Call me crazy, but universities have libraries and labs with computers that any student can use to work on assignments.
this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2024
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Asklemmy
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I don't have ready access to one.
If you really need a computer and don't have the budget for one that costs $600, then don't get a $600 computer. There are plenty of old office PCs on eBay that you can get for less than $100 and they should be fine for only homework. Just search for "Office PC" on there. This is not the place to be asking for money, but I hope you find something that fits your budget and that university goes well.
OP might need a beefier rig depending on the programme they're in. Not saying they couldn't go for something cheaper, but there might be a reason for the pricetag.
Yeah
Soros foot soldier and others ask for money, tbh.
In the same situation as you are - I have a barely functional laptop. I'll be buying one off from eBay for cheap soon. I don't know what your use-case is, but you can get a quad-core ThinkPad or a Dell Latitude for cheap. These devices are also very durable. All under 200-300$. Even 100$, if you're lucky in the bid. If you're not a CS grad, you can pick a dual-core laptop as well - just make sure to get the one with a large RAM - or upgrade it yourself for cheap. 600$ is not a small money, and people don't like it when someone asks for it trivially.
Alright, I will get that instead, though I would prefer something that's durable and lasts longer.
If you don't need a beefy CPU+dGPU, the X395, the T490 and the T495 would be great. However, if good CPU is a strict requirement, you may want to pick something like the T14 Gen 1/2 oe the X13 Gen 1/2 laptops. If you also need a dGPU, the P50, P51, P52 or the P53 series with a i7/i9/Xeon processor, and a Nvidia Quadra GPU. You can get them under 300-400$.
Excellent. Something cheap but powerful.
This might be what you're looking for, since you've mentioned gaming, right? These are the ones with dGPU:
Lenovo ThinkPad P51 Core i7-7700HQ, 32GB DDR4, Quadro M1200 (4GB GDDR5) 512GB
Lenovo ThinkPad P51 FHD 3.0GHz Xeon E3-1505M 24GB 512GB - NVIDIA Quadro M2200
Lenovo ThinkPad P51 15.6" Laptop i7 NVIDIA 512GB SSD 16GB RAM Win 10 Pro (OC)
Lenovo ThinkPad P52s 15.6" FHD TOUCH 1.9GHz i7-8650U 16GB 512GB - Quadro P500
Lenovo ThinkPad P52s 15.6" 2018 FHD TOUCH 1.9GHz i7-8650U 16GB 512GB Quadro P500
Refurbished Lenovo ThinkPad P53s 15.6" Core i7-8665U 16GB 1TB SSD Windows 10 Pro
Custom Lenovo ThinkPad P53s 15.6" Laptop Core i7 Min 1.80GHz Windows 10 / 11 Pro
I wouldn't recommend anything below 4 physical cores. Don't bother with the P50 - pick them only if the online benchmark is satisfactory according to you.
Now, for the iGPU ones, just search for Thinkpad T14 or X13 on eBay, and get a PC with 16GB or more RAM under your budget. X13 isn't performant enough, and has no SODIMM memory. T14 on the other hand has one onboard and one SODIMM memory, so you may be able to upgrade in the future.
Yeah, thanks! I wish I could say more but I am on my tablet.
Thankfully, the Thinkpads and Precision laptops are quite durable - these devices have a really good chassis, so you don't have to worry about micro-cracks in the motherboard. If you want something more rugged, you could go for the Toughbook and the Precision Rugged series, but they're going to be really expensive, which is not worth it. Since I am not still not sure about your actual use-case, it would be hard to recommend devices, but assuming that you don't need a dGPU, the T-series and X-series would be the best bet (and even the P-series, if there's a variant without the dGPU).
Frankly? I want to use it for gaming as well and video-editing. Other things besides school and Internet. Basically, for as many functions as possible.
Tell me that someone has mentioned resting this system with a Linux distro? Wouldnโt that resolve the problem?
I tried to install a Linux distro but I was unsuccessful. That's how I ended up in this problem.
What happened to the PC?
I don't exactly know... It requires a recovery key and I lost that a long time ago. When I got into my Microsoft account, it didn't have it...
BitLocker recovery key? Windows 11 now apparently does that by default. That's just Windows' encryption. So, if that's the case, while you lost the data on that PC it is just a software issue.
So, do you see something like this?:
Yeah! That's what I see.
Great. You don't need a new PC, you can just re-install Windows (or try a different OS, but you can do that later even in VM if you are interested).
Do you have an installation drive for Windows? If not, do you have access to another PC? There's also some Android apps that can create installation drives, but I haven't tried any of those.
Uhhuh... Okay, my brother has a laptop. So does my younger brother (Desktop). What Android apps can do this as well? I may have another installation drive.
I think I may have tried EtchDroid in the past based on screenshots, but it seems it's still not suitable for Windows:
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/eu.depau.etchdroid/
I also found this on Play store with people reporting success with Windows in the reviews. I haven't seen this one before, but it seems it requires "coins". It's possible to get those by watching ads it seems.:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mixapplications.rufus&hl=en
Anyway, have you followed this Microsoft's guide to make sure you really don't have access to the recovery key on https://account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey as noted there?
Just in case, it would be simpler.
I will check the last link. Thank you.
This is what I got.
Well, that's unfortunate. So you'll have to proceed with the re-install.
Yeah, seems like it...
Bruh, I just came across this comment...your PC isn't "damaged" - all you gotta do is either find the lost BitLocker key, or reinstall the OS. Here's what you could do - remove the NVME, or the M.2 SSD, or the HDD (if that's what you're still on), to your brother's PC, and move all the required files to a safe space. Then create an installation media for Windows, and well, there you go.
And comrade, please, I urge you to learn to be computer-savy, and perhaps, use a Linux desktop, if you're not constrained by any Windows-exclusive apps. Perhaps Bazzite may be a good choice. Or Ubuntu, maybe Fedora? Why would you stick to a capitalist turd OS with multiple NSA backdoors is beyond my understanding.
Microsoft literally (and no, I'm not joking) uses telemetry services in the background, fills your computer with bloatware, and doesn't give you the freedom to use your own purchased OS. And now, they've also started taking screenshots of your computer (yes, for real - it is related to some sort of AI bullshit - Copilot PC was it?).
I see...
I don't have my BitLocker key, is the problem, even after checking my Microsoft account.
It sucks...
It's at the Best Buy GeekSquad right now...
Go on that other website and look for the subreddits where people are begging for money for food, and post there. Also, just tell your teacher and they should be able to provide an extension and maybe help you in finding a way to get it done.
I already did.
I'm not begging either.