Picked Up An Additional Laptop (ThinkPad T14 Quick Review)
I got an additional laptop for this bull run. Sometimes you can feel like you can never have too many computers. Initially I didn't want to spend too much money. I was thinking keeping it under about $400 but I realized that it wasn't going to help me if I didn't spend more.
I don't like to blow out an install on a machine until I have the next machine set up and then I go back to the older machine and upgrade it after everything is set up on the new setup.
There are a few things I don't like about the machine. There is no number pad. It's a smaller laptop that would be good for travel. There is a microSD slot but it isn't a regular sized slot which isn't a huge deal because I have other machines with the full sized SD card slot.
The video memory is shared and you can only crank it up to 512GB. The webcam only shoots in 720p which I wish it could do a full 1080p. The screen is full HD 1920X1080.
I didn't get it with an OS installed because my plan was to install Linux. I initially installed Debian but I ran into an issue with the boot record and other people seemed to run into that same situation. It was enough to annoy me and I decided to install Ubuntu.
The setup I bought I got 48GB of Ram and a 4TB SSD. Here is the eBay listing I bought the machine from. Could I have dug around and found that same machine possibly for cheaper and then upgraded the ram myself and all that? For sure but I didn't want to waste too much time with it. Here is the listing I got it from. They are a quality seller.
One of the reasons I still have a Windows install was to access Copilot but the cool thing is in Ubuntu you can set it up to access the various different AI models. Copilot, Gemini, DeepSeek. I popped those up in the screenshot.
Conclusion
You can get crazy and spend $5,000+ on a laptop and I didn't need to do that at the moment. Buying a couple year old business class laptop wasn't my initial intention but comparing various deals it ended up being a decent option. This should handle me having 8,000 browser tabs open.
This will help me get through this bull market for sure but I still do like my Acer laptop because the screen and keyboard is a lot bigger on it.
At the end of the day it is hard to have everything you want unless your really spend quite a bit. I feel the same way about phones as well.
I might buy a mini PC plus a 27 inches monitor, keyboard and mouse, and then a mount to perch it all on the side of my steel bed frame because I do computing while lying down @brianphobos
I only consume media and do these things so I needed a better screen resolution and Dolby Atmos for sound enhancement and the FXSound installed too. I am not a gamer but I just want my PC to be capable of playing games as well.
Your laptop specs is like a tank for a laptop. I wish all success for your financial endeavors. 😀
The mini PCs out there pack a punch. They are really powerful for their size. The 27 Inch Monitor will be a nice addition for sure.
The ram and SSD on that laptop are solid for sure. I wish their was dedicated VRAM and a better graphics card just in case. I don't know if I will really need something more than what the machine is capable of but it is always nice to have extra!
Thank you and good luck finding a mini PC you like!