Hey pals, I'm thinking about buying a new laptop.
I will run a linux-distro on it and use it mostly for dev-stuff,video-streaming,etc..
I'm currently eyeballing a Lenovo Campus Thinkpad T490.
With i7 (4x up to 4.6GHz, 8 threads), 16GB ram.

Would it be a good choice or would you recommended something else?

I have the T480 and am more than happy with it. Is there still a campus special addition with an NVIDIA card?
The T495 is also a good solution, with an AMD APU, which is better than the Intel graphicls, worse than the NVIDIA one, but works better than the latter on Linux.

@sbiewald
I also thought about that one but it had nearly 1Ghz less than the Intel one.

@sbiewald Imagine buying APU in 2020. That meme was made by CPU + GPU that dosent suck gang.

@metamourge What about ryzen laptop?
If you want to do something like gaming you will NEED a decent GPU and cooling. Powerful cpu is useless if it throtles constantly.

Incredible machine!

@metamourge You know the 4.5 GHz is only available for a few seconds, on a single thread?
It is just the "boost" rate. It will usually clock around 2.2-2.7 GHz.

@Gregozor2121 Sure, an APU is nothing against a dedicated GPU. But I can only tell from persons who have a Thinkpad (E495, those cheaper manufactured ones) that they cannot complain.

@sbiewald Laptops usualy have bad cooling so yes you will get max turbo only for few sec, it is even worse with thinkpad cuz it is slim.

I know that you dont need a gpu for some applications, but OP didnt state in a precise manner what does he wanna do with it.

@Gregozor2121
As I already stated, dev-stuff (no ML, so, fuck dedicated GPU), the usual internet stuff and maybe some light gaming (Stardew Valley, Borderlands 1 & 2,...), nothing actually GPU heavy.

@metamourge Even if it is light gaming i would go even with the worst gpu out there. (Better safe than sorry)

I can tell you that 1050 should be good enough for you, but for very smooth experience you will have to play on med/low settings

Even watching HD yt can be a pain without gpu. If you want to game, pick something better, if you can give up on gaming, go ahead and ditch gpu. I recommend MSI, but watch out. Some msi models have fucked up keyboards (in software!) and it is tricky to fix

@Gregozor2121 I'm not sure what you are doing, but a dedicated GPU is certainly not required for (Full)HD YouTube (and it will not be in use at all, because Windows should detect it is not required and would consumer an unnecessary amount of energy). The integrated graphics unit of a recent Intel processor should be able to decode a 4K video as well.

Because of the currently Linux driver's state, my (NVIDIA) GPU usually isn't in use at all. YouTube works at all resolutions fine. No hanging, it just works.

@sbiewald My 3+++ year old Thinkcenter with crappy integrated Intel graphics plays 4k YouTube just perfectly.

Netflix, too. No problems.

@Gregozor2121
I'd rather not game at all, than supporting nvidia.

@metamourge why?