Thinkpad T420's and T420s - how good?

[SkoomZ]

How well do they hold up in 2016? I've seen threads going back a few years and people seem to say they're solid laptops for linux, vms, general use, and slight gaming.

I can get a T420s for £200 roughly, with a second gen I7 (thats 2.8ghz) or 2.5ghz i5 , 8gb ram and from what i can tell intergrated graphics.

Or a T420 with I5-2520M (2.5ghz) 4gb ram which I would later upgrade to 8gb, and roughly 320gb hdd which I would probably upgrade to a nice ssd, and also intergrated gfx.

But my real question is whether these laptops are still decent, or if I can get something much better for the price (budget of £200)
obviously something newer would be nice, or something with 1920x1080 screen.

Please kind in mind I like to use a debian/windows dualboot, I often use vm's and it would be nice if it could do some slight gaming i.e LoL, CSGO etc

 

[Purpletalon55]

How well do they hold up in 2016? I've seen threads going back a few years and people seem to say they're solid laptops for linux, vms, general use, and slight gaming.

I can get a T420s for £200 roughly, with a second gen I7 (thats 2.8ghz) or 2.5ghz i5 , 8gb ram and from what i can tell intergrated graphics.

Or a T420 with I5-2520M (2.5ghz) 4gb ram which I would later upgrade to 8gb, and roughly 320gb hdd which I would probably upgrade to a nice ssd, and also intergrated gfx.

But my real question is whether these laptops are still decent, or if I can get something much better for the price (budget of £200)
obviously something newer would be nice, or something with 1920x1080 screen.

Please kind in mind I like to use a debian/windows dualboot, I often use vm's and it would be nice if it could do some slight gaming i.e LoL, CSGO etc

They will handle windows and linux, but no gaming, Integrated hd graphics especially hd 3000 will not be good enough for csgo, or league. I speak from personal experience.

 

[ToxicBanana]

We tried with a T450 and HOTS worked very smoothly but the T420 did not (unplayable).

 

[SkoomZ]

How well do they hold up in 2016? I've seen threads going back a few years and people seem to say they're solid laptops for linux, vms, general use, and slight gaming.

I can get a T420s for £200 roughly, with a second gen I7 (thats 2.8ghz) or 2.5ghz i5 , 8gb ram and from what i can tell intergrated graphics.

Or a T420 with I5-2520M (2.5ghz) 4gb ram which I would later upgrade to 8gb, and roughly 320gb hdd which I would probably upgrade to a nice ssd, and also intergrated gfx.

But my real question is whether these laptops are still decent, or if I can get something much better for the price (budget of £200)
obviously something newer would be nice, or something with 1920x1080 screen.

Please kind in mind I like to use a debian/windows dualboot, I often use vm's and it would be nice if it could do some slight gaming i.e LoL, CSGO etc

They will handle windows and linux, but no gaming, Integrated hd graphics especially hd 3000 will not be good enough for csgo, or league. I speak from personal experience.

Thats fair enough, I have a decent pc that handles both games very well so it's not really a requirement.

 

[SkoomZ]

We tried with a T450 and HOTS worked very smoothly but the T420 did not (unplayable).

Pretty sure the t420 has better specs though?

 

[Purpletalon55]

We tried with a T450 and HOTS worked very smoothly but the T420 did not (unplayable).

Pretty sure the t420 has better specs though?

The t420 and t420s are essentially the same machine except one is smaller. And sometimes the batteries are not replaceable.

 

[SkoomZ]

We tried with a T450 and HOTS worked very smoothly but the T420 did not (unplayable).

Pretty sure the t420 has better specs though?

The t420 and t420s are essentially the same machine except one is smaller. And sometimes the batteries are not replaceable.

Which is the bigger version? and could I get better for the money?

 

[Purpletalon55]

We tried with a T450 and HOTS worked very smoothly but the T420 did not (unplayable).

Pretty sure the t420 has better specs though?

The t420 and t420s are essentially the same machine except one is smaller. And sometimes the batteries are not replaceable.

Which is the bigger version? and could I get better for the money?

the regular t420 is the bigger model. You really couldnt get anything for your budget with anything better. The laptops with dedicated start around $500.

 

[SkoomZ]

We tried with a T450 and HOTS worked very smoothly but the T420 did not (unplayable).

Pretty sure the t420 has better specs though?

The t420 and t420s are essentially the same machine except one is smaller. And sometimes the batteries are not replaceable.

Which is the bigger version? and could I get better for the money?

the regular t420 is the bigger model. You really couldnt get anything for your budget with anything better. The laptops with dedicated start around $500.

Alright sounds good, i wanna upgrade to an ssd and 8gb on it anyway, how well does the t420 actuall hold up with general use and virtual machines anyway, rather than gaming?

 

[Purpletalon55]

We tried with a T450 and HOTS worked very smoothly but the T420 did not (unplayable).

Pretty sure the t420 has better specs though?

The t420 and t420s are essentially the same machine except one is smaller. And sometimes the batteries are not replaceable.

Which is the bigger version? and could I get better for the money?

the regular t420 is the bigger model. You really couldnt get anything for your budget with anything better. The laptops with dedicated start around $500.

Alright sounds good, i wanna upgrade to an ssd and 8gb on it anyway, how well does the t420 actuall hold up with general use and virtual machines anyway, rather than gaming?

Its made for doing intense office tasks and stuff like that, it should easily handle virtual machines as well as general use.