OV9

Right, I'm driving myself mad.

Looking at used laptops. Want to limit myself to £350

Looking at laptops that are >=13.3" 1080P IPS, want min 8gb ram and 8 threads (Ryzen is high up the list for obvious reasons) and ideally NVME storage, because fuck SATA.

Decent battery life and moderate portability are desirable - no 3kg gaming laptops with massive power bricks.

Obviously I'm prepared to look at laptops with broken screens etc as I've got the skillset to fix that, but I'd rather not. Linux compatibility is very important but I can worry about that - there are tools to check that online

Been looking at Dell XPS, Lenovo Flex, HP elite book 745s.

Anyone got any ideas beyond that? I'm doing that "never having money again" thing that those of us who have spent a long time being skint do, and am paralyzed by the options in case I 'get it wrong'.

Curious to hear your opinions.

I’d only put my own money into a used Thinkpad for that money. T480/T490 probably for that spec/budget these days. Proper service manuals, endless secondhand parts availability because they sell by the millions into corporates. Generally work fine with Linux.

Have a x240 for the kids and with an SSD it’s still fine. Even my work laptop is a t470s that’s due for replacement but still plodding along fine.

I’ve got a HP Probook for work and it does the job. The case is kind of cheap plasticky and I had to clear some proprietary junk out of it when I first got it but apart from that it’s good.

The only time I ran out of battery was when I tried to do three hours of back to back zoom calls without plugging it in, died about 5 minutes before the end of the last one

T480s (i5-8350U/12Gb/512Gb NVME) just arrived. £339.99 delivered. Hard to fault. Works like it should, is a ThinkPad. Has a few marks on the bottom and a faint sticker mark on the lid. Keyboard and display look like they've never been touched, it is spotless.

Battery is at 85% capacity after 479 cycles.

Bought from newandusedlaptops4u on eBay.

But doesn't have your desired core count (only 4).

ZedLeg wrote: ↑Wed Jun 29, 2022 9:55 pm I’ve got a HP Probook for work and it does the job. The case is kind of cheap plasticky and I had to clear some proprietary junk out of it when I first got it but apart from that it’s good.

The only time I ran out of battery was when I tried to do three hours of back to back zoom calls without plugging it in, died about 5 minutes before the end of the last one

The newer Probooks are all aluminium other than hinges and keyboard. They aren't quite as blingy as the Elitebook/XPS but specs are similar for a lot less cash.

DeskJockey wrote: ↑Wed Jun 29, 2022 9:58 pm T480s (i5-8350U/12Gb/512Gb NVME) just arrived. £339.99 delivered. Hard to fault. Works like it should, is a ThinkPad. Has a few marks on the bottom and a faint sticker mark on the lid. Keyboard and display look like they've never been touched, it is spotless.

Battery is at 85% capacity after 479 cycles.

Bought from newandusedlaptops4u on eBay.

But doesn't have your desired core count (only 4).

Think I've found the same ones you've got, that's a tasty price although it's a shame it forces Windows on you.... For an additional cost...

Edit, no, I've worked out out now. I can get an additional 16gb ram (taking it to 20gb, 4gb soldered) cheaper than they can put it in, but the 512gb storage is about the same cost, for £280.

Tempting. Very tempting.

(4 cores = 8 threads on almost everything these days)

Try contacting them to see if you can get it without?

Currently installing W11 on mine (well, hers).

8gb RAM makes the baby jesus cry ffs!

Carlos wrote: ↑Wed Jun 29, 2022 10:15 pm

ZedLeg wrote: ↑Wed Jun 29, 2022 9:55 pm I’ve got a HP Probook for work and it does the job. The case is kind of cheap plasticky and I had to clear some proprietary junk out of it when I first got it but apart from that it’s good.

The only time I ran out of battery was when I tried to do three hours of back to back zoom calls without plugging it in, died about 5 minutes before the end of the last one

The newer Probooks are all aluminium other than hinges and keyboard. They aren't quite as blingy as the Elitebook/XPS but specs are similar for a lot less cash.

So they are, I wonder if I can demand a new one for aesthetic reasons

After some investigation it turns out mines is an Aluminium case, shows what I know.

I received a flyer in the post yesterday from Inkjets & Toners, offering a 13" Dell XPS refurb (9360 model) with Core i7, 256GB SSD (which I assume must be NVMe) and 8GB of RAM for £499. I doubt a cheaper XPS with any form of warranty will be particularly worthwhile.

I'm wondering if I might let my older Dell XPS 15 with Core i5 and 8GB RAM go; it needs the BIOS playing with because I installed a 512GB NVMe drive in place of the original hybrid drive (separate 32GB SSD and 1TB HDD) but without changing the RAID settings in the BIOS it wouldn't work unless I left the original HDD in as well. Runs fine otherwise, battery life isn't wonderful because it's 5 years old and has pretty much always been used plugged in. If that's interesting to you then drop me a message.

I've messaged the seller to see if I can get the laptop without additional RAM or an OS - I believe it has 4gb soldered in, I can get additional RAM cheaper (told seller I already have it) and I don't need a Windows license - ever.

Will see what they come back with. If no joy, the price is actually reasonable enough as it is, but you don't get owt for nowt!

Edit: Yup, no sale without a Windows license - likely
A: Part of their MS reseller agreement - you'll sell nothing that doesn't have a Windows license on it
B: Where the margin is - reseller licensing is cheaper than retail so they'll be making their money from that.

Fair enough. I'll still order it

In case you're thinking T480s the one I've ordered turns out to bea touchscreen model. Wasn't in the spec, so a nice surprise.

Currently just waiting for my wife to come home to log in so I can finish setting it up. Upgraded it to W11 just because it was an option.

If anyone wants to buy a T460s with busted hinges, a couple of pressure smears on the display, a few bits of plastic missing, no hard drive and slightly knackered batteries let me know. Might take the keyboard out of it to replace the one on mine. So, buy a bag of bits?

DeskJockey wrote: ↑Thu Jun 30, 2022 3:41 pm In case you're thinking T480s the one I've ordered turns out to bea touchscreen model. Wasn't in the spec, so a nice surprise.

I don't care about the touch, but that's a good sign that it has a decent IPS panel on it...

You'll not need anything more than this:

Woah now, calm down - I'm not a developer, I work in operations/infrastructure - I couldn't handle something so powerful, nor it's innate glory.

There are loads of sellers on ebay.
I only pick by the ones that state (even if approx) battery life, offer at-least 6 month warranty (even better if its the balance of manufacturers warranty), tell you what type of display the screen is.
Far less difference than there used to be between the business models of the big 3 (Lenovo/Dell/HP) laptop brands, so I would worry less about brand and pick on spec and condition and the factors I mention above.

Worth pointing out that Lenovo tends to be more Linux friendly than Dell/HP WRT laptops.

I've already ordered the T480s

And yeah, my experience with Lenovo is that they're will liked in the Linux community, so the community tend to focus on them for compatability.

Same with Dell professional gear (often used by developers) - broadly speaking they're pretty well supported.

I've had a couple of refurb Thinkpads and new ones at my old place and they were great, in fact my old W510 is still sat here as a second machine in my office and it's about 12 years old now (i7, 16GB and 1GB Nvidia GPU, 2x240GB SSD's so is like an average laptop these days). It will be like saying goodbye to a family member when it dies.
My youngest has an X series for school too and it takes a beating. Honestly can't beat their build.
Even my Macbooks can't compete.

Ooh, me laptop is turning up tomorrow, not Monday - nice!

I'm sitting waiting to find out what sort of Windows laptop a new client has sent out for me. It should have been here on Monday but is now due positively, absolutely, by the end of the day. It feels like a lucky dip where the prize is guaranteed to be cheap and plasticky.