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I do agree. You can get used X and T series Thinkpads for a couple hundred dollars. They will outlive most cheap new laptops.
by intrasight 9y ago
I do agree. You can get used X and T series Thinkpads for a couple hundred dollars. They will outlive most cheap new laptops.
- freedomben 9y agoIf you get a good one. I've been burned so many times now by people selling something they know has problems. They often don't manifest during the "test drive." It sucks.
- cubano 9y agoRefurbished by a reputable re-seller always seems to work well for me, altho it adds a bit to the cost. I've picked up i5(2600)/8g/500G laptops for 150 like this on several occasions.
- crowbahr 9y agoAnd who is a reputable reseller of old ThinkPads? It seems like it's the wild west in the market and I am interested in an old reliable ThinkPad with an expansion slot for an ssd.
- ekianjo 9y agoYahoo auctions in Japan is reliable. They also ship overseas.
- cubano 9y agoI've had good luck so far (knock wood) with Newegg...let me find a link... https://www.newegg.com/Laptop-Notebooks/RefurbishedStore/ID-64?name=Refurbished-Laptops-Notebooks&cm_sp=Cat_Laptops-Notebooks_7-_-TopNav-_-Refurbished https://www.newegg.com/Laptop-Notebooks/RefurbishedStore/ID-...
- crowbahr 9y agoSounds great, thanks for the link.
- loser777 9y agoThe advantage of a T- or X- series is that they are common fleet models so you can buy from a bulk reseller that is less likely to be passing off a single dud.
- freedomben 9y agoIs there a specific bulk reseller that you use that you could recommend?
- bunfunton 9y agoWhat kind of issues do people conceal?
- quickthrower2 9y agoI got a refurb Thinkpad and: 1. Battery puked out pretty quickly, so that's $100 (AUD) to fix on a $500 second hand laptop. 2. Some keys stopped working, could be bad luck as laptops have shite keyboards normally. Both are not necessarily concealed issues BUT this is the kind of shit you are dealing with with second hand laptops and the savings don't seem to justify it, for me anyway. Plus less NSAWare. The main benefit of buying second hand is the 'good for the environment' feeling it gave me.
- ekianjo 9y agoYou can actually deactivate the Intel ME on the older thinkpads, so thats better if you are worried about NSAWare.
- dajt 9y agoThe keyboard at least might be a cheap fix. I got a new Thinkpad and the right-hand shift key was useless which is the one I use. I couldn't be bothered returning it and bought a keyboard off ebay. About 5 - 10 mins to install and its great now.
- xorcist 9y agoWhat kind of NSAware are you worried about, and why do you think buying new would lessen those chances? While a refurbisher could potentially insert malware, they're not going to do it for the NSA. Old Thinkpads are also generally well supported by libreboot/coreboot, so that's one less attack vector to worry about.
- quickthrower2 9y agoOops. Textual screwup. I meant less NSAware as a plus for the older laptop.
- bwbw223 9y agoSome enterprise IT departments have piles of them, if you have connections.