I’m deciding between these two used laptops and wanted opinions on which one would be the better buy overall in 2026.

ASUS ZenBook 14 UX425UG ($389)

• Ryzen 5 5500U
• NVIDIA MX450 2GB
• 8GB DDR5 RAM
• 512GB NVMe SSD
• 14” FHD IPS

ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 AMD ($379)

• Ryzen 5 Pro 4650U
• Vega 6 integrated graphics
• 16GB RAM
• 512GB NVMe SSD
• 14” FHD IPS touchscreen

My use case:

• school/productivity
• coding / maybe Roblox Studio
• light gaming (Valorant, Roblox, Minecraft)
• battery life
• long-term reliability

Does anyone know a place that could fix motherboard issues caused by water damaged in phnom penh? Gold one computer refused to fix it because the damage is too"heavy".

I accidentally got water into the back vents of my MSI Thin 15 B12UCX. It still worked for a little while after, then shut off completely. I tried turning it back on and charging it before realizing that probably made things worse.

A repair guy checked it and said something on the motherboard likely fried. The thing is, I only got the laptop for around $200, so now I’m wondering if repairing the motherboard is even worth it.

I also don’t want to put extra financial stress on my parents by asking for a completely new laptop right away. I used it for both school and gaming.

For people who’ve dealt with water damage before:

• Is board-level repair usually worth trying?
• How much do these repairs normally cost compared to the laptop’s value?
• Is there a decent chance it can survive?
• Or should I just save up and move on?

Today at school I got some water in my laptop from the back part and didn't notice it, I turned it on and watched a 2 minute video before it powered off. I was really scared and tried to turn it on, charged it, and shake it around a bit. I only found out that water got in it until my friend mentioned it. I told the repair guy my story and he didn't look too happy. (MSI Thin 15 B12UCX)

Today at school I got some water in my laptop from the back part and didn't notice it, I turned it on and watched a 2 minute video before it powered off. I was really scared and tried to turn it on, charged it, and shake it around a bit. I only found out that water got in it until my friend mentioned it. I told the repair guy my story and he didn't look too happy. (MSI Thin 15 B12UCX)