Originally Posted by
puchong
One problem that I seem to be coming across is that most pre-built systems (which is what appears on the sales list) do not have much by way of memory; I would ideally like to have something with 64GB. In the old days you could configure your desired system and still get a good deal, but the good days seem to be over now.
RAM is upgradable in most non-Apple, non-super-thin systems (although some lenovos have gone to some RAM soldered and some upgradable). It is almost always cheaper to buy the minimum from the manufacturer and then upgrade.
If you want official/warranteed support for 64GB, you will pay a lot, but most laptops with 8th-gen or newer H-series processors, and essentially all desktops with 4 DIMM sockets back to the 6th generation, can go up to 64GB. If you're uncomfortable opening a case, if you're in any halfway urban area there will probably be a local shop that can handle the upgrade for you at a much lower cost than the from the factory upgrade.
Re: the Ryzen 7 processors, the AMD processors appear to be extremely competitive in performance, but I haven't seen enough to tell one way or another if they're comparable in battery life. For desktop CPUs, they're a no brainer - literally, the only good reason to buy Intel right now is if you get an exceptionally good sale. For laptops, just go read some benchmarks and decide for yourself. The big issue is that there aren't a lot of AMD laptops yet and most of the ones out there are relatively unattractive-for-general-use gaming models, or
really recently introduced.
Given what you have mentioned needing, the one thing you will need to figure out is how much video card you want to invest in. An refurbished but in warranty 8-core Intel (9th gen, eg. i7-9700) desktop can be had for as low as $700 from the Dell or Lenovo outlet, and another ~$300-$400 will upgrade it to 64GB of memory. These would, at those prices, either have integrated graphics or a very low end graphics card.