Hi,
A problem I have been coming up against is that a lot of the newer, budget Windows laptop (which I will immediately replace with my distribution of choice upon receipt) have memory soldered on the motherboard. This is a decision which brings the utmost distate to my mouth; I’m looking for budget laptops around the $300 mark (new) that let me upgrade their parts. Which models should I be looking at?
I am aware that the used market is fairly decent right now but I’d like to take a look at what’s coming up alongside looking at used gear. Thanks.
$300 is a really difficult price point for what youre asking for new. At the price, youre in the chromebook range, where even the windows machines are going to be as barebones as possible.
You want to step into the used market if you want customizable for $300. Getting something good thats a few years old like an lenovo carbon x1 looks possible, and they are a dream to update. The above supports linux with no issues.
I see. There’s not much of a choice outside the used thinkpad range then. Very well. Thank you
Honestly, the value proposition of old business computers is almost unbeatable.
Yes, it’s not the most recent hardware, but decent enough, especially the chonky boi ThinkPads are very easy to repair/upgrade and built like tanks (though only Russian ones, they barely withstand an RPG hit, which is a shame).
Yes. This is the way.
As a follow up, if the price point were a bit higher (much higher? idk), what would the options be like for this request? edit: also thx for the current answer 🙏
If you’re looking at the customisable/upgradable thing, then Frameworks are great for that. You can buy them without (or with) a Windows licence, you can buy them without RAM or a hard drive if you want. But they are on the more expensive end of the scale. However, in future you can upgrade the guts without replacing the case/screen/etc.
Cheap Chromebooks tend to break just like other cheap laptops. The only difference is that the OS may feel more responsive initially.
Thinkpads will get you what you want. A T480 can be found at around that price and is basically fully upgradable and Linux compatible
Yes this, everything new at that pricepoint is complete garbage, ewaste straight out the factory.
The T480, while getting a little bit up there in age now, is still very capable having a quad core CPU, if you get both the internal and largest external battery it will rival M1 macbooks in battery life, two ram slots.
Thanks, and yes I’m looking at the used Thinkpad market. I was just curious if I could purchase anything of the sort new in my budget
This is what I have and I was in your situation, op.
Upgradeable parts = non-soldered RAM and SSD?
You will struggle to find anything decent at that price new.
Plenty of good used options though, a used ThinkPad will have great Linux compatibility and be serviceable. They can be very cheap depending on how older hardware you can tolerate. There are other business grade laptops from Dell, HP etc that have good refurb deals too.
I’m starting to realise that myself. It might just be a better idea to go used after all. Thanks
Get a used Thinkpad. Shop around eBay for a T480 or T490 which should be at that price range. Solid machines with great Linux compatibility. Anything new will be much worse at that price point. If you desperately searching for something new maybe a HP 255 G9 with a Rzyen 3 would be fitting. Not as good built quality wise and I’m not sure about Linux compatibility but at least it is upgradable. (https://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=c08017466)
Thanks, yes, I’m looking at the T480 as an option. I was just curious about what I could find new in this range that fits my needs, and so far it seems like there isn’t such a product.
ThinkPad 470 is not mentioned? Was it a bad choiseI? I want fedora om it?
You’re going to have to up your budget a bit. However, you can get a Thinkbook, which is exactly what you’re looking for - DIMM slot, upgradable NVME and USB-C charging. Only downside is that it comes with a fake (non-Zen4) 7th gen Ryzen processor. If you can wait for some time, the next 2024 ThinkPad E series may have DIMM slots without the soldered RAM nonsense.
I am looking at used Thinkpads, thanks. It seems that’s my best choice after all.
Used business/enterprise stuff is generally decent, HP Elitebooks, Lenovo Thinkpads, etc…
Notebookcheck.net has an incredible search tool and they’ll have info about how difficult it is to open up and what items can be replaced.
Soldered RAM has better performance and reliability while consuming less power than socketed RAM and users of budget machines rarely want to upgrade. If you find one with socketed RAM at that price, colour me impressed!
For an upgradable laptop frame.work comes to mind but even their outlet is $200 above your budget.
https://frame.work/marketplace?outlet[]=Factory+seconds&outlet[]=Last+gen&outlet[]=Refurbished&availability[]=in_stock&availability[]=coming_soonSometimes the appeal of socketed RAM is to just buy the bottom model and upgrade.
When I bought my Thinkpad E585 (wouldn’t reccomend), it was like $50 cheaper to buy a second 4GB DIMM from Crucial, and like $100 less to take the 500GB spinning rust option and add your own NVMe.
Sometimes the appeal of socketed RAM is to just buy the bottom model and upgrade.
Yeah, I’m all for swappable RAM and disk in my laptops, problem is that those that care about it generally also spend more on their computer.
I got a used business dell a couple of years ago for £300. It still had active service warranty which dell transferred over to me. I upgraded the ram to 32gb and the ssd to 1tb and it was pretty decent for the time - i7 10th gen from memory (without grabbing the thing to check).
The laptop that doesn’t exist… For they money you might find something with an Intel Atom or Pentium inside. Which is about as far as having a mouse on a wheel as your CPU…🤣
