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Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

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Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#231

Post by [deleted] »

eertami wrote: post #202
fmajid wrote: post #172

I don't think so. Time to recompile the newest p7zip (using this as an example because it dropped yesterday): - My M1 Macbook Air, 16GB RAM: 11s - My M1 Ultra Mac Studio, 128GB RAM: 6s - My HP DevOne (AMD Ryzen7 PRO 5850U, 64GB RAM): 51s - My home server (HP Z2 Mini G4, Xeon E-2176G , 32GB RAM): 17s - my Gigabyt Aorus 17G gaming laptop (i7-11800H, 64GB RAM): 35s On GeekBench the DevOne should be faster than the Z2: h…

How are those the only two conclusions you came up with? If all other independent benchmarks and data points to the 5850U being roughly comparable in performance to the M1 - yet for you it appears to be 5x slower, then surely that suggests an anomalous result, or at the very least, an edge case that is not indicative of real world performance. The third, much more plausible conclusion: - Your testing method/setup is…

[deleted]

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#232

Post by jeroenhd »

thom wrote: post #17

I too don’t value my time very highly.

Depends on how valuable you think your time is. Benefits of not going Apple include not having to figure out which Docker containers are compatible or fast enough on your new hardware, not having to deal with macOS, not having to upgrade the entire machine when components fail or when you run into SKU limits.

The author says he lives in Europe, taking the laptop out fir repairs can easily take an entire afternoon of travel that could be spent more productively elsewhere.

Pick the best tools for the job. Sometimes that involves spending a couple thousand extra for a shiny Macbook, sometimes that involves spending an afternoon setting up a Thinkpad.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#233

Post by antihero »

kuschku wrote: post #54
ostenning wrote: post #20

I've owned an upgraded T480 since they were released, run archlinux on it. It was a decent computer, but despite having upgraded the battery to the largest possible configuration and using all the tricks in the book to maximize battery life in linux - it sucked. The reality is these Intel processors are just a big inefficient hot mess. I ended up upgrading to the 14" M1 Max, and there is literally no way you can make…

> screen quality > battery life > speakers > trackpad All things you can replace with the T480. Which I've done, and can just recommend. There's much better options than the ones shipped by default, including trackpads rivalling the M1, a screen that beats the M1, and a battery that has 20h+ capacity and can be swapped with a second one to double the capacity in seconds.

Can you link these things?

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#234

Post by dijit »

jojobas wrote: post #187
dijit wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ikea furniture requires you to build it. The best beds on the planet are pre-assembled. Not saying the exact thing you're saying isn't true (IE; the best things in life are actually not things but relationships and experiences); but it is categorically untrue that "the best products require you to build them".

Messing with a few screws and latches is not exactly "building". "The best bed" depends on who's asking, and it would have to be built for you. Similarly, you could hire someone to build a laptop for you if you categorically object. Rather than a bed, a better analogy is a home - even the best ready plan can be improved for a particular family. Apple just doesn't allow that.

At what point is it building then?

Assembling could be considered the right term I would suppose, but equally I wouldn't say that the author "assembled" his laptop, since it involves disassembly.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#235

Post by rfoo »

fmajid wrote: post #220
eertami wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are those the only two conclusions you came up with? If all other independent benchmarks and data points to the 5850U being roughly comparable in performance to the M1 - yet for you it appears to be 5x slower, then surely that suggests an anomalous result, or at the very least, an edge case that is not indicative of real world performance. The third, much more plausible conclusion: - Your testing method/setup is…

Different OS (macOS Ventura vs. Pop-OS), different compiler (LLVM/clang vs. GCC), different storage (internal SSD vs NVMe M.2), different filesystem. Running with full CPU parallelism in both cases, however. In fact the test was biased against the Mac because the M1 MBA was running on battery power and the HP DevOne was plugged in. Still, 5x worse performance at a real-world task that most closely approximates my use…

Different OS, different storage, different filesystem are all fair as you can say you are testing the laptop as a whole, so what was preconfigured matters. Also generating totally different code (compiler outputting x86_64 vs aarch64) is fair, because that's part of a real-world task.

However, LLVM/clang vs GCC is too far and made the benchmark result completely nonsense. How can you make sure it isn't just that LLVM/clang is faster than GCC? Or even makefile detected clang so turned on different compiler flags.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#236

Post by jeroenhd »

karuzel wrote: post #84

Where do you get your knowledge about spare parts?

Upgrading RAM and storage is obviously trivial. The battery as well, that just requires buying a bigger one for the same model.

As for the screen and trackpad, Lenovo has extensive documentation on their website detailing how to replace components, all the way down to the type of screws you need should you lose some. The compatible parts for any of their model can be found on their website. Although the OEM parts are usually more expensive, you can usually find them online in various shops.

If you go for the aliexpress route, just searching "screen for thinkpad t48" will get you a bunch of screens of varying quality.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#237

Post by manishsharan »

ostenning wrote: post #20

I've owned an upgraded T480 since they were released, run archlinux on it. It was a decent computer, but despite having upgraded the battery to the largest possible configuration and using all the tricks in the book to maximize battery life in linux - it sucked. The reality is these Intel processors are just a big inefficient hot mess. I ended up upgrading to the 14" M1 Max, and there is literally no way you can make…

I am not a neckbeard and my T480 has 64gb of RAM and 2TB Nvme drive and wifi 6 card. I need a lot of RAM for my workload. I am running Ubuntu and lots of VMs with lots of databases and k8s clusters.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#238

Post by tbran »

snemvalts wrote: post #12

Be careful grabbing it by the corner like in the picture, it can flex the motherboard and cause the RAM to unseat https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/mh974q/for_everyo...

I "fixed" this by using kapton tape to secure my RAM. Never had a problem. The mod in the link seems...risky.

Kapton tape is the coppery-looking tape that tapes other stuff down inside a lot of electronics.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=kapton+tape

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#239

Post by rkta »

Reason077 wrote: post #206
rkta wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, because I have to move my hand off the keyboard to use the trackpad.

Fair. But don't you move your hand off the keyboard to use a mouse when using a desktop PC? Or do you have a trackpoint on your keyboard there too?

I avoid keyboards without trackpoint.

And for the rare case where I have to do something which requires a lot of mouse pointer motion (e.g. CAD modeling or reading schematics) I prefer a real mouse over a trackpad.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#240

Post by ewf322333rrr »

weego wrote: post #69
rozenmd wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to elaborate?

Ok here's the thing. I used to build PCs, and I'd tinker with linux distros on laptops. Things would be flakey, need maintenance and upgrading and that was fun. That's fine when you're laser focused on your career and are in 'career as personality' part of your life, which is essential imo and I'm not sneering at it by making reference to it in that way. But ultimately, I now need to get to my desk just on time, know…

and on mac nothing works:

- worst window management than on any other OS

- mouse scrolling works in a different direction and requires additional software to be fixed.

- unlike windows, cannot even connect to Android without some additional software to copy pictures.

- docker is extremely slow

- my M1 already crashed 4 times in the last 6 months since I started using it - worse than any other OS/hardware.

- poor multi-monitor support

- poor support of monitors with lower resolution

- non-standard keyboard shortcuts. All other OSes use the same shortcuts.

- brew is very buggy when used with multiple users on single laptop

- no way to configure a global variable on startup. You can use .zprofile etc. but this will not work with GUI applications started via spotlight.

this is only a small portion of issues I had with macos.

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