Solved! Looking to upgrade T440p with a similar "Used, Cheap, but Upgradable" laptop

[computermaster1]

1. What is your budget?
<$1000

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Min 15"

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Min 1080p

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Whichever fits my requirements

5. How much battery life do you need?
Not a concern, my car has an outlet and I haven't flown on a plane that didn't have an outlet in like years lol

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Yes, likely NMS, Star Trek Online, RS3, OSRS Medium settings. This is an afterthought, it would be nice, but not required.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
A little of everything, Programming, video editing, light-moderate 3D modeling (Mostly for 3D printing), light-moderate gaming, VMs, low-level stuff. I'm a "jack of all trades" type so I need something that can adapt with me with lots of storage slots and ports.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
At purchase, I don't really care, what I need is the expandability more than anything. I have enough parts and hardware to fill out 6 laptops XD

I'm looking for something that has as many NVMe and SATA bays as possible rather than something with a lot of storage at purchase.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
5-6 Years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
BluRay writer would be nice, but I would rather sacrifice it for more storage if needed.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
Like:
Lenovo
Dislike:
HP - General decline in quality over the years, HW whitelist shenanigans.
Dell - Same
Alienware - Overpriced
Any brand considered to be constantly overpriced (ie Alienware)

13. What country do you live in?
USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I have a T440p right now, but it's maxed out on upgrades and getting older and I'm looking to replace it. So basically what I want is another T440p ie something I can grab for cheap off eBay that might be a little older, but with GREAT upgrade potential.

I need a storage beast, with as many NVMe slots and SATA bays as possible and also LTE upgradeable, my 440 has LTE and frankly I cant ever go back . Like the 440p, I don't care if it looks like a brick and is built like a tank either.

Also, I would not mind at all for an unpopular/unknown/weird brand as long as its decent, like maybe a Fujitsu or something

Thank you.

 

[hang-the-9]

The only systems with good space for drives would be workstation class systems, Lenovo P models, HP ZBook, Dell Precision, maybe some of the standard gaming systems from MSI, Clevo, etc.. https://xoticpc.com/collections/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks is a good site to check for laptops, has a great feature list and easy to see specs and compare things.

There are no laptops made to be upgradable/expandable, they are made for portable use with everything else being secondary, anything extra is a bonus if someone needs a laptop specifically vs a desktop. Most expansion is external via USB.