I had a spending spree recently. I splurged on the following;
A new laptop AMD laptop (S$1,290) to replace my ageing Dell Inspiron (2016). Justification – the Dell had become too frustrating slow now that I have completed a full year using it to do my stock trading. I am glad that I made the upgrade as TWS of IBKR is now superbly quick.
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- Took me a while to finally acquire the laptop after months of surveying and reluctance. Initially had settled on a budget of S$1,700 on an IdeaPad Pro 5. Hesitance was due to inability to find a setup that I like i.e. a decent processor with at least 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD.
- Was also considering getting a pricier Thinkpad in guise of T14 but my desired configuration pushed the price beyond S$2k, which to me is too much for a laptop. If I were to splurge on a S$2k laptop and above, I might as well go for broke and get myself an X1 Carbon.
- So I begin to settle of IdeaPad series and saw the IdeaPad Pro 5. Lenovo has too wide a variety and configurations differ from an outlet to another. I was made to understand that there are exclusive configurations accorded to retail outlets that even you can’t get it from Lenovo online. Hence, begun the tour from shop to shop to view variety of IdeaPads.
- I had always been an Intel guy and was close to commit on an IdeaPad Pro 5 equipped with Intel Ultra 9 185H, 32GB, 1TB SDD for S$1,790 but then my wife suggested that I consider AMD as she could have a possibility of getting of a good deal. She coolly alerted me that there was an AMD Flagship store at the same floor at Funan. It was closed and since I didn’t need to be in a hurry, I settled to return the next day to check it out.
- So, the next day, I wandered back to Funan and approached the AMD Flagship store, which I found out that it was just a retailer’s outlet in collaboration with AMD. The guy there was much friendlier (maybe because he is a pinnoy, whom most of them have a very friendly demure) AND they have an IdeaPad Slim (instead of a Pro) with Ryzen 7 8845HS (supposedly equivalent but better than Ultra 7 or i7, so I read); 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD but a built in (integrated) Radeon GPU with 4GB on board. Best of all, the listed price was at $S1,499 and with the so claimed deal associated with my wife, it was offered to me at S$1,290!
- With such a perceived value gained over my initial expectations of paying S$1,700 on a laptop, I justified that the compromise of getting a lower series processor (instead of an Ultra 9) and not a discrete NVIDIA GPU is worthwhile. I don’t really believe I need such a configuration but with gadgets, it will never be enough but the lower price value to be justified the compromise, including probably downgrading from a Pro to a Slim which I have further justified that it doesn’t really make much difference.
- I guessed it’s a good deal. Got a laptop at a lower price with reasonable compromise. The laptop purchase is a necessary tool as I will need one for my own career of a stock trader / investor.
This is the display unit at the shop at Funan. Taken to showcase the specs for easier reference.
This is the setup now, compared to my previous set up with a single extended monitor (with the older but still functional Dell Inspiron 13 – which I have changed out the battery twice, upgraded the RAM to 32 GB and claimed a warranty on a faulty display. Even the display wear out after the swap that I had to disable the touch function)
Since I got the laptop, I thought it would be timely too to add a 4K monitor for a real cool set up. I believe this is an indulgent rather than necessity but I suppose I can justify the setup as a necessary if I am to be serious at my ‘game’ of stock trading. I got a dual monitor mount too. (S$369 monitor, S$69 mount both including taxes of S$36.17).
With my laptop purchased at S$500 off my expected spending, this would be an extended value added.
At the end, I have spent a total of S$1,728 for a laptop and an overkill set up, the same as I would have if I stuck my guns on having a more desirous laptop spec.
it looked like a win.
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