I’ve been trying to find Thinkpad laptops with specifications equivalent to, or better than my old Ideapad with i5-8265U. So far, I’ve only been using Ebay. Unless explicitly mentioned, all prices are without shipping charges. This time, I’ve restricted myself to the following rules:
- Assume +100$ for all product (international shipping)
- Look for 8th, 9th and 10th gen Intel processors, and 1st, 2nd and 3rd gen AMD processors.
- 8 (assuming SODIMM is free for another 8GB)/16/32GB of RAM
- 256GB (if device is cheap, I can upgrade it myself)/512GB/1TB
- Pick devices with 8th gen Intel processors under 200$
- Pick devices with 9th gen Intel and 1st gen Ryzen processors under 250$
- Pick devices with 10th gen Intel and 2nd/3rd gen Ryzen processors under 300$
- Assume an extra 50-100$ for workstation dGPU
- Do not buy anything higher than 450$ (with shipping price included)
However, to my surprise, 8th gen devices are still being sold around 250-350$, 9th gen devices and almost every Ryzen-based devices are non-existent, and 10th gen devices are surprisingly the same or lower than 8th gen, but their prices get inflated after auction - perhaps by shill bidding bots.
I also can’t figure out this - why are there no listings from Europe or Middle East? Shipping from America is too expensive (although way cheaper that the local listings here).
How can I get better for finding used/refurbished/renewed Thinkpad?
thinkpads are interesting because they are heavy-duty machines that can be had for cheap on the used market. they are cheap because businesses buy them by the truckload and then offload them after three+ years and switch to Newest & Best. flooded market plus a buncha older models still around from earlier floods plus civilians selling their shit -> low price, otherwise nobody would buy them.
if you haven’t got access to such a market, either by being around where they’re being dumped directly or by having local businesses importing them in bulk and reselling them locally, then you should look elsewhere for value, as they’re only interesting if they can be had for cheap.
e.g. you have similar options from hp (elitebook) and dell (latitude), they are also business-class laptops with durability and serviceability in mind, perhaps you can find those locally.
as an aside, you should skip all AMD platforms up until 5000 series; many issues (power management, GPU performance, etc.) especially if you’re going to run linux.
I have two broken laptops with me right now - Dell Inspiron 5559 and Lenovo Ideapad S540-15IWL. Would it be economically sound to repair them both, as opposed to getting a new device?
I paid $450 USD for a first gen X1 Yoga back in 2019 on eBay. Best advice is to either be patient and check eBay regularly or make friends with somone in IT close to you and get them to let you know when a local business is doing an upgrade.
