Hello, I'm considering buying a ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 for my new daily driver. Currently with coupons on Lenovo site I've got it down to about $2320 which is really not bad for the specs on this machine.

Here are the P16 Gen 2 Specs:

• Processor: 13th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-13980HX Processor (E-cores up to 4.00 GHz P-cores up to 5.60 GHz)

• Operating System: Linux Ubuntu

• Memory: 8 GB DDR5-5200MHz (SODIMM)

• First Solid State Drive: 256 GB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 TLC Opal

• Second Solid State Drive: None

• SSD Total Capacity: 256 GB

• Display: 16" WQUXGA (3840 x 2400), IPS, Anti-Glare, Non-Touch, HDR 400, 100%DCI-P3, 800 nits, 60Hz, Low Blue Lightselected upgrade

• Graphic Card: NVIDIA RTX™ A1000 Laptop GPU 6GB GDDR6

• Camera: 1080P FHD RGB/IR Hybrid with Microphone

• Wireless: Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX211 2x2 AX vPro® & Bluetooth® 5.1 or above

• Near Field Communication: NFC

• Fingerprint Reader: Fingerprint Reader

• Keyboard: Backlit, Grey with Number Pad - English (US)

• System Expansion Slots: Smart Card Reader

• TPM Setting: Enabled Discrete TPM2.0

• Absolute BIOS Selection: BIOS Absolute Enabled

• Battery: 6 Cell Li-Polymer 94Wh

• Power Cord: 170W Slim 30% PCC 3pin AC Adapter - US

• Warranty: 1 Year Courier or Carry-in

For context let me give some background on what my current daily driver is and what my typical workflow is like.

Current Daily Driver

Currently I am running off of a System76 Oryx Pro 6. I got this machine back in 2020 and it has been a workhorse. It has an Intel® Core i7-10875H CPU, RTX 2080 Super, 64 GB DDR4, and I have two seperate NVMe's in it totalling 6 TBs of storage. I have been daily driving PopOS Linux on it since I got it. However, there have been some problems with it which is why I am making the switch to ThinkPad.

What My Workflow Looks Like

I am a penetration tester/offensive cybersecurity engineer. So everyday I am usually working with multiple VMs, thus the need for the beefy specs. When I am doing pentest, CTF, security research, or development I usually have at least 2 VMs spun up at the same time (often more), as well as hundreds of tabs but have found that 64 GB of ram tends to be enough for anything I am doing. Also I am usually running 2 - 3 external monitors when I am in my office, so good GPU helps with that. But the biggest reason I got an RTX 2080 in my current daily driver is for hash cracking, but with the ability to cheaply rent GPUs online now, I don't think it is worth the absurd amount of money to go all out on something like a 4080/4090 in a new machine. I also would like to be able to do a little bit of gaming on my new machine, not very often but every once in a while.

Upgrading Ram & Storage Myself

• To save some money, going to be installing 64 GB of DDR5 5600 myself, recommendations for which kits to buy are appreciated

• I will also be throwing a 4 TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe in it if I buy this laptop

Questions & Concerns Before Buying

• From the specs I included, I am considering going with the Intel i9-13980HX, I have heard that these run hot, any advice on alleviating that? Also saw that the benchmark comparison between the i9-13980HX and i9-13950HX vPro are basically the same. This machine won't be managed by enterprise so I figured it wouldn't matter getting vPro, but any reason I should consider going with that CPU instead of the 13980HX?

• Why no OLED display option? Reviews I saw for this model mentioned there was an OLED version, but that doesn't seem to be an option anymore, is there any way I can get my hands on OLED? Not a deal breaker but for the price, it would be nice to have

• Will the RTX A1000 hold up well for what I have described doing? Is it decent on the gaming side of things? Any reason to go with the A2000 instead?

• Any big issues with battery life I should know about?

• Since I will exclusively be runnig Linux on this machine, any driver issues I should be prepared for?

• I will be traveling often with this machine, new job I started requires me to travel every other week sometimes so other than the obvious weight is there anything I should be aware of?

• From the manual, it seems pretty easy to perform self-maintenance on this machine, can anyone confirm? Don't want to find out that it is a pain in the ass later lol

• Is the pricetag worth it? My general assumption is yes, but I need this machine to last for another 4-5 years, am I making good use of my money here? Is there another ThinkPad I should consider getting with better specs for a similar price?(I don't think there is, but given that I am new to ThinkPads I figured I'd ask)

All-in-all just want a killer mobile workstation that runs Linux smoothly and is going to last me for a long time.