Lenovo or Dell: which university PC?

[Bach05]

SOS indecision between two fairly similar laptops for university use (COMPUTER ENGINEERING) then word processing, programming, Matlab, machine learning, etc. No gaming. I also have a fixed PC, this portartile would be useful for mobile work especially.

• Lenovo S340 PROs: dedicated graphics card + SATA empty SLOT - review
• Dell Inspiron 14 5490 PROs: more hardware recent, expandable RAM up to 20 GB (against the 8 of the Lenovo) - I can't find reviews

Can you give me some advice and / or motivation? Yes, I know ... I get lost in a drop of water. But thanks to those who want to make a contribution anyway.

 

[Eximo]

I believe they both support 20GB of memory, but come with 8GB. 4GB is non-removeable. So any failure there and the system is basically done. Shouldn't happen, but it also means you'll never have say 32GB in dual channel that other, more modular, laptops would offer.

Same basic displays, and batteries (I assume, no watt-hours from Lenovo)

There is always external storage, can get quite a bit on one of those USB nubbins if it is just straight storage. So I wouldn't call the 2.5" slot all that impressive.

The CPUs are essentially identical. Just Intel rebrands of the same chips they've been pumping out for the last few years. Optimizations get them a little more clock speed, but once the heatsink is saturated, they'll both be around the same base clock.

For what you describe, both are probably fine.

 

[Bach05]

I believe they both support 20GB of memory, but come with 8GB. 4GB is non-removeable. So any failure there and the system is basically done. Shouldn't happen, but it also means you'll never have say 32GB in dual channel that other, more modular, laptops would offer.

Same basic displays, and batteries (I assume, no watt-hours from Lenovo)

There is always external storage, can get quite a bit on one of those USB nubbins if it is just straight storage. So I wouldn't call the 2.5" slot all that impressive.

The CPUs are essentially identical. Just Intel rebrands of the same chips they've been pumping out for the last few years. Optimizations get them a little more clock speed, but once the heatsink is saturated, they'll both be around the same base clock.

For what you describe, both are probably fine.

I contacted the Lenovo Assistant Service and they told me that the max supported RAM is 8 GB. I was a little surprised too, but...

Yes, I'm agree with you: basically the challenge is about building quality, battery life and performance during stress (so termal efficiency).

 

[Eximo]

I can't see that being true though. The CPU's memory controller certainly supports more memory. Even if they used a dual bank arrangement on the soldered memory, a single rank 8GB or 16GB chip should drop right in. That might be all they have available for it, but I can't see a way for them to artificially suppress installing a larger chip.

 

[BFG-9000]

I would get the Dell simply because Lenovo whitelists Wifi and WWAN cards to force you to buy upgrades from them.

Someday you may want to upgrade to an internal 802.11be Wifi 7 card and won't be able to on the Lenovo at any price.

 

[Bach05]

I would get the Dell simply because Lenovo whitelists Wifi and WWAN cards to force you to buy upgrades from them.

Someday you may want to upgrade to an internal 802.11be Wifi 7 card and won't be able to on the Lenovo at any price.

So Dell is more upgradable and that means a longer lifetime?

 

[BFG-9000]

Not just upgradable but repairable. If after your 1yr warranty runs out on the Lenovo and the Wifi card dies, you'd have to find a Lenovo-specific, supported variant of one of the cards listed on their support list as a replacement, or the system will simply refuse to boot up until the offending card is removed. On the Dell you could install any standard mini-PCIe card and it will work.

Isn't that the whole point of PCIe slots? Note that the "special" cards are usually just a standard card with a different hardware ID string for twice the price.

 

[Bach05]

That's an interesting news. Thank you!