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Comment by wtallis

11 hours ago

Is there something new here? The processor options seem to be two generation old Intel, one generation old Intel, and one generation old AMD.

I can't imagine the supply chain challenges inherent to startup laptop manufacturers. I think it's "go with what you have access to at reasonable prices, or forget about it. "

  • I think Framework is a good example of how smaller laptop OEMs end up shipping late, often on the order of three quarters. This is something else entirely, if any of these configurations are recent arrivals (I don't think they are).

  • I don’t believe they actually make the hardware. I know sytem76 always just rebadges Clevo hardware. You were basically paying for Linux to be preinstalled and for the Linux focused support.

    EDIT. Actually it looks like I was wrong about that. They do apparently at least make their own chassis’s unsure about the motherboard’s or screens though.

    • system76 does not make their laptops, they do make some of their desktop lines though. System76 however is large enough that they get input into what Clevo designs - they Clevo often changes the hardware internals, but system76 ensures that the new hardware still has linux drivers. (in some cases system76 has shipped a laptop with something announced as not supported on linux, but this is rare and the rest of the features still works, and this is only done for a feature they figure linux users wouldn't use anyway)

      System76 has long been working on their own laptop - every few years they make a progress report announcement - but I don't expect to see it anytime soon.

I have the Intel Core i9 in my 2019 MBP, and it gets so damn hot. How do the ones offered here compare? I'm not one to upgrade frequently, but the heat of this thing makes me go looking. Luckily, it sits on a stand on a desk with more 9s than github is up.

  • A 2019 MacBook Pro would have an Intel Skylake processor (N-th re-release), made on Intel's stagnant 14nm process. The older Intel option for the StarFighter has its CPU cores made on an Intel process two generations newer, and the rest of the chiplets made by TSMC. The newer Intel option moves the CPU chiplet to TSMC as well. They're in a very different league for power efficiency than your current machine, both from the fab improvements and from having a microarchitecture that's not from 2015.