As much as I like the idea of ThinkPad, the T480 is just not really what I am looking for. It can do so many things, but it can't do any of them well.

• It is technically upgrade-able, but between "having to buy a caddy to install a M.2 2280 SSD", to "too bad the Intel CPU is not looking so fly now that Ryzen exists", it's not that appealing.
• It is also surprisingly loud and hot and bad in battery life (unless you get the 72Wh battery, but you also get a big hump at the back)
• It just keeps crashing all the time. And even re-installing Windows does not help for some reason.

Originally I was planning on waiting for the new MacBook Pro 16 once it gets the M1 treatment, but given that I have started to play more games in the last year, I am not that big of a fan of getting rid of the last Windows machine in my apartment. And also given the fact that as a developer, I can probably get M1 MacBook in the future, I think I should actually get something else instead.

At first I was thinking which Windows laptop I should get, but between "XPS still using Intel", "Zephrus G14 looks too gamer-y and has no webcam, which I use on a daily basis for lessons", and "I mean this XMP laptop looks good spec wise, but there is no ANSI English keyboard layout I can get in Europe", it seems like all Windows laptop have some severe compromise.

And then when I see some Cooler Master NR200(P) goes up, it just seems like a pretty perfect fit for me! It is not super expensive (still a lot more compare to US pricing, but still not too bad), there is a wide array of options to choose from, and of course it will be upgrade-able. So that's what I ended up picking.

So far I have been using the system for about 2 weeks, and so far it has been pretty good. It took me like 3 days before I decided to add a better CPU cooler to make it much quieter and cooler, but other than that I have been pretty impressed by this. It's a lot faster than my old machine, but still not fast enough to beat the compile time of Android projects on M1 machines. Thankfully I can easily upgrade to 5___X in a few years when their price drops to nothing. And in terms of gaming, wow that's such a huge difference. No longer do I have to endure the 720p on the i7-8850U and NVIDIA MX150 in 30fps playing GTA 5. I can actually crack everything to High or Very High in 1440p.

I do have some ideas of what I want to upgrade in a few years: - SSD: When 4TB PCI-e Gen.4 SSD gets to a reasonable price point + when I run out of space, I would like to swap it out. Currently I have <30% space left. - CPU: Like I said above, 3600 is more than good enough for now, but in a few years I can probably update to 5800X/5900X to get better performance in web browsing? - Fans: The included 2x 120mm Cooler Master Sickleflow fan is not as quiet as I'd like. But is it gonna be that different to upgrade to Arctic P12/Noctua anything? I am not sure about that. So it is at the bottom of my list right now - GPU: When GTA 6 comes out (which is never I suppose) - Case: I will probably keep using this case for a while, but I would love if Cooler Master can release a new top panel with USB-C instead of USB A - Power supply: When I upgrade GPU to something that consumes way too much power