Everyday laptop, and computer history

Julien ARNAUD

Until around 2007 [0], I was a big fan of powerful desktops as my daily driver. 

At that point my computer was liquid-cooled PowerMac G5 Quad 2.5 Ghz. This was a beast and I loved it.

I then switched to a MacBook Pro 15" Penryn complemented by a NAS to compensate for lack of local storage.

I kept on the laptop + NAS train for a while :

  • MacBook Unibody (2009)
  • MacBook Air 13" (2011)
  • MacBook Retina 12" (2012)
  • Dell XPS 13" (2017) This was my switch from Apple to Linux
  • Lenovo Legion 15" (2019, short lived)
  • Razer 15" Base (2019)
  • Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 (2021)

 more recently with availability of 4TB SSDs I went to a laptop-only setup.

My previous laptop was the IdeaPad Pro 5 (5800U, 2.2K display, 16GB) which was fine but I needed more RAM for LLM inference.

After much searching, I found a single computer that fit the bill : Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 14AHP9.

  • a fast CPU with fairly low TDP (8845HS)
  • a hi-dpi OLED screen (2880x1800) with 120Hz refresh rate
  • a removable NVMe for my 4TB drive
  • 32GB of RAM for LLM
  • decent iGPU (Radeon 780M)
  • full AMD stack for good Debian compatibility
  • plenty of IO (2 USB-C, 2 USB-A, SD, Jack, HDMI)
  • a compact and slick design
  • no forced buy a of windows licence
  • 7 to 10 hours of battery life on Linux

Crazy part is the price : less than 1000€ (VAT excluded).

Internal of my previous laptop on the left (15W TDP), and new one on the right (45W TDP)

The built quality is very solid, audio is better than my previous Lenovo and thermal management is excellent (silent unless a thread is burning for a while, even then the noise is very contained).

Overall an excellent package for the price.

[0] previous computers

  • Macintosh Performa 400
  • DIY Athlon K7
  • DIY Ahtlon XP 2400+
  • iBook G4 12" 800Mhz
  • Some Intel M 1.6Ghz laptop
  • eMac G4 1.25Ghz
  • PowerMac G5 1.6Ghz
  • PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0Ghz