Buy a cheap second hand laptop or buy new and sell after 2/3 years?

PetaZ · August 30, 2019

I need a laptop for my 2 year Machine Learning masters degree + casual gaming, and I have decided on a Dell XPS 15 due to its ultrabook format and lightness (long walking commute) whilst having a dedicated GPU. After 2 or 3 years and once I settle back home I expect to buy a proper desktop and to no longer need laptop or least not one as powerful as the XPS.

I don't know know if I should buy a used XPS 9560 (900-950€, lightly used and in very good condition with 16GB RAM) vs the new 9590 generation (1530€, 8GB RAM). There is definetly a big jump in performance (i7-7700H GTX1050 vs i7-9750H GTX1650), however, it does not make a massive difference for my use case, or at least not one worth a markup of 600€. On the other hand, if I buy the new model and manage to sell it in 2 or 3 years time for at least 600€ (I think 700-800€ is more likely), the cost of ownership would essentially be the same or less.

Is buying new and then reselling my best option here, or am I missing something? What would you guys recommend? How cheap would I need to buy the second hand XPS 9560 for you to consider it worth it?

Many thanks!

dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd · August 30, 2019

The battery life on a second-hand laptop can be great if the previous owner(s) knew how to treat it properly, but it can be horrendous as well if he/she/they kept it on a charger 24/7 or drained it completely and then stored it like that for extended period of time.

Dust buildup in the cooling fins will also be a potential issue at that age. Put your hand next to the exhaust opening and feel the air. If it is lukewarm and moves fast, the cooling is most likely perfect. If the air is hot and moves slowly, the fins are blocked off by dust and/or hair.

That's not a major issue if you are comfortable enough with hardware to open up the laptop and clean it out. If you are not, factor in the cost of having it done by someone else.

You certainly don't want to buy a second-hand laptop if the owner or anyone in his/her household is a smoker. Tar and nicotine are an effing nightmare to get rid of and even after a thorough cleaning you'll still smell that stuff for months or years to come if you are a non-smoker yourself.

Hardware monitor will tell you both the battery's actual capacity and the temperature. Get the portable version and put it on a USB stick, or download it while you are testing the laptop. Or use a Linux Live stick, I know from experience that Linux Mint's built-in hardware monitor will also cleanly show the battery's design capacity, actual capacity and wear percentage.

Personally I'd buy new, use it as a main machine for the duration of your studies and then keep it. Having a laptop is always handy for when you need to troubleshoot a problem with the main PC or when you go on holiday or away from home for a couple of days. If you are considering buying new now and having that amount of money tied up for several years, I assume you have the means to do so without getting in financial trouble.