The Laptop Thread

[JSmith]

Do you have experience with that machine

I have experience with many machines Ron, since the late 70's to current. I'm out of this thread for now...


JSmith

 

[ZolaIII]

It looks complex to me. There are a lot of options for those with technical skills and time, but they are a tiny minority. It's not a solution for the masses, so to speak.

It takes a bit time and effort but you have real control and with cuple pressets you are very good covered. It doesn't work with all laptops particularly not some Dell's to my experience for such you use much older and more rudimentary Fanctrl.

GitHub - lich426/FanCtrl: FanCtrl is a software that allows you to automatically control the fan speed on your PC.

FanCtrl is a software that allows you to automatically control the fan speed on your PC. - lich426/FanCtrl

github.com

 

[Ron Texas]

I had an AWFUL experience with an alienware m15 R3 a couple of years ago- the thing had to be undervolted to run at all, it would hit 100 degrees on the CPU during boot. I took it apart and re-pasted it and it was better until the paste dried out . . . .
got rid of it this year and got one of the Asus ROG strix scar17's with the ryzen 9 7945HX3D with the 3d vcache + 4090 GPU. much better cooling performance, I've been having a great time with it for the first month or so. Asus had some telemetry software (myAsus) but it was easy to remove. Armory crate you can replace with g helper, and the only other crapware they had installed was a mcafee trial that was also easy to remove.
only complaint is the battery life, for some reason this model just runs out super fast, all the reviews mentioned it. And the built in display (IPS, 2560x1440 244 hz, no HDR!) is only OK at best- it's not very bright, but at least the colors are accurate ish and there's minimal IPS backlight bleed on my model.

Your experience is consistent with what I found on the Lenovo Legion 5. Gaming laptops have small batteries which allow for a couple hours of web surfing. It reminds me of the days when laptops were only unplugged for a few minutes a a time. Gaming laptops absolutely scream on all sorts of benchmarks. Asus makes laptops for creatives. These are high end gaming machines without the distractions added for gaming. The keyboards and displays are upgraded. However, they are bulky, heavy, noisy, hot and not cheap. On the other hand, for heavy video editing they beat hauling a desktop into the field for heavy video editing.

The new MacBook Pro M3 Max will run Premiere Pro as fast as any windows laptop with a Nvidia GPU without the negatives I mentioned above. They aren't cheap.

 

[elvisizer]

The new MacBook Pro M3 Max will run Premiere Pro as fast as any windows laptop with a Nvidia GPU without the negatives I mentioned above.

the asus is only for gaming, my actual laptop is a 16" m1 max - not quite as speedy as the m3, but it's still fine

 

[Ron Texas]

I have experience with many machines Ron, since the late 70's to current. I'm out of this thread for now...


JSmith

Not that one and besides it's a 3 year old model not sold anymore.

 

[Ron Texas]

the asus is only for gaming, my actual laptop is a 16" m1 max

Another Mac user, yay!. You make an interesting point which is one laptop probably can't do everything.

 

[droid2000]

Yeah, that’s unfortunately the world we live in.
Windows from any of these manufacturers comes loaded with crapware.

I typically wipe the OS clean, upon receiving a laptop, and install a clean Windows 11 iso. I set the language to “English (world)”, which removes any 3rd party shortcuts on start menu (like Spotify, Sudoku, etc). This leaves only official Windows apps. A very clean install, in other words.

Then, I disable the Windows telemetry/privacy tracking by running ShutUp10++. Just run it and apply recommended settings. Then reboot pc.

Then I install the necessary drivers, such as network driver (Intel or Realtek) and audio drivers.

Then see what the vendor drivers are left over, from Dell or Lenovo, etc.

Paying a lot of money to get a machine that you have to clean like some whore with STD's is insulting and degrading.

Have some respect for yourself.

 

[ZolaIII]

Not that one obviously.

Not AI again please! Neither VC is Intelligent nor majorly of people understand categories and deduction can't lead to anything new, eventually nicer arrangements.

 

[Ron Texas]

Paying a lot of money to get a machine that you have to clean like some whore with STD's is insulting and degrading.

Have some respect for yourself.

My point exactly. Give the guy some credit. He uses a Mac.

 

[sweetchaos]

Paying a lot of money to get a machine that you have to clean like some whore with STD's is insulting and degrading.

Have some respect for yourself.

Graphic.

Yes, the situation sucks, but what's the alternative?
Use the spyware/crapware laptop, giving up your privacy, just because you can't take the effort to do anything about it?
Linux or MacOS?
MacOS is relatively expensive and Linux is ... Linux.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Gaming laptops weigh 9 pounds, are bulky, run hot and noisy, have tons of crapware, keyboards with distracting lighting and are otherwise unsuitable for anything but gaming. An external GPU is not a solution for most people. Certainly not for anyone who needs portability. When I started this thread I expected all sorts of these exceptional items to come up. These things exist, but are useful only for a few.

I've got a gaming laptop that is I think 2 mm thicker than a mac. Three quarters of a pound heavier. It does have lighted keys which I like, but no distracting antics. I keep them on a dim red setting. It is somewhat faster than the Mac M2 units, and has a pair of built in GPUs. The better one is on par with the M2 macs. I can add to or upgrade the HD, and the memory. It is normally quiet though if pushed it will generate a little noise, but other than running benchmarks I've never had it do that. It has a battery life maybe 60% of the Macs. It has some crapware to deal with. M3's were not out when I purchased this laptop.

So if you want the don't do anything aspect of the Mac, sounds like you need to forget about Windows. Of course you pay quite a price for that. My gaming laptop had twice the memory and 4 times the HD and can be upgraded cheaply in the future yet was a bit cheaper than the Mac. A Mac of the same HD and memory capacity would have been just about 2x the price. I like the keyboard feel slightly better than the Mac, and to my surprise the touchpad is quite a bit better than the Mac. It is an AMD cpu.

So then you are down to which do you prefer using. I like the Windows better than MacOS. Can use both, but Mac just seems to get in the way somewhat. Like you I found some utilities that are useful and free on Windows have to be purchased for a Mac. I'd like to replace my old Linux desktop with a smaller PC. The Mac Mini is the best thing for that, but I'm just not sure I want to live in the MacOS. I've connected my Macbook and run it headless into my regular monitor and keyboard to see. I've used it for a couple of weeks a couple of times, and it just didn't click for me.

The other thing I don't like is Macbooks get short lived support on the OS vs Windows. Something like 5 years and partial support of security only for 2 more years. Not a great deal when it costs twice as much and may be supported by the OS for half as long. The hardware will be fine, but then you have to jump thru hoops to keep the old Mac going or buy a new one.

 

[ZolaIII]

My point exactly. Give the guy some credit. He uses a Mac.

I BSD that, gona follow John, stage exit left as I bean there from knight day's and PC/M.

 

[amirm]

I am in agreement with OP. My last HP core i7 became unusable over time with the fan running constantly, getting hot, etc. It was so fast when I first bought it but software bloat killed it. Searching for a new laptop was a nightmare. Bought an ASUS with external intel ARC GPU. Performance was good but the darn fan kept running and it was borderline too hot on the lap. The kicker was the power supply connector going bad in about a month! Took it back to bestbuy and tested their demo model on the floor. Same problem! Returned it and got a Lenovo top of the line.

The Lenovo has 4K OLED display and the integrated GPU can't drive it well. Nothing ever seems "fast" to the eye. It also had its fan running all the time regardless of what mode you had it in and the load on it. Fortunately the did a bios update which in one of the mode causes it run silently.

What is remarkable that playing videos will cause the fan to come on two of the modes. In this day and age, such a modern CPU with integrated video decoding can't do that while sipping a few watts like my phone does???

And man, don't even get me started with 200+ background processes running doing who knows what. Incompetence all around in not even naming these utilities to know who installed them and what they do. It generally takes me two weeks to get a new Windows PC sorted out, deleting various crapware, etc.

In sharp contrast, my 3 year old hand built desktop PC works like a charm. It has an Nvidia (low end) GPU and runs circles around my much newer laptop. Everything is fast on it. And of course with a fresh install of Windows 10, has no crapware on it.

 

[amirm]

BTW, when I was at Microsoft, we had a VP 100% focused on driving the laptop strategy for us. He would not only push for better functionality on laptops, he would push the PC OEMs to do better by often showcasing how well Apple was doing in this regard. Sadly, when Sinofsky took over, they let him go. So here we are 10+ years later with systems that make us jealous of what Apple is going (although I dislike them for other reasons).

 

[droid2000]

Graphic.

Yes, the situation sucks, but what's the alternative?
Use the spyware/crapware laptop, giving up your privacy, just because you can't take the effort to do anything about it?
Linux or MacOS?
MacOS is relatively expensive and Linux is ... Linux.

There are only two choices, unless you are into humiliation (that's ok I don't judge).

Linux - when done properly, it's the most secure. If security is your priority, then you'l overlook the fact that it can't do anything else.

Mac - give up some security for convenience. Unless you are a reporter in a hot zone, or a political target and tor isn't good enough. It does everything else well.

 

[droid2000]

I am in agreement with OP. My last HP core i7 became unusable over time with the fan running constantly, getting hot, etc. It was so fast when I first bought it but software bloat killed it. Searching for a new laptop was a nightmare. Bought an ASUS with external intel ARC GPU. Performance was good but the darn fan kept running and it was borderline too hot on the lap. The kicker was the power supply connector going bad in about a month! Took it back to bestbuy and tested their demo model on the floor. Same problem! Returned it and got a Lenovo top of the line.

The Lenovo has 4K OLED display and the integrated GPU can't drive it well. Nothing ever seems "fast" to the eye. It also had its fan running all the time regardless of what mode you had it in and the load on it. Fortunately the did a bios update which in one of the mode causes it run silently.

What is remarkable that playing videos will cause the fan to come on two of the modes. In this day and age, such a modern CPU with integrated video decoding can't do that while sipping a few watts like my phone does???

And man, don't even get me started with 200+ background processes running doing who knows what. Incompetence all around in not even naming these utilities to know who installed them and what they do. It generally takes me two weeks to get a new Windows PC sorted out, deleting various crapware, etc.

In sharp contrast, my 3 year old hand built desktop PC works like a charm. It has an Nvidia (low end) GPU and runs circles around my much newer laptop. Everything is fast on it. And of course with a fresh install of Windows 10, has no crapware on it.

why do you keep using that crap?

 

[Ron Texas]

@amirm as I said at the start, desktops are a lot simpler. They just don't travel well. I think Windows is a great product (or service) but some of Microsoft's best customers are not doing it justice. I love my Mac, but it isn't for everyone. The big negative is getting used to the endless small differences from Windows and in a few cases finding different apps or ways of doing things. Fortunately, the big stuff like Photoshop just works. Thank you Adobe.

Windows isn't going away and Microsoft is doing amazing things with cloud computing and AI. I love the stock.

 

[droid2000]

@amirm as I said at the start, desktops are a lot simpler. They just don't travel well. I think Windows is a great product (or service) but some of Microsoft's best customers are not doing it justice. I love my Mac, but it isn't for everyone. The big negative is getting used to the endless small differences from Windows and in a few cases finding different apps or ways of doing things. Fortunately, the big stuff like Photoshop just works. Thank you Adobe.

Windows isn't going away and Microsoft is doing amazing things with cloud computing and AI. I love the stock.

Microsoft is forever trying to play catchup with AWS cloud computing. And when they do (never will), Vercel, et al, will already have elevated the level again to levels Microsoft will never achieve.

 

[Ron Texas]

There are only two choices, unless you are into humiliation (that's ok I don't judge).

Linux - when done properly, it's the most secure. If security is your priority, then you'l overlook the fact that it can't do anything else.

Mac - give up some security for convenience. Unless you are a reporter in a hot zone, or a political target and tor isn't good enough. It does everything else well.

Linux doesn't run Adobe Creative Cloud applications. The usual reply is use Gimp and Raw Therapy. For me that would be like giving up my car and taking the bus. Those applications run on Windows and few use them. The free alternative to Adobe for photography is the stuff manufacturers give away with their cameras.

What security is being given up with a Mac? As compared to what? What does Tor get you as compared to the typical VPN other than being free? Thankfully I'm not a political target.

 

[ZolaIII]

There are only two choices, unless you are into humiliation (that's ok I don't judge).

Linux - when done properly, it's the most secure. If security is your priority, then you'l overlook the fact that it can't do anything else.

Mac - give up some security for convenience. Unless you are a reporter in a hot zone, or a political target and tor isn't good enough. It does everything else well.

Sorry no go. If you want guaranteed privacy you use open source tools with very good encryptions disreging of platform (especially if you are a war reporter). If you really want to hack pick a BSD as a backbone and a less popular one with truly different code base so that 99% can't touch you (while you hit them) and that's Dragonfly. If you want to do any serious business nothing makes sense other than Linux.
You still don't have a choice if you are into gaming so everyone back to it's tool.