gen-14 is coming out, that’s a gen-9 -
5y old as of 2024.

no it’s not worth $500…

imagine how hard it’s been gamed on for five years straight.

just buy new.

Recommendation if you want the best based on storage capacity, being on go, and reliability:

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 --or-- ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11

Once you go ThinkPad X1 Yoga or ThinkPad X1 Carbon, generally most never look back to HP Z-books or Dell Latitudes, anymore.

https://ubuntu.com/certified/202303-31326

Well, if cost is not an issue, then get the ThinkPad X1-G8/X1C-G11 with this configuration:
i7-1365U - (do not get P processor, it runs hot and sucks up too much battery life)
64gb RAM
Starts at 1TB -> 8TB SSD (upgrade it yourself or have tech help you do it)
Screen: 1920x1200 (anti-glare - matte, which is non-glossy and no shiny coating) - avoid 4K or OLED, the battery life is terrible compared to just. also, do NOT get the privacy filter, it sucks as coloration is terrible.

Onsite support for parts replacement by Lenovo tech or overnight delivery: 5y Premier Support Plus (cost jumps, otherwise move it to 3y middle tier at Premier non-plus, and upgrade it later as you need it).

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 (it will be laptop, and a tablet when you need it to), if you don’t need it to flip, get X1C, the keyboard experience is typically slightly better on it. The HP and Dell keyboards remains mostly junk for typing enthusiasts based on what I’ve seen.
Models have no discrete graphics so you don’t have to worry about iGPU/discrete-GPU toggling in Linux for drivers/support or switchover junk or battery life drainage concerns.
10h-20h of battery life, depending on usage.

ThinkPad series mentioned here supports downgrade to W10 from W11 if you need native Win10 legacy environment that you can’t get anymore with more new laptops, and can dual boot Linux if and when needed.

very likely

i have to type on it like i’m typing one letter at a time, and count the half second I type when I hit the next key stroke, and it takes me like 2-3 times to enter my pw correctly

not made for typists, that’s for sure

you prefer WinOS - so don’t get the Apple computer. Even if you bootcamp it to WinOS, that’s still a waste of money because now you have a WinOS on an expensive piece of luxury hardware.

if you’re running stock charts, just get +32gb RAM.
absolutely no point in making disastrous financial mistakes because the computer glitched or ran out of RAM to pool your software tools.

$1350 on Lenovo will get you ThinkPad X1 Yoga 8th gen with i7-13u, 32gb RAM, 1TB, anti-glare 1200p screen (do not get anti reflection config. if you hate glossy screens) - 11h-13h of battery life. upgrade warranty later if you want to save money.

Lenovo ThinkPad warranty service is 100% better than Apple and Samsung.

alchemist_2727 on eBay can try to get the BIOS back for you.

replace motherboard if you don’t care about the cost or potential data loss (read below).

some BIOS configurations - you pop the lid or remove something on the motherboard, it will “attempt to” wipe the SSD(s) with the last bit of battery life left in it.

that MSI will do just fine with the 3050

if you can find a GPU with RTX 4060, that is the sweet spot

Very reliable computer, yes.

This is only the review of the keyboard itself -

But if you want the opinion of someone who’s seen it, the keyboard fucken sucks if I have to be direct and upfront.

Lots of ghosting when typing, and it’s pretty much a crap keyboard.

It seems like the holy hallmark of anti-ghosting was on the T420s.

Wasn’t too bad on the T430s (they went to chicklet, which was nice looking but totally annoying and horrible typing experience).

Worst ThinkPad T series keyboard of the 14" models was the T460s - absolute trash and garbage.

I hate the T14s-g2 and g3 keyboards - pretty much the same thing for the most part - i hate the fucken slow input lag and ghosting, it drives me crazy.

If you’re an extremely fast kb typist that wants low latency and anti-ghosting, then get the ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

If you’re not on a workstation keyboard of your own with a plug-in, then be prepared for some click-clack love and hate relationship with the T14s G2/G3 laptop keyboard.

pull fan out and extract top piece so that it reveals motor bearing

grease it with mobil grease, very lightly and seriously don’t overdose it or it will get stuck later, and then clean off any excess and run it with canned air just to make sure it’s clear of dust, gunk and excess garbage

replace fan it it still continues to fail

not recommended, but you risk a lot of future chronic damage.

the heat will build up on one side of the heatsink, and eventually fry one side of the board.

if you absolutely need to run it -
put it on max fan speed and place a cooling pad beneath laptop

software devs and microsoft being lil bitches, but essentially doing their jobs to prevent zero day and your computer from possibly breaking

those vendors can’t stop you from downgrading to run the software, but keep in mind you risk the vulnerabilities of all the lurking bot shit out there waiting to break through from 1,000 diff. angles

Ie - Microsoft Picture It was very nice software and had great simple interface to easily tweak and crop photos beyond simplicity, but Microsoft got selfish and refused to allow newer versions of Win10 to even allow its installation of the software with known previous-discovery bug work arounds.

for those of you reading this, get your version of software right, with the correct seasonal update you wish to retain, and then keep a physical cloned SSD copy of it

it is getting increasingly harder to install the correct patches on legacy versions of operating systems, even with prior “installer driver” software because of the complexity and reliance of some internet related updates that are being blocked by vendors and its servers
Ie - WinXP, Win7, Win8.1, Win10 early season updates and specific timed vendor software releases

duplicate the issue with other software and OS to determine if it’s hardware related

back up data and then try loading it on linux boot just to see what happens

if it feels like a scam, and it looks like a scam, then it’s very likely a scam.

i’ve tested a few of them before just to see how far it goes, and those guys just take money and run, with absolutely zero communication.

if you don’t want to deal with the head aches, then carry on to a more reliable seller and source

tough piece of junk Asus quality from that particular model

I never needed to use XMP on that model, the MoBo just adjusted the timings on its own.

Do you really need go past 3200 speeds?

https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLaptops/comments/hmecgt/what_do_you_think_about_dream_machines/

https://dreammachines.io/

Shit looking website, too.

don’t waste your money, just get a branded computer.