Need advice in looking for old refurbished laptop

[muhdarifrawi]

Hi, as the title suggests, I was looking for some advice on choosing an old laptop. Recently I got one and I'm not satisfied with my purchase. So this time around, I thought I would ask the community about it. 

 

I'll be loading Ubuntu on it to have a feel and experience of how the Ubuntu system is like. I was thinking of getting a Thinkpad. What do you all think about it? What should I look out for if I were to get one?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Biomecanoid]

4 minutes ago, muhdarifrawi said:

Hi, as the title suggests, I was looking for some advice on choosing an old laptop. Recently I got one and I'm not satisfied with my purchase. So this time around, I thought I would ask the community about it. 

 

I'll be loading Ubuntu on it to have a feel and experience of how the Ubuntu system is like. I was thinking of getting a Thinkpad. What do you all think about it? What should I look out for if I were to get one?

 

Thanks in advance!

Make sure the battery is working fine

[muhdarifrawi]

Just now, Biomecanoid said:

Make sure the battery is working fine

Yea man. I did not check for that and only realised after getting home. The biggest facepalm of my life. 

[SupaKomputa]

Thinkpad is an easy choice, highly available with a good build quality.

Many corporate dump outdated laptop for cheap.

 

What you want to look for is the the CPU and GPU (if any).

Look for screen defect, it should not show any light smudges or dead pixels. 

Get the best one for your budget, everything else can be upgraded.

If you only got 2-4GB and a low HDD, no problem, add another 4GB for $15 and buy a SSD.

It would feel like a new pc.

 

1 hour ago, Biomecanoid said:

Make sure the battery is working fine

They are easily replaceable, it's not the most important part.

[Biomecanoid]

5 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Thinkpad is an easy choice, highly available with a good build quality.

Many corporate dump outdated laptop for cheap.

 

What you want to look for is the the CPU and GPU (if any).

Look for screen defect, it should not show any light smudges or dead pixels. 

Get the best one for your budget, everything else can be upgraded.

If you only got 2-4GB and a low HDD, no problem, add another 4GB for $15 and buy a SSD.

It would feel like a new pc.

 

They are easily replaceable, it's not the most important part.

Battery is important because if you buy a refurbished laptop means you want to save money and a new battery can be like 1/3 the price of a used laptop. Its not about how easy it is to be replaced but about the economics. As you saw OP forgot to check it and its one of the 1st things to go wrong in old laptops.

 

With anything used the 1st thing to check is for wear and tear. If it was new that would not apply and you would check the specs

[SupaKomputa]

7 minutes ago, Biomecanoid said:

Battery is important because if you buy a refurbished laptop means you want to save money and a new battery can be like 1/3 the price of a used laptop. Its not about how easy it is to be replaced but about the economics. As you saw OP forgot to check it and its one of the 1st things to go wrong in old laptops.

 

With anything used the 1st thing to check is for wear and tear. If it was new that would not apply and you would check the specs

Old laptops will certainly have battery problem, the quality will be random and cannot be measured right away, expect most of them are bad, waste of time looking for a good one, better just get a new battery for peace of mind.

Battery replacement are cheap if you know where to find them.

It's like choosing a Ferrari with a worn tires or a Honda with brand new tires.

[Biomecanoid]

6 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Old laptops will certainly have battery problem, the quality will be random and cannot be measured right away, expect most of them are bad, waste of time looking for a good one, better just get a new battery for peace of mind.

Battery replacement are cheap if you know where to find them.

It's like choosing a Ferrari with a worn tires or a Honda with brand new tires.

The Ferrari tires will cost as much as the whole Honda car. Plus if you are on a budget looking for cars you won't be able to maintain the Ferrari with its high service cost

[muhdarifrawi]

3 hours ago, SupaKomputa said:

Thinkpad is an easy choice, highly available with a good build quality.

Many corporate dump outdated laptop for cheap.

 

What you want to look for is the the CPU and GPU (if any).

Look for screen defect, it should not show any light smudges or dead pixels. 

Get the best one for your budget, everything else can be upgraded.

If you only got 2-4GB and a low HDD, no problem, add another 4GB for $15 and buy a SSD.

It would feel like a new pc.

 

They are easily replaceable, it's not the most important part.

Could you elaborate more on the CPU and GPU? Which generation should still be good to use? 
 

sorry i’m really bad at this. I took a look at what chips are good and get flooded by too much info and i have no idea what half the things mean

[SupaKomputa]

23 minutes ago, muhdarifrawi said:

Could you elaborate more on the CPU and GPU? Which generation should still be good to use? 
 

sorry i’m really bad at this. I took a look at what chips are good and get flooded by too much info and i have no idea what half the things mean

Well it's hard to tell without any budget.

Basically from Core i(3,5,7) 2XXX is still good enough. But this is 10 years old. I say get gen 5 or 6.

A budget one won't get you a GPU, but you'll get slimmer body and better battery life.

If you don't game, you won't make use of the GPU at all. So don't discourage with the one without.

But if you are, look for GT740 or 940 or better, first digit is the generation, second digit is the class.

You will need 8gb of memory for comfortable windows 10 usage, if you get 4gb it's fine, add another 4 later.

SSD is a must, most of these 5 years old laptop probably won't have one unless the seller replaced them.

You can install this also after you bought it.

[muhdarifrawi]

11 hours ago, SupaKomputa said:

Well it's hard to tell without any budget.

Basically from Core i(3,5,7) 2XXX is still good enough. But this is 10 years old. I say get gen 5 or 6.

A budget one won't get you a GPU, but you'll get slimmer body and better battery life.

If you don't game, you won't make use of the GPU at all. So don't discourage with the one without.

But if you are, look for GT740 or 940 or better, first digit is the generation, second digit is the class.

You will need 8gb of memory for comfortable windows 10 usage, if you get 4gb it's fine, add another 4 later.

SSD is a must, most of these 5 years old laptop probably won't have one unless the seller replaced them.

You can install this also after you bought it.

Hey thanks alot man. That's really helpful! I really do appreciate your time and help

 

Budget wise it's a little hard to gauge 'cos i'm from Singapore. So the price might be very different haha.

[SupaKomputa]

1 hour ago, muhdarifrawi said:

Hey thanks alot man. That's really helpful! I really do appreciate your time and help

 

Budget wise it's a little hard to gauge 'cos i'm from Singapore. So the price might be very different haha.

There should be plenty option in simlim. good luck bro. stay negative.