alt Hacker NewsMain machine is a $50 Thinkpad.
I haven't used a computer more recent than 2016. As far as I can tell, the only thing I'm missing is AAA gaming (RTX looks cool), and local LLMs.
I did a bunch of game jams on it. Even won one! (Of course, even 2010s hardware is overkill for 2d games :)
I also did some basic video editing on it but it was a bit slow to render.
I won't say I'm not missing out — I'm certainly looking forward to an upgrade! — but that you can get surprisingly far with surprisingly little.
Replies
alpaca128 • today at 10:30 AM
In the middle of a gaming session one stops thinking about graphics once it's reached a certain level of fidelity, and that level is far below RTX. Not worth the money, especially today.
Yes, exactly this. I'm using a 10 year old elitebook folio g1. It's about 2 pounds and does what I need it to do. Available with a 4k screen if that's your thing. Does not feel sluggish. Given that I'm not gaming, video editing, or doing local LLMs (and I think there is a big chunk of the population in that camp), I feel like I am missing out on nearly zero.
(And I'm not trying to say anything is special about the laptop I'm using. I adore using trackpoint (so much that I brought my own trackpoint keyboard in to work to use there) so would gladly trade for an old thinkpad if what I had didn't already do what I need it to do).