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What second hand laptop should I buy? (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by Sadbutdru@sopuli.xyz to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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My use case: I'm an engineering student, I need something with a lot of storage, hopefully SSD (right not I have MatLab, Anaconda and KiCAD taking up most of my 128 GB HD, and I had to uninstall the STM32 cube IDE from lack of storage), and reasonable processing performance so I can actually run these things at a reasonable rate. I need to stay within the windows/ms office world to simplify collaborating and file sharing etc. I'm not using it for gaming. Don't need a massive screen, or touchscreen or anything fancy. HDMI port would be reasonably important.

I want it to last me at least the next 4-5 years, and I'm hoping to not spend more than about £300.

I know a lot of people reccomend ThinkPads, what's a good model to get cheap at the moment? Or any other suggestions?

Is Windows 11 so bad that I should only be looking at ones that come with Windows 10 installed?

Thanks for any helpful advice!

Edit: Thanks to everyone for taking the time to advise me, I've ordered a refurbished T480 with 1TB ssd, plenty of ram, and a 1 year warranty for £340.

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[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Thinkpads are a solid choice, and since all the software you listed runs on Linux as well, it's a good option if you change operating systems to extend the lifetime of your laptop down the road.

[–] jagermo@feddit.org 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If you get one, try to buy one without the RAM soldered on (i think most of the s models). When jt breaks, you basically brick the device - i had to throw out a Samsung notebook because of that.

[–] Sadbutdru@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 months ago

From what I could find out I think most T480 have 8 GB soldered and a slot for replaceable ram. But then the seller I got mine from was offering them with 16, 32 or 64 GB ram, so hopefully that means two non-soldered slots.

[–] Sadbutdru@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 months ago

Yeah I'm planning to install Linux on my old laptop for just home use so I can get familiar and learn a bit of command line stuff, and hopefully make the switch fully at some point. But for now I don't feel confident that the Linux learning curve wouldn't slow me down to much, so I'm about to face the horrors of Win 11 Pro (-_-)