[ Off topic ]

Couldn’t find a laptop-specific community to ask this question.

I’m thinking to buy a 2nd hand/refurbished laptop.

For study purposes, browsing the internet, tinkering with a few note-taking apps like Obsidian, Capacities, Logseq etc. I’ll persue coding in future.

Will definitely use linux. Probably Zorin OS or Fedora.

My last laptop broke back in 2023 and I’ve never touched a pc/laptop since. This is probably why, I lack the understanding of computing power of laptop grade processors in today’s standard.

I just want to know that the things I’m hoping to do with my yet-to-buy laptop within a linux environment, will a i5 chipset be enough?

Here’s what specs I’m hoping to get alongside the chipset:

16 GB of DDR4 RAM ( Non-soldered ) ( At least )512 GB SSD ( any variant will do )

I’ll eventually upgrade the RAMs and SSD in future. Maybe when I’ll start coding. But for my study purposes, 16 gigs is more than enough.

Will i7 be a perfect balance with the 512 + 16 GB combination or i5 will be efficient enough?

[ Picture is collected from another Lemmy post. Excuse the picture ]

  • Junkers_Klunker@feddit.dk
    8·
    4 days ago

    I’m running an i5-7300hq and 16gb of ram, it’s still serviceable but it is starting struggle sometimes. If it isn’t a 10yo i5 you’ll probably be alright.

    • Mnem667@sh.itjust.works
      4·
      4 days ago

      May I ask what you are doing that counts as struggling?
      I have a Dell i5 5th gen laptop, and with PopOS it’s running fine.

      • Junkers_Klunker@feddit.dk
        3·
        4 days ago

        Mostly playing Beamng.drive, but while multitasking the cpu will peg at 100% quite often and it’ll feel sluggish. But I’m not really using that laptop anymore other than for gaming so I can live with it. It is on Linux (pika os)

    • Potential Piñata@sh.itjust.worksOP
      31·
      4 days ago

      I’m opting for a Thinkpad as it comes with great hardware customization options.

      But thinkpads are hard to get as it has high demand. Even in the 2nd hand market.

      Last November, I talked with a seller, he has a T480 in his collection but it has i5.

      I’m hoping he has other models and tiers of thinkpads with higher gen of i5 or i7.

      • Nollij@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        3·
        4 days ago

        Thinkpads are really available from recyclers on (among others) eBay. Most are around 4-5 years old, and came from large corporate environments. The 14" varieties are the most common, so T4x0/T14. The best price point right now is probably the T490 or T14 Gen 1.

        Most have some soldered RAM, but also have an extra slot. The upshot is that no one is raiding the soldered RAM for resale, but it obviously can’t be upgraded either.

      • Markus29@lemmy.today
        2·
        4 days ago

        I have a T480 with an i5, it’s more than adequate for browsing, office, I even run Qgis on it.

      • a_person@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        4 days ago

        I recently got my first thinkpad, a p15v gen 3 for 500$. It is a newer model, 2022, but has an i7-12800h. I would say just look for a good deal.