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Performance wise a 5 year old notebook is more than enough given that it has enough RAM and an nvme 4.0 or higher. What you should keep in mind is the followin

Performance wise a 5 year old notebook is more than enough given that it has enough RAM and an nvme 4.0 or higher. What you should keep in mind is the following: - degrading battery: replacing can get expensive to impossible depending in the model. - Temperature: old thermal paste may need replacement, Core i7 are getting pretty hot and throttled, maybe an i5 is the better choice - Display: dead Pixels, degrading colors, lower contrast - touchpad: smaller, less accurate, no glass - Connectivity: no Bluetooth 5.0, no wifi ax I would buy a used one but only because i'm willing to do replacements and repairs. If your time is valuable and you are not an expert, it's probably not worth.

sdwr 2y ago
Laptop CPUs run hot, there isn't a lot of room for airflow or cooling. Hardware degrades with time/heat/cycles, so if it was used hard, it might be close to the end of its usable life.
- sandreas 2y ago
  You're mostly right, hard usage may lead to fast degradation, but unfortunately it is hard to tell how a device has been used as long as there are no obvious signs. Especially when there was more than one owner. It's a bit like buying a used car - if you are not an expert, it's risky, but avoiding obvious red flags 70% of the time you're not getting ripped of and you save a lot of money.
- commandersaki 2y ago
  Eh are CPUs really a wear and tear item or even RAM for that matter?
  - sandreas 2y ago
    Slightly but this is not a real Problem AS long AS they were not used too heavy under too high temps.
- hughesjj 2y ago
  Are there any good companies which sell laptop to rackmount conversion kits (or vendors which offer such)? This has been a problem for me pretty much every time I've recycled an old laptop. The CPU/mobi/ram still works fine but the cooling screen battery and case are often going after a few years in and out of the backpack. I'd love to recycle them myself, suppose I could ask the folks at Re:PC next time I do a drop off
  - sandreas 2y ago
    Given that you have USB-C /Thunderbolt, you could buy a dock and a notebook stand. I personally don't like external Docks at all, i prefer displays with integrated usb-c pd docks.

sdwr 2y ago

Laptop CPUs run hot, there isn't a lot of room for airflow or cooling. Hardware degrades with time/heat/cycles, so if it was used hard, it might be close to the end of its usable life.

sandreas 2y ago
You're mostly right, hard usage may lead to fast degradation, but unfortunately it is hard to tell how a device has been used as long as there are no obvious signs. Especially when there was more than one owner. It's a bit like buying a used car - if you are not an expert, it's risky, but avoiding obvious red flags 70% of the time you're not getting ripped of and you save a lot of money.
commandersaki 2y ago
Eh are CPUs really a wear and tear item or even RAM for that matter?
- sandreas 2y ago
  Slightly but this is not a real Problem AS long AS they were not used too heavy under too high temps.
hughesjj 2y ago
Are there any good companies which sell laptop to rackmount conversion kits (or vendors which offer such)? This has been a problem for me pretty much every time I've recycled an old laptop. The CPU/mobi/ram still works fine but the cooling screen battery and case are often going after a few years in and out of the backpack. I'd love to recycle them myself, suppose I could ask the folks at Re:PC next time I do a drop off
- sandreas 2y ago
  Given that you have USB-C /Thunderbolt, you could buy a dock and a notebook stand. I personally don't like external Docks at all, i prefer displays with integrated usb-c pd docks.