A bit, it's actually not too bad. Rarely any micro stuttering on ultra settings in RDR2, I am actually planning on buying the AMD 7900XTX graphics card to put in this machine. I want to run local LLMs on it, I'm not too much of a gamer as I used to be. Anyways, this thing rocks! I love it. Eventually, I'll plan on buying a MSI Z690-A DDR5 motherboard and install Dasharo firmware onto it.
It can play all my games at 1440p and ultra settings (RDR2, GTA V, etc.) I've never had a time where I've wanted to upgrade from it. I built most of this computer for about $450-$500, all used parts I got off eBay plus some other parts that I pulled from my other computer
There are alternatives out there. That's all. If you want to say 'SMASH CAPITALISM', then don't pick the most garbage possible way to make your point. At the end of the day, your still buying/using them, especially from the most aggressively capitalist companies such as Apple and Starbucks. You could always sell off the laptop and gift card and support your local businesses instead. There are still local computer shops out there that sell off used hardware.
Also, I mean, you don't even need to be an expert to use Linux, it's rather simple actually, especially with AI at our fingertips. It's just the fact that they keep supporting the exact thing they despise, hence why it looks hypocritical. Do your part and stick to what you preach. It's like a person that eats at a all-meat resturaunt with a t-shirt on that says "Vegan".
Sure, but it's the fact that out of any other choice to pick, she chose to still give her money to the most aggressively capitalist companies. You can say it's consumerism, but what point is she even making then? She sat down at a Starbucks to get her overpriced coffee, on a $1200 Macbook with a sticker on it that says "SMASH CAPITALISM", it's blatantly hyprocritcal.
"My BIOS is password locked but proprietary (due to compatibility issues)."
"I use full disk encryption, multiple disks, and a second layer of encryption for specific important files (NSA style)"
I recommend switching to Libreboot, I've recently helped add support for the Dell Optiplex 9020 MT, and will soon add support for the Dell Precision T1700 MT. Libreboot allows for full disk encryption, including the automatically encrypting the /boot partition during installation of an OS. I use RAID 0 with 3 disks (LUKS and LVM) on my desktop, with my /boot unencrypted stored on a SD card so I can easily toss it whenever.
For gaming, I've had success using Proxmox to play games like GTA V and Rainbow Six Siege through a VM, even passing through NVIDIA drivers (though I plan to switch to AMD). Although, currently the Haswell boards (9020MT and T1700MT) can't use IOMMU correctly so I recommend using the T1650 for passing through your GPU to a VM. Beware though, the T1650 board can't be freed entirely in the BIOS I believe.
Also, updating your CPU microcode can help avoid potential performance issues. If you're concerned about security, consider GPG signing your kernel with Libreboot GRUB for an additional layer of verification at boot.