What do you think of the price of this laptop? (and some other related questions)

[geo909]

Hi all,

I want to buy a fairly cheap laptop, and I decided to go for a second-hand. Here is I what type of user I am:

• 
  ■ I will be using a very minimal lightweight linux setup, that needs resources comparable to windows XP.
  ■ I will rarely use it outside the house, so I don't really mind a heavy one.
  ■ I have an external monitor so I don't care much for the screen size or resolution
  ■ I'll be doing a lot of office-type work, text editing, browsing and coding. I won't be doing heavy multitasking (like running virtual machines, etc), but I may run simultaneously 'real life' applications, such as video and music players, torrent clients, browsers, compilers, office suites, etc.
  ■ Occassionaly I will be doing music recording and mixing, which can take a lot of resources. For that I will be double-booting with a windows installation.
  ■ Ocassionaly I will be doing photo editing.
  ■ I plan to replace the optical drive with a caddy used with a 1TB drive sata drive (I have lots of media files). The main drive should be a SSD for the os, but I don't care to have a very large one because I'll be using the 1TB sata.

I found this laptop (mind that it's canadian dollars, which is considerably less that usd right now). It's a very powerful system, but it's quite old. Do you think the price is good for something like that?

Also would you compare it with this more recent model? Do you think the extra money for the old model is a good idea?

And, more generally, given my above-mentioned needs, do you think I should prefer an older system with more cores, cache, ram, threads, etc over a newer system with lower specs?

Any educated opinion would be appreciated! Thank you.

 

[1shado1]

Thinkpad W520? Says it's already sold.

 

[Neur0nauT]

Search for refurbished Lenovos rather than second-hand/used. Usually they come with a legit MS refurb licensed Windows 7+ upgradable to 10 (Microsoft Refurbisher Program), and a 1 year RTB warranty. They're given condition ratings as Class ABC, 123 etc.. C class will have a lot of cosmetic scrapes/dead pixels etc. but functional. The likes of A B classes will have very little wrong with them. In my experience, refurbs from reputable sources are rebuild with new components under an old chassis. The only thing that is usually scrimped on is the battery. You might have to fork out for an official battery....and they aren't cheap.

You cannot really go wrong with Lenovo's. They are solid, business class laptops with decent spec. and I can attest that they are easily repaired maintained also in comparison to other brands. Dell aren't bad, but they've started to make more flimsy/plastic chassis in recent years that I feel are designed to fail with ware-and-tear.

The price for refurbs rises per CPU generation, which also adds extra functionality year on year, such as USB3 ports or HDMI/Display ports etc. I would only look for a 2nd Gen i5 and above with a minimum of 4GB RAM at this point in time.

Don't be tempted to pay extra for more RAM or SSD upgrades on refurbs, as you can usually purchase these afterwards.. for less.

 

[geo909]

Thanks a lot guys,

Search for refurbished Lenovos rather than second-hand/used. Usually they come with a legit MS refurb licensed Windows 7+ upgradable to 10 (Microsoft Refurbisher Program), and a 1 year RTB warranty. They're given condition ratings as Class ABC, 123 etc.. C class will have a lot of cosmetic scrapes/dead pixels etc. but functional. The likes of A B classes will have very little wrong with them. In my experience, refurbs from reputable sources are rebuild with new components under an old chassis. The only thing that is usually scrimped on is the battery. You might have to fork out for an official battery....and they aren't cheap.

You cannot really go wrong with Lenovo's. They are solid, business class laptops with decent spec. and I can attest that they are easily repaired maintained also in comparison to other brands. Dell aren't bad, but they've started to make more flimsy/plastic chassis in recent years that I feel are designed to fail with ware-and-tear.

The price for refurbs rises per CPU generation, which also adds extra functionality year on year, such as USB3 ports or HDMI/Display ports etc. I would only look for a 2nd Gen i5 and above with a minimum of 4GB RAM at this point in time.

Don't be tempted to pay extra for more RAM or SSD upgrades on refurbs, as you can usually purchase these afterwards.. for less.

Thanks, that's helpful. I think I'll go for a refurbished lenovo, as there are some good deals around my area.

What would you think on the question of an older quad core vs a newer dual core for the type of use I described on my first post?

 

[geo909]

Nevermind, I went for a Dell latitude E6330, I think it fits my needs.