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The Power PC Thread [f*ck off consoles]

I’ll be ordering a MacBook Air 13” with M4 chip in at some point in the next few weeks.

Anything better around this price? £1000 ish. It’ll be used for mostly text output via Claude and some short form media generation. Mega battery and being light helps.

Also, what options do I have for an additional screen on a MacBook?
 
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I opted for a 13" M4 air for my latest work laptop, I regret this choice tbh.

Overheats and throttles very easily, takes me back to the old i7 days.

The M1 pro it replaced and my own M2 pro are both far better machines, just because they have a fan.
 
jenic said:
I opted for a 13" M4 air for my latest work laptop, I regret this choice tbh.

Overheats and throttles very easily, takes me back to the old i7 days.

The M1 pro it replaced and my own M2 pro are both far better machines, just because they have a fan.
Click to expand...
What sort of stuff are you doing on it, if you don't mind me asking? I won't need heavy video rendering etc.

I am now looking at a 15" M5 air in next couple months.
 
Ray Gin said:
What sort of stuff are you doing on it, if you don't mind me asking? I won't need heavy video rendering etc.

I am now looking at a 15" M5 air in next couple months.
Click to expand...
Zoom and slack mainly lol, hence thinking an air would do 🤣 Really nothing stressful at all, but zoom client is resource heavy ime.
 
jenic said:
Zoom and slack mainly lol, hence thinking an air would do 🤣 Really nothing stressful at all, but zoom client is resource heavy ime.
Click to expand...
Ah fair enough good to know, it seems highly rated online. Maybe the M5 chip will be a noticeable step up. For the bulk part, it will just be for generating text outputs, hopefully it'll be sufficient for this. I can pickup a 15" M5 chip model for £1150.

Just don't want to buy something that's slow, struggles with multiple programs running, overheats etc.
 
Ray Gin said:
Ah fair enough good to know, it seems highly rated online. Maybe the M5 chip will be a noticeable step up. For the bulk part, it will just be for generating text outputs, hopefully it'll be sufficient for this. I can pickup a 15" M5 chip model for £1150.

Just don't want to buy something that's slow, struggles with multiple programs running, overheats etc.
Click to expand...
It's fantastic until it gets hot, it's in a warm room too, so it's under poor conditions really. It's just the lack of active cooling which lets it down, shame.
 
dann2707 said:
Massively out of my depth when it comes to laptops and specifications...

But basically I am after a laptop (not pc rig as it needs to be portable)

With the following spec... I'd rather go for recommendation settings if my budget can afford it rather than minimum ideally. But I do think there was an update to that bit of equipment I need it for, that allows a lower spec machine to be used. Kind of in the mind of buy once cry once though.

Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

View attachment 1786337
Click to expand...
Currently looking at this one

It's down to £3100 with discount at the moment.

Thoughts?

I would need to upgrade ram later on but as a solid base it seems decent value for money?

 
dann2707 said:
Currently looking at this one

It's down to £3100 with discount at the moment.

Thoughts?

I would need to upgrade ram later on but as a solid base it seems decent value for money?

Click to expand...
That actually doesn't sound like a bad deal at £3100. Maybe have a quick look through https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/custom-laptops/ and see what a similar spec system would cost. Buying a laptop and then adding extra RAM could possibly end up being more expensive than just ordering a custom one with the RAM already included. (Assuming that matters to you 🤣)

200.gif
 
Steve1986 said:
That actually doesn't sound like a bad deal at £3100. Maybe have a quick look through https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/custom-laptops/ and see what a similar spec system would cost. Buying a laptop and then adding extra RAM could possibly end up being more expensive than just ordering a custom one with the RAM already included. (Assuming that matters to you 🤣)

View attachment 1792806
Click to expand...
Cheers yeah I can't help but keep coming back to it and although I know nothing about laptops and this stuff really... Lenovo seems to get a decent rep with these apparently. It's going to be an investment though.

Long term I'm getting it to 3d scan but buying this first means the scanner won't come until next year. So hopefully enough time for things to settle with ram prices as I won't need to ultimate upgrade it to 64gb instantly.

If I had the scanner first it would be a different plan of action.
 
dann2707 said:
Lenovo seems to get a decent rep with these apparently
Click to expand...
My Lenovo gaming laptop is still going strong after 11 years. Obviously it's useless for modern games, but aside from the expected battery degredation I haven't had a single issue with it.

Much better than my girlfriend's 6 year old Dell that I had to replace the motherboard on 🤣
 
Can you actually upgrade the RAM?

More often than not, the RAM is soldered to the motherboard and not something that can be changed.
 
R3k1355 said:
Can you actually upgrade the RAM?

More often than not, the RAM is soldered to the motherboard and not something that can be changed.
Click to expand...
That's usually an issue on thin notebooks, gaming/productivity laptops generally have proper RAM slots
 
I was really looking forward to it. The form factor and all the integrations etc would be perfect to play some PC games in the living room, but it's just not that powerful and the price is a bit much.
 
Stuff like CEC that works properly is great and I love the form factor. I think it was always going to disappoint the PC master race whatever happened, but the price point is just too high.

That’s not even a steam deck problem, it’s an industry problem.

I remember when the next killer must play game came out you’d sigh a bit, upgrade your graphics card and it would maybe be a £150 cost to upgrade one you’d sold the old one. Even recently you could make a decent setup step for a few hundred.

Not now, and all so the rich can get richer on a giant Ponzi scheme. Oh, I’m sorry, it seems the world is turning me into a goddamn socialist, I’m off to jump out of a window, etc
 
charltjr said:
Stuff like CEC that works properly is great and I love the form factor. I think it was always going to disappoint the PC master race whatever happened, but the price point is just too high.

That’s not even a steam deck problem, it’s an industry problem.

I remember when the next killer must play game came out you’d sigh a bit, upgrade your graphics card and it would maybe be a £150 cost to upgrade one you’d sold the old one. Even recently you could make a decent setup step for a few hundred.

Not now, and all so the rich can get richer on a giant Ponzi scheme. Oh, I’m sorry, it seems the world is turning me into a goddamn socialist, I’m off to jump out of a window, etc
Click to expand...

I’ve been seeing a few videos of Chinese developed graphics cards which can compete with the upper class gpus. Hopefully this will gain traction and be really competitive so it drives down the prices overall.
 
Who is going to want to buy that?

More expensive than a PS5 Pro, with lesser performance. And they have the cheek to charge extra for a controller :ROFLMAO:

Personally I think the Steam UI is crap anyway, so paying extra for the convenience of not clicking 'Steam' on a desktop just seems bonkers to me.

There will no doubt be some Steam fanboys who will buy it, but it seems like a very expensive living room ornament IMO.
 
Ray Gin said:
Who is going to want to buy that?

More expensive than a PS5 Pro, with lesser performance. And they have the cheek to charge extra for a controller :ROFLMAO:

Personally I think the Steam UI is crap anyway, so paying extra for the convenience of not clicking 'Steam' on a desktop just seems bonkers to me.

There will no doubt be some Steam fanboys who will buy it, but it seems like a very expensive living room ornament IMO.
Click to expand...

There is a bit more to it than that. Yes you could buy a PS5 Pro, but what about all your PC games that are not on console? You are getting a normal PC, it's not just locked down to Steam OS
 
Rojer said:
There is a bit more to it than that. Yes you could buy a PS5 Pro, but what about all your PC games that are not on console? You are getting a normal PC, it's not just locked down to Steam OS
Click to expand...
I know, but the clear selling point is the Steam UI / games library and the convenience factor. People would be expected to pay ~£1000 so they can play a Steam game in their living room, on a device which is less capable than current games consoles, which is pretty laughable really.

It will flop big time. Bit of a kick in the teeth for Steam fans IMO, being taken to the cleaners by Steam themselves.

I'd be interested to see what the next model looks like and it's performance/pricing but I'm really surprised they even released it at this spec/price personally.
 
It’s not a terrible price for a PC with those specs and form factor, that’s what’s really shocking IMO.

World’s gone crazy.

Don’t forget how much Sony subsidises the PS5 to get ecosystem lock in. Valve were never going to do that.

The outcome is still the same though, no matter what the cause is. It just looks like terrible value for its capabilities vs a console.
 
It's a tough ask for anything like the Steam Machine right now. Hardware costs are ridiculous, hardware availability is limited. Will someone please think about the data centres? It was always going to be made more difficult with not subsidising the hardware. I like the idea of having a utility/gaming PC in the lounge, but this doesn't hit the mark sadly. But I'm also not the intended customer demographic perhaps?
 
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