Best choice for a used/refurbed Linux friendly laptop?

[borg101]

Up until this point I have been giving my 13 year old son a few 5-7 year old laptops to play with. I've been emphasizing Linux and open source for a few years now. Now he wants to venture into video editing and 3d modeling. I'm looking for ideas for something in the $400-$500 (USD) price range and nothing seems to be good specs for the price. I've never bought hardware off eBay before nor looked into refurbed laptops. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[AndyMH]

You can't go wrong with a Thinkpad!

[tenfoot]

+1 for Thinkpads. Bought an ex-lease T450s several years ago and it hasn't missed a beat!

[borg101]

+1 for Thinkpads. Bought an ex-lease T450s several years ago and it hasn't missed a beat!

Holy crap! I'm looking at some of the buy it now prices for the specs....seems almost too good to be true. I bought my wife a Lenovo Yogabook 3 or 4 years ago and I am still impressed with the performance as "dated" as it is. Thanks for the tip guys!

[AndyMH]

Main machine is a T430 that I put an i7 in (std is an i5-3320). Just bought another T430 for £125 with 4G RAM, w/o HDD. Upped the RAM to 8G and put in a 240G SSD, total outlay around £200. So with your budget should be able to get a T440 or T450. If you go for a Thinkpad, worth checking specs or asking on the Thinkpad forum on upgradeability - some models have the CPU soldered in, some not, also some have only 1 DIMM slot. Different flavours of screen resolution.

I've had Thinkpads for over a decade, long before I came to mint. Reliable, excellent build quality, upgradeable, parts easy to get, mint installs 'out of the box' on the older models.

[wallyUSA]

I've had good luck with Dell's over the years (handed down to me). I think Dell knows how to do Linux since they also sell units with Linux already installed (Ubuntu). I seen refurbed's for sale but never really compared to anything. S/b hardware compatible with Mint.

[lsemmens]

I've always had a good run out of Toshiba, so you have many choices out there. I would opt for a brand name rather than an obscure piece that has fantastic spec for the price. That way, at least you can expect some support into the future.

[Pierre]

just about all of my "brand-name" PCs are from Lenovo,, - - most Laptops, though.
& I've found them to work well with most Linux Systems.

they were all Ex Win Vista Business Grade machine,, from a local auction house.

[vladtepes]

I'd recommend Lenovo thinkpad.

I had a Toshiba and it was OK but ultimately problematic in several areas.

The thinkpad I have now is just great.

[rui no onna]

+1 on ThinkPad and try to get one with Intel wifi so everything works without any fiddling at all.

[AndyMH]

+1 on ThinkPad and try to get one with Intel wifi so everything works without any fiddling at all.

Other things to think about, most have 1366x768 screens, try to get on with 1600x900. Bluetooth is an option, I have three T430's two have it, one doesn't. The DVD/CDRW drive in the ultrabay is an option. Nearly all come with the integrated intel graphics, a few have a separate nVidia graphics chip.