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Okay. Please help me as I ask COMPUTER BABBY QUESTIONS.

I have a Thinkpad T14 Gen 3 (AMD).
It has a 256 GB HD. That's too small. I want to buy a new, bigger one. I have a sense the good hard drives these days are "M.2".

Lenovo's specs page

lenovo.com/ca/en/p/laptops/thi

doesn't say anything about "M.2". It says the hd is "PCIe".

I run "lshw" to see what's on the computer. It says "NVMe".

How do I find out the bestest fastest aftermarket drive Canada Computers carries that my computer will support

I only understand computation as the MANIPULATION OF ABSTRACT PLATONIC FORMS. I do not understand this realm where computers are "physical objects" you manipulate with "screwdrivers". I would prefer to use Math to translate my thoughts directly into action, as if I am casting magic spells

Okay thank you all for explaining. I have one more question: Is there actually, like, a difference between drive vendors. Like if I pick WD vs Samsung vs Lexar (vs… "crucial"?!) will it ever make any difference

Okay. So I think I have my plans for the hard drive complete. Now here's the shedpainty question:

The old drive has Ubuntu 24.04 on it. I hate it.

Should I trade down to Debian?

Or should I trade up to Pop!_OS?

Will I regret either of these? Will either one, if I just go get a standard usb key installation, cause driver problems with my AMD chipset or secure boot or whatever other junk Lenovo has on board?

Okay I have more computer build babby questions

I got a hard drive

But I've been warned it's one that runs hot

So I think I want a thermal "strip", which is apparently a heatsink that fits into smol spaces like a laptop

I google

amazon.ca/Deal4GO-Heatsink-5B4

This looks good! Oh, they're out of stock. Except wait, why doesit say "replacement"?

I watch installation instructions

youtu.be/8sm1ScVUHqY?t=108

Is there a hd heatsink strip in my friggin laptop already?? (1/2)

www.amazon.caAmazon.ca

I only want to open up the laptop once. Trying to decide if I should

(a) just open it and assume there's already a heatstrip

(b) I poke around and there's lots of weird blue polymer strips that seem to do the same thing? It wouldn't be that expensive to just buy one and have it around if it turns out there's not one in there already…

amazon.ca/s?k=m.2+thermal+pad&

(c) set the computer preemptively on fire, so that the hard drive can't be the one to overheat it

(2/2)

www.amazon.caAmazon.ca

Update: Fuck this town i'm out

Alright one last shedpainting question. Should I install Debian Stable or Debian Testing. Text replies welcome

@mcc Debian is towards the end of a release cycle (likely first half of next year) so if you’re thinking of running stable it might be worth considering installing testing now and keeping that release as it becomes stable - that’d save you an upgrade when the release comes out and sidesteps some of the issues with current stable possibly not having heard of newer hardware.

@broonie *rubbing eyes* okay so… maybe i don't understand. if I install Testing am I Testing forever? Or if I install Testing do I get debian-13 and I stay on debian-13 until I run dist-upgrade?

@mcc @broonie if you use "trixie" in your sources.lists, you get testing now and when it goes stable you keep it

If you use "testing" in your sources.lists, you get testing now and the next testing (forky) when trixie becomes stable

@directhex @broonie okay, fantastic. and if i'm installing a new version of debian, i do this by installing testing and then editing my sources.list after install?