Refurbished Dell laptop advice

[theLegionWithin]

Thanks for all the further advice. I'm leaning towards a Lenovo Thinkpad, possibly a T480 of some kind. Are the SSDs and other hardware of a used model likely to be reliable for a few years?

i've got a t470 that I use as a backup/failover platform should my daily driver die - never had any issues with it. the thinkpad line is pretty good hardware & well designed - and easy to work on since they're modular.

best bet would be to run a SMART checkup on the boot disk when you get it - if it's poor health then just replace it, ssd's are very cheap these days and thinkpads are easy to work on.

 

[rosb55]

Yes, Crucial SSDs are a reasonable price. I don't think Lenovo make genuine batteries for a T480 any more - can anyone recommend reliable compatible ones? Lot of dodgy batteries out there.

 

[Brickwizard]

can anyone recommend reliable compatible ones

I always buy pattern parts from Amazon [I avoid auction sites for this type of part]

Amazon.co.uk : battery for t480

 

[rosb55]

I always buy pattern parts from Amazon [I ovoid auction sites for this type of part]

Amazon.co.uk : battery for t480

The reviews on most of those are not encouraging. Is there a particular make you've been ok with?

 

[Brickwizard]

I have never had a problem, I must have bought over a dozen in the last 15 years for various machines, the one in this machine is branded Asuncell it's been in this dell for over 6 months of heavy use and still holding a full charge

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[rosb55]

I have never had a problem, I must have bought over a dozen in the last 15 years for various machines, the one in this machine is branded Asuncell it's been in this dell for over 6 months of heavy use and still holding a full charge

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That's good to know, thank you.

 

[KGIII]

I'll chime in a little. I've never bought a refurbished laptop (though the thought has recently crossed my mind) but I did buy a refurbished desktop as a bit of an experiment.

The refurbished desktop is a Dell Optiplex 7040 SFF and I've just got to stop being lazy. Though, I now have an excuse to keep being lazy. This experiment was to see how much life I could get for a $100 computer. The answer to that question is, "a great deal".

Even though I have faster computers and newer computers, I picked that one to turn into a game emulation station and to give it some general use. I use it more often than I'd ever expected.

I wanted to keep with the spirit of things, so I spent $20 on 32 GB of DDR4 RAM. I have just been too lazy to put it in. This morning, I splurged on a $15 256 GB NVMe SSD from eBay. (This is the first time I've purchased used RAM or storage.) So, now I can wait for that to come in and do the conversion all at once.

If I could change things, I'd probably have tried to avoid the SFF. It limits the cheap graphics cards because it won't accept a full-height PCIe card. I may continue to be lazy and hunt around some more to also add a graphics card, but there are really only a few good choices.

I guess my point is that I'm trying to add to the noise in that I've had a great experience with my refurbished computer. I bought it on NewEgg and I did cheat and use a larger SSD instead of the original one. Other than that, I've not (yet) made any changes. I'll get less lazy and do the full upgrade sometime soon.

This computer, assuming it doesn't break, should last for quite a while. The user-experiencec is more than acceptable.

So, I'd not worry too much about buying a refurbished laptop. Just make sure that it's from a seller that accepts returns and has at least a 30 day warranty against defects. That should give you plenty of time to make sure all the hardware is working properly. Just be sure to save the packaging for those 30 days so that you can send it back if needed.

 

[MikeWalsh]

@rosb55 :-

Hallo.....and welcome to Linux.org.

I've had Latitudes for the last few years.....in my case, purchased from eBay.

The last was a 2008 D630. It was in nice condition, but it eventually expired due to GPU issues (well-known & documented with those models; thank you, Nvidia!) I paid around £75 for that one.

It got replaced last year with a second-hand E6430, around the same vintage as that belonging to @Brickwizard . 2012-ish, 3rd-gen i5. Came with an HDD, which I swapped-out for a Crucial BX500 SSD myself (two screws out; remove, replace, back in, retighten the two screws. Piece of cake.) Easy to do, and only around £30 for the SSD.

The 8GB RAM got maxed-out to 16GB.

It also needed a new battery. The seller was open about the fact that the existing battery was shot, so I knew what I was getting into. Probably helped with the price; they were asking £75 or so, which I negotiated down to around £55! Lovely condition, and like all older Lats, built like a tank.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

These kinds of machine are ideal for most people to run Linux on. i5s are fine if you just do general stuff - like me - but if you do a lot of video-rendering or similarly intensive stuff, you might want to look for an i7-equipped variant for maybe a few quid more.

You do NOT need to "break the bank" where Linux is concerned. If you've got basic computer "know-how", all the above is easy to accomplish. None of it is hard, OR takes very long.

Any further questions, ask away. That's what we're here for.....because we like helping others to free themselves AND realise their hardware's potential.

(I wouldn't take too much notice of "reviews" for pattern parts on Amazon. It's well-known that most are AI-generated these days.....and the bots are clever enough to "knock" competitor's products now.

Most will be names you've never heard of, but they're usually serviceable. Dell original gear is horrendously expensive, which is partly why so many of us with Dells take this route.....but the upside is they're extremely easy to work on yourself).


Mike.

 

[rosb55]

I've ordered a refurbished Thinkpad T480 from ebay, so will see what it's like when I receive it. Given that it has windows installed I will see how that runs for a bit then decide whether to go for dual boot or total Linux.
As well as this discussion, I found this thread on Reddit interesting and helpful:

https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/1cq3u2u/the_ultimate_thinkpad_t480_buying_guide