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.

  • VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    16·
    4 months ago

    I got a used ThinkPad for that price a year ago. Needed a laptop, and was a broke student. Really repairable - it’s easy to take apart, not glued, and most parts seem to be available at Aliexpress for reasonable prices. It’s still doing it’s job, and even though I could afford upgrading it now, I don’t really see a reason to.

    The last time I had a look at the market for new laptops, most things 300€ (which should be close enough to $300) would buy you where, judging by the components, bound to be painfully slow. If it really needs to be new, I’d look for stores that have discounts, and look up the model on iFixit or a simmilar resource to check how repairable it is.

    • MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.worldOP
      3·
      4 months ago

      Thank you, I was simply surveying the market to see if there are any new laptops in this range to look at. Seems like that is not the case, so off to the used market I go.

      • VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        1·
        3 months ago

        It doesn’t necessarily need to be a ThinkPad either. Any used good quality business laptop should do the trick. My grandmother recently got an used EliteBook, and it’s working quite well for her. I’d look for mid- to high-end models, with parts that aren’t soldered - you should be able to find that out on the data sheet for the model in question.

        Any i5/R5 and up in a machine that isn’t too old should handle pretty much everything most people expect from a laptop - for me that is running a browser, a Latex editor, a notes app, and an IDE, for the most part.

        I’d reccomend Linux, but that might be based more on my personal convictions, and a machine like that should also be able to run current Windows with no problems.