ICTDirect_Joe

Rome Total War Remastered is the forever favourite (and I stayed up far too late playing last night). I never managed to get myself to like anything released after Medieval 2, and either Rome, or the Medieval 2 mod for Europa Barbarorum were the favourite until Rome Remastered released. Will probably continue to be the favourite forever. ONE day I'll give the Warhammer Total War games a shot, but I haven't liked anything else I've tried, no matter how much I've wanted to like them.

The announcement of it being GA being on a bugs and issues page is quite funny to me. I saw the pop up on my PC last night, and given the bugs and issues on that page have been cleared I might give it a shot by the end of the week.

I'll recommend because I don't believe she has, but I think she's going to be buried in dresses for the foreseeable (at least until we get married next month, she might put the game down for that)

My other half has been off work with some pretty bad pain recently so she has been playing some games. First off was Space Marine 2 - she's absolutely loved it and doesn't often go for first-person shooters but it looks great. Second of all, she LOVES a cozy game where she has to complete tasks. She's started playing Dressmaker. It came out on the 21st of September of this year and is a game where you literally cut fabric and patterns and make dresses for customers. Not only does she play it for up to 6 hours at a time, she doesn't get bored, and all the people streaming it are big buff men having the time of their life.

Correct!

They did the "Next-Gen" update which added a bunch of high res textures and fancy shmancy stuff but its a complete remaster thats getting released now

The ones with Cameras and AI do, which now means you have a live camera feed going somewhere because that AI sure as hell isn't locally hosted on the fridge, and you're relying on that LLM still being around in years to come. If fridges ever turn to having to be connected to the internet to activate them...

What's wrong? Why do you look so sad? My fridge can't upgrade to CoolOS 26 and now I don't have the latest security patches and my milk is out of date and doesn't work anymore It's a joke but also, I don't want to have a fridge that needs security patches - never mind them being out of date. I also don't know how much I trust fridge manufacturers to stay up to date with security patches. Safe to say my white goods are staying offline for the foreseeable...

Case and point: https://www.laptopmag.com/laptops/windows-laptops/dell-xps-13-9350 Yep, a lovely new version. Personally, I'm waiting for the release of the upcoming Dell XPS 13 9350 expected in 2035

https://googlebook.google/intl/en_uk/ They look nice, they looks like they interact with Android Phone's well, they look powerful, they look like they run a pretty good desktop android operating system. They LOOK like a proper rival to the Macbook Neo, but they also look expensive... Plus they're categorically not replacing Chromebooks, so no need to worry about Chrome OS vanishing as the new Aluminium OS is introduced.

Absolutely spot on and should have been a part of my initial reply - if Data Sheets haven't been checked yet then absolutely have a look to make sure the models you have support Display over USB-C.

You'll find that branded docks such as HP's and Dell's are listed as working specifically with their Chromebooks. We sell the HP Elite Dock G4and the Dell WD19, and their product specs say they work with HP Chromebooks and Dell Chromebooks respectively - in theory they should work with any Chromebook, but theory isn't always correct! From what I can see people have mixed success with aftermarket/unbranded docks.

Hugely disappointed. I started competing in slalom skiing when I was 13 and kept going at a national level until my mid-20's, and it was always excellent to have trained at the home slope of Dave Ryding and to follow his successes to WINNING a World Cup race in 2022. So removing our long standing media representation of Snowsport is SO backward when, not just in skiing, we've seen a huge growth of success in a field where we train either in fridges or on carpets/bristles in the pouring rain and compete with nations with glaciers. Rubbish

So, you’ve got a budget of £350 per laptop and you’re weighing up whether it’s better to buy new or buy refurbished. Right now, HP have got some cracking deals on. You can pick up a brand-new, and imaginatively named, HP Laptop 14” with Windows 11 for around £340 ex.VAT. Meanwhile, at ICT Direct we’ve got a refurbished HP 14” Windows 11 laptop priced at £310 ex.VAT. (Left/Top) NEW HP Laptop 14" (14-ep1010nax) £340.83 ex.VAT | (Right/Bottom) REFURBISHED HP Elitebook 840 G9 £310 ex.VAT £30 more for a brand-new laptop? It’s surely a no brainer, right? They have the same size screen, they both have Intel CPU’s, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage. At first glance, they’re almost identical, and even photos of them look the same. But one is a 4-year old business class laptop, and the other is a brand-new consumer laptop. So, for comparison’s sake, let’s throw in the most affordable, new, HP Business-Class laptop money can buy too, again with an Intel Processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB Storage: NEW HP 250R G10 £555.99 ex.VAT Eek! That price is a fair way beyond our budget! All because we added “business-class” to the description? This is taken from Misco’s website, as HP are only selling their most premium business class devices directly, but it is still a readily available budget business device. Unlike the other 2 devices, this has a 15.6” screen – the new 14” business-class laptops available all cost more than this, so I deemed the 250R a good comparison machine regardless. Somehow, you have to navigate which of these options is actually best value for money, so I’ve thrown them head-to-head (to-head?) in a breakdown based purely off HP’s datasheet’s and website, and third-party CPU performance benchmarks, and ranked them 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Surprise, surprise – in a blog written by a refurbished IT Salesperson, the refurb unit wins! So, don’t just take my word for it based on this chart alone, let’s get into the details of what this all means. Screen: NEW HP Laptop 14” Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G9 NEW HP 250R G10 14” 1366x768 TN Panel 250 Nits Brightness 3rd 14” 1920x1200 IPS 400 Nits Brightness 1st 15.6” 1920x1080 IPS 250 Nits Brightness 2nd The HP Laptop 14” is the biggest loser here – IPS displays are far superior to TN Panels, and the Refurb 830 G9 unit pips the 250R with its extra screen real-estate, pixel density and much brighter screen. In fact, it has over double the number of pixels of the HP Laptop 14”! As I mentioned the 250R does have the larger display and if that is important to you, then it’s worth keeping in mind. CPU: NEW HP Laptop 14” Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G9 NEW HP 250R G10 Intel Core 3 – 100U 3rd Intel Core i5 – 1245U 2nd Intel Core 5 – 120U 1st This turned out to be very close; there is not a lot of difference between these three. They all have a TDP of 15W; both the Core 5 and i5 have 10 cores and 12 threads; both the newer CPUs Turbo higher, but the Refurb has the higher base clock speed. Based on comparisons on cpubenchmark.net and technical.city, these are our results. Table data taken directly from https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/5948vs4733vs5892/Intel-3-100U-vs-Intel-i5-1245U-vs-Intel-5-120U RAM: NEW HP Laptop 14” Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G9 NEW HP 250R G10 8GB DDR4 3200MT/s Not user-upgradable 2nd 8GB DDR5 4800MT/s Upgradable to 64GB Joint 1st 8GB DDR5 5600MT/s Upgradable to 32GB Joint 1st Another clear loser here – despite being 4 years newer than the 840 G9, the New HP Laptop 14” is using slower DDR4 memory, plus it’s not upgradable and is soldered to the motherboard! Given the RAM shortages of 2025/26 this is a tactical way to keep costs down. The 2 business-class devices are tied in 1st place as they both use much faster DDR5. If you need 64GB of RAM, the 840 G9 wins. If you don’t, the 250R supports faster RAM, so comes out on top. Storage: A 3-way tie! They all have 256GB M.2 NVMe drives, they’re all user-upgradable, they all support PCIe Gen 4. Ports: NEW HP Laptop 14” Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G9 NEW HP 250R G10 1x USB Type-C (10Gbps, Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4b) 1x HDMI 1.4b Joint 2nd 2x Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C (40Gbps, PD, DisplayPort 1.4b) 1x HDMI 2.0 1st 1x USB Type-C (10Gbps, Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4b) 1x HDMI 1.4b Joint 2nd They all have 2x USB Type-A (5Gbps) ports, and they all have a headphone/microphone jack too. But the 840 G9 has the higher spec HDMI port, and 2x Thunderbolt 4 ports, that’s double the USB-C and quadruple the speed in each! Wi-Fi: NEW HP Laptop 14” Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G9 NEW HP 250R G10 Realtek Wi-Fi 6 3rd Intel AX211 Wi-Fi 6e 1st Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 2nd This one is straight forward. Intel Wi-Fi cards are better (and more expensive) than Realtek ones, and Wi-Fi 6e can support faster speeds than Wi-Fi 6. HP don't actually do us the courtesy of including what model of Wi-Fi card the Realtek one is! Build Quality: NEW HP Laptop 14” Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G9 NEW HP 250R G10 Plastic Chassis MIL-STD-810H Tested Joint 2nd All-aluminium chassis MIL-STD-810H Tested 1st Plastic Chassis MIL-STD-810H Tested Joint 2nd Both new laptops are built of plastic – they’ve got a lovely silver coat of paint to look much like their EliteBook counterpart, but the 840 G9 is all Aluminium and built to last. It’s a premium feeling product, and there’s no paint to chip off. Charging: NEW HP Laptop 14” Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G9 NEW HP 250R G10 45 W AC power adapter (recommended, sold separately Joint 2nd 45 W AC power adapter INCLUDED IN THE PRICE 1st 45 W AC power adapter (recommended, sold separately Joint 2nd I honestly hadn’t realised the whole laptop market was onboard with charging extra for power supplies and lucky for you, ICT Direct still isn’t onboard with it. All our laptops come with a charging brick. Price: HP Laptop 14” HP EliteBook 840 G9 HP 250R G10 NEW RRP: £499.17 Offer Price: £340.83 NEW RRP: £1000 Our Price: £310 NEW RRP: £555.99 Misco Price: £555.99 The RRP should tell you all you need to know – it may be 4 years old but the 840 G9 was valued at around the price of the other 2 laptops combined. It remains a top-end business class laptop, and the clear winner. HP’s top-end laptops today will set you back at least £1000, if not more, but they’re designed to last. That’s why we provide a 3-year Advance Replace Warranty to our managed customers, also included in the price, rather than as a paid return-to-base add-on from new. So, is the EliteBook 840 G9 the best offering for you? It’s the cheapest, and it wins by far the most categories when put head-to-head against new alternatives. It’s the toughest, with an aluminium chassis designed to survive the daily combat of school warfare. It’s easily customisable both at purchase and once in your hands – we can configure it to more RAM, or a larger NVMe; or you can upgrade it yourself further along the line. It feels daft to be typing this but... IT COMES WITH A CHARGER. There is only one more question to ask. How many can I put you down for?

The oxford dictionary doesn't define OOMF as a 12th Gen Intel i7 with 16GB of DDR5 and an Nvidia T550 GPU. BUT I DO. We've got our hands on some lovely HP ZBook Firefly 14 G9's with some cracking specs: CPU: i7-1265U (10 Cores, 12 Threads, Max Turbo of 4.8GHz) RAM: 16GB DDR5 Memory Storage: 512GB NVMe Display: 14" WUXGA (1920x1200) GPU: Nvidia T550 Mobile (4GB GDDR6) A Grade Refurbished Condition BUT WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE?! Nice eh? But that just begs one more question. HOW MUCH FOR AN A GRADE? £475 exVAT Reach out to me at [email protected] for a quote and if you're after several, many, or even lots, we can look into a volume discount.