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 need a new laptop. One that isn't huge. One that is easy to carry.
I was seriously thinking about it because i fear that China is going to stop shipping to The US, but i didn't find what i wanted at a good price.
The ones that were on sale at CostingCo didn't have good review from the linux installation crowd.
Sooo, indeed, with future movement in the cards, i wanted a laptop so i can move my cryptos when needed.
I used to be a geek, but now i do not care. And so, i don't even know what generation a processor is when shopping for a laptop. Very sad.
It's a tough task for sure and part of the reason I went with that T14. I knew there were enough of those units manufactured that any issues getting something working in Linux had likely already been solved.
Also a lot of times when you buy something and it has a certain amount of ram it can be initially unclear if that memory is soldered onto the motherboard and if it is expandable what is in what slots and if there is a slot available. That is part of the reason I went this route and cranked it clear up to 48 GB of Ram and clear up to a 4TB drive. I didn't want to run into a limitation on that stuff in the next couple years on that machine especially if I have to run some AI models locally on it.
I do like HP Elite Books but didn't find exactly what I was looking for with one of those.
I have been buying a lot of the micro PC's by companies like BeeLink and Geekom lately. They are so powerful for such a great price. It's crazy how far things have come.
Yeah those are insane. Great power for the price for sure on those.