Computer Advice Needed

I used to buy a lot of Lenovos. The quality has totally disintegrated in the past 5 years. I won't touch Lenovos again for awhile. Even the really good priced/quality ones from before then, often had a similar design problem -- the hinges would crack. I'd say about 1/3 of the Lenovos that I (and others bought) had at least one hinge crack in 3-5 years. Granted, small sample size (<10).

The last Lenovo I bought was prior to the pandemic. Sound card & screen are seriously underpowered. Maximum volume is like 25% on other laptops. Ports were minimal and not well aligned (I had to really push the HDMI into the jack really really hard to get it to work -- I initially thought the port wasn't working at all for the first 3-6 months!). The screen began to fail within 1 year (I have 2 large geometric/oval black spots on the upper left of my screen). Fortunately, that is my emergency office laptop and the external monitor is unaffected by the screen failure. I use it as a controller for Zoom conferencing.

My Win7 Lenovo is still running, and serves as my main backup laptop. I actually used it last weekend on a road trip! Yeah the hinge is cracked, so I open/close it carefully. The lone USB3 port (it's a really old laptop) has "developed" alignment problems. I originally thought it failed. But then I realized that after I plug in the cable, just pull out ~1mm, and the port works!!!

Don't rule out gaming computers. My main laptop is actually a gaming computer; I just don't use it for gaming.

I skip AMD processors. I only bought one AMD laptop almost 20 years ago. The specs looked good, but it just didn't run as fast. It was noticeably slower than the older Intel laptop it was replacing! Rather disappointing, because I actually did contract work for AMD back in the early 1990s. I'm willing to spend the extra $100-$200 for the Intel.

Not a big fan of HP -- I'll just leave it at that. Although I did buy one for my youngest daughter ~3yrs ago. It's actually the last laptop I've purchased.

I actually talked to an laptop builder/upgrader last weekend. He was the hotel clerk, who noticed I was using an MSI. I told him I was trying to avoid getting another MSI because the price has more than doubled since I bought mine 7 years ago. I require a side keypad, so that limits my options considerably. I never use the turbo boost on my MSI since I don't do gaming, so he recommended that I consider Acer NITRO series. Half the price for near equivalent performance if I ignore any speed boost requirements. So, that's where I am in my search for a replacement laptop.

I forgot about that: if I need a larger screen, I can hook up to the one I have right now.

I’m not ruling out a gaming rig, it’s just that the most intensive games I play are Wordle and Words With Friends, so I’m not looking for anything with a high-end discrete GPU which would drive up the cost needlessly.

I’ll tell you, HP seduced me with two words, Bang & Olufsen. I know, they’re only contributing some software razzmatazz to the audio, which, for a laptop sounds like putting lipstick on a pig.

Lenovo and HP seem to be the ones I’ve been most attracted to on a price basis, but I guess you have to revert back to the old adage, you get what you pay for.

I’m surprised about your stance on AMD, as from what I’ve been reading, the Ryzen 5 and 7 handily outperform comparable (priced) Intel units, though I did come across one review that said if you’re doing video editing, Intel’s integrated GPU would be preferable over AMD’s.

So, you advised against my picks, but didn’t offer an alternative. What do you think about the Asus Vivobook 14 with OLED screen and whatever 12th gen Intel is in it?

I still have my Bang & Olufsen turntable sitting on the top shelf above my TV. But I haven't used it in 20 years. It doesn't seem to want to play CDs correctly.

I heavily overspent on that turntable. My OCD insisted that I could hear Wow and Flutter, and I had to have something that had the specs to make the Wow and Flutter undiscernible to me. While the heavy metal sounded good, the Chopin sonatas and mazurkas were off-pitch in certain areas.

Fortunately, a few years later, I got back into stamp collecting and my money went to more important things.

When I got the turntable, B&O (not the railroad) had just come out with their newest CD unit. I didn't have any CDs at that time, so didn't test it. All I remember was the price tag was more than just the first/second multiples of $1000

I have always been a Thinkpad fan (because the company made them) plus in part due to the keyboard but I have used Dells at work. The Dells have been nice but did not like the keyboard but then I usually use a traditional keyboard. I have a Thunderbolt docking station to have 3 displays and connect a lot peripherals (backup HDDs. scanner, printer, keyboard, web cam, external CD, etc) The standard laptop screen is too small for me.



As for sound, when I want to play music louder, I connect with a Bluetooth adapter to my stereo that has some nice Boston Acoustic speakers. I have a turntable with the dream of capturing records (now have to say vinyl). I also have a cassette deck and reel to reel (circa 1975 or so).

I got myself a Lenovo when I was being quarentined for 2 weeks at a time, a Legion 5 and I love it. I actually did a couple YouTube Videos on it - ran Shotcut and OBS with no issues. GIMP is a must with my websites and this baby runs it great.
Gaming is not a problem either with the games I do play around with.

When I was researching laptops ASUS was an option but the drawback was it got hotter than most. MSI is suppose to be a decent brand too.

angore, like that setup. I have 2 screens on my desktop and couldn't live without it. What text editor is that on the left screen?

Last fall, I needed to get a new laptop. I ended up getting an LG Gram from Costco. The other possibility would've been a Samsung. I've been very happy thus far.

My past purchases were HP or Sony (from back in the day!) or Apple (from way back in the day!). Although I used to work at HP (at headquarters in Palo Alto, and when H & P both still 'managed by walking around'), I've become disenchanted with HP over the years. (That could be a whole 'nother essay.) But I always respect khj's perspective on these things, and he's more bullish on them than I am.

I still have a legacy Sony Vaio desktop next to my work table! Used it maybe once. Bought it for a coworker to use, but then they suddenly told me they didn't need another desktop after all.

Also still have a SuperMac and the backup Power Macintosh 9600 desktop -- we used for our recording studio back in the 1990s.

Definitely brought back memories, Philatarium!

And Tedski, you definitely don't want to get those models today!

Did you ever design or make a horn system, a la Klipsch?