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Bank posted:I'm looking at buying my wife a laptop for Christmas. It's gotta be a Windows machine, no negotiation there, but I'm hoping for a decent deal on a 13" or 14" laptop that basically has a shitload of RAM, or expandable RAM (because of Chrome) and a great battery life. What is she going to do with it? If JUST chrome 8GB is probably fine, does she roll with 50+ open tabs? Does she do any gaming? Among the 14s the Asus ROG G14 is (I think) probably the best for all-around. There was black friday pricing for Best Buy for this guy for $800 but not anymore. Dunno if it will come back https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-r...p?skuId=6403425 I bought the 2060 version myself 2 weeks back. The slickdeals link I posted 2 above (err, last page I guess) is basically the cheapo version, but at $450 it's a steal. If she doesn't do any gaming this is a screaming deal on a 13" Thinkpad: https://slickdeals.net/f/14460524-l...earchBarV2Algo1 or this 14" (I'd prefer the Ryzen CPU and Integrated graphics of the above one though) https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T490-Laptop-14-0-FHD-IPS-Touch-300-nits-i7-8665U/164441438988
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Nov 5, 2020 04:01
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Thanks! No gaming for her, just Chrome and maybe editing photos and such. The Lenovo looks like a good deal but the ETA on those is a ways out. Some posters said their stuff wasn't shipping until January (!).
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Nov 5, 2020 04:32
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Speaking of Lenovos. My Surface Pro 3 is just getting shittier and shittier for every day. I've tried cleaning it and reformatting it without much success. Firefox is slow as hell and I'm getting the feeling that it's nearing its end. Ideally I'd love one of the new X1 carbons, but can't really justify the price. I got to looking at older but upgradeable Thinkpads etc and something like a T450 / 450s etc would be pretty fun and could keep me entertained with upgrades etc. The only downside with these is that coming from a 1440p screen on the SP3, a 1080p is absolute minimum, and I'm sceptical about even that. I don't think upgrading to a 1440p screen is possible on the Thinkpads neither? Or maybe 1080p is more than enough at that size if the screen itself is good. Any insights?
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Nov 5, 2020 12:43
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MrOnBicycle posted:Speaking of Lenovos. My Surface Pro 3 is just getting shittier and shittier for every day. I've tried cleaning it and reformatting it without much success. Firefox is slow as hell and I'm getting the feeling that it's nearing its end. Ideally I'd love one of the new X1 carbons, but can't really justify the price. I got to looking at older but upgradeable Thinkpads etc and something like a T450 / 450s etc would be pretty fun and could keep me entertained with upgrades etc. They aren't that common, but you can get the 1440p/QHD on the T460S, I had one and it was great.
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Nov 5, 2020 14:56
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1080p on my x260 only barely cuts it for me, but my eyes have always been fine with no scaling and extra desktop space. I think on a T450 it would be “ok” but the res would be the one thing that made it feel old especially if stepping down from a higher res. I’m just waiting to pull the trigger on an x1 Nano when it come out so I can go higher without needing to go to 4k.
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Nov 5, 2020 15:21
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is the 2060 RTX Legion 5 model here (the rightmost on this page) a good deal? it def looks like one https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/legion-laptops/legion-5-series/Lenovo-Legion-5-15ARH05/p/88GMY501444
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Nov 5, 2020 17:17
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FoneBone posted:is the 2060 RTX Legion 5 model here (the rightmost on this page) a good deal? it def looks like one Sorta similar to the ROG G14 2060 deal with some differences (that deal is dead but I'd guess it'll be back around BF or shortly after). I'm not a huge fan of the Lenovo Legion line, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it. That screen looks real nice though.
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Nov 5, 2020 18:21
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Lockback posted:Sorta similar to the ROG G14 2060 deal with some differences (that deal is dead but I'd guess it'll be back around BF or shortly after). I'm not a huge fan of the Lenovo Legion line, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it. it's out of stock so never mind, at least for now
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Nov 5, 2020 18:44
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The G14 is very nice...
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Nov 6, 2020 01:08
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headlight posted:1080p on my x260 only barely cuts it for me, but my eyes have always been fine with no scaling and extra desktop space. I think on a T450 it would be “ok” but the res would be the one thing that made it feel old especially if stepping down from a higher res. That's what I'm afraid of. Darn. Bob Morales posted:They aren't that common, but you can get the 1440p/QHD on the T460S, I had one and it was great. Cool I'll check it out.
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Nov 6, 2020 06:33
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Hi everyone, I'm starting a new job, in the new year and the company I'm working for have asked me to source my own laptop (with them paying for it) - seemingly no budget restrictions! Key considerations I would like: - 16GB of RAM - Decent CPU so I can run a few VMs - Build quality must be good enough to last me 3 years of travelling for work - SSD (duh) Key work activities: - Having a shitload of tabs open on Chrome/Firefox (webdev support) - Running a couple of VMs to assist with troubleshooting (Mac/etc.) - Normal activities - email/video meetings/etc. Past this work haven't really given me any guidance, so after some reading (incl. the OP of this thread) I think I'm fairly set on either an XPS or Thinkpad. I don't want to rinse my team's budget on a laptop I don't necessarily need, however, so is there a particular level of processor etc. to consider here? Apologies if this isn't enough information, I'm simultaneously over-thinking whilst not having enough knowledge to over-think properly. Cheers!
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Nov 6, 2020 13:20
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DrAlexanderTobacco posted:- Running a couple of VMs to assist with troubleshooting (Mac/etc.) Do you mean MacOS virtual machines? My understanding is you are officially only allowed to do that on Mac hardware.
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Nov 6, 2020 14:38
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Saukkis posted:Do you mean MacOS virtual machines? My understanding is you are officially only allowed to do that on Mac hardware. Yeah, ideally. That's interesting about Mac VMs needing to be run on Mac hardware - bummer! I would still be using a few Windows VMs though.
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Nov 6, 2020 15:27
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DrAlexanderTobacco posted:Yeah, ideally. That's interesting about Mac VMs needing to be run on Mac hardware - bummer! I would still be using a few Windows VMs though. Maybe a Mac machine with Boot camp? Also since they said budget is not a issue...
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Nov 6, 2020 15:53
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etalian posted:The G14 is very nice... some wheels just need to be reinvented every other page
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Nov 6, 2020 16:34
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This is possibly a windows thing, but I have an odd issue that keeps happening on my Thinkpad (P1 gen 2 with the Xeon and T2000, and 4K screen). Most of the time after coming back from sleep or restarting, the display is (somewhat) warm white in overall tone (like ~4500-5000K). That's fine, and easy on the eyes. The issue is, if I open the notification sidebar (Action Center?), it shifts the tone up to like 6500K, and stays there until it sleeps again or restarts. Night Light is off and is not on a schedule. HDR is off because it's awful on this display for whatever reason. Anyone else experience anything like this, and any thoughts on where to start looking?
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Nov 6, 2020 17:01
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Anyone with a 4k 15.x" laptop: what do you run for display scaling?
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Nov 6, 2020 19:52
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etalian posted:Maybe a Mac machine with Boot camp? Parallels or VMware Fusion with Windows VMs is probably more convenient option. I don't know the details, but I've heard our main Mac admin complain about it several times. He'd rather run his VMs on our VMware cluster or in some rack server in our data center, but apparently that's not an option without Hackintoshing.
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Nov 6, 2020 23:35
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I'm wondering if any of y'all have experience with modding Lenovo T430s. I bought this guy back in 2013: Processor Intel Core i5-3230M Processor (3.20GHz, 3MB Cache, 1600MHz) with Intel HD Graphics 4000 Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) Operating System Language Windows 7 Home Premium 64 - English Display Type 14.0" HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready System Graphics NVIDIA NVS 5400M Graphics with Optimus Technology, 1GB DDR3 Memory Total Memory 4 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (1 DIMM) Keyboard Keyboard - US English Camera 720p HD Camera with Microphone Hard Drive 320GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm Ultrabay DVD Recordable System Expansion Slots Express Card Slot & 4-in-1 Card Reader Battery 6 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70+ Power Cord 90W AC Adapter - US (2pin) Integrated WiFi Wireless LAN Adapters Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN When it arrived I added 4 more GB of RAM and an SSD for the operating system and programs. A few years ago I reformatted and installed Windows 10. I've also replaced the keyboard and monitor (with another TN) due to damage incurred over the past 7 years. I really like this laptop and I'd love to keep using it, but I'd like to take advantage of advances in tech to get a speedier machine. I've done some reading on the topic, but I'm wondering what you think is the best bang for the buck on upgrades. 16gb RAM? Processor upgrade? In other words, if you've done some tinkering with T430s, what upgrades did you feel really good about doing after the fact? Main uses are web browsing, email, light gaming, and rarely some video editing. Budget for upgrades is something like ~$500.
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Nov 7, 2020 01:07
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Funnily enough I just watched this video on the same topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UihM_2Pyme0 Edit: Bidding on a good condition T450s with i7 5600U processor and 12GB RAM + 240GB brand new SSD. Put my max bid at $200 for now. MrOnBicycle fucked around with this message at 08:27 on Nov 7, 2020 |
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Nov 7, 2020 08:20
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Clobbermeister posted:I'm wondering if any of y'all have experience with modding Lenovo T430s. I bought this guy back in 2013: You’d be better of spending $500 on a newer Lenovo The T430 is a brick and down on CPU power etc etc They are fun to play with though
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Nov 7, 2020 13:35
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Bob Morales posted:You’d be better of spending $500 on a newer Lenovo Interesting. It seems like there's something of a fetish out there for modding old T430s, but that popping a couple new parts in a 7 year old computer is not the best bang for the buck if all I'm looking for is performance improvements. Any thoughts on what models I should focus my attention on (used or new) if I really like the chunky/sturdy look and feel of the older lenovos?
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Nov 7, 2020 18:55
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Clobbermeister posted:Interesting. It seems like there's something of a fetish out there for modding old T430s, but that popping a couple new parts in a 7 year old computer is not the best bang for the buck if all I'm looking for is performance improvements. Any thoughts on what models I should focus my attention on (used or new) if I really like the chunky/sturdy look and feel of the older lenovos? The good news is that even though you can still get the trash 1366 and 1600x900 screen, Lenovo offers a couple nice ones, from 1080p to 4K I’d look at a T480/490 for the $500 range. So much faster.
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Nov 7, 2020 22:09
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I love sellers who go "HIGH RESOLUTION SCREEN: 1366x768!".
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Nov 8, 2020 07:04
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they should legally be forced to refer to x720 as only having "Definition"
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Nov 8, 2020 12:28
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I think it is time for a new laptop. I can hear the fan starting to rattle on my Lenovo G580 that I bought cause it was fairly cheap on sale for ~$400. At least 6 years old, probably more. I've upgraded the ram to 8GB and an SSD, but it chugs and gets super hot when room temps get above 70 F. It can't seem to handle the amount of browser tabs it use to. I don't know for sure what I am looking for in a laptop though. I know I need more RAM, but I don't know if I need a better CPU or GPU as well. Or if those can be sacrificed to lower the cost. - All I use the laptop for is web browsing away from my desktop. So I generally have multiple dozens of tabs of youtube videos I am TOTALLY going to watch eventually, twitch streams, discord, multiple instances of the SA user control panel as I check my bookmarks for new posts, and whatever else I don't care enough about to bookmark but also want to look at later. I don't generally play any games, but that's mostly cause I already got a gaming desktop and my current laptop has trouble with games from 1999, so I just don't bother. Small amount of word processing as well. I know RAM is a big deal, and I'll probably end up buying a 16/32 GB set depending how expensive that is, but I don't know if the lack of available RAM is causing chuggy streams or if that is the CPU/GPU. I really don't want to spend a lot since all I do is just web browse with it. Any help pointing me in the right direction/recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Currently all I've seen from this thread is this black friday deal since it is so cheap. But if I can't get that one since I'm completely lost.
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Nov 8, 2020 14:19
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If all you're doing is web browsing, seems like a high end Chromebook would suit you. There's a thread for that.
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Nov 8, 2020 14:23
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If you want to go the laptop route then I don't think you'll really need more than 8GB for web browsing, unless by "lots of tabs" you mean 25+. You current laptop is probably not out of RAM, it's probably bad thermals, slower CPU, and probably some OS bloat. That HP is a good deal, if you do no gaming at all I like the Lenovo Flex: https://smile.amazon.com/Lenovo-Processor-Graphics-Included-81X20005US/dp/B086226DDB This has 16GB RAM, Ryzen 4500 and it can folded into a tablet-like thing which I have found is more useful than I thought. It's a bit more than the HP but might be a better fit. You'll need to look into how upgradeable they both are, but in general with what you described I don't know that you need to throw all that much more at it for the next couple years.
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Nov 8, 2020 16:35
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If you still like the laptop, what you could do (which is what I wish I could do to my SP3) is to take it apart, give it a good clean from all the dust and reapply the thermal paste. Sounds like it's throttling bad. If the fan is broken, a replacement shouldn't cost many $.
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Nov 8, 2020 16:46
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Lockback posted:If you want to go the laptop route then I don't think you'll really need more than 8GB for web browsing, unless by "lots of tabs" you mean 25+. You current laptop is probably not out of RAM, it's probably bad thermals, slower CPU, and probably some OS bloat. Yeah the Amd Ryzen series 4000s offer some really great value for the sub $1000 price points like the Flex series. Plus with a 6 core CPU it will have more than enough horse power for day to day computing activities.
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Nov 8, 2020 17:54
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TITTIEKISSER69 posted:If all you're doing is web browsing, seems like a high end Chromebook would suit you. There's a thread for that. I looked a bit into this after you posted, but it seems like 8GB versions are just as expensive as a cheap laptop. I will keep this in mind and keep looking at it. Thank you. Lockback posted:If you want to go the laptop route then I don't think you'll really need more than 8GB for web browsing, unless by "lots of tabs" you mean 25+. You current laptop is probably not out of RAM, it's probably bad thermals, slower CPU, and probably some OS bloat. Yeah I thought 8 GB would be enough myself. I accidently deleted how many tabs I usually have open while editing the post. Usually 75-100 tabs split between Firefox and Chrome after a few days. But it seems like lately just having 50-ish is enough to take up 8 GB. Thank you for the link, I'll probably get that if I can't get in on the black friday deal. People in the comments are saying its soldered RAM, but 16 GB is a good amount. Definitely going to bookmark that, thank you! MrOnBicycle posted:If you still like the laptop, what you could do (which is what I wish I could do to my SP3) is to take it apart, give it a good clean from all the dust and reapply the thermal paste. Sounds like it's throttling bad. If the fan is broken, a replacement shouldn't cost many $. I'm not attached to it, but I am afraid to take it apart to that level without anything to replace it (but something I'm going to do first thing). I took off the keyboard for some reason a long time ago and it never has gone back on fully.
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Nov 8, 2020 19:56
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Broose posted:
Just FYI, that lenovo dropped to $599.99 overnight (from $729.99) and I'm probably going to buy one of the seven remaining in stock. That seems like a very solid deal. It comes with Windows 10 Home, which I don't love, but whatever. I can try to fix that later. E: If I have an existing windows 10 pro license can I upgrade that machine somehow? Maybe just format the whole thing immediately and then reinstall pro and kill all the bloatware at the same time? EE: Ok I have no idea what is going on here. I definitely just bought one of these for $599.99 and they are back up to $729 and instead of five in stock there are 13 now. Amazon pricing is weird. EEE: I am bad at Amazon, they were undercutting at 599 but are now out of stock so it's reverted to the 729. You can still see the 599 option under the New&Used but it's now backordered to 20 November. Olothreutes fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Nov 9, 2020 |
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Nov 9, 2020 17:28
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Hopefully there's some good black friday deals for people needing to upgrade their old clunker laptops
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Nov 9, 2020 23:25
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etalian posted:Hopefully there's some good black friday deals for people needing to upgrade their old clunker laptops good places to keep an eye out?
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Nov 9, 2020 23:52
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Olothreutes posted:EE: Ok I have no idea what is going on here. I definitely just bought one of these for $599.99 and they are back up to $729 and instead of five in stock there are 13 now. Amazon pricing is weird. I'm seeing it now, delivered by the 12th. I would guess it might bounce up and down in stock, it's a pretty sweet deal.
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Nov 10, 2020 00:53
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Lockback posted:I'm seeing it now, delivered by the 12th. I would guess it might bounce up and down in stock, it's a pretty sweet deal. Yeah I was a bit nervous about getting something with 10 Home as the OS, but at 599 I decided that was worth it anyway. Maybe I can use it (and bluestacks or something) to replace an aging tablet. And hopefully I can upgrade the OS to 10 Pro via some chicanery.
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Nov 10, 2020 01:30
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Olothreutes posted:And hopefully I can upgrade the OS to 10 Pro via some chicanery.
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Nov 10, 2020 01:33
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KICK BAMA KICK posted:Think you can just buy the upgrade right from the Control Panel I have an existing 10 Pro license on my current machine. I'm tempted to try using that activation code and if they have questions just tell them I upgraded the machine so the internals are different. You used to be able to do that but I'm not sure if you can anymore.
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Nov 10, 2020 01:39
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You can buy keys on SAmart or eBay for next to nothing and I think you can upgrade from home to pro without even a reinstall. It's not worth the headache unless you're going to throw the old machine literally in the thrash.
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Nov 10, 2020 02:21
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Home to pro with 10 is just a key change. I don't remember if it even requires a restart.
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Nov 10, 2020 02:29
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