I’m looking for a Ryzen laptop with the following specs:
I’m looking to spend 500 to 600 dollars… is that realistic? This will be light web browsing and work shit during my extended times out of the office the rest of the year. I want the 16GB because frankly 8GB is not cutting it when it comes to Windows bloat + laptop makers bloat. I don’t know fuck all about laptop OEM’s so any advice as to who to avoid would be good.
there ya go bud
The above post is good but as always once you narrow down specs which amazon is very useful as well to find decent prices. Consider looking at every website for your best deal. Sometimes youll find a better laptop for the same price as a laptop on newegg or amazon 
So who do I need to avoid? What brands? Is there that much of a difference between say HP at 541 versus other models or brands that are 100+ dollars more?
not a ton of choice under 700 man, go with your wallet. You’re not gonna get decent build quality outside of maybe dell in this price range.
Thanks for the advice, not sure when I’ll pull the trigger… probably going to wait for the new shit to hit the market and see if I can get an even better deal on the older laptops.
iirc the first and second wave ryzen laptops weren’t well recieved for a number of reasons, QC being the most often cited. Maybe just jump for gen 3 after its had time to settle on the market (or intel) instead if you’re gonna wait.
If I can get the same specs as above about the same price with the newer ones I will go for that. First trip isn’t until October so I do have some time to let things settle.
Personally I dislike HP. I returned a Ryzen-based X360 Envy due to a bunch of issues including lacking confidence in the build quality. HP printers also really irritate me, so maybe that is some source of the bias. Maybe their business class laptops are better, but they seem to have more issues with linux versus other brands.
I like Lenovo, but one major irritant is their hardware whitelist, which makes upgrading a worry.
Dell seems generally good, particularly the higher end stuff (Latitude, Precision).
Asus used to be great, but they’ve been getting irritating lately with design choices. Their support and lack of transparency raise my blood pressure. Here again I’m biased due to my previous Asus laptop. Maybe other brands are similar.
Acer might be a good option if budget is your top priority.
Personally I would suggest looking at off-lease corporate models. It’s hard to describe the joy of using something with really good build quality, and it’s something that does not translate well from spec sheets and reviews. Plus the value is unbeatable when you let others eat ~90% depreciation for you.
The downside is there won’t be Ryzen-based laptops in that category right now.
I have a number of complaints with every laptop from a mainstream OEM that wasn’t from toshiba or dell., so pretty similar experience here too.
Lenovo’s been really letting things slip in recent years
Where do you find off lease corporate models?
You might have to look around you for companies specializing in refurbished off-lease computers. Some brands (eg. Dell) might also have a site for refurbished/outlet sales. There’s also buy sell sites but you’ll have to do more due diligence.
I recently bought from these guys, but I don’t know if they ship outside of Canada. Bonus for me was that I didn’t have to pay for Windows when I don’t need it.
+1 for used Dell off lease or retired workstations (or new if that’s the OPs objective); if one isn’t tied to AMD, size/weight and battery life aren’t a big issue.
For used, ebay works great if you’re not in a hurry, and don’t mind upgrading or ordering a few parts, or possibly installing your OS.
Around here there are guys on craigslist that buy in lots from various sources to repair and sell, will sort everything out for you, or not - if you want it cheaper/for just a small tax - but I live near a large us city. I paid 160 for an immaculate 3rd gen I7 e6430 recently, added 8g ram I had lying around, paid 30 for an ssd, added OS. Only 2 core/4 thread, but beats the ryzen 2500u on single thread performance by a decent margin; and it’s all I require for the desired purpose. And of course there is newer architecture avail if the budget/desired specs are higher. As noted by sceps - due diligence is required for these sort of transactions; however it doesn’t require an expert, as I’m successful with it 
I’m kinda chasing something similar, unless apple pull their finger out and finally fix the keyboard.
Are most Ryzen laptops linux friendly yet?
I’d be looking for 4c/8t or better in a 13" chassis… integrated vega would be plenty.
Prefer “not intel” - or system76 would be a no brainer assuming they ship to australia, etc. May still end up going that way anyway, but would prefer not intel if possible.
most linux only oems have terrible value for money, system76 and purism included.
sure, but linux has no real hardware compability list. if its guaranteed to have linux support i’ll pay a bit for that.
you’re gonna pay a 40-50% markup over retail for “don’t get an optimus laptop or a microsoft 1st party tablet?”
it’s not like it’s a freebsd compatibility hunt, nearly everything works.
linux hw cost less to the tune of one windows license, like dells.
dell = best linux oem by about 50-60%
I’ve got my eyes on some dells seeling on their website (it’s BR so it’s absurdly overpriced as every other OEM).
Since it comes with ubuntu it probably will run fine on any ubuntu-based distro.
But I didn’t see any AMD on the list, sadly.
from what i understand that’s because ryzen laptops work badly on linux
acpi issues, freezing, reliability/stability problems.
No one’s gonna sell a linux certified ryzen laptop because AMD hasn’t done the distance on platform support.
well… that’s just too sad 