is graphic intensive. My last two desktop pc's were HP's and have had no other problems with them other than growing obsolete over time. In the past I have had most of the major pc brands, HP may not seem sexy or glamourous, but thet have been solid workhorses for me.

 

[Greywolf74]

Wow this might be my first post in a couple years.. Anyway I need a new laptop - pc/windows, 15-16 inch monitor, 32 gb ram, 8+gb video for cad graphics. What's the latest news? A year ago everything was out of stock and prices were up. Are prices still up due to supply chain issues? My current one is an Asus, about 6yo with no hardware problems (just os issues due to ms forcing me to upgrade to windows 10). I have also had good luck with Dell and Alienware. Any good deals now or should I wait til after xmas?

Prices are worse than ever. ASUS is one of the best brands in PCs. Everything they make is a cut above. Dell ruined Alienware when they bought them out. I would look at Asus, iBuyPower.com, and CyberpowerPC.com for various options.

You can also check out this top 10 best gaming laptops of 2021 from TomsHardware.com. Asus scored 4 out of the top 10 slots.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-laptops,4828.html

 

[scottm]

Thanks Grey, that link was helpful. I'm leaning toward the asus rog g15. Will there be huge deals after xmas, or get it now while I can?

 

[Greywolf74]

Thanks Grey, that link was helpful. I'm leaning toward the asus rog g15. Will there be huge deals after xmas, or get it now while I can?

Even though I just dogged Alienware, out of all the roughly $2000 priced laptops on that list, the Alienware m17 R4 probably has the best overall specs. Id probably go for that one. Alienware is still decent just not as good as they were before Dell bought them out. IDK about after christmas sales.

 

[WutUp Clegg]

Wow this might be my first post in a couple years.. Anyway I need a new laptop - pc/windows, 15-16 inch monitor, 32 gb ram, 8+gb video for cad graphics. What's the latest news? A year ago everything was out of stock and prices were up. Are prices still up due to supply chain issues? My current one is an Asus, about 6yo with no hardware problems (just os issues due to ms forcing me to upgrade to windows 10). I have also had good luck with Dell and Alienware. Any good deals now or should I wait til after xmas?

I guess the biggest question is the same question we give people asking about what RC to get. That question is, what do you plan on doing with it. I work with a lot of different brands.

 

[Greywolf74]

I guess the biggest question is the same question we give people asking about what RC to get. That question is, what do you plan on doing with it. I work with a lot of different brands.

He says right in his post what the basic specs are that hes after, and that he does a lot of AutoCAD stuff. His initial pick tells ya roughly what his budget is. What more info are you after?

 

[WutUp Clegg]

He says right in his post what the basic specs are that hes after, and that he does a lot of AutoCAD stuff. His initial pick tells ya roughly what his budget is. What more info are you after?

The info I need now is where I can find a book that tells me how to find details in a posting and not look like a tard by asking for something in front of my face.
I purchased an Asus for engineering purposes. However, crapped out on me in a year. The motherboard went out. I also purchased an Asus router that also crapped out on me after a year. Asus is not a good as they use to be. It is a hit and miss with them. I asked around and got pretty deep researching long term use on laptops. Toshiba turned out to be the most reliable. However, they don't make laptops any more. So, I went with the next brand, which was Lenovo. I now have 3 Lenovo's in my household with zero issues. We have had them for a couple years now. My last laptop, from work, lasted 4 years and I abused the crap out of it. The only thing I don't like about the laptops now, is the solid state harddrives. If they go down, you lose everything. With the older style, they store memory on disks, so if the drive goes down, you can still recover the data from the disks.

However, definitely make sure you get an i7 with a powerful video card. You're looking at about $1000.

 

[HPIguy]

^^I'll second Lenovo. When I was still a Windows guy for work, we ran Lenovo lappies, and they held up really well.

 

[Greywolf74]

I guess if you like Chinese spyware embedded in your computer you can buy Lenovos. Personally Ill pass.

As for Asus, they are still king of the hill in terms of computer hardware. I run a ton of Asus products and have for years. It pretty rare that I have anything crap out on me. The MoBo I'm running right now is an Asus Maximus VI Forumla which I bought back in 2014 and its still going strong.

Toshibas were known for their overheating issues so its probably better that they dont make them anymore.

Hard drive is a hard drive if it fails, it fails. The only way you're going to recover data from a failed hard drive is to send in to a lab that specializes in data extraction. doesn't matter if its solid state or platter based.

 

[WoodiE]

@scottm check out the Lenovo Legion series laptops.

 

[Greywolf74]

Seriously? You guys arent worried about embedded Chinese spyware on Lenovo computers? The DOD banned the use of Lenovos because of this.

 

[hamz9561]

Is battery life a big consideration? Do you need a discrete graphics card? Do you need an optical drive? Origin PC is a good boutique builder. They have both gaming and workstations in laptop and desktops. Here's an example of their workstation thin and light that can be customized: https://www.originpc.com/workstation/laptops/nt-15i/

 

[WutUp Clegg]

Seriously? You guys arent worried about embedded Chinese spyware on Lenovo computers? The DOD banned the use of Lenovos because of this.

Sorry,
I thought I replied to this already.

I remember that issue with Lenovo. I believe it was around 2014. I was a computer sells rep at the time. A Lenovo rep was put in the hot seat when that was announced. The spyware on Lenovo's was coming on the refurbished Lenovo's. Lenovo contracted another company to refurbish their laptops and those are the ones that were banned. A lot of it was the same spyware we all have on our computers and programs today. That's why we always see advertisements or something searched for online. Heck, you can't even have a conversation around your cell phone without getting advertisements on things you were talking about. For example, my wife and I were talking about diapers and how much they cost. A little later, I was reading about something on my phone and an advertisement for diapers popped up.

So, we are extremely careful with the systems we use. In fact, we are not allowed to view TikTok videos on any of our issued devices. Not even our company cellphones. Id we use our personal phone for work, we are not allowed to view it on that either. We are also not allowed to have certain online clouds to store out info on. By the way, Apple collects all the data from our devices, so it's just a matter of time before things go wrong with that.

The point is, if you have a device that is hooked to the web, you're being spied on. There's no way around it. DOD systems are not even hooked to the Worldwide Web. Only the Intranet, unless you have special permission, equipment, and programs.

 

[Greywolf74]

Sorry,
I thought I replied to this already.

I remember that issue with Lenovo. I believe it was around 2014. I was a computer sells rep at the time. A Lenovo rep was put in the hot seat when that was announced. The spyware on Lenovo's was coming on the refurbished Lenovo's. Lenovo contracted another company to refurbish their laptops and those are the ones that were banned. A lot of it was the same spyware we all have on our computers and programs today. That's why we always see advertisements or something searched for online. Heck, you can't even have a conversation around your cell phone without getting advertisements on things you were talking about. For example, my wife and I were talking about diapers and how much they cost. A little later, I was reading about something on my phone and an advertisement for diapers popped up.

So, we are extremely careful with the systems we use. In fact, we are not allowed to view TikTok videos on any of our issued devices. Not even our company cellphones. Id we use our personal phone for work, we are not allowed to view it on that either. We are also not allowed to have certain online clouds to store out info on. By the way, Apple collects all the data from our devices, so it's just a matter of time before things go wrong with that.

The point is, if you have a device that is hooked to the web, you're being spied on. There's no way around it. DOD systems are not even hooked to the Worldwide Web. Only the Intranet, unless you have special permission, equipment, and programs.

The DOD has multiple networks that are hooked up to the WWW. "Lenovo computers were banned by the State Department in 2006 following reports of hidden hardware or software used for cyber-espionage. The ban is still in place to this day and there is still an ongoing review of Lenovo products being done. Lenovo and Lexmark are both manufactured in China and have known ties to their intelligence agency."

 

[WutUp Clegg]

The DOD has multiple networks that are hooked up to the WWW. "Lenovo computers were banned by the State Department in 2006 following reports of hidden hardware or software used for cyber-espionage. The ban is still in place to this day and there is still an ongoing review of Lenovo products being done. Lenovo and Lexmark are both manufactured in China and have known ties to their intelligence agency."

So, Just to see if my info is accurate, I did a search and read a few articles on this. The ban came in 2013. However, Lenovo started to follow the US regulations. In fact, the USA created a new agency to monitor this stuff. It's called CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States). It's a body comprised of nine cabinet-level Executive Branch agencies charged with reviewing the national security aspects of foreign direct investment. They over look all electronic devices that are sold on US soil. Lenovo passes their sniff test. In fact, in 2018, the US military purchased almost $200,000 worth of Lenovo computers and over $30 million on Lexmark equipment. It seems like the only brands that are still banned by the DOD is Huawei, TikTok, and GoPro.

Either way, like I said, it doesn't matter who get your equipment from. Your info info isn't safe. They are all watching us. Personally, I don't have anything of great enough value to cause any of these companies to stop and check me out. Sure, I work for the government as manager, so my name is already public information. Therefore, any of those Chinese hackers would have problem being able to find everything they want about me.

 

[Greywolf74]

Not sure what articles you read but I manage an IT contract for the DOD and I promise you the ban on Lenovo is still in place. We also dont use Lexmark anymore, we use HP