dumping this one that specifically limited exposure to the trash bits of windows and instead launch a new variant for gaming handhelds that, while ‘optimized’ and limited in the crud that runs, will most definitely be focused on driving gamers to game pass subs and store sales.
the intel alder lake-n and twin lake-n have some chips with very low tdp… basically just the “e cores” from a desktop cpu, drawing as little as 6w tdp. nice chips if you don’t need the raw compute power of the desktop’s performance cores. they make for nice little servers and laptops for ‘normal’ users. minipc form factor desktops with them are very affordable.
i like my laptop ‘server’. low power chip that never throttles up to its max 15w tdp, runs cool with display off and lid closed, needs no kb and mouse attached, and the battery is just a bonus ups. it sits out of the way on a shelf like a book.
they priced the new one too high, so now they’re raising the old one up so people (especially newcomers to the platform) will think it’s not so bad?
Depends on your CPU
absolutely. some cpu can draw more than the 180 watts of a 5060ti, even without actual ‘overclocking’, all by themselves when boosting their own clock (such as intel’s “turbo power”). even a ‘65 watt’ ultra 7 265 can get up to that.
go through their list of games on protondb to see if linux would be a good fit, it might not be, depending on their library.
you’ve got a nice ‘short list’ of distributions to evaluate. i’d recommend setting each up yourself on a spare system to see how ‘point and click’ they are in setting-up, running, and updating the games they play.
also keep in mind the more hoop-jumping and manual configurations you need to do, the greater the chance of something breaking–like during os or wine-related updates. those kinds of issues are the ones your friend will be relying on you to fix for them so you definitely want to minimize the chances of that happening.
the joy of not having any microsoft accounts.
although i still do have to deal with this shit every day for other people. the ‘best’ ones are those with only a voice number on their account for a verification, from back before they went sms-only for phone numbers.