I need a new laptop

[Dan_Eastvale]

That COSTCO Lenovo is upgradable with M.2 2242 SSD That's a Good price

To upgrade the storage in the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5, there are some materials you'll have to gather first. First, it has Torx head screws on the bottom, so consider buying a kit that has the right T5 screwdriver. You'll also want to buy an anti-static wrist strap so you don't damage your laptop while working inside of it. A USB drive for reinstalling Windows is a good option, too. Finally, you'll need to purchase an M.2 2242 SSD, which is the size used by this laptop.

https://www.xda-developers.com/how-upgrade-storage-lenovo-ideapad-slim-5-2023/

[Iknownot]

Best Buy has some good laptop sales right now. I?d still wait for Black Friday or right before to get something. You have your highest chance for a deal and the Costco pricing isn?t likely going to change or you?ll be able to get similar so that?s a fallback anyways. Just my 2 cents.

[mofugly13]

That COSTCO Lenovo is upgradable with M.2 2242 SSD That's a Good price



To upgrade the storage in the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5, there are some materials you'll have to gather first. First, it has Torx head screws on the bottom, so consider buying a kit that has the right T5 screwdriver. You'll also want to buy an anti-static wrist strap so you don't damage your laptop while working inside of it. A USB drive for reinstalling Windows is a good option, too. Finally, you'll need to purchase an M.2 2242 SSD, which is the size used by this laptop.



https://www.xda-developers.com/how-u...d-slim-5-2023/

Thank you for that info Dan. I have a pretty extensive tool collection and definitely have more than a few T5 screwdrivers.

I guess it would make sense to upgrade right away and not have to worry about cloning the drive down the line?

The removed drive can be used as an external drive if I buy an enclosure for it I assume?



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[mofugly13]

Best Buy has some good laptop sales right now. I?d still wait for Black Friday or right before to get something. You have your highest chance for a deal and the Costco pricing isn?t likely going to change or you?ll be able to get similar so that?s a fallback anyways. Just my 2 cents.

Thank you. I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to help me through this. Especially with such a mundane task of buying a basic *** laptop!

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[Iknownot]

Thank you for that info Dan. I have a pretty extensive tool collection and definitely have more than a few T5 screwdrivers.


The removed drive can be used as an external drive if I buy an enclosure for it I assume?


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M.2 SSDs are so cheap. You can get good 1TB for $40 and you can get 2TB for $80-100.

May as well do the upgrade now and install windows fresh at the start before using the laptop.

And yes you can get a usb M.2 enclosure and then use the original 512tb m.2 as and external drive.

Now that being said if you really look around in the next tier up, the laptops can start coming with dual m.2
Slots. Then you can just buy whatever size m.2 you want and install it as your 2nd drive in the laptop and leave the original as the boot drive.

I only mention it if you are looking around and see a sale on something they would normally be $1000-1100 or so. Of course, you might be getting into paying for bells and whistles you don?t want territory but that?s up to you

I will say Best Buy has the HP Victus I bought on sale again for $550. It?s a very nice laptop for the money. All it needed was an additional memory stick ($20 ). It?s quite speedy and the screen and keyboard are reasonably good for the money. I wanted a dedicated graphics card though and it comes with an rtx 3050. Does exactly what I want it to do though. I use it for light gaming on the side and day to day business. Works great. You should easily be able to get an as good or better laptop especially if you don?t care about dedicated graphics.

The current crop of processors from Intel and amd are quite powerful even in this more mid level laptop pricing range.

[mofugly13]

M.2 SSDs are so cheap. You can get good 1TB for $40 and you can get 2TB for $80-100.

May as well do the upgrade now and install windows fresh at the start before using the laptop.

And yes you can get a usb M.2 enclosure and then use the original 512tb m.2 as and external drive.

Now that being said if you really look around in the next tier up, the laptops can start coming with dual m.2
Slots. Then you can just buy whatever size m.2 you want and install it as your 2nd drive in the laptop and leave the original as the boot drive.

I only mention it if you are looking around and see a sale on something they would normally be $1000-1100 or so. Of course, you might be getting into paying for bells and whistles you don?t want territory but that?s up to you

I will say Best Buy has the HP Victus I bought on sale again for $550. It?s a very nice laptop for the money. All it needed was an additional memory stick ($20 ). It?s quite speedy and the screen and keyboard are reasonably good for the money. I wanted a dedicated graphics card though and it comes with an rtx 3050. Does exactly what I want it to do though. I use it for light gaming on the side and day to day business. Works great. You should easily be able to get an as good or better laptop especially if you don?t care about dedicated graphics.

The current crop of processors from Intel and amd are quite powerful even in this more mid level laptop pricing range.

What's a good drive to look at? I'm used to going straight for a WD....but if there are others worth looking at I'm all ears. A 2tb WD green is like $79 on Amazon. A 2tb WD black is $87.


I'd prefer to do the upgrade from the get go.

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[Iknownot]

WD blue or black Samsung. Crucial. Sabrent. Silicon power is supposed to be good too but I usually get WD or Samsung.

More important is if you have a gen 4 m.2 slot is to get a gen 4 m.2 (gen 3 m.2 are usually slightly cheaper ) so you can get max transfer speeds. I’d try for at least 3500 mbs or faster. If you catch a deal you can get a gen 4 with 5000 or better mbs for oniy $5-10 more usually.

So I’d look on Amazon and see what on sale and Just buy the fastest one for the lowest price in the size you want.

[mofugly13]

WD blue or black Samsung. Crucial. Sabrent. Silicon power is supposed to be good too but I usually get WD or Samsung.

More important is if you have a gen 4 m.2 slot is to get a gen 4 m.2 (gen 3 m.2 are usually slightly cheaper ) so you can get max transfer speeds. I?d try for at least 3500 mbs or faster. If you catch a deal you can get a gen 4 with 5000 or better mbs for oniy $5-10 more usually.

So I?d look on Amazon and see what on sale and Just buy the fastest one for the lowest price in the size you want.

Excellent. Thank you. I seriously appreciate all your help you've offered.

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[mofugly13]

Now, I have a new laptop in hand. Anyone want to give me the cliff notes on wiping it clean and reinstalling windows?

I have a 2tb drive on the way, it?ll be here tomorrow with an external m2 enclosure?

I am excellent at following directions?.

I have a number of storage devices on hand. Thumb drives, SD cards.

I haven?t turned on the new laptop yet


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[67Cuda]

Now, I have a new laptop in hand. Anyone want to give me the cliff notes on wiping it clean and reinstalling windows?

Did the new lap top not come with the version of windows you wanted?
If it did, turn it on, go through the setup and do all of the updates.

I have a 2tb drive on the way, it?ll be here tomorrow with an external m2 enclosure?

Hopefully you bought a decent encloser. Some are better than others.

[mofugly13]

Did the new lap top not come with the version of windows you wanted?
If it did, turn it on, go through the setup and do all of the updates.




Hopefully you bought a decent encloser. Some are better than others.

It did. It was mentioned here to wipe the drive and reinstall the OS to get rid of any adware


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[Iknownot]

Now, I have a new laptop in hand. Anyone want to give me the cliff notes on wiping it clean and reinstalling windows?

I have a 2tb drive on the way, it?ll be here tomorrow with an external m2 enclosure?

I am excellent at following directions?.

I have a number of storage devices on hand. Thumb drives, SD cards.

I haven?t turned on the new laptop yet


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You really have 2 options:

1. You can use your m.2 USB dock to clone your new laptops original 500 gb drive to the new 2TB drive, and then install that into the laptop

2. You can go to microcofts website and use their win 11 USB installer tool (you need an 8 gb usb stick) and make a win 11 installer. You can then pull the 500gb drive out of the laptop and install the 2TB drive and then usin your win 11 installer to load windows on the new drive and you will have a fresh clean version of windows with minimal bloatware (other than MS?s) on your new laptop.

Personally, I always go with option 2. It takes a little more time but you end up with a better version of windows. But if you want some of the programs your laptop comes with or some laptop manufacturers are actually a bit light on the bloatware, sometimes option 1 is perfectly fine.

Things to keep in mind:

I I would turn on your laptop and register it with your MS account so that the laptops win 11 key / configuration is associated with your MS account for when you reinstall windows. This should take maybe 5-20 minutes depending on how much the laptop updates then you can install the new drive and go with your fresh windows install.

2. When you do a fresh install of windows, your laptop may not have the drivers the manufacturer supplies specifically for the hardware in the laptop. Win is pretty good about finding drivers automatically but sometimes some end up being missing. Make sure you know where to go on your manufacturer website for your particular model of laptop to download any missing drivers.

(Though for you in this case, you still have the original drive sitting there with all the original software so it?s not so critical in case you screw something up since you can always reinstall the original drive and use the laptop while you figure things out)

3. I?d wait a bit and use the laptop a bit after doing your clean install on the 2 TB drive. When you know things are working well, then wipe and reformat the original drive so you can use it as external storage. That?ll give you a little bit of insurance at the start.

[67Cuda]

It did. It was mentioned here to wipe the drive and reinstall the OS to get rid of any adware

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If you bought the Lenovo, then it's probably a good idea to wipe the drive and do a clean install with a Window version bought from Microsoft. Lenovo is now a Chinese owned company and you never know what they have hidden.

[arrix]

If you bought the Lenovo, then it's probably a good idea to wipe the drive and do a clean install with a Window version bought from Microsoft. Lenovo is now a Chinese owned company and you never know what they have hidden.

So you think Windows doesn't spy on you?

[67Cuda]

So you think Windows doesn't spy on you?

LOL.