I am thinking of the 24GB / 1TB SSD option, which seems a damn bargain to me. If I am missing anything I’d appreciate someone shouting! Have to order something quite soon now.
One thing: Am I right in assuming I can add RAM (and bigger SSD) if necessary in future? If so, I would go for that option as I think 16GB (plus 8) will probably be plenty good enough, as will 1TB, but if they are upgradeable then I could buy knowing I can improve if needed later.
I am basically looking for an absolute MINIMUM of similar performance to that, more ideally but definitely not less. I take it the machine above (and all others mentioned above probably) are going to beat this macbook in performance with Fedora?
Thanks everyone, really appreciate what I hope will be a joyful move to Fedora and away from Apple’s walled garden, not a minute too soon!
At 10 years old, problems with drivers that are no longer maintained reach a level that limits the utility of the system. For more recent Apple system with Intel processors, you have to rely on the linux community to support the hardware, but many linux users with Macbooks share identical hardware so there is a good chance you can find help with any issues that arise.
Unless you choose a new system that explicitly advertises linux support, you run risks that things won’t work. There is often a lag between introduction of new laptop models and linux support, and new models with pre-installed linux often come with drivers that are only available for the distro chosen by the vendor. Avoid systems that don’t have entries in the Linux Hardware Database. Linux is used to generate the database entries, so LHD will show you if there are issues with some devices.
Almost all systems, including laptops, are able to be upgraded with additional RAM and larger drives. That one seems no exception since it advertises differing amounts of ram and ssd as options.
I note that you can get the 40 GB ram & 2 TB ssd for only $70 more than the one you indicated. A 2 TB SSD sells at newegg for about $80.
I wish that were true. When I was looking a year or two ago, I was surprised to see how many laptops have the RAM soldered onto the board these days instead of socketed.
I wish that were true. When I was looking a year or two ago, I was surprised to see how many laptops have the RAM soldered onto the board these days instead of socketed.
That has been my experience as well. Order your laptop with the amount of RAM and storage you really want. It will be unlikely you can upgrade it after the fact.
It’s a risk calculation. I specifically looked for a laptop where the memory could be replaced or upgraded. If it’s soldered on and the memory gets corrupt, you’re basically looking at a new machine instead of just replacing the memory. Also, if it is socketed, check what the maximum memory is that is supported. I’ve been surprised by many how many new machines don’t support more than 16GB on board. You might not need more than that now, but you need to think about the potential for upgrades over the lifetime of the next 3 or 4 years or so that you plan on using it.
I checked the online specs and found the asked about laptop shows that it has one soldered in memory chip and one sodimm slot for memory and the ssd is NVME in an M.2 slot, so yes it would be upgradable after purchase. I would however, order it with the intent of making sure I did not have to upgrade later. The small price difference for ordering it with the max RAM and larger SSD seems a good choice to me.
Even if You have a computer with socketed RAM, You need to know which socket type is it and at what frequency RAM runs and what’s max RAM supported. There are many types now and there’s question what’s still possible to buy. If computer is old enough and RAM is not available to buy nearby Your best bet is junkyard rummage.
Thanks for the comments. Bit of a family emergency, so I took a plunge on a cheapie which I can either sell or more likely keep as a general portable machine for taking away from home. I will get back to looking for a powerful new machine when I get back.
For now I have this en route to me now: Lenovo ThinkPad T470 14" FHD Core i7-7600U 2.80GHz Webcam Backlit HDMI USB-C | eBay (32GB, 1TB)
For $345 I can’t go wrong whatever happens. I will find out how Fedora friendly it is when it arrives!
PS I couldn’t see the T470 2019 listed in the “old search engine” on Linux Hardware Database. Not sure I would understand how to decipher if it’s supported or not even if I had, i looked at some “probes” of other machines and nothing seems to have green right through all the hardware range. But no worries. I will find out the old fashioned way
I think the T470 wasn’t made past 2017. There are many models differing in CPU, memory, SSD, etc. . T470 is not listed in Lenovo devices supported for Windows 11, which puts in the category of 5+ years old notebooks being dumped by large enterprises that are cost-effective linux systems. Be prepared to upgrade sound and network hardware, maybe using USB dongles. It is not possible to say how well it will handle your image processing requirements. Hope your family emergency has a good outcome.
Thanks. It says “Release Year: 2019” on the listing, but those details are often wrong in my experience.
I do hope I don’t have to upgrade hardware!
I guess the first thing I need to do when it arrives is find any threads i can online about that model and Fedora. Fingers crossed I can make it work, it’s a good bang for buck!
Once you have the full hardware details and model code you may find it in the Linux Hardware database. Some model codes may be specific to a large enterprise volume purchase, so if yours is not in the database you can still check for details of any hardware that doesn’t work with Fedora.
Yes. Fedora includes the program used to generate a (sanitized) scan of your hardware and upload it to the database. Search is a bit clumsy, but well worth the effort.
