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DT

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Figured I'd stick this here, because, well, read on ...

This is going to be a bit vague, but I have an opportunity on the horizon (I want to say it's more or less a done deal), where having a Winders™ notebook would be helpful, possibly even necessary. I currently use Windows in a VM (or two) on my '18 Mac Mini, which as you know, is Intel based, so I'm able to run X86 Windows apps/services - but that's a Mini. And our other two notebooks in the house are ASi (Apple Silicon), not including some slightly janky Windows notebooks taking up space in the gear closet. To be clear, I prefer MacOS by a decent margin :)

My requirements:

Reasonable high performance, with plenty of RAM/storage, probably 32GB / 1TB minimum
Good portability, thin, light
Very good battery life
Options for legit (not 3rd party) extended warranty, including accidental damage

And then I figured, if I do this, might as well tilt it towards a slightly more gaming centric model, and enjoy the huge library of available games, including the 40+ I own by way of collecting freebies over the last several months. However, I wouldn't want it to have too much of a gaming-zany design, if that makes sense.

My initial research led me to the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15, this has a 15.6” WQHD IPS display (weirdly, no cam), AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS, 40GB RAM (24GB to 40GB is only $100), 1TB SSD, a bunch of ports including GbE and HDMI - and a GeForce RTX 3070 8GB, in a thin package, with good battery life - as configured, ~$2199 and in stock. The problem is the warranty channel, I've used tons of ASUS gear, and had some replaced, but through the distributor (NewEgg), there's some notable negative feedback about the support channels 0 the other complaints I've heard is poor trackpad (though I'd use a mouse, mostly), and not the most rigid chassis.

So then I started researching some options from companies that offer 1st party service, with multi-year warranty options, accidental damage (more or less like AC+), and I wound up at Lenovo. They have a couple of variants of the Legion 7, Gen 6, the non-slim model can be configured with a Ryzen 7 5800H, 32GB/1TB, an apparently very nice 16" WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS display, RTX 3070 for ~$1860, but a months (with an S) out. For another $185 / $254 I can do a 2/3 year next biz day repair / complete accidental damage coverage.

They also have a Legion 7, Gen 6, Slim and it's, well, very slim, pretty close the same specs as the other machine (it's a 5900HX), slightly smaller battery (though apparently excellent life), loses the GbE and HDMI ports, and this machine also comes with an RTX 3060 6GB, less GPU performance, but less power consumption, and the 3060 is certainly no slouch for what we'd assume would be our typical gaming use. About the same price, same service options, etc.

Anyway, that's where I'm at, very early in the review process (call it "pre-shopping") for a Windows notebook specifically for professional use while also being something we could use for some occasional gaming, so here it is, in the gaming forum :D

(I might move this into the tech area later if it makes more sense)
 
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DT

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Ha! Forgot I started a thread about this a few months ago, so time for an update. :D Well, not much excitement really, still thinking of doing the above, maybe a little closer to pulling the trigger, I currently have this in a cart ...

Legion 7 Gen 6 AMD (16") with RTX 3080

$2,199.99
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX Processor (3.30 GHz, up to 4.60 GHz Max Boost, 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 16 MB Cache)
  • Operating System: Windows 11 Home 64
  • Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 3080 16GB
  • Memory: 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16 GB)
  • Storage: 1 TB PCIe SSD
  • Display: 16.0" WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS, anti-glare with Dolby Vision™, HDR 400, 500 nits, 165Hz
  • Camera: 720p HD
  • Keyboard: Backlit - RGB - US English
  • WLAN: 802.11AX (2 x 2) & Bluetooth® 5.1
  • Warranty: 1 Year Legion Ultimate Support

3Y Accidental Damage Protection Add On

3Y Legion Ultimate Support with Onsite Upgrade from 1Y LUS

It's pretty readily available, Ships FREE by Fri, Aug 12, has added 3 year service, accidental damage (I've read several places Lenovo service is pretty solid).

With all my stacked discounts (machine, points, BTS, rando e-coupon), it would come to $2,158.14 (That's ~$884 in savings).
 

DT

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Geez, more than double the price, and sure, the physical design is kind of sexy, but f*** that company. I dealt with them on the west coast when I was out there a few years, terrible service/warranty channels.

If I wind up with the Lenovo, hopefully I won't be saying that about them later :D Our previous Lenovo was pretty decent, it was a touch screen Yoga for the little G, it got physically damaged (without any warranty) and I sort of wanted to migrate her to Mac anyway (which she's been on for a couple of years).
 

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Geez, more than double the price, and sure, the physical design is kind of sexy, but f*** that company. I dealt with them on the west coast when I was out there a few years, terrible service/warranty channels.

Really? For the prices they're charging, I'd expect better.

Sad fact is though, that as far as build quality and parts are concerned, they're about the only player in the PC space that can come close to matching Apple's quality.
 

DT

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That was a while back, umm, like 2015-2016-ish, maybe they've improved, maybe we just had bad luck (3 machines, 1 with recurring port issues, 1 totally FUBAR). I see Razor has a premier sort of support option, $369 for 3 years that includes accidental damage, maybe they've built the support infrastructure to handle that better.

This is primarily for a new development workstation, for that, I could go with a more "business spec" machine for sure, but I figured this might be fun to get something that pushes a few buttons. The thing with companies like Lenovo and Dell, they have a substantial part of their business that's corporate, and they have support channels to meet those sorts of requirements. Sort of ... :ROFLMAO:
 

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With all my stacked discounts (machine, points, BTS, rando e-coupon), it would come to $2,158.14 (That's ~$884 in savings).

Found an 8% cashback, that's another $172.65, now it's discounted (effectively) $1,056.50 o_O
 

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Found an 8% cashback, that's another $172.65, now it's discounted (effectively) $1,056.50 o_O

So you'll have enough to buy me a computer then, right?

I wouldn't ask you, but CMaier's being greedy, and won't get me one, so I really don't have any other choice.
 

DT

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Ha! It went out of stock! :ROFLMAO:

I wasn't 100% onboard, right now my VM is working good, we probably wouldn't wind up playing any games anyway, hahaha, it's always the "We could do this!" and we don't :D
 

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Ha! It went out of stock! :ROFLMAO:

I wasn't 100% onboard, right now my VM is working good, we probably wouldn't wind up playing any games anyway, hahaha, it's always the "We could do this!" and we don't :D

Eh, it just gives you more time to do some research.
 

DT

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Eh, it just gives you more time to do some research.

Yeah, I wasn't 100% on that specific machine, from reviews it was pretty solid, decent battery (better than the Intel version), very good display, obv. very quick in both general computing and graphics, but no biometric security, poor web cam, apparently gets a little loud (though that's most likely just under a gaming load).

I'm also not sold on a "gaming machine", I don't need LEDs, weird design elements, if I do wind up needing a machine, I might go with a sort of "business class", hahaha, but I also thought about scoring a year or two older MBP, bootcamping it, then I'd have a Mac when I'm done with Windows. :D
 

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I'm also not sold on a "gaming machine", I don't need LEDs, weird design elements, if I do wind up needing a machine,

That's the problem. Almost every single high end PC that could be even remotely construed as a gaming PC will have that crap on it. Things have gotten a little better on that front recently, but it's still pretty obnoxious.

POWER VENGEANCE ANNIHILATOR III XTREEM EDITION! NOW WITH GROUND EFFECTS!
 

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I wish I could run Winders without that hideous UI, or that messed up API, or the gawdawful Winders Kernel, or those nightmare Anthill-Inside CPU furnaces. I guess I will have to be stuck with something better.

There's always Linux. You'll turn into a nerd if you use it though.
 

DT

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Back to this again, hahaha ...

There is a little method to my madness. :D

So the current gen CPU offerings, it looks like the main players are AMD's Ryzen 7 6800H and Intel's Core i7-12700H

Intel seems to have a performance advantage, and AMD a battery life advantage. I'm reading that current hardware/OS doesn't handle the E-cores on Intel as well as they could, so it's possible, maybe even likely, that the battery performance will notably improve.

That is all for now :unsure:
 

DT

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Maybe this, it's a Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 7
  • Processor: 12th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-12700H Processor (E-cores up to 3.50 GHz P-cores up to 4.70 GHz)
  • Operating System: Windows 11 Home 64
  • Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 3070 Ti Laptop GPU 8GB GDDR6
  • Memory: 32 GB DDR5-4800MHz (SODIMM) (2 x 16 GB)
  • Storage: 2 TB PCIe SSD Gen4 (2 x 1 TB)
  • Display: 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080), IPS, Anti-Glare, Non-Touch, 100%sRGB, 300 nits, 165Hz, LED Backlight, Narrow Bezel
  • Camera: 720P HD with Array Microphone & Electronic Privacy Shutter
  • Keyboard: 4zone RGB Backlit, Storm Grey - English (US)
  • WLAN: Wi-Fi 6E 2x2 AX & Bluetooth® 5.1
 

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Maybe this, it's a Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 7
  • Processor: 12th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-12700H Processor (E-cores up to 3.50 GHz P-cores up to 4.70 GHz)
  • Operating System: Windows 11 Home 64
  • Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 3070 Ti Laptop GPU 8GB GDDR6
  • Memory: 32 GB DDR5-4800MHz (SODIMM) (2 x 16 GB)
  • Storage: 2 TB PCIe SSD Gen4 (2 x 1 TB)
  • Display: 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080), IPS, Anti-Glare, Non-Touch, 100%sRGB, 300 nits, 165Hz, LED Backlight, Narrow Bezel
  • Camera: 720P HD with Array Microphone & Electronic Privacy Shutter
  • Keyboard: 4zone RGB Backlit, Storm Grey - English (US)
  • WLAN: Wi-Fi 6E 2x2 AX & Bluetooth® 5.1

Apparently, the 2022 Asus ROG G14's are the new hotness among gaming laptops these days. Have you looked into those?
 

DT

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Apparently, the 2022 Asus ROG G14's are the new hotness among gaming laptops these days. Have you looked into those?

I have! Asus was usually my "go to" for motherboards, my biggest concern is the sales/support channel. Like with a Lenovo or even Dell or HP, there's a direct purchase point, you buy from them, if you get an extended warranty that covers accidental damage and onsite pickup/replacement, it's handled first tier.

I don't want a major failure on a $2500 machine where I'm concerned if it will be covered or will be gone for service for 2 months.
 

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I don't want a major failure on a $2500 machine where I'm concerned if it will be covered or will be gone for service for 2 months.

I'd be handled just like a console, I imagine. It's highly unlikely it'll be gone for two months. More like two weeks or so.

This happened years ago, and it's pretty anecdotal, but I had an Asus GPU that ended up going bad on me after a year. I sent it to them, and a week later, they said it was an issue with the manufacturing, and they upgraded me to a newer, more powerful card free of charge.
 
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