Technology Android

[masta247]

Did The Unarchiver not handle everything you needed? That's what I use but I don't think I've seen a zipped file other than a .zip file in quite some time. But it handled .rar files too. Not sure about the other formats.

If the question is if it worked, then it technically did. But going back to Windows and launching 7zip for the first time felt like going from eating nothing but frozen peperoni pizza to a great Italian restaurant.

This makes sense. But what about comparing the newest Ryzens and Intel chips from the same generation? Would benchmarks tell the full story in that case? Would the differentiating factor just be cost since AMD still is a bit cheaper than Intel? Same for GPUs with AMD and Nvidia?

AMD is actually the more expensive one now than Intel, and much more expensive per core. They've entirely switched places. Intel is making slower cores, offering more of them, and charging less than AMD. For the price of a 6-core Ryzen 5, you can now get a 14-core i5 (althought with 6 big and 8 smaller cores).

If you compare chips of the exact same generation of the same company (for instance among Ryzen 7000 chips) then comparing core counts and frequencies makes sense, but only then. If I were to look at only one thing, I'd look at benchmarks though (single threaded, then multi-threaded, in that order).

I see 10 core CPUs for the 16" but the GPUs vary from 16 to 24 to 32. I guess it would be wrong to try to compare them to proper GPUs from AMD and Nvidia?

Yes it's more like a fast integrated graphics. The M1 is slower than every Nvidia RTX 3000 series GPU, but substantially faster than Intel's integrated graphics.

There also isn't much you'd be able to do with extra cores on a Mac unless you're using a particular tool that can take advantage of them.

 

[dilla]

There also isn't much you'd be able to do with extra cores on a Mac unless you're using a particular tool that can take advantage of them.

Man this takes me back to 2017 when I replacing my previous MBP and learning about apps needing to actually take advantage of the additional cores. Hasn't Firefox started to utilize additional cores despite browsers typically being single-thread processes? Even then, shelling out almost $1K more for more cores just to use a browser that uses extra cores is dumb.

Ideally, if I stick with the Apple route, an MBA would suit my needs just fine since I am a simpleton that does simpleton things with simpleton apps. But the feeling of FOMO (and a desire for a larger screen (15-16") is going to have eyes on the MBPs. I haven't used a 14" MBP but did own a 13" prior to my 15" and I'm not sure if I could go back. I might have to try them out and see for myself.

Again, I'll wait to see what the rumored October event from Apple brings. If the iMacs get brought up to the M2 and aren't as anemic as they are right now, I'd be fine with base model iMac. I would want a larger screen than the 24" they offer right now.

What do you think about the M2 Ultra? Just two Maxs glued together. It's typically on the $3-4k machines since it's targeted at "professionals" but if it's not on-par with the 3000 series GPUs then....what's the point?

 

[masta247]

Man this takes me back to 2017 when I replacing my previous MBP and learning about apps needing to actually take advantage of the additional cores. Hasn't Firefox started to utilize additional cores despite browsers typically being single-thread processes? Even then, shelling out almost $1K more for more cores just to use a browser that uses extra cores is dumb.

There are very diminishing returns past 1 core per an active tab. So if you're launching your browser that has 20 tabs open, you'd notice that your browser launches faster on a CPU with more cores. But not so much afterwards, once the browser is actually open, unless you frequently have multiple big tabs launching at the same time. I personally wouldn't notice much of a difference in web browsing beyond 4 cores. Even then, the difference is mainly in how quickly the background tabs open, as the active tab always gets priority and is primarily bottlenecked by the performance of one core/thread executing code in a sequence, with other cores merely supporting it from time to time. Which is why for general browsing responsiveness the single-threaded performance matters the most by far. It's better to have a newer/faster CPU, and it doesn't matter as much how many cores it has past a few.

What do you think about the M2 Ultra? Just two Maxs glued together. It's typically on the $3-4k machines since it's targeted at "professionals" but if it's not on-par with the 3000 series GPUs then....what's the point?

The issue is again that it's just more of the same cores. If you know you somehow have a need for all this GPU performance and those extra CPU cores, it's decent. But if you don't have use cases that do some seriously parallel compute, which are rather rare on Macs, then the M2 Ultra's performance is nearly the same as that of a standard M1 or M2, as the performance per core isn't that much higher to notice a substantial difference in everyday use (like a browser, app-games etc.). Most use cases simply won't get past the first couple of cores, and they'll just be sitting idle.

 

[dilla]

I can't imagine doing anything more intensive than streaming video in Firefox. I don't know how "optimized" and efficient codecs (?) are on sites like YouTube and Hulu and other streaming sites but I doubt it makes a difference in the grander scheme of things.

Is there anyone that will use the Ultra's power properly? Wouldn't the Max be enough for anyone doing heavy creative work like editing 4K videos? Or is there something that's even more intensive that video editing? Maybe those designer apps with 3D models that render a whole city or something? I don't know. I feel that Windows would definitely have an app for doing something like that and macOS probably wouldn't. And those Windows users would be using those $1200+ GPUs that are getting scalped right now.

 

[masta247]

I can't imagine doing anything more intensive than streaming video in Firefox. I don't know how "optimized" and efficient codecs (?) are on sites like YouTube and Hulu and other streaming sites but I doubt it makes a difference in the grander scheme of things.

Most likely wouldn't even tell a difference between an M1 and an M1/M2 Ultra. Encoding/decoding most common formats has dedicated silicon on the chip and it isn't even using much of the processing power of CPU/GPU cores themselves. Even for formats that you don't have hardware encoders for, you could do 4K streaming on a dual-core CPU as well as on a 16-core. And they wouldn't even get too warm.

Is there anyone that will use the Ultra's power properly? Wouldn't the Max be enough for anyone doing heavy creative work like editing 4K videos? Or is there something that's even more intensive that video editing? Maybe those designer apps with 3D models that render a whole city or something? I don't know. I feel that Windows would definitely have an app for doing something like that and macOS probably wouldn't. And those Windows users would be using those $1200+ GPUs that are getting scalped right now.

4K video editing isn't all that heavy anymore. But yes it would be done faster on something with more cores and a beefier GPU. Any programming/compiling could use more CPU cores, running multiple virtual machines or OSes for testing or other work, some database operations, file encryption/decryption, installation etc.
For GPU cores, anything to do with AI, rendering and 3D design (games, animations), high resolution AAA gaming, anything to do with path tracing.

That would cover some of the popular examples. If you don't do things like that, you likely won't need or even notice a difference with more CPU OR GPU cores. For content consumption (and assuming you can't seriously game on a Mac anymore anyways), I'd just get a base M1/M2 Macbook.

 

[dilla]

I'd just get a base M1/M2 Macbook.

Looks like there was some drama when the M2s were launched about getting an M1 instead because of the M2 MBA's price increase. I still want that XDR display with ProMotion, though, and they don't have that on the Airs as yet.

Yeah, no gaming on those machines especially when 99% of stuff isn't compatible or optimized for AS. I thought about the XPS and checked the lineup out and an XPS 15 with a 3050 and 32 GB of RAM is a shade over $2K and might do the trick for me.

 

[masta247]

The XPS series is great if you want something that looks business but can do some heavy lifting.
If you wanna game, you may also want to consider one of the gaming Lenovos. Some of their Legion series don't look as much like gaming laptops but they're much more powerful per $, and have excellent cooling - as in running the RTX 3080 at full blast without throttling. The Legion 7i is a performance monster that I wouldn't be ashamed to whip out in public with all RGB off, while the 5i is a king in terms of performance per $.

Look, this fucker gives you the 3080 freaking TI and a full-fledged Alder Lake i7 for 2 grand:
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/lapt...legion-7i-gen-7-(16-inch-intel)/82tdcto1wwus1
Or the value king:
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/lapt...es/legion-5i-gen-7-(15-inch-intel)/82rb004xus

Not gonna lie, if I didn't care about the OS and wanted a laptop for simple things I'd be on the M1 Macbook Air though. The battery life in that design and with that performance is just something you can't get on the Windows side. The XPS15 last maybe half as long, without being all that faster, and while being bigger and more expensive. It is the better choice for gaming, but it doesn't hold a candle to the gaming laptops though in terms of performance.

 

[dilla]

The XPS series is great if you want something that looks business but can do some heavy lifting.
If you wanna game, you may also want to consider one of the gaming Lenovos. Some of their Legion series don't look as much like gaming laptops but they're much more powerful per $, and have excellent cooling - as in running the RTX 3080 at full blast without throttling. The Legion 7i is a performance monster that I wouldn't be ashamed to whip out in public with all RGB off, while the 5i is a king in terms of performance per $.

Look, this fucker gives you the 3080 freaking TI and a full-fledged Alder Lake i7 for 2 grand:
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/lapt...legion-7i-gen-7-(16-inch-intel)/82tdcto1wwus1
Or the value king:
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/lapt...es/legion-5i-gen-7-(15-inch-intel)/82rb004xus

Not gonna lie, if I didn't care about the OS and wanted a laptop for simple things I'd be on the M1 Macbook Air though. The battery life in that design and with that performance is just something you can't get on the Windows side. The XPS15 last maybe half as long, without being all that faster, and while being bigger and more expensive. It is the better choice for gaming, but it doesn't hold a candle to the gaming laptops though in terms of performance.

I looked at both Dell and Lenovo and their stuff looks very nice. Some models had RGB lights on the chassis which I'm hoping I'd be able to turn off permanently. Or at least out of the house. I don't mind them at home.

I looked at NotebookCheck's mobile GPU list and the 3050 seems just fine, which is what the XPS 15 has. But the XPS is still more expensive than a lot of other brands with a 3060 or 70. Maybe because the rest of the XPS is still built with more premium materials than the other ones I was looking at? The other ones were from ASUS or something so they were dedicated gaming machines, which the XPS is not. Maybe that's the reason for the price difference.


The XPS has an OLED, which is nice (I hear), and I wouldn't be all about it for gaming and more for streaming video. But that 3080 in the Lenovo though....

 

[masta247]

The XPS has an OLED, which is nice (I hear), and I wouldn't be all about it for gaming and more for streaming video. But that 3080 in the Lenovo though....

Yeah the XPS would likely be built better than the Legion 5i, while the XPS wouldn't perform as well as the Legion. I never played with the 7i to see how well built it is compared to the 5i or the XPS series though.
So basically the Legion laptops would be much faster and better cooled (perhaps noisier, since the focus is on maintaining prime gaming performance), but the XPS series feel more premium, and OLED is a perk.

It's probably a choice between paying for a great performance that comes with an above average build quality, or great build quality with an above average performance.

 

[dilla]

It's probably a choice between paying for a great performance that comes with an above average build quality, or great build quality with an above average performance.

That's what it's sounding like to me too. I know my current MBP could've lasted longer had I not put in like 5K hours of heavy use on it. Granted, most of it was while using an eGPU but it still got quite hot for quite a long time, especially during COVID when I was a bum. But I am still expecting the same durability that my previous MBP had (7+ years) and what this MBP had with 5.5 years of usage. I don't know if I'd get that from a dedicated gaming laptop which is probably designed to be thrown out after 3, or so, years because they assume the gamer will want to upgrade the GPU or CPU after that time anyway. Which isn't always the case but that's probably what OEMs think when considering how durable the parts need to be outside of the GPU and CPU. I bet the focus is just on cooling and making sure throttling is minimal.

I just saw that Dell's OLED is 60hz. Not a deal break but I'm guessing they save the 120+hz for gaming laptops.

 

[masta247]

I don't know if I'd get that from a dedicated gaming laptop which is probably designed to be thrown out after 3, or so, years because they assume the gamer will want to upgrade the GPU or CPU after that time anyway. Which isn't always the case but that's probably what OEMs think when considering how durable the parts need to be outside of the GPU and CPU. I bet the focus is just on cooling and making sure throttling is minimal.

I don't think it's that bad at all. The higher end Lenovo Legions are solid laptops and they aren't known to fail after a couple of years unless you're unlucky. My ex has had one for about 4 years now worth of nearly daily gaming and it works just as well as it did when it was new. Granted the battery was always good for just a couple of hours as is often the case with gaming laptops.

On the flipside because the parts are faster, they last longer in a way that you can play the newest games for a larger number of years. The RTX 3080 is going to be faster today, but it will also handle the newest titles at 1080P/1440P for a couple of years after the RTX 3050 is already insufficient to play them at an acceptable quality preset. So, you are technically getting more longevity by buying faster hardware. The GTX1080Ti back in 2016 was a beast for $699, and it still runs the newest games well at 1440P High. Getting it outright would have been cheaper than getting the GTX1050 and then upgrading to a RTX 3050, which is still much slower than the 1080Ti! I expect the RTX3080, or even then 3070(Ti) to age just as well as the 1080Ti did.

When I said build quality I mostly meant materials, attention to detail in design or something like comfort when using the keyboard, webcam, touchpad etc.
Lenovo wouldn't skimp on critical components that can fail in their Legion line either, so I don't think I'd expect the longevity to be substantially less if at all than the XPS line.

Even mid-range hardware by big brands is designed very well these days and doesn't tend to fail like it used to. I've got lots of tech, and the only device I recall failing on me over the last ten or so years was the Galaxy S6, and it was the kind of random failure that could've happened to any device. I honestly only upgrade because the predecessor isn't cutting it in terms of performance or functionality.

 

[dilla]

What does the "Ti" stand for? Is it like a "plus" model? Looking at the benchmarks, they seem to have like a 5 or 10% boost in fps over the regular version. At least for the newer, 3000 series.

 

[dilla]

So I stopped by Best Buy yesterday to look around and took a look at some of the notebooks on display there.

First off, I know B&M stores were dying but this Best Buy was straight up devoid of customers. Similarly, so were the displays. Probably 4 or 5 models from brands like Lenovo, HP, and Dell and then just scraps for everyone else.

The XPS 15 definitely felt the most premium out of all of them and it felt like the XPS 15 my dad has from 2017. I looked up that model that he has and apparently that model had thermal issues and throttled like crazy and it was a notorious issue for that model. It was the Kaby Lake model, similar to my 2017 MBP. That wasn't good to hear despite being several updates away from that model.

The Legion and Alienware model they had were the smaller, 14" models, so while I'm sure they performed well, 14" is too small for me if I'm going to be gaming on it. But that's all they had on display for the gaming machines. Even the ROG Zephyr was a 14" model.

When I got home, I had a crazy idea; I took an Inspiron we had laying around from the clinic (10th gen Intel, not sure on the exact specs) and saw that it had a TB3 port on it. I plugged in my RX 580 and installed FF13 and tried it out and it looked pretty good. I used to use a 4K monitor months ago when playing via Boot Camp but was unable to plug it in this time but it would probably have looked even better than it did on the 1080p screen on the Inspiron.

Now I'm toying with the idea of getting a "business" notebook with a decent processor but integrated graphics and still continuing to use the RX 580. I'd have to sell it otherwise and that seems like a hassle. But get something with an Intel Evo CPU for daily use and battery life and then plug in an RX 580 for the occasional gaming.

The problem is I don't know if the Evo would burn itself out under heavy load since they're meant for responsiveness and efficiency in day to day usage and not for gaming.

 

[dilla]

I stopped by a Microcenter after taking my MBP in to the nearby Apple Store. For the battery swap and the "W" key that popped off, Apple wanted $200 and because everything is so "integrated," the battery swap alone would remedy the keyboard issue too. They'd just swap out the keyboard completely instead of replacing just one key cap. Seems to be a reasonable price.

As for Microcenter, holy moly the laptop/PC display was magnitudes better than the Best Buy I went to this past weekend. I want to say they had at least one display model from each OEM's product lines so it was great to see pretty much whatever I wanted.

So I saw the Legions; they had three models, one Pro. Saw several of the ROG models from ASUS but, funny enough, they didn't have the popular Zephyrus model and instead had a few TUF models and then the Stryx models. Maybe a Flow, too? But those builds were $2300 or so and while it's within budget, I don't think I'd use that hardware to the max. The Legion seemed to have much more value and the one I saw was a $1600 build with a 3070 TI. Still, probably overkill for my needs but the sales guy there told me that if I kept my machines for 3+ years, the 3070 would help stave off most feelings of FOMO as games get more demanding and I'd be able to drag to the 5 year mark easier than I would a 3050 (XPS 15) or the other 3060 models.

You know what really made me pause? ASUS' non-gaming lineup. I saw the OLED screens and they looked very nice. Not amazing like maybe an OLED TV would but still very noticeable compared to the other, LED models. In particular, it was the Zenbook S, which looks and feels like a MacBook Air. But runs Windows. I have to say, I was really enamored by it. I'm aware of the specs and how dumb it would be to run even DOTA on it at anything higher than medium settings, but goddamn that is a nice laptop. They only had the 13" for sale and I wasn't able to check to if there was a 15" or so. They had Zenbook Pros but I was turned off by the little knob by the trackpad for shortcuts for brightness and some other stuff. Very obviously not meant for casual users and more for creators. The dual screen or the keyboard that raised up at an incline was another thing. I don't I even bothered trying to type on it because I can foresee that hinge being an issue after a while and breaking. Or maybe not.

I have some thinking to do now. My current MBP, it turns out, is just a $200 fix. I have no complaints otherwise and I think a new battery and keyboard is going to make it feel "new enough." I don't think I'll get another Mac (lol I know) anyway because I'm a moron that still games via Boot Camp and an M2 with 69 cores will still do jack shit about not being able to use Boot Camp.

So one option is to milk this Intel MBP for several more years with a $200 fix.

Take a leap of faith back in to Windows and either get an upper-mid range machine like the Legion Pro or the ASUS equivalent. Or MSI.

Be a smart man and get a professional laptop, like the Zenbook S, and fuck gaming and keep the cost "just" a smidge over $1000.

Or be a dumbass and get the MSI Titan to flex on literally no one just to play Dota at 344 fps, or whatever that screen is rated as lol. Not really. A $4K machine better last me 10 years and I would get a desktop at that price. But probably still not.

Oh, one other thing: I got some hands-on time with the Samsung Galaxy Book. I usually forget Samsung makes notebooks and I still don't know how they rate on quality, performance, reliability, etc. But as I was testing all the notebooks on display, I was lifting them up slightly to see how light and portable they were if I were to move it around the house or even pack it in to a backpack. I think the Galaxy Book (2?) had to have been the lightest one around. Even the larger, 15/16" model was light as a feather. I want to say it was lighter than my 15" MBP. I've been spoiled by how light my MBP is and the dedicated, gaming notebooks were much thicker and heavier. Probably for good reason but it was a bit off-putting. The weight and the feel of plastic vs aluminum. I don't know, is aluminum bad for gaming because of just how hot a gaming laptop typically gets? But back to the Samsung; very lightweight and that was very surprising. I'll have to read some forums and see if Galaxy Book owners are having a lot of problems with reliability because, again, I forget Samsung makes laptops and I'm sure most people do too. I wouldn't consider one seriously, though.

ASUS, though, really surprised me today. No other Windows machine felt as premium as the Zenbook S did. I know when it was first unveiled in 2015 or so, ASUS got clowned for making something that was basically a MacBook but without the Apple logo. Either it was ASUS or Huawei, and the lineup was "something-book" to be similar to the MacBook. Maybe seeing it in person made me care less about that but it was surprising and made me reconsider everything.

 

[Jokerman]

Last day today Amazon has a souped-up ZenBook Pro for 13% off, if you're a Prime member. Still, pricey.

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-i7-1270...ndingS_D_2870e60f_123&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1

 

[dilla]

Last day today Amazon has a souped-up ZenBook Pro for 13% off, if you're a Prime member. Still, pricey.

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-i7-1270...ndingS_D_2870e60f_123&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1

That second screen is so off putting though. I can't imagine people that don't edit content appreciating that extra space. I could be wrong but I saw a few YT reviews of it and the suggested uses just weren't my cup of tea.

Also, I have a fear that it is prone to premature wear and tear, especially that hinge. I don't know; I'll have to see it in person again and see if I can work around it. Same with that knob thingy on the side of the trackpad. This one doesn't look to have it but a few other ZenBook models did.

 

[dilla]

I've been watching a ton of Jarrod's Tech videos. The guy is insane with how in depth he goes, at least with benchmarks. I learned a lot from his videos, and mostly stuff I would've bugged @masta247 with lol.

So from his videos I've gathered a few things. The i9 is a waste for gaming, more or less.

The Intel HX CPUs are nice and give a small performance boost over the H, but at a greater hit to efficiency, and is also probably not worth it unless you're a pro gamer.

AMD CPUs are far more efficient than Intel (not sure on the technical reasons why, but..) but are also between 5-15% "weaker."

AMD GPUs are still not quite at Nvidia's level and aren't much cheaper in comparison, at least from what I've seen on different builds on Best Buy, Micro Center, etc.

There is something about AMD Advantage that makes it worth looking into but Nvidia still looks to perform better and have more support.

Like for FLSS and other software tweaks, Nvidia cards perform better via those tweaks when the GPU isn't quite up to snuff for more demanding games.

There's also some talk about waiting for the 40 Series cards to be announced in January at CES. While those will take some time to get to desktops and probably longer to reach laptops, I'm gathering if I can wait, I should. If I need it now, I should just buy now. I'm not in a serious need of a replacement since my MBP is due back soon from repairs but the pricing won't be better than it is between now and CES next year.

Sounds like others echo you in saying the Legion lineup is one of the best. The "better" laptops from other brands are $3K+ and far beyond my needs. But Lenovo's site is a mess with 5s, Pros, 7s, and Slims. Also, different gen models from 21 and 22.

The 3070ti is probably overkill but that's what I'm looking at. A lot have 16 GB configs but I was hoping for 32 to future proof and I'll have to see if people suggest not paying for RAM through the OEM and instead just expanding it yourself because it's cheaper.

 

[dilla]

Thought so the 13th gen Intel chips being released today? Big jump? I know Alder Lake was a decent jump from the 11th gen but not much fanfare around this one. Microcenter near me had an event for it, though.

 

[masta247]

Man I wish we had Micro center in Canada. I'd be there all the time.

Thought so the 13th gen Intel chips being released today? Big jump? I know Alder Lake was a decent jump from the 11th gen but not much fanfare around this one. Microcenter near me had an event for it, though.

Made Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 chips that just launched obsolete. If you don't mind Windows 11 and occasional software issues with the efficiency cores.
Raptor Lake is faster than Ryzen 7000 CPUs in all use cases and is better value. Ryzen is still more power efficient.

What does the "Ti" stand for? Is it like a "plus" model? Looking at the benchmarks, they seem to have like a 5 or 10% boost in fps over the regular version. At least for the newer, 3000 series.

These days Ti is typically a card that's a half step towards the card above. Think of the 3080 Ti as a card that's between the 3080 and the 3090.

In the past it was reserved for cards that were still sold to consumers (enthusiast gamers) but that were based on a just slightly cut-down Titan chip (which was the biggest chip Nvidia would make in every generation to sell to professionals, or hardcore nerds). For instance, the GTX980Ti would be a Titan-X chip (the biggest Nvidia chip in the Maxwell generation) slightly stripped down of excessive amounts of Vram and other expensive things only pros needed, and sold to gamers at a fourth of the price. A cross-over between Geforce and the Titan series if you will - hence it used the code name of the highest Geforce card in the series, with "Ti" added at the end. It's lost its meaning ever since cards like the 1050Ti or 1060Ti where it just indicated being half a step towards the card above.

 

[dilla]

Man I wish we had Micro center in Canada. I'd be there all the time.



Made Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 chips that just launched obsolete. If you don't mind Windows 11 and occasional software issues with the efficiency cores.
Raptor Lake is faster than Ryzen 7000 CPUs in all use cases and is better value. Ryzen is still more power efficient.



These days Ti is typically a card that's a half step towards the card above. Think of the 3080 Ti as a card that's between the 3080 and the 3090.

In the past it was reserved for cards that were still sold to consumers (enthusiast gamers) but that were based on a just slightly cut-down Titan chip (which was the biggest chip Nvidia would make in every generation to sell to professionals, or hardcore nerds). For instance, the GTX980Ti would be a Titan-X chip (the biggest Nvidia chip in the Maxwell generation) slightly stripped down of excessive amounts of Vram and other expensive things only pros needed, and sold to gamers at a fourth of the price. A cross-over between Geforce and the Titan series if you will - hence it used the code name of the highest Geforce card in the series, with "Ti" added at the end. It's lost its meaning ever since cards like the 1050Ti or 1060Ti where it just indicated being half a step towards the card above.

Maybe Micro Center had a renaissance in the past ten years and became more popular? It's always been at the same location near me since as long as I can remember. It's off to the side of a road full of dealerships and is next to a grocery store chain in the Chicagoland area. Basically, not a heavy traffic area and out way of most other stores that sell tech, including Target and Walmart. Not too far off but about 3-5 miles away. It also had a run down look, from the outside but the inside was very nice. It's still small compared to other Microcenters I've seen in YouTube videos but it's nice enough.

I always assumed it was on the brink of bankruptcy and shutting down when I was in high school. I remember the last time I went there and bought something was 2007 before college and it was an IDE hard drive and an enclosure for it. 500 GB and an enclosure for like $150 or so. I haven't purchased anything from there since then but I've gone about a dozen times when they sent out coupons for free stuff like mini drones or flash drives or SD cards. Still never purchased anything.

Bu t in the past four years or so, I've noticed they've sponsored videos from UrAvgConsumer and Austin Evans and those locations were huge compared to mine. I found it odd at first since Best Buy would also sponsor some videos for the same channels and I didn't consider MC to be on the level of BB. Probably isn't but they matched BB's sponsorship budget it seems.

There's two MCs in the Chicago area. One actually in the city and I've never been to that. Another is fortunately a short, 10-15 minute drive from my house. I didn't realize how lucky I was lol. For someone looking to build their own PC, their component department is stacked with stuff, just like you see in videos. It's just my location doesn't look to be as big as the ones Austin goes to in SoCal.

I don't think Raptor Lake comes to notebooks until Spring of next year, right? That'll be a wait. From what I've read in the fights that take place in the comment section of review sites, it sounds like Intel really got the kick in the ass they needed from AMD's come back and is now slightly better on pricing too, at least compared to performance. Efficiency is still an issue and I'm still gravitating towards an AMD/Nvidia set up but I don't think Lenovo does that often or might have stopped completely with the gen 7 Legion 7s. The Legion 5s have them, though.

I think I specced a 12900H or HX or Lenovo's site with a 3070ti for about $1800 after discounts and cash back. I keep thinking I'll use my laptop away from a desk and charger but I have a feeling I won't once I keep battery life in mind and opt for a Ryzen instead and then rue for the performance I may not even notice of the Intel lol. I know myself, it'll happen.

Im going to check out the 7 Slim and see if I prefer the form factor over the non Slim. I know it tops out at a 3060 and while it will serve me well, I'll still wish for what I don't have and miss the 3070ti. Again, I know myself and I'm a bastard.

Is going for 32 GB of RAM for the sake of future -proofing the machine a good idea? Lenovo has some weird pricing and is discounting some 2 TB and 32 GB models for just 100-200 more than a 1 TB and 16 GB models.