Hi,
A problem I have been coming up against is that a lot of the newer, budget Windows laptop (which I will immediately replace with my distribution of choice upon receipt) have memory soldered on the motherboard. This is a decision which brings the utmost distate to my mouth; I’m looking for budget laptops around the $300 mark (new) that let me upgrade their parts. Which models should I be looking at?
I am aware that the used market is fairly decent right now but I’d like to take a look at what’s coming up alongside looking at used gear. Thanks.
$300 is a really difficult price point for what youre asking for new. At the price, youre in the chromebook range, where even the windows machines are going to be as barebones as possible.
You want to step into the used market if you want customizable for $300. Getting something good thats a few years old like an lenovo carbon x1 looks possible, and they are a dream to update. The above supports linux with no issues.
I see. There’s not much of a choice outside the used thinkpad range then. Very well. Thank you
Honestly, the value proposition of old business computers is almost unbeatable.
Yes, it’s not the most recent hardware, but decent enough, especially the chonky boi ThinkPads are very easy to repair/upgrade and built like tanks (though only Russian ones, they barely withstand an RPG hit, which is a shame).
Could you suggest a few models? I’d be fairly interested in older business laptops especially if they are a viable alternative to the thinkpad line (never a bad idea to have more choices!)
The thinkpad t480 for more modern feeling. A t470 for some more upgradeability. I also like the x270 for a smaller 12.5 inch screen and I think you can find all of these under 300.
Dell Precision, HP Probook for example. There are probably more, but these are the ones that I know of.
Yes. This is the way.
As a follow up, if the price point were a bit higher (much higher? idk), what would the options be like for this request? edit: also thx for the current answer 🙏
If you’re looking at the customisable/upgradable thing, then Frameworks are great for that. You can buy them without (or with) a Windows licence, you can buy them without RAM or a hard drive if you want. But they are on the more expensive end of the scale. However, in future you can upgrade the guts without replacing the case/screen/etc.
Cheap Chromebooks tend to break just like other cheap laptops. The only difference is that the OS may feel more responsive initially.
Framework announced their B-stock systems for $500. That’s going to be your best bet for relatively new, upgradable, and kind close to $300.
Otherwise, gonna have to go used, and good luck with upgradability since everyone’s been soldering everything on for a decade.
Came here to make sure this was represented. $500 is a great price for a fully upgradable laptop.
Plus the cost of your own ram, storage, etc.
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I got a used ThinkPad for that price a year ago. Needed a laptop, and was a broke student. Really repairable - it’s easy to take apart, not glued, and most parts seem to be available at Aliexpress for reasonable prices. It’s still doing it’s job, and even though I could afford upgrading it now, I don’t really see a reason to.
The last time I had a look at the market for new laptops, most things 300€ (which should be close enough to $300) would buy you where, judging by the components, bound to be painfully slow. If it really needs to be new, I’d look for stores that have discounts, and look up the model on iFixit or a simmilar resource to check how repairable it is.
Thank you, I was simply surveying the market to see if there are any new laptops in this range to look at. Seems like that is not the case, so off to the used market I go.
It doesn’t necessarily need to be a ThinkPad either. Any used good quality business laptop should do the trick. My grandmother recently got an used EliteBook, and it’s working quite well for her. I’d look for mid- to high-end models, with parts that aren’t soldered - you should be able to find that out on the data sheet for the model in question.
Any i5/R5 and up in a machine that isn’t too old should handle pretty much everything most people expect from a laptop - for me that is running a browser, a Latex editor, a notes app, and an IDE, for the most part.
I’d reccomend Linux, but that might be based more on my personal convictions, and a machine like that should also be able to run current Windows with no problems.
I’m going to run Linux alright, and maybe BSD if I feel up to it. It would seem that the older Dell Latitudes are comparable to the older Thinkpads as options
Hmh, didn’t see the community this was in. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.
Upgradeable parts = non-soldered RAM and SSD?
Partly
Do you need a laptop?
A mini PC may be a better bet - $300 on a mini PC will get you more hardware than a laptop at the same price as you’re not paying for the screen or chassy but you’d then need to supply a screen (TV would do), keyboard and mouse.
If you need the mobility then it’s a no go, but if you’re more looking for a device at home a PC is better value.
If you do need the mobility of a laptop, then you won’t get anything much new for $300 as others have said. You’d either need to increase your budget or look at second hand as others have said.
Chassis
May I recommend further a good desktop pc w/upgradable parts and a used thinkpad laptop for travelling? You can get a good thinkpad for work and small games for $20-50 and they tend to last forever and be easy to repair. my favorite is X series
You will struggle to find anything decent at that price new.
Plenty of good used options though, a used ThinkPad will have great Linux compatibility and be serviceable. They can be very cheap depending on how older hardware you can tolerate. There are other business grade laptops from Dell, HP etc that have good refurb deals too.
I’m starting to realise that myself. It might just be a better idea to go used after all. Thanks
Used business/enterprise stuff is generally decent, HP Elitebooks, Lenovo Thinkpads, etc…
Notebookcheck.net has an incredible search tool and they’ll have info about how difficult it is to open up and what items can be replaced.
Most laptops won’t allow you to update parts, especially at that price. I think you’re better off getting a cheap laptop that has good reviews and you verify that Linux works in it. Personally, I’ve converted a few chromebooks to linux (making sure first that the CoreBoot BIOS/firmware works on these laptops).
ThinkPad 470 is not mentioned? Was it a bad choiseI? I want fedora om it?
There’s nothing wrong with the T470, it’s just an older model. If you find a really good deal on one then get it. If not, then go for the T480 since it has a newer CPU and better battery life.
I think Ive got a great deal, it works fine now, hope it still will do woth fedora 39
It will probably be fine for the next decade at least. It supports up to 32GB of RAM.
I was simply asking for newer laptops. I am considering the used thinkpads alongside any recommendations here so I feel more informed
Business Dells are also worth considering. They’re comparable to the Thinkpad.
You’re going to have to up your budget a bit. However, you can get a Thinkbook, which is exactly what you’re looking for - DIMM slot, upgradable NVME and USB-C charging. Only downside is that it comes with a fake (non-Zen4) 7th gen Ryzen processor. If you can wait for some time, the next 2024 ThinkPad E series may have DIMM slots without the soldered RAM nonsense.
I am looking at used Thinkpads, thanks. It seems that’s my best choice after all.
Get a used Thinkpad. Shop around eBay for a T480 or T490 which should be at that price range. Solid machines with great Linux compatibility. Anything new will be much worse at that price point. If you desperately searching for something new maybe a HP 255 G9 with a Rzyen 3 would be fitting. Not as good built quality wise and I’m not sure about Linux compatibility but at least it is upgradable. (https://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=c08017466)
Thanks, yes, I’m looking at the T480 as an option. I was just curious about what I could find new in this range that fits my needs, and so far it seems like there isn’t such a product.
I can recommend minifree.org - this is a shop from Leah Rowe, who is the lead developer of the libreboot project. That is a (more secure) bios alternative, related to coreboot.
I bought my Thinkpad T400 from there, some 6 years ago or something. I am still writing on it and i can highly recommend it. However, today i would buy a smaller form factor. so 12,8° instead of 14°.
So it is kind of heavy compared to a macbook air and not the fastest machine, but you can get your stuff done. And it is really really durable, which is the reason i bought one of the older thinkpads.
Around $300, there would be the libreboot 820: https://minifree.org/product/libreboot-820/
And with minifree.org you can be sure that the linux/libreboot/coreboot support is really great. Because: since Leah is a developer, she testes everything beforehand and fixes problems when she notices it. So i would recommend to describe what you would want to do. For instance, initially i wanted to use a encrypted harddrive and i had installed the grub variant, but later upgraded to libreoot with seabios. This was much better and fixed the problems with my encrypted harddrive. But i suspect leah would have found out and fixed that already, had i told her that.
Also for instance, seabios has better openBSD support.
I got a used business dell a couple of years ago for £300. It still had active service warranty which dell transferred over to me. I upgraded the ram to 32gb and the ssd to 1tb and it was pretty decent for the time - i7 10th gen from memory (without grabbing the thing to check).
Could you tell me the model you got? I’m very interested in older laptops used in the enterprise, especially if they are a viable alternative to the older Thinkpad line
It’s a latitude 7390. I was mistaken, it’s an 8th gen i7, but still pretty new at the time I bought it. Bonus - Dell put all their service manuals online so you can always find instructions on how to tear down and upgrade
Thanks, I’m seriously considering the Latitude line alongside the Thinkpads.
A used ThinkPad? I use Debian 12 GNOME (animations on) on an old Core i3 2nd gen desktop with 4 GB RAM and no SSD, and I can use 3-4 Firefox tabs with music player, PDF reader and Thunar file manager quite well.
Shove in extra 4 GB RAM and put in a $50 SATA SSD if possible, and you have a snappy machine.
