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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

@mcc almost all laptops have an inbuilt thermal pad for the M.2.

what temperature it reporting? M.2 drives tend to run pretty hot anyway (by design).

@gsuberland uh… now? the current one?

…how would i get that information in linux?

@whitequark @gsuberland oddly, ubuntu does NOT recommend smartmontools when you type smartctl!

Apparently my current m.2 hd is at 32 celsius when nothing in particular is happening. I guess I'll see how it runs after I install the new one!

@mcc @whitequark oh that's well within safe bounds. even triple that would be fine under load.

@gsuberland @mcc @whitequark 642 °C under load would still be fine?

(It’s a joke, because if you’re going to triple a temperature, you have to do it in a unit with a non-arbitrary zero, so I converted 32 °C to Kelvin, triple it, and converted it back, for the laughs.)

@oscherler @gsuberland @whitequark *clearing throat impatiently* He clearly meant M.6