Easy one - probably

54and56

Hi all,

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this question but which is better, a 2018 Lenovo ThinkPad T580 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz 2.42 GHz with 8gb RAM but its battery is shot or a 2020 Yoga 7 15ITL5 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz 2.42 GHz with 8gb RAM?

Both have 500gb SSD's.

The use case is to re-purpose one of them as a dedicated home office desktop machine powering 2 Acer 27" QHD screens with the laptop screen not in use. Both have USB C Thunderbolt ports which daisy chain the two screens so they are equal from that perspective.

They will permanently reside on the desk and not be used for travel or on the road in any way.

I'm guessing the Yoga 7 is by far the better machine but its still got a decent battery so I'm kind of reluctant to retire it to the desk whereas the T580 is zero use as anything other than a permanently powered PC.

The workload will be MS Office apps (Outlook, MS Work, Excel etc) and lots of Chrome tabs open for research.

Yoga all the way?

ItHurtsWhenIP

Since they are identical processor, RAM and SSD-wise, I would think it better to keep the Yoga as mobile and nail that ThinkPad down.

I might even suggest you double the RAM in the ThinkPad so you can open another one or two Chrome tabs 😏. That should be a trivial job, I've done it to several ThinkPads back in the day. I don't know how easy it is to do the same on the Yoga, as I've never taken one apart.

54and56

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121760344#Comment_121760344

Good thinking, showing the ThinkPad a bit of RAM love sounds like a great idea.

Thank you.

boarjosh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121760344#Comment_121760344

I recommend the same approach: using the Yoga on your travels while keeping the ThinkPad at your desk. I had a ThinkPad previously, and it has 2 memory slots, each of which can hold up to 16GB of RAM. I used a 16GB stick in one slot and an 8GB stick in the other.

54and56

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122037445#Comment_122037445

Yep, that's exactly what I did. I upgraded to 32GM RAM for just under €100 and it's like a new machine. I treated it to a nice new stand which provides more stability and airflow to assist the fans (previously just propped up on my desk) and it hasn't missed a beat since. Reckon I'll get another 2-3 years out of it.