Secondary laptop - can PCS help me?

[sck451]

I don't really know my way around PCS's offering of laptops. I have a desktop that does all the heavy lifting, so I don't need anything terribly powerful, but I do want it to feel very snappy essentially when using Office and browsing the internet. I may try to get Parsec working on it so I can remotely use my desktop. I will not be playing any games. I may do a certain amount of coding (Ruby and Node, so all single-threaded stuff).

I'm therefore thinking of something in the £600-700 range. I'd prefer something with a 14" screen and I'd prefer something with a metal chassis to a plastic one.

I'm a little baffled by the options available, so the question: is there something PCS sells that would be appropriate for my requirements?

 

[AgentCooper]

I think @SpyderTracks, @FerrariVie and @Bhuna50 are the likely candidates to help you out on this one.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I don't really know my way around PCS's offering of laptops. I have a desktop that does all the heavy lifting, so I don't need anything terribly powerful, but I do want it to feel very snappy essentially when using Office and browsing the internet. I may try to get Parsec working on it so I can remotely use my desktop. I will not be playing any games. I may do a certain amount of coding (Ruby and Node, so all single-threaded stuff).

I'm therefore thinking of something in the £600-700 range. I'd prefer something with a 14" screen and I'd prefer something with a metal chassis to a plastic one.

I'm a little baffled by the options available, so the question: is there something PCS sells that would be appropriate for my requirements?

Helloooo.... sorry for the delay, have slept masses today, just woke up from the obligatory after lunch nap.

Ok, the one I'd personally recommend is the Lafite Pro giving a few reasons:

1/. Aluminium chassis, and very nicely built, quite a solid piece of kit while remaining rather light.

2/. Thunderbolt 4 which comes with some huge long term benefits aside from transfer speeds / external monitors. Also factor in the ability to run an eGPU which for me adds enormous value to a budget chassis.

3/. Reason why the Pro model specifically and not the normal is that the pro allows for normal SODIMMS of RAM whereas the normal Lafite has soldered RAM.

Now to get the specs I would want as a bare minimum, it's coming just over budget, but it's definitely worth it if you can stretch.

Chassis & Display
Lafité Pro Series: 14" Matte Full HD 60 Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor i5-1135G7 (2.4GHz, 4.2GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2933MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 65W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Lafité Pro Series Integrated 49WH Lithium Ion Battery
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x THUNDERBOLT 4 + 1 x USB 3.2 (TYPE C) + 2 x USB 3.2
Keyboard Language
LAFITÉ PRO SERIES SINGLE COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Chassis
Clevo NV41MZ (i5-1135G7, FHD 60Hz N7, Blank KB)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days
Price: £724.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/lafite-pro-II-14/6XwST6Yzcb/

 

[sck451]

That's awesome: many thanks. Will add that to my list of options! I had actually been thinking of running Linux (I ran Kubuntu for about a decade) -- is the driver support decent, do you know? (If I can bear to give up OneDrive...)

 

[SpyderTracks]

That's awesome: many thanks. Will add that to my list of options! I had actually been thinking of running Linux (I ran Kubuntu for about a decade) -- is the driver support decent, do you know? (If I can bear to give up OneDrive...)

From what I understand the Clevo chassis rarely have any issues, it's usually the TongFangs that can be a little more challenging to work around, but I'm fairly sure there's been a recent mention of someone installing linux without any issues on the Lafite, I'll just see if I can dig it out

 

[SpyderTracks]

I knew I'd seen one, this is with Debian, not sure how that differs from other Distros:

14" Lafite Pro Debian 11 Installation Success

My 14" Lafite Pro (upgraded to 512GB drive) arrived today and I have installed Debian 11. I was a little anxious as it has an Nvme drive and there have been booting issues previously reported but I have experienced no unexpected problems. The machine was ordered with no OS but came with a...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

And in case you need it, there's a GitHub repo for a project called Tuxedo Keyboard to run illuminated keyboards in Linux:

Installation of keyboard drivers for TUXEDO models with RGB keyboard - TUXEDO Computers

Installation of keyboard drivers for TUXEDO models with RGB keyboard: For Ubuntu and openSUSE there are ready to install packages in our repositories. These are also available in the official Manjaro repository. Some distributions (like Arch Linux) ...

www.tuxedocomputers.com

 

[SpyderTracks]

Just further, on older models but gives workarounds which may still be relevant:

lafité IV 15.6 + successful Pop_os 19.10 install (then updated to 20.04)

Update : 18th of july 2021 System has been running fine for a year and without any issue. (except lately an annoying IO latency on the btrfs FS) I've just a fresh install with pop_os 21.04 yesterday (with Ext4 FS this time). + Freon + cpu freq + tuxedo keyboard... system is snappy I really...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Linux Mint on a Lafité IV 15.6 And How to configure keyboard lighting

I did try and post a full review of this laptop but after four attempts that failed I gave up and moved to this section to post this in the hope it will help anyone who wishes to install Linux mint on this model of laptop. I installed Linux Mint 20 Mate from a live USB with no issues...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[FerrariVie]

I did run Linux Pop!OS a few months ago on my Clevo and didn't have any driver issues. I used Tuxedo's keyboard drivers and it actually works a lot better than Window's version of Clevo Control Center for Keyboard LED (imo). However, what bothered me the most was the CPU and fan controls. The only one I could find was again Tuxedo's copy of control center, but they're not great as found the profiles either too fan noisy or too CPU hot.

For sure there are ways to control CPU and fans using the terminal, but that is not great usability-wise... Imagine needing to create a lot of config files for each profile that you want to use, then save them all on the desktop and run when needed. Too much work for me so came back to windows only, but it is something that is manageable if you're willing to learn how to do it.

EDIT: Regarding the build, within that price range I totally agree with @SpyderTracks suggestion (as usual )