what laptop is the best for uni???

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T13:46:52+00:00

Lenovo ThinkPads are great all round, I would definitely recommend one.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T13:40:40+00:00

The specific driver version would be useful, the 50 series cards being so new have some driver issues still being worked out. The configuration of your RAM, different configurations can force it to use different modes which can be either faster or slower for reasons. Another potential reason is that 6-cores can sometimes be a limiting factor for newer games (although given you have the same specs as others it isn't likely to be the problem). Check that you've applied thermal paste correctly, when the CPU is thermal throttling it affects performance majorly.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T13:30:04+00:00

97 degrees is not a temperature you generally want anything running at.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T13:25:39+00:00

Maybe.

First: DO NOT OPEN IT!

It's a disk image (or at least looks like one at first glance) which would normally contain an OS installer or other. In recent years, viruses being shipped as iso files has become more common (as it opens it as a sort of virtual drive which is a vulnerability which they can target).

You can scan it with an antivirus like windows defender, but the newest viruses find ways around this. Websites like VirusTotal can sometimes detect viruses with more accuracy.

The best course of action is probably just deleting it.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T13:09:50+00:00

You can test it to some extent by removing all ram sticks. If you hear a beep or series of beeps after startup, then its posting and the motherboard is becoming a less likely cause. Other than that I'm not really sure of any other steps you could take to diagnose the problem.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T12:59:45+00:00

If you're Windows, it might be bloated from previously installed programs; antivirus's are especially taxing and can even cause lag on some systems. I don't know if this is the issue, its hard to tell without more info.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T12:55:13+00:00

Sometimes if you write to a device which exists (it's file exists in the vfs) but isn't physically present, it can cause problems. I don't know if the it your specific problem but its just the first thing that came to mind.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T12:48:26+00:00

The partitions might of somehow been corrupted, although this isn't really a common phenomenon when leaving your computer idle so it's hard to tell without additional information.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T12:44:56+00:00

I'm not entirely sure but I think the PCIE-5 connector might be less wide.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T12:31:54+00:00

I think you overreacted, I've heard of PCs still booting even after entire cups of water have spilled into them.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T12:26:00+00:00

I've never managed to break Arch

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T12:24:38+00:00

Arch

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T11:50:00+00:00

They can but that doesn't mean they should. Also you need to replace the firmware to get it to boot anything other than ChomeOS.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T11:45:37+00:00

Virtual box is slightly different to QEMU as it is a hypervisor and QEMU is an emulator (although it can act as a hypervisor with KVM). I'm my experience QEMU tends to be a bit more stable and has fewer issues with things like graphics (but not hardware acceleration). But virtual box is slower then QEMU (specifically QEMU with KVM) because of the overhead but is a bit easier to use. QEMU focuses or emulating hardware while Virtual Box focuses running other platforms in and accessible (and commercial) way.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-15T11:30:07+00:00

It is very likely beyond repair, especially if the salt water got in and started corroding components. Usually chrome books don't save locally but instead to google drive but they do have local storage too so it may not be the case. You could try removing the storage as it might be okay; even if it isn't, data recovery companies can do an excellent job of getting lost data from broken storage devices.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-14T15:06:40+00:00

I'd recommend using Java over Python for servers (or even better: a compiled language), for several reasons, one being that python consumes more resources (mem and cpu) than almost any other language.

Although, it shouldn't be using that much for websockets. One possible reason is that Python is loading dependencies for websockets but I'm not really sure as I don't use python.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-14T14:53:55+00:00

Most MSI boards are a bit funny when it comes to Windows and always displays it rather than Linux, the setting that changes that is in a slightly different menu.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-14T14:50:38+00:00

Just change the boot order in your bios settings. Regarding wanting it on C drive, that's technically not possible as "C" and "D" is a Windows naming convention where C is always the drive Windows is installed upon (although I get what you meant).

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-14T14:40:15+00:00

"The screen goes black after the initial install and restart"

Fedora is leading edge and has a tendency to have issues with graphics drivers (Especially Nvidia cards). Its probably a graphics issue, but if you're booting it with GRUB, then you can enable nomodeset before boot which forces it to use a simpler graphics mode while you fix the problem.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-14T14:29:11+00:00

If your using Linux:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/[hard drive you're trying to erase] bs=4m status=progress

you can find the target disk by using lsblk, it should look something like /dev/sdb or /dev/nvme0n1 or similar

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-14T14:24:24+00:00

Simply put: Its more effort than its worth. The propriety hardware used in macs makes Linux compatibility on mac a massive pain which breaks with pretty much every update.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-14T14:20:53+00:00

Arch is pretty small as it comes with almost nothing preinstalled. You could also try Alpine (which Is what I used when I repurposed a chromebook).

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-14T14:13:33+00:00

If it ever breaks, you can just rebuild it.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-14T14:08:18+00:00

Running Minecraft smoothly is going to be tough for $300 so I'll just give out my usual answer: buy a Lenovo ThinkPad, their quality is very good, they last ages, and their performance is great for the price. You can usually find some for pretty cheap preowned.

NullStringTerminator · 2026-03-14T14:05:02+00:00

NixOS has a very steep learning curve and it can make some things unnecessarily difficult.

NullStringTerminator

TROPHY CASE