What Setup Would Be Best?

[sauronofmordor]

I am a college student in for Computer Science, and currently I'm looking to change my setup to better adjust to what I want. currently all my classes are online, but i want this setup to last until the end of college (3 years). My current setup is:

- A desktop with a ryzen 5 1600 and 1060 6gb https://pcpartpicker.com/list/MZZsnH

- Gigabye Aero 15x v8 with an i7 8750H and a 1070 Max-Q

- Galaxy S9 phone

 

In particular I need four things that my current setup isn't netting me

 

1. longer battery life, the laptop lasts 4 hours on average, a lot of the time less even with power saver settings on. I want at least 8 hours.

2. cooler mobile device, the laptop is really hot, again even with battery optimizations

3. the ability to write with a device pen, one of my friends swapped with me because they needed GPU power for one of their projects, and they had a 2-in-1 with a pen that was a game changer for me.

4. smaller device, desk space was smaller than I thought it would be going into my first year

 

and I need to keep these things:

 

1. Windows, some of my classes require programs that only work on that operating system

2. gaming on 1080p medium/low setting 60fps or greater capability, hopefully for the next 3 years on the go and at home

3. Linux Dual Boot

4. Num-pad is helpful but not required, it allows my to more easily input some special characters and helps for data input as I'm quite proficient with the num-pad and can use it quickly without looking at it.

5. as much of my money as possible

 

so I looked into the options and the only device I could find that sort of worked was the surface book 3 15" with i7 and 1660ti, but that fails at price, with the min spec being $2300 and being very optimistic I could sell my desktop for $500 profit and my laptop for $1000 profit which would put be $800 under minimum spec. It is also bigger than I wanted at 15" and has no num-pad

 

So instead I think I'm going to sell my desktop, hopefully around $500 (probably less, selling used is a bitch) and buy the Galaxy Tab S6 lite for around $250 brand new from Samsung with student discount and Cash back from rakuten/wikibuy/credit card (total 11%, though I don't think rakuten and wikibuy stack which would be 7%). That means that I would have to lug around two devices, totaling around 10 pounds once you account for cases, power brick, mouse and battery pack for the tablet, but it'll all be in a backpack so I'm not too worried. Reasons I pick this is:

 

1. It doesn't take up much desk space, the entire device including bezels is around an 11.4" diagonal and it can be in my lap much better than a laptop (Ironic). 

2. combined with the laptop it fits all my criteria, in fact I gain money if I sell my desktop

3. I can charge it with the battery bank I already carry around for my phone (~24Wh pack, max single port charging speed of 18W).

4. The only things that the tablet can't do are game, windows apps, effectively multitask (it has 4gb of RAM), and long form typing (without a Bluetooth keyboard, which I won't be getting)

 

Now I'd like to hear criticisms and alternatives just to make sure there isn't some fatal flaw to this idea, in particular maybe a 2 in 1 I missed instead of the suggested setup that would be better, or maybe there's some feature missing from the tablet I haven't realized I needed, maybe something I could do with my phone like hook up a screen to it, or anything else, all responses are appreciated!

 

[dfsgsfa]

you could still use your 1600, 1060 for games?

so any basic laptop for portable is enough, try look into amd 4500u, sth like that

 

if you need to take notes, samsung note 10 may be?

[VeganJoy]

iirc lenovo is implementing official fedora support into a lot of their new products, might be worth checking out for your dual boot needs