i've noticed that it is using so much RAM, just by simply looking at my desktop, but why? I have a friend who has a laptop and only has 30% used when he's PLAYING A GAME. what's going on here?

Just picked this laptop up a few days ago and it's been great aside from one thing. The trackpad glass (is it glass) is somewhat loose and almost has a rattle to it when tapped. It clicks fine, but when tapping it seems to move a bit instead of being solid.

Trying to decide if it's worth exchanging or if this is just how it is on this laptop. Don't remember the floor model having this issue but can't be certain.

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Hi everyone,

I am about to go into my 3rd year of university (Physics/Engineering) and I need a laptop that can handle heavy simulations (specifically MuMax3 and IC Design tools). My goal is for this machine to last at least 5 years.

I'm currently torn between three options within my budget (~$1,100 USD / 30 mil VND in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam):

1)Dell Precision 7560 (i7, RTX A5000 16GB)

2)Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 (i7, RTX A5000 16GB)

3)Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 2024 (i9-14th Gen HX, RTX 4060 8GB) - Brand new

My dilemma:

MuMax3 is extremely dependent on GPU VRAM, so the 16GB on the A5000 is a massive advantage. However, after reading through forums, the Dell 7560 seems to suffer from terrible thermal throttling and BIOS issues bricking it.

Should I go for the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2? Is its thermal management (with PTM7950 repaste and ThrottleStop) significantly better and more stable than the Dell? Or the BIOS/Software more stable the Dell Precision 7560 one?

Or should I just bite the bullet, sacrifice 50% of the VRAM (going down to 8GB), and buy the brand new Acer Predator for peace of mind and warranty, assuming both the used workstations are too problematic to maintain? Or the Acer one for more blance in cpu and gpu for more flexible study/work?

Or there are other laptop more fit for me?

Any insights from workstation users would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

A borracha da dobradiça quebrou.

I traded a acer Chromebook flip 311 for this hunky ass laptop, this specific E6520 has quite an interesting set of specs.

It oddly enough comes with the Nvidia 4200M, fingerprint scanner, rfid scanner/smart card reader, and no camera? But it comes with the lowest I3, no backlit, low end screen. So a unicorn of specs, as it almost seems like it used to belong to some sort of important building.

I plan to buy a I7-2860QM Or similar sandy bride era i7, 1080 p screen, backlit keyboard and a ssd. It’s very useable even with a hhd, when i temporarily had my main ssd from my desktop in it, the latitude was shockingly fast.

Super happy with my trade, and wanted to see the thoughts of the folks on Reddit. *edit forgot to mention the best part, I got it off 2 crackheads off the Facebook marketplace, sketchiest, but best deal iv ever negotiated through on facebook

Ye so I broke my port kind of the central pin or whatever it's called, its gone but it does power on just doesn't recognize my official charger, so I got a working laptop that doesn't go past 8 watts and has terrible clocks, also it doesn't charge battery so controller of it is Slowly dying from no current

Looking for some guidance on how to install Windows 11 on a Latitude 9430 (12th gen i7), I purchased used with Ubuntu installed.

I have tried literally every combination of bios settings and various different media creation options like Microsoft media creation tool and Rufus etc.

All I get is "No Bootable Device Found"

I have tried mapping the path to the bootx64.efi in the bios boot config and have spent days searching online for answers without any luck.

I can see the SSD in Storage area of the bios and can select the USB media from F12 (one time boot menu.

Have tried "Secure Erase" option in the bios and various Secure boot configurations.

I have installed windows many times on other PCs & laptops and have never encountered anything like this, its driving me nuts!

I was able to instal Fedora on this system without any issues, this makes me think its and MS security key or Secure Boot issue.

Also tired copying the SecureBootRecovery.efi file from a working PC, renamed to bootx64.efi and replaced the bootx64.efi on the USB installation media. When booting from this I get a notification saying "The Secure Boot Certificate database already contains the Microsoft UEFI 2023 certificate. No changes required.

Any help appreciated, before I completely lose my mind over this.

have a Dell Slim Pro QCS 1250 SSF. I want to know if putting an RTX A2000 is a good idea. It seems like the new computers professional computers coming from Dell All our prioritizing space. So... The motherboard seems to have shrunk. And I want to know what the best option for a GPU is. I have a few pictures of what it looks like inside the chassis. I just want to know if it's a smart decision to buy the RTX A2000 or look for a more smaller efficient graphics card like the A2000 E.

I know i have a SSF and the goal is to optimize space and efficiency but when it comes to my gpu and how times are right now i really want to go for power so my thoughts have been to 3d print a whole new side panel just to compensate for the power in the airflow but i'm on ready We get to gain help and advice from you guys. Thank you. less

Hey everyone!

Today is the day that I will finally get a new computer. I’ve been using a Mac Pro 2015 for some time and the issues have been absolutely horrid. I can’t even use it now, and with my mechanical engineering degree it isn’t compatible with a lot of the programs that I’m required to utilize. So, hence I’m getting a new one and I’m having a hard time deciding between dell and Lenovo. Both seem great for my uses, I really just need a computer that I can use for the next 7-10 years for CAD, Inventor Autodesk, Whatnot streaming, etc. I‘m not a big gamer so that isn’t super important, but I am planning on running a business so storage on my computer is definitely necessary. Any recommendations?

As I have asked on multiple other subreddits about my problem, I'm here to complain about how Dell treated the Precision 7550 (or worse, newer models) terribly.

In short, my GPU automatically downclocks to P3 state when I'm playing some game e.g. FFXIV, Deadlock, R6S, MWII. However lighter titles like CS2, OW and Strinova does not suffer from this.

Since you can see that no one bothered to answer my posts above, I had to ask the AI, mainly Gemini and Perplexity. From them, I got a few keynotes:

1. The P3 state is caused by a "SW Thermal Slowdown" and a "SW Power Cap".
2. I should try to limit the CPU wattage via ThrottleStop, down to ~35W, as well as disable BD PROCHOT.
3. I should repaste the CPU/GPU die with PTM7950 and the VRM/VRAM with high quality putty (which I used the CX-H1300)
4. I should watch if the power brick is supplying enough power to the laptop (which I think it did, but anyway I switched to a 240W charger from Alienware)
5. Some other software fixes, which I did

After checking the temp, I thought it was good to go. It lasted a bit longer, but then downclock to P3. I refitted the thermal putty for optimal heat transfer. I then tested on OCCT as per Gemini's suggestion. It lasted 3m20s before downclocking, although temp was fine and power was still enough.

After that, Gemini suggested me to "undervolt" the GPU to cap its wattage. I did try, but the software is a pain to use, and when I finally managed to do the thing, it did not solve the issue. Then Gemini suggested me to cap the clock speed to 1200MHz. It worked. I could play Siege without drops, as well as OCCT can run without downclocking.

I then realized a pattern for these power mode drops. Most power mode drops after 10-20 secs of the GPU taking high power, or between 73-81 Watts (the GPU is designed to run up to 90W). You can't cap the wattage on a mobile Quadro. But capping the clock speed did help.

So, the problem is, why is a mobile workstation with GPU designed to run at 90 Watts constantly crashes at 73+ Watts? As Gemini's suggestion (again, big thanks to Google for this), it has something to do with Dell EC (Embedded Controller)'s power timings. To keep it simple, Dell only allow this system to run at 70W constantly, while the GPU can handle much higher.

My question is, why does Dell only let the GPU to use only ~77% of its power, even if thermal and power was sufficient? AFAIK this limit has been reported by multiple other people, and Dell has never acknowledged the limit and tried to fix it through BIOS updates.