Advice on laptop solely linux

[dimi]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking to buy a second hand laptop.

I already have one, this one would be used to learn hacking and programming. I would take it with me to work.

I dont know whether i should take an onboard gpu or not. This will cost some battery performance. But with a gpu i'm not limited when i want to learn decryption and so on.

I know there is vidock for egpu.

I'm interested in the following laptops

Hp2170p. A 11 inch laptop. I5, 8gb and 1tb hdd. No dedicated gpu

Hp 8560w. A 15.6 inch laptop, i5,4g and 320hd. Nvidia gpu. Cuda score 2.1

Lenovo t420s. I7, 4gb, 128ssd. Nvidia gpu. Cuda score 2.1

Lenovo t420. Same specs but 500gb hd.

Lenovo x201. I7. 8gb and 128ssd. No dedicated gpu.

Dell e6420. I5, 4gb and 250gb hdd.nvidia gpu cuda 2.1

The Lenovo s with gpu have nvidia optimus. I learned this may give some problems with linux. Bumblebee etc should be the solution.

The cuda score is decent on all gpu integrated.

The laptop will solely use linux. Dont know yet which os though.

Fyi i now own a 2570p. I5, 12gb ram, 2 ssd onboard. I dont want to keep taking this one with me all the time. To expensive to lose or get stolen. Use this one for vm etc.

Wireless chipset is no problem. Would change the onboard or use my tplink stick.

I 'm happy with the upgradeability of the elitebook and its quality. The lenovo quality is also good. Their keyboard would be very good as i've read.
I also own a dell. Hasnt let me down till now.

So.difficult choices.

My budget is max 500euro. That should be the uber laptop price 😃 been looking on ebay for weeks now. 400 should do it too...

Any advice?

So basically, a good laptop for hacking (decryption from time to time), programming +)and seeing movies

Thank you for your help!

[iTpHo3NiX]

My advice based on your list is to ignore the HP's and Dell, narrow it down to the Lenovos. Now let's take a look at the ones you listed.

Lenovo t420s. I7, 4gb, 128ssd. Nvidia gpu. Cuda score 2.1

Lenovo t420. Same specs but 500gb hd.

Lenovo x201. I7. 8gb and 128ssd. No dedicated gpu.

I'd go with the x201, got an Intel i7 and 8gb of RAM. This is pretty much standard and I would choose that over 4gb of RAM and dedicated graphics.

Just my opinion though. Seriously though, do yourself a favor and don't go Dell or HP. You'll thank me in 2 years when your laptop still works

[archfox]

As mentioned above, I prefer Lenovo as well. From the ones that you have listed, I would stick to T series. It's more personal preferences, but they are the, so to say, work-horses. I wouldn't lie, but I think the 4GB RAM can be upgraded up to 8 GB or more ( I am assuming that the board supports it).

To summ it up, Lenovo for sure, model - personal preference.

[iTpHo3NiX]

As mentioned above, I prefer Lenovo as well. From the ones that you have listed, I would stick to T series. It's more personal preferences, but they are the, so to say, work-horses. I wouldn't lie, but I think the 4GB RAM can be upgraded up to 8 GB or more ( I am assuming that the board supports it).

To summ it up, Lenovo for sure, model - personal preference.

I can agree with this, so long as you put in at least 8gb. Idk why they still sell computers with under 8gb of RAM. With how process hungry browsers are these days it's really the only choice. Chrome and Firefox love eating RAM as much as a 5 year old loves candy and ice cream

[dimi]

Thank you for the input guys. I was also leaning forward to lenovo. The x201 has a similar size as the hp i currently own.

I think i'll go for the t. Now have to decide which one. Apparently the ts has some heating issues due to its smaller size.

I will upgrade it to 8gb. The upgrade is not so expensive.

Thank you for the advice!

[xKiller]

My brother has a Lenovo and he is very happy. His Lenovo has 6 gb ram the graphics card is dedicated

[dimi]

Little update. The t420 or 420s is out of play.

It will be a t520 or t530. Both have i7 and 8gb ram. No ssd but cant have it all.
They have a dedicated gpu so that was the idea.

I dropped the t4's because some people complained about heating issues.

Will keep you posted for the final deal 😉

//modify:
I made the decision. It is the T520.
 ThinkPad T520 Intel Core i7 2640M / 2,8 GHz, 8GB RAM , 500GB HD ,
W-LAN, UMTS, Fingerprint, Webcam, 15,6 LED-HD+, DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM, nvidia 4200 and intel HD 3000.
I think this will do.
Things to replace / add are the keyboard (it's german layout now, need azerty), add an m-sata ssd, buy new 9cel battery, see for external hd.

The 530 had backlit tough, but a I5 cpu.
Now waiting for the delivery