Looking for a New Laptop- Would you Purchase a Thinkpad (Lenovo) after Superfish?

[soccer97]

Content source

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/02/lenovo-pcs-ship-with-man-in-the-middle-adware-that-breaks-https-connections/

The GPU died in my current Toshiba laptop (it made it 5-6 yrs). It had an AMD processor and card and got really hot on the bottom, despite ventilation. Screen went black, external monitor can't show it. I am on a 10yr old laptop now, and can't pull any files off the old HDD (I pray the HDD didn't get damaged!). I always remember the old IBM ThinkPads (now Lenovo owns and makes them). They lasted a while and were reliable. The business PC at least at the time. After Superfish, would you buy one? I think it all was cleaned up, but the response was kind of sketchy, as the first round didn't take it off, and I may be wrong, but there is something similar they add. I don't like the idea of one Self-signed cert on my PC.

Any better brand ideas? Budget is $450-$500 tops - college student. Need 8GB RAM, decent ergonomics and reliability. From what I am reading the Intel Graphics cards are having problems with Windows 10 across the board.

My thoughts: Dell, Toshiba, Asus.... are good ones. All Manufacturer's add bloatware, except the Microsoft signature PC's but those are out of my budgetary constraints.

6th gen Intel's are supposed to be great and secure. I will be running Workstation (VMWare)

HP kept overheating x2 on the last laptops I had. Plastic turned red/orange when I disassembled it :/.


I greatly appreciate any advice help. You guys have always been insightful. Purpose of post: Deciding right laptop to buy.

 

[Soulbound]

Have Intel Graphic on 2 machines and windows 10 without any issues.

Asus will be my recommendation.
You can go with 4th Gen intel for your budget, considering you are looking for a laptop.

An alternative is Dell but they add quite a bit of bloatware and their design for air out is hardly the best. Toshiba is a good mid end system brand as well.

Take your pick. look at some of the models, compare the hardware and then look at the budget.

 

[cruelsister]

Since you are a poor student, consider Dell Outlet: Dell Factory Outlet

They always have coupons on their site, with this weeks' series ending today- 35% off Inspirons (the 5000 may suit you):

Dell Coupons, Discounts & Offers

One year warranty on the products.

 

[Vasudev]

Thinkpad series are very good and expensive too. Even Dell makes good ones too at affordable rates.

 

[kev216]

I currently have an HP Probook 470 since for about 6 months now. I never had issues with it (overheating etc) untill now.
It has a large screen (17.3 inch), 8 GB Ram, Intel Core i5 5200U processor and an AMD graphics card ATI AMD Radeon R5 M225 (1GB). Also its battery life is a huge plus (about 10-12 hours if you play a bit with the brightness)
I placed an SSD (Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500 GB) (there is HDD by default) in it and it is superfast (starts up in about 5 seconds) and every program runs fine and fast (even heavy ones like matlab). It's not a game laptop at all (actually it is a laptop from the business class of HP and not the Home ones), but for school and office it is very good (I am also a student). I run VMWare with it and after some tweaks of the VM it runs fine.
Very recommended laptop choice, but maybe not within your budget.

 

[Vasudev]

I currently have an HP Probook 470 since for about 6 months now. I never had issues with it (overheating etc) untill now.
It has a large screen (17.3 inch), 8 GB Ram, Intel Core i5 5200U processor and an AMD graphics card ATI AMD Radeon R5 M225 (1GB).
I placed an SSD (Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500 GB) (there is HDD by default) in it and it is superfast (starts up in about 5 seconds) and every program runs fine and fast (even heavy ones like matlab). It's not a game laptop at all (actually it is a laptop from the business class of HP and not the Home ones), but for school and office it is very good (I am also a student). I run VMWare with it and after some tweaks of the VM it runs fine.
Very recommended laptop choice, but maybe not within your budget.

An SSD is the inexpensive way to supercharge your PC, if your old PC performed poorly, even when CPU,RAM are at max.,probably it is HDD that is bottle-necking the whole system. These days SSD are affordable.

 

[CMLew]

Any better brand ideas? Budget is $450-$500 tops - college student. Need 8GB RAM, decent ergonomics and reliability. From what I am reading the Intel Graphics cards are having problems with Windows 10 across the board.

My thoughts: Dell, Toshiba, Asus.... are good ones. All Manufacturer's add bloatware, except the Microsoft signature PC's but those are out of my budgetary constraints.

6th gen Intel's are supposed to be great and secure. I will be running Workstation (VMWare)

HP kept overheating x2 on the last laptops I had. Plastic turned red/orange when I disassembled it :/.

Probably this. I believe you cant really settle down with those "low grade i7". I've been running i7 QM since 2011/12 till now and its working fine albeit u can expect alot of heat releasing from my fan. I would suggest go for those high performance processor, and not those low powered type.

 

[XavierGaming]

You can grab an affordable but quality chromebook preferably from ASUS. They're affordable, reliable, minimalistic, and very good for students. If you don't want a chromebook, you can get the ASUS X550ZA 15.6 for $502 with free shipping at Amazon. It ships with 8G of RAM, a 1TB drive, a AMD A10-7400P 2.5 GHz Processor, AMD Radeon R6 Graphics, and is 15.6 inch. A pretty good "bang for the buck" laptop I recommend to people with a $500 budget.

 

[jamescv7]

You may consider HP Stream laptop to your needs, since you mentioned of budget issue although some prices may consider to be 'overrated'.

Other reliability is ASUS which likely few of only companies does not provide any security risk from bundled OEM programs. (next to HP)

Of course McAfee AV is everywhere where if you don't like it then just remove.

 

[CMLew]

Looking at your selections, only ASUS and Levono won my vote based on the budget you proposed. Between those two, I'll still go for ASUS. It's my to-go laptop for the past 10 years, in terms of performance and stability.

 

[8-Bit Ghetto]

ASUS for Republic of Gamers! ASUS is for CHAMPION!

 

[soccer97]

Top 3 results are ASUS, Dell and Lenovo. I had no idea about the performance difference of an SSD, I just saw the cost/storage space ratio (128gb Pre-installed SSD). I forgot to add, I am a Windows person. I have media and a license to clean install if it's bloated. An Intel i5 is the lowest I am comfortable going processor wise.

I forgot I have an ASUS external monitor (which is great by the way). I am going to try to go with: ASUS, Dell or Lenovo - ASUS preferred.

I keep looking. The 6th gen Intels are out, but expensive.

The roadblock I hit is between :

AMD A8
AMD A10
AMD R7
AMD R6
Intel i5 with Intel Integrated graphics 4000 or 5000/5500 series.
I am trying to find one with 802.11 ac as well, much better than b/g/n.

I want to ensure 3 years of support minimum, so AMD doesn't legacy the Mobility Radeon HD series like it did.

Can someone help me understand in a nutshell the great debate between AMD and Intel? (Processors and Graphics).

Spoiler: Possible Choices

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0197Z2MN6/ref=psdc_565108_t1_B019G7VOSO#productDetails

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B012IBOCRU/ref=psdc_565108_t1_B0197Z2MN6#productDetails

http://us-store.acer.com/aspire-e5-772-59wg-notebook

(Mods if not okay, PM me and I will remove those)

 

[Soulbound]

ASUS for Republic of Gamers! ASUS is for CHAMPION!

With OP budget, no way he can afford ROG.

Standard Asus is good enough based on budget, as some said

 

[soccer97]

Can anyone clarify the difference in/best processors (i have spent a few hours researching). AMD vs Intel

The roadblock I hit is between :

AMD A8
AMD A10
AMD R7
AMD R6
Intel i5 with Intel Integrated graphics 4000 or 5000/5500 series.
I am trying to find one with 802.11 ac as well, much better than b/g/n.

I want to ensure 3 years of support minimum, so AMD doesn't legacy the Mobility Radeon HD series like it did.

Can someone help me understand in a nutshell the great debate between AMD and Intel? (Processors and Graphics).

Much appreciated. Am willing to spend $550 if necessary

 

[Alkajak]

Other reliability is ASUS which likely few of only companies does not provide any security risk from bundled OEM programs. (next to HP)

Just wanted to pop in and say that the newest wave of ASUS laptops in retail stores as of 2 weeks ago now come with bundleware. Right after the initial setup, it will come up as an ASUS fullscreen program that will ask you to install (from what I remember): Firefox, Skype, 7-Zip, Dashlane, and quite a few more. I believe it totaled out to 10-15 programs.

 

[jamescv7]

@Alkajak: Well if those are claimed to include on OEM then much better than Superfish. Why? Because we know already the overall background of how a software handle the privacy.

As an actual example:

My HP Notebook 14 comes only with HP Assistant and Cyberlink Media Suite as OEM laptop. Only McAfee AV for me considered as a 'no-no' on my list.

 

[Alkajak]

@jamescv7 It was not meant as a criticism of ASUS. More of a correction on the whole bundleware aspect of things. No it is not as bad as Superfish, but it is present.

I will agree, HP has the least bundleware, but does have quite a bit of bloat (CoolSense, Energy Star, HP Supplies, Quick Launch Buttons, Quick Start, etc).

 

[CMLew]

It depends if the bundleware is beneficial to you. My ASUS UX305 purchased last year Sept came in with those bundleware too packaged together with OEM. Not alot, perhaps like 4-5.

 

[XavierGaming]

It depends if the bundleware is beneficial to you. My ASUS UX305 purchased last year Sept came in with those bundleware too packaged together with OEM. Not alot, perhaps like 4-5.

There are 2 kinds of bloatware. The good and the bad. The good are the drivers, patches, and etc. The bad are adwares (Lenovo Superfish... *coughs*, unnecessary programs, etc. Computer manufacturers do this because they get paid and give the customer a all-in-one experience.

However, some people like me want to customize their system and fully clean their system from bloatware while getting a good and convenient experience with their system.

If you want to, play with everything that your manufacturer pre-installed in your system and list down every driver software and programs that you would want to install on your system.

Once that's done, download a Windows installation disk of your liking (You can grab a copy of Windows 10 on the bottom of this post), extract the ISO to a USB, boot up using the USB, and clean install.

Once that's done, download and install everything in your list and of course, load up your beastly security configuration.

Tada. You got yourself, a clean system fit to your needs!

NOTES:
​

If your system is pre-installed with a Windows OS lower than Windows 10, upgrade to Windows 10 without the clean ISO first as you may NOT get a free copy if you clean install directly from Windows 10. Your activation is embed to your motherboard so don't worry if you clean install ;D

You can grab a clean copy of Windows 10 here: Windows 10

 

[jamescv7]

@Alkajak: At least Energy Star (For battery) and CoolSense have related to the hardware functionality but the rest, yes already considered bloat. Well let's choose which is lesser evil nowadays.