Does a Less Powerful Laptop Last Longer?

Lwatupman on 15/06/2018 - 16:54
Last edited 15/06/2018 - 17:33 by 1 other user

Hi you awesome Ozbarginners!

I am a computer noob here and I wanted to ask three silly questions.

  1. If you have two identical laptops except one having a stronger graphics card, will stronger one die sooner than a less powerful graphics card? e.g. AMD Radeon RX 550 2GB vs Intel UHD Graphics 620. I've heard stronger graphics will cause more heat to build up, therefore it does notlast as long.

  2. I am planning to purchase a laptop that does not lag with basic stuff (Word doc, multiple tabs in Chrome, watching movies etc). I was looking at Thinkpad E580 with I5, 8.0GB DDR4 2400MHz SODIMM, 256GB Solid State Drive PCIe OPAL2.0 and Intel UHD Graphics 620 at $900. Is it worth paying another $200 for i7 I5, 8.0GB DDR4 2400MHz SODIMM, 256GB Solid State Drive PCIe OPAL2.0 and AMD Radeon RX 550 2GB?

  3. Which laptop would you choose between Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Laptop $1,149.01 Delivered 8th Gen Core i7-8550U 8GB RAM 512GB SSD NVIDIA MX130 $1,149.01. vs ThinkPad E580 15.6" FHD, i7-8550U, 8GB/256GB, RX550 $1099

My apologies for asking way too many Qs at once.

Thank you so much as always guys :)

Computing

Comments

  • FoxJump on 15/06/2018 - 17:07
    +1

    Gday Computer Noob.

    What do you want a discrete graphics card for?

    I don't think the i7 is worth extra money - in general. Are there any specific things you want to do?

    General computing is fine with an i5 and 8gb of ram.

    256gb SSD you may find a bit constraining eventually

    • watupman on 15/06/2018 - 17:14

      Thank you so much for your reply Mr FoxJump :) most strenuous thing I would do is to play starcraft 1 while playing YouTube in the background.

      I am willing to pay more only if laptop lasts longer with i7. On lenovo website, I have to pay approx $200 for 500gb ssd. Do you think it's worth it?

      Thanks once again :)

      • FoxJump on 15/06/2018 - 17:43
        +1

        StarCraft 1 … as in .. the 90's? IF so, then integrated graphics should be okay.
        I play occasionally, railroad tycoon and motor-rock on my fan-less Toshiba Z20 with an m7-6y75 and it works okay.

        you can use pricehipster, or staticice.com.au to figure out what a good price for an SSD is.
        If you want to save yourself the pain of reinstalling everything then having two drives on a computer is a workaround, alternatively have a usb disk with your big data like video archives and photos and have only your 'current working set' of data on the computer.

        • watupman on 15/06/2018 - 19:17

          Yes the 90's game haha. inserting new SSD seems complicated so I may have to watch several YouTube videos :)

          Thank you for your recommendations on websites. Much appreciated.

  • Yuri Lowell on 15/06/2018 - 17:22
    +1

    1. Any PC component can die at any time. More powerful hardware won't necessarily have a shorter lifespan and laptops never really get that hot anyway. As long as you don't overclock it then it doesn't matter what you buy.

    2. i7 and i5 won't matter if you are using it for basic stuff. Do you need a dedicated graphics card? The 550 model is far superior then. Otherwise I'd just go for the $900 Lenovo with integrated graphics. Just don't expect to do any gaming on it. The 550 model will use the integrated graphics when it's not required as well.

    3. I'd probably go the Lenovo 580 out of those two. I'm not sure about Dell but the ThinkPad should have a spare SSD slot so you can throw in a 500GB SSD for around $150-170. It's very easy to install and you don't have to remove the current SSD.

    • watupman on 15/06/2018 - 17:34

      Thank you for your detailed answer Yuri,
      I will go with one with integrated graphics since I don't play any game other than starcraft :) I didn't know you can have two SSDs! Is there any brand that you recommend and also avoid for SSD?

      Thank you.

      • Yuri Lowell on 15/06/2018 - 18:12
        +1

        No worries. I have the Crucial MX500 and it's great. Crucial or Samsung are the go to brands for SSDs.

        • watupman on 15/06/2018 - 19:18

          Crucial and Samsung seems crucial haha thanks!

  • No Username on 15/06/2018 - 17:27
    +1
    1. Can happen but depend on different manufactures as they have different ways of dealing with heat.
    2. Only get if u want to play some light games, do some video editing or light CAD work.
    3. Dell Inspiron 15 7000 for home ThinkPad E580 for work.
    • watupman on 15/06/2018 - 17:36

      Thank you for your reply :) I should go with Lenovo i5 then. Waiting until lenovo has higher % cashrewards hehe. Can't believe I missed out on 15% few wks ago

  • sky blu on 15/06/2018 - 18:41
    +2

    Go Thinkpad, T-series if you can. If you're in the market for ultrabook (13-14"), the Thinkpad X1 Carbon 14" is a no brainer.

    Get a laptop with GTX 1050Ti and up if you want gaming.

    • watupman on 15/06/2018 - 19:11

      Thanks for your explanation. Is this T series built better than E series hence it's more expensive?

      • scrimshaw on 15/06/2018 - 20:22
        +2

        T series are corporate / high end business laptops. Generally about 20~40% more expensive and have better build quality.

        Although the Thinkpad E series are considered quite good for most people, and it's what some of the Ozbargain staff use.

      • sky blu on 15/06/2018 - 21:13

        Agreed with what scrimshaw said. I personally am using the T580, upgraded from the T560. It's personal preference, but the E-series is plenty good for everyday use. If you haven't had a Thinkpad before, you will grow to like the keyboard.

  • D C on 15/06/2018 - 21:19
    +1

    will cause more heat to build up, therefore it does notlast as long.

    As a general rule of thumb hotter = deader sooner.

    The typical quote is that for every 10C degrees in temperature increase the component lifetime halves. Go up 20C and you'll get a quarter of the expected life.

    However many things these days are designed to run hot; just because a part is running at 60C doesn't means it's overheating, it may be perfectly happy. Add in active cooling and having lots of hot air blowing out the back is usually a good thing. The alternative? Not so much.

    Some parts, like power supplies, really do not like running hot. Individual parts may be designed to run ok, but a laptop where the air from the CPU or GPU is blown over the power supply before exiting out the vents is not going to last as long as it should.

  • ahewitt76 on 15/06/2018 - 21:57
    +1

    "last as long" isn't only about the amount of time until failure. It is also the amount of time it will function until the Operating System/Applications get so resource intensive that the device no longer works as expected.

    Most of the comments here say that an i5/8GB would be suitable for "basic tasks". While I agree, you are clearly wanting a machine that will last a long time. The additional $200 for an i7 in my mind would definitely be worth it. You can upgrade the RAM and SSD, you can't upgrade the CPU.

    For what it's worth I have only just replaced the CPU/mem/motherboard of my PC after 12 years. The graphics card is still running ok (enough for my kids to play their "retro 8bit games"). The only way I got away with that was to spend the most money I could at the time to get the best gear possible.

    Edit: another thing to look for is a Thunderbolt 3 port. This can hook into an external GPU adapted to house a proper gaming CPU in the future…another way to ensure futurability

    • RJK on 15/06/2018 - 23:53

      What graphics card are you still using? And what CPU did you upgrade to?

      • ahewitt76 on 16/06/2018 - 08:28

        NVIDIA 8800GTX. It was the best card available at the time.

        The upgrade is nothing fancy as I salvaged parts from a second hand Dell just to get a working PC again. I think it's a gen 5 i5.

  • RJK on 15/06/2018 - 23:42
    +1

    1. Laptop components are designed to handle more heat. The main reason for component failure is allowing dust to build up. This means you can often keep laptops running for a decade if you regularly clean out the dust from the heatsink and fans.

    2. Any modern laptop with a decent CPU and an SSD will be able to handle the general tasks you list. I wouldn't panic about having 8gb, as even today most tasks will be well handled by 4gb - and with an SSD any use of pagefile won't degrade performance noticeably. 8gb will definitely give you a lot of leeway however.

    3. Agree with other advice to get an X1 Carbon if you want a general office machine, or to get a custom gaming machine (with GTX 1050Ti minimum) if you want to game. Metabox and some of the other custom companies were having sales, don't know if that's still the case. You'll get far better components for the cost and higher quality screens going custom.

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