The new Q4OS rig may be a bit overkill

tlmiller76 · 2025-04-15 03:40

Found a deal on a Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen5 AMD that was too good to pass up, so the L14 (specs in sig) has been retired from active modern OS testing, and moved to the Q4OS Trinity testing position. Might be a little overkill for needing Trinity, however.

crosscourt · 2025-04-15 04:11

Whats your take on the new Gen5? You might say its a bit of overkill, LOL!

Ive gone in the opposite direction to you as im using more older hardware right now from Intel 8th gen up. Best cpu Im using right now is a Ryzen 5 5600g with a RX 6600 videocard.

tlmiller76 · 2025-04-15 16:11

I'm thoroughly unimpressed with the Gen5. Still only a 52wh battery, but with OLED and Zen4 HS CPU, battery life is....not good.

crosscourt · 2025-04-15 18:42

52wh?? Ive got older laptops that can do better than that. Its funny as I havent really moved much on newer tech as the more reviews I read and the more systems I test locally, Im just not impressed for the price. Many find their slightly older hardware performs as well or better and they just dont want to upgrade. In terms of gaming most of the newer games arent that good so my present hardware can play most of the games I really want to play.

In your case its nice to be able to hear from someone trying the hardware so we can see if its worth it.

Versus Gen 3, how big is the difference?

Last edited by crosscourt (2025-04-15 18:43)

tlmiller76 · 2025-04-17 03:58

Performance? LOADS. Probably 40% faster CPU, and 75% faster Memory (the soldered Gen3/4's were more than double). And faster storage (gen4), but you can't feel the difference there. But the BIGGEST difference is in the iGP, going from Vega 8 to RX 780M...more than double. It's a huge improvement, yes, but I can get near to 9 hours on the L14 (57wh battery), the P14s Gen5 struggles to break 5.

Now, my E14 Gen6, THAT'S nice. Older Rembrandt R7 7735U, 64GB DDR5 4800, 4TB, 57wh battery, and while it's not offered on that model, low power 400-nit 100% sRGB WUXGA screen. Around the same 9 hours of battery as the L14 G3, but 5% faster CPU, 50% faster memory, the same faster gen4 drive as in the P14s, and near 100% gain in iGP with the RX 680M. Fantastic laptop that one is.

Last edited by tlmiller76 (2025-04-17 04:03)

crosscourt · 2025-04-17 18:54

9 hours is really good for the level of performance. Ive got nothing that can match tha,t except for the Chromebooks which can go close to 12 hours but are not even close to the system performance of your system.

What are we talking pricewise for these various systems if someone wanted to go out and buy one.

tlmiller76 · 2025-04-21 02:13

The P14s Gen5 was JUST <$1200 after adding ADP & taxes.

The L14 Gen3 when purchased was about $600 (about 2.5 years ago), although with all the upgrades I put into it (3-year warranty w/ ADP, ram, SSD, display), it was a bit over $900 all said and done.

My E14 Gen6 that I just got a couple months before the P14s was $550, and with the upgrades (ram, ssd, display, WLAN, gee, sounds familiar...) it was just a hair under $1000.

crosscourt · 2025-04-21 02:44

$550-600 isnt bad but $1200 is a bit out of my cmfort zone for a laptop. Maybe if it was my only system but as an addon to a desktop, too expensive.
Im still working behind the curve using older hardware, upgrade it a bit but get it as cheaply as possible.
My needs as I get older and cash gets more restrictive will be really modest, and older tech thats still able to do a lot will be my haven.

crosscourt · 2025-06-20 02:57

Im heading in the opposite direction again versus your hardware. A friend of mine had two Zotac Zboxes, one a ID86 with a Intel Atom D2550/4gb and GT610 gpu, and a AD04 with a E-450 AMD APU/8gb that has a Radeon HD 6320 gpu. They are brand new and were purchased in late 2013, but he thought I might like to play with them. They are a nice design with cpu fan, room for a sata ssd, with removing two screws the cover comes off very easily.

Im going to put Q4OS TDE on them and see how it goes. Ive got it installed on my Lenovo M73 Tiny and so far its really nice and much better than when I tried a few years ago.

tlmiller76 · 2025-06-23 05:29

I actually picked up a HP Elitebook X G1A since the P14s.

AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 375. 12 cores, 24 threads (zen 5). RX 890M iGP, 16!!! cores of RDNA3.5. 64GB LPDDR5x 8533!!!. Has a 120Hz, 400-nit touchscreen 2.8K (2880x1800) OLED. The thing is BEASTLY. Beats my DESKTOP 5900X (12 core 24 thread zen3) in benchmarks!!!

Got a 70-something, or maybe 80wh battery. But with that AI 9 HX CPU and the 120Hz OLED, battery life still not great. Still, battery life isn't actually BAD.

Yeah, this thing was expensive. Even got it at a $1000 discount over the going price, and still was just over $2K. Insane how expensive things have gotten. But I finally have first hand experience with Strix Point. Now just need to get me my E14 Gen 7 with a 255H if Lenovo will EVER release it in the US (released in ALMOST every other country Lenovo sells in).

crosscourt · 2025-06-23 19:13

Like to hear more details on Strix Point once youve used it more. Those prices floor me, but in general both for older and newer hardware, prices have gone up quite a bit.

I had my Victus 15L desktop, my Dell XPS 8940 and two of my Dell inspiron 5680 all die, motherboard issues that arent repairable. Im down to a Dell Inspiron 3670 which can use a full size psu with a I5 8600 cpu, RX 6600, 32gb of ram and a 2tb M.2 nvme ssd.

Ive been playing with low end, low power systems that I use when Im not gaming. Gaming market right now is horrible so Ive been playing older games mainly.

Look forward to you comments on the new hardware. Ill either build a new system down the road or just kick back and play the many older games I have right now.

crosscourt · 2025-06-24 19:33

Well, the Zotac Zbox AD04 plus was a bust as it has a enterprise bios on it that doesnt allow any access to it by all means that Ive tried. It also wont allow a wifi connection forcing the use of the ethernet connection. When checking the bios it has no version or source so someone custom setup the chip for their use. It will run Q4OS TDE without issue, but you have no way to change anything in regards to the system from the bios. Thankfully it appears to be Legacy based but the overall speed of the system even with 8gb of ram is disappointing. Overall design is excellent but the hard drive that came with it was for the Get Well Network so you see whats going on here.

Im moving on to the Zotac Zbox ID86 that came in its original box and Im hoping it will allow me to do far more.

tlmiller76 · 2025-06-29 06:48

crosscourt wrote:

Like to hear more details on Strix Point once youve used it more. Those prices floor me, but in general both for older and newer hardware, prices have gone up quite a bit.

I finally recently got around to some benchmarking. So, this is a 28-watt mobile chip, although it is Zen5 12 core (4 Zen5, 8 Zen5c) 24 thread CPU. My desktop is an older (Zen3) 5900X, 12 core 24 thread CPU that can run at 105-watt TDP, but I have in Eco mode (65-watt TDP). STill, MORE THAN DOUBLE. The AI 9 HX Pro 375 soundly defeats the 5900X in every CPU-heavy benchmark I threw at it. WOW...

Needless to say, it's powerful. Incredibly powerful. And the graphics (16-core RDNA 3.5) are insane for an iGP. The prior 780M (12-cores RDNA3) was basically just ahead of a RTX 2050 mobile, this easily dusts the 2050 mobile. However, it's still inferior to a 2060 mobile or 3050 mobile.

Battery life, not surprisingly, is NOT the AI HX Pro 375's strong suit. It's actually not BAD on a light load though, and even when being pushed, it's so powerful that it's surprisingly decent. But on a light load, this CPU will never compete with Lunar Lake for battery life. But of course, will absolutely DEMOLISH Lunar Lake in computing performance.

crosscourt · 2025-06-29 19:59

I agree WOW! More and more you see smaller systems and laptops that can perform as well or better than desktop systems. GPU prices are outrageous so being able to find a smaller system where the IGP can handle all my games would be amazing.

Let me know how it goes long term.

Last edited by crosscourt (2025-06-29 21:57)

Midas · 2025-06-30 12:54

tlmiller76 wrote:

I actually picked up a HP Elitebook X G1A since the P14s...

Just checked it -- 'cause my cub needs a decent lappie -- and that rig costs an arm and a leg...

Last edited by Midas (2025-06-30 12:54)

crosscourt · 2025-06-30 18:10

Best way to go is used business class laptops as they have better features, better construction and still have plenty of performance. ThinkPads are really popular right now, along with the older Latitude Dell laptops.

Midas · 2025-07-01 12:18

crosscourt wrote:

Best way to go is used business class laptops as they have better features, better construction and still have plenty of performance. ThinkPads are really popular right now, along with the older Latitude Dell laptops.

Yeah, I know, personally that's what I do... But that's not good enough for youngling -- and as you know they always know better.

crosscourt · 2025-07-02 18:57

A lot of good used gaming and performance laptops out there right now. Some are just a few years old and are hugely cheaper, if the youngling needs a bit more status with the system.

tlmiller76 · 2025-07-02 23:21

Midas wrote:

tlmiller76 wrote:
I actually picked up a HP Elitebook X G1A since the P14s...

Just checked it -- 'cause my cub needs a decent lappie -- and that rig costs an arm and a leg...

Yes. I got mine at $1000 discount from going rates, and it was STILL expensive.

crosscourt · 2025-07-03 02:23

LOL!!!!!

My friend got himself an Alienware X16 with the Ultra 185H 16 core,32gb ram, 2tb nvme ssd and a RTX 4080 and apparently scored a great price. Haven't gotten all the details yet.
I purchased a Alienware R14 AMD barebones(mobo,750w psu,liquid cooler,fans) for cheap, as I already had a lot of parts ready to go into it.
Ryzen 5 5600x, RX 6600 Radeon GPU, 32gb gram, 2tb crucial nvme ssd.

Last edited by crosscourt (2025-07-03 03:58)

crosscourt · 2025-07-09 19:37

Alienware R14 setup was a bit torturous. Bios had some issues but was able to find a recent bios update that solved the problem. The dimm slot arrangement is truly odd with the first two slots being dimm 3 and dimm 1, and the second two dimm 4 and dimm 2. You cant run 4x8gb sticks of ram, only 2x16gb. Its really picky with the ram as well, as Im using all Crucial ram and it still doesnt like what it sees. In many cases you have to install one stick of ram, then add them after rebooting one at a time to even get close to it working. Right now I have 2x16gb of 3200 ram installed in the first two slots(dimm3/dimm1) and it works. The ram defaults to 2666 and given Im running a Ryzen 5 5600x, thats crazy. Finally got the ram locked in at 1600(2x1600=3200) and it works, rather than being stuck at 2666.
Liquid cooler on the cpu is a really awkward and a tight fit but it works very well. maintaining temps in the 30s and so far while gaming hasnt broken 75c.
Ventilation has improved hugely with 2 fans in the front, one fan up top and the fan attached to the liquid cpu cooler in the back.
Much easier system to get into than the R10 and the case design really is nice even though it is a bit excessive.
I ended up using my Crucial MX500 2tb sata ssd as it was setup with a previous Dell system. Ill clone it over to the other 2tb nvme ssd later on but honestly in normal use and gaming, you really dont notice any difference.

Took a lot longer to setup than I expected tlmiller but enjoying so far.

Last edited by crosscourt (2025-07-10 01:37)

crosscourt · 2025-07-28 20:49

@tlmiller76, I picked up a RX 5700 XT from a local swap shop in mint condition and replaced the RX 6600 with excellent results. Graphics card prices right now new or used are just crazy.

Last edited by crosscourt (2025-07-28 20:51)

Q4OS Forum

#1 2025-04-15 03:40

The new Q4OS rig may be a bit overkill

#2 2025-04-15 04:11

Re: The new Q4OS rig may be a bit overkill

#3 2025-04-15 16:11

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#4 2025-04-15 18:42

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#5 2025-04-17 03:58

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#6 2025-04-17 18:54

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#7 2025-04-21 02:13

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#8 2025-04-21 02:44

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#9 2025-06-20 02:57

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#10 2025-06-23 05:29

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#11 2025-06-23 19:13

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#12 2025-06-24 19:33

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#13 2025-06-29 06:48

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#14 2025-06-29 19:59

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#15 2025-06-30 12:54

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#16 2025-06-30 18:10

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#17 2025-07-01 12:18

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#18 2025-07-02 18:57

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#19 2025-07-02 23:21

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#20 2025-07-03 02:23

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#21 2025-07-09 19:37

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#22 2025-07-28 20:49

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