I’m thinking of picking up a used ThinkPad on eBay for cheap to serve as my daily driver. I’ll likely run LMDE, and primarily use it for web browsing, office programs, coding, and FreeCAD. Any recommendations on which model would best hit the sweet spot of capability vs price?
Had quite a few of the X and T series, X200, X201, X220, X230, T430 mainly, x230 would be my pick, you can quad-core mod it with the classic keyboard and use ivyra1n to flash the bios easily. I haven't bothered with the Full-HD mod because the 720p IPS is fine to me, you can get them from Taobao or similar (Check sources!)
They're all socketed CPUs, or you could get the chonky T530/W530 instead, or a P series. Old Thinkpads last a long time (although I have a bad habit of testing them :)
EDIT: MY T430 was also a fucking tank, it survived being thrown across a room in San Franciso with a tiny dent on the lid, no damage. They're easier to Full-HD mod than the X series.
Depends on what I'm doing. For most of my use cases, not really. For universal paperclips, I worry it'll melt
More expensive business-class laptops, like the T-series, is I think what RedHat and others give to their employees, thus they are usually better supported than cheaper consumer models.
T480 can be had on eBay for 200-300 bucks and will perform very well in modern applications. I've seen a few that are banged up pretty bad for under $200, if you're cool with a well loved laptop.
As long as the insides work all right, I’m good! I’m into thrifting and visible mending, so something well-loved, but cheap, is right up my alley
Funnily enough, I’ve got a pretty well-loved ThinkPad T480 16 GB 8350U sitting right here. Used to be my main development laptop. Now it’s just an agent for Portainer.
X1 Carbon. Buy what businesses buy in bulk. They get it for a reason
