I was the one that submitted that suggestion--I talked for some time about it with Michael a few days ago over Discord. Here it is again for posterity, a 2022 Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 in the i9-12900H/RTX 3080ti configuration.
For reference, my personal laptop is a 2021 Asus ROG Zephyrus G15, which I've owned for around six months now and have been extremely happy with. The laptop that Michael linked above is just the 2022 model of the Zephyrus M16, which is essentially the same as the Zephyrus G15 but using Intel CPUs instead of AMD ones. My laptop, which I purchased from this listing on Best Buy (it's on clearance now and an incredible deal), has the following specs, if anyone was wondering:
CPU: Ryzen 9 5900HS
GPU: RTX 3070 Mobile, 8 GB vRAM
RAM: 16 GB 3200 MHz DDR4
Storage: 1 TB SK Hynix SSD (boot drive), 2 TB SK Hynix Gold P31 SSD (storage drive, aftermarket)
Given that the chassis design between the two is the same, I'm making the assumption that any advantage possessed by my laptop will also be had by that newer, higher specced one. Here's the list of things, and how I think that it will perform, using my own machine as a reference point:
1. Linux support is pretty good from what I've heard, everything is supposed to work except for the fingerprint reader due to the manufacturer (Goodix) being annoying. Here's a Discord server that's dedicated entirely to Linux support on these devices, which you'll probably want to join.
2. It's an RTX 3080ti, what more could you possibly want. And yes, it does have 16 GB of vRAM, so this is met.
3. Definitely a beefy CPU again, some of Intel's (which is what you want, if I'm reading correctly) fastest as of right now.
4. My model, which is the same chassis design as the one linked above, has two NVMe SSD slots (which are both PCIe 4.0 for the 2022 model), so this requirement is met. I have one for the boot drive and another for storage.
5. Mine does not have Thunderbolt, only USB Type-C 3.2, but the suggested one has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, meaning this is met as well.
6. The linked model has 32 GB of RAM. It is worth noting that one of the two DIMMs is soldered on, meaning that you'd only be able to max it out at 48 GB (16 GB+32 GB), but it's better than nothing.
7. Even though you say you don't care about screen quality, the screen here is great. Mine has a 2K 165Hz panel, which is crisp, smooth, and clear (probably the best display I've ever used). The one that you'd be looking at is even better, with more brightness and a higher refresh rate.
8. The new model should be the same as mine, which has two USB Type-A 3.2 ports on it.
9. The touchpad is super nice on this machine, it's a massive glass surface that feels very good to use and supports all kinds of fancy gestures. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "usable without the buttons," but you can do all of the normal multi-finger taps to left click, right click, select, that you'd expect. It's without a doubt the best trackpad that I've ever used on a Windows machine, which admittedly is a somewhat limited range, but it's great nonetheless.
10. The keyboard text definitely does have a bit of a gamer-y aesthetic to it, but nothing that is particularly weird. It's only a single-zone RGB backlight if you care, but I just keep the whole thing set at white most of the time so that doesn't bother me too much.
11. Cooling is good on these machines, I've never had it thermal throttle although it does (and this could be influenced by the AMD chipset in my machine) get very hot on some portions of the laptop when under heavy load. This isn't in areas that you'd normally be touching though, so who cares. The design of this is really quite clever--the hinge lifts the laptop up a little bit to allow air to be sucked in underneath when it's opened, and there are massive vents on the back and sides of the laptop.
12. We're more than my entire laptop under budget, very cool.
13. The laptop is made out of some kind of magnesium/aluminum alloy that feels very nice to the touch and gives it a super solid build with no flex at all.
It may be worth going into a little bit of my experience with my machine here, to get an idea of what using a computer like this is actually like. I also use mine for school, programming, game dev, and gaming. The way that Asus have managed to balance everything to make it amazing at all of these things is really quite incredible. I get the sense that I have the best of everything here. For school use, it's a very pretty and thin laptop with great battery life (I've been getting 10+ hours of typical school usage from mine, which is mostly web browsing, word processing, and music), trackpad, keyboard, and speakers that will cruise through all of your schoolwork. Then, I can take it home and enjoy whatever game I want at maximum settings and solid framerate, or watch videos on the nice screen, or work on whatever project I want to without having to be careful about running out of memory or slowing the thing down. Given how often gaming/performance laptops compromise in daily usability, practicality, and aesthetics for gaming appeal, this was a very pleasant surprise for me. It really is a zero-compromise machine.
Before I forget, as well, I'd also like to note that a few of the biggest features that are missing in my 2021 model--the webcam, MUX switch, DDR5 memory, and PCIe 4.0 support--are all present in the 2022 model that you're looking at, so you don't have to worry about any of those.
So my general conclusion after a very long rant is that I don't think that you can do much better than that one. I'd encourage you to wait for it to get back in stock and then buy it, as it sounded like you could wait for a little while from our earlier conversation. Good luck choosing your new machine!
For reference, my personal laptop is a 2021 Asus ROG Zephyrus G15, which I've owned for around six months now and have been extremely happy with. The laptop that Michael linked above is just the 2022 model of the Zephyrus M16, which is essentially the same as the Zephyrus G15 but using Intel CPUs instead of AMD ones. My laptop, which I purchased from this listing on Best Buy (it's on clearance now and an incredible deal), has the following specs, if anyone was wondering:
CPU: Ryzen 9 5900HS
GPU: RTX 3070 Mobile, 8 GB vRAM
RAM: 16 GB 3200 MHz DDR4
Storage: 1 TB SK Hynix SSD (boot drive), 2 TB SK Hynix Gold P31 SSD (storage drive, aftermarket)
Given that the chassis design between the two is the same, I'm making the assumption that any advantage possessed by my laptop will also be had by that newer, higher specced one. Here's the list of things, and how I think that it will perform, using my own machine as a reference point:
1. Linux support is pretty good from what I've heard, everything is supposed to work except for the fingerprint reader due to the manufacturer (Goodix) being annoying. Here's a Discord server that's dedicated entirely to Linux support on these devices, which you'll probably want to join.
2. It's an RTX 3080ti, what more could you possibly want. And yes, it does have 16 GB of vRAM, so this is met.
3. Definitely a beefy CPU again, some of Intel's (which is what you want, if I'm reading correctly) fastest as of right now.
4. My model, which is the same chassis design as the one linked above, has two NVMe SSD slots (which are both PCIe 4.0 for the 2022 model), so this requirement is met. I have one for the boot drive and another for storage.
5. Mine does not have Thunderbolt, only USB Type-C 3.2, but the suggested one has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, meaning this is met as well.
6. The linked model has 32 GB of RAM. It is worth noting that one of the two DIMMs is soldered on, meaning that you'd only be able to max it out at 48 GB (16 GB+32 GB), but it's better than nothing.
7. Even though you say you don't care about screen quality, the screen here is great. Mine has a 2K 165Hz panel, which is crisp, smooth, and clear (probably the best display I've ever used). The one that you'd be looking at is even better, with more brightness and a higher refresh rate.
8. The new model should be the same as mine, which has two USB Type-A 3.2 ports on it.
9. The touchpad is super nice on this machine, it's a massive glass surface that feels very good to use and supports all kinds of fancy gestures. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "usable without the buttons," but you can do all of the normal multi-finger taps to left click, right click, select, that you'd expect. It's without a doubt the best trackpad that I've ever used on a Windows machine, which admittedly is a somewhat limited range, but it's great nonetheless.
10. The keyboard text definitely does have a bit of a gamer-y aesthetic to it, but nothing that is particularly weird. It's only a single-zone RGB backlight if you care, but I just keep the whole thing set at white most of the time so that doesn't bother me too much.
11. Cooling is good on these machines, I've never had it thermal throttle although it does (and this could be influenced by the AMD chipset in my machine) get very hot on some portions of the laptop when under heavy load. This isn't in areas that you'd normally be touching though, so who cares. The design of this is really quite clever--the hinge lifts the laptop up a little bit to allow air to be sucked in underneath when it's opened, and there are massive vents on the back and sides of the laptop.
12. We're more than my entire laptop under budget, very cool.
13. The laptop is made out of some kind of magnesium/aluminum alloy that feels very nice to the touch and gives it a super solid build with no flex at all.
It may be worth going into a little bit of my experience with my machine here, to get an idea of what using a computer like this is actually like. I also use mine for school, programming, game dev, and gaming. The way that Asus have managed to balance everything to make it amazing at all of these things is really quite incredible. I get the sense that I have the best of everything here. For school use, it's a very pretty and thin laptop with great battery life (I've been getting 10+ hours of typical school usage from mine, which is mostly web browsing, word processing, and music), trackpad, keyboard, and speakers that will cruise through all of your schoolwork. Then, I can take it home and enjoy whatever game I want at maximum settings and solid framerate, or watch videos on the nice screen, or work on whatever project I want to without having to be careful about running out of memory or slowing the thing down. Given how often gaming/performance laptops compromise in daily usability, practicality, and aesthetics for gaming appeal, this was a very pleasant surprise for me. It really is a zero-compromise machine.
Before I forget, as well, I'd also like to note that a few of the biggest features that are missing in my 2021 model--the webcam, MUX switch, DDR5 memory, and PCIe 4.0 support--are all present in the 2022 model that you're looking at, so you don't have to worry about any of those.
So my general conclusion after a very long rant is that I don't think that you can do much better than that one. I'd encourage you to wait for it to get back in stock and then buy it, as it sounded like you could wait for a little while from our earlier conversation. Good luck choosing your new machine!
Past projects: HailStorm CE | Contagion CE | HUE CE | VYSION CE
Current projects: VYSION 2 CE | Crossroads CE
Current projects: VYSION 2 CE | Crossroads CE
