Old laptops that still hold up today?

[BIG BEAR]

What old laptops from like 5-8 years ago still hold up today? MAC? INTEL?
Any commentary would be appreciated.
BB

 

[LoneSage]

In case of 'PM BOX FULL ANXIETY' , E-MAIL ME

I just want you to know I'm a big fan of this sig, BB.

 

[DNSDies]

What are you planning to do with it?
Watch videos? Play games? Do spreadsheets?
What price range are you looking for?
Size, weight, heat? Any of these matter to you?

You can't just come in and say "recommend older laptop" without at least some qualifying information.

If you just want something lightweight to browse the web and type on in the $200 range, get an Asus EEE pc or some other flavor of Atom netbook.

If you want a beefier machine that will play some more modern games, but is heavier, larger, and hotter for the same price range, look into an old refurbished IBM W510. Corporations bought those by the palette load and they're showing up on ebay dimes for dollars and still work/look great.

 

[GohanX]

If you just want something lightweight to browse the web and type on in the $200 range, get an Asus EEE pc or some other flavor of Atom netbook.

If you go this route, I'd recommend ditching Windows and loading some light flavor of Linux on it. I've got a HP netbook that is my couch computer and Windows always chugged. Loaded Debian with a LXDE desktop and it's a pretty solid internet terminal now.

 

[skate323k137]

I have several old toshiba satellites that seem to hold up quite well.

 

[fake]

My 2006 MacBook still runs fine except for any web needs. All my audio production stuff - no problem at all. But the OS doesn't have any new browser support so pages either take forever to load or just crash the browser. So if you need something for media, networking, whatever - it's a good option.

That said, I'd assume that you could wipe an old Windows laptop and reinstall the OS and it would be fine.

 

[Undefined]

I still have an IBM Thinkpad from the late 90's that still works and runs 98 SE with no problems. I also have a couple of the Lenovo ThinkPads from 2008 and 09 that work just fine. Actually just upgraded a ThinkPad X201i from 2010 with an SSD and Windows 10, thing is great as a garage/work area machine.

 

[NeoSneth]

Something with an i7.
everything else will barely play Youtube.

 

[Mac91]

I still have an IBM Thinkpad from the late 90's that still works and runs 98 SE with no problems. I also have a couple of the Lenovo ThinkPads from 2008 and 09 that work just fine. Actually just upgraded a ThinkPad X201i from 2010 with an SSD and Windows 10, thing is great as a garage/work area machine.

This. Go with a Thinkpad, you really can't go wrong. My X41t from 2005 is still running well.

I just bought a regular x201 a few days ago. i5 with 4GB memory. Need to get an SSD. I love it so far.

 

[Llama]

I brought out my old ASUS laptop a few months ago. Had to charge it, but worked well. I keep it around because it has Inventor on it, and can't run it on my mac.

 

[Randomsense]

As others have previously mentioned it all depends on what it would be used for. Generalizing GohanX I think had some good advise with going with a light flavor of Linux. It would allow you to run something with some amount of support (patches, available software, etc.) especially if you are looking at taking it online. Hardware compatibility might be something you might have to watch out for.

 

[Heinz]

We've got a Toshiba Tecra A10 at work which we use for 56k dial up remote connections. Got a nice core2duo inside but since we put an SSD in it, it has been like a new PC. Still slow in its own way, doesnt do much but it's solid!

 

[DNSDies]

I buy thinkpads like they're candy.
I fucking love them.

 

[ebinsugewa]

Since I got a Thinkpad for work I'm been very impressed with the build quality.

What's the motivation for getting and 'old' laptop here? Laptops are one of the pieces of technology that are obsoleted quickest.

 

[ki_atsushi]

Hey Big Bear, I'll sell you my Lenovo Ideapad Y500 for $600. Has dual nVidia videocards in SLI and 16GB of ram. Also swapped the HDD for a blazing fast 256GB Sandisk SSD. Boot/shutdown in less than 10 seconds. Still runs everything great, even though its pushing 4 years old.

 

[BIG BEAR]

Thanks for the replies.Good feedback.
It would be a basic,reliable unit just to surf the web with & play video with no problems. Something with XP on it,wifi & 56k option.
Reasonably priced. Size weight and heat are not really important. It wouldn't be for me but I'm liking the Linux suggestion for myself in the future!
BB

 

[Cylotron]

It all depends on how well the systems were taken care of & how much use they were put through(because anything can be problematic...)

Although as far as build quality goes(meaning that it doesn't feel like a cheap p.o.s.), the Panasonic Tough Books & the Lenovo/IBM Thinkpads were some of the best.

Also, if you look on eBay these days... you can find lots of 1st generation Intel i5 & i7 laptops(primarily Dell & HP) for around $100. i5/i7 is of course better then Core2Duo/Core2Quad. Even 1st generation i3's are better then Core2Quad's.

 

[DNSDies]

Here you go Big Bear:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thin...911976?hash=item210b3484a8:g:Q8UAAOSwh-1W26Kq

I have a W500, and it's a champion.
Thinkpads have terrific Linux support, and if you want XP, the Lenovo/IBM website has all the drivers for it.

For under $200, it's a fantastic deal, and there's tons of them on ebay.
Never buy one that is BIOS locked though, they can't be unlocked without special hardware.

 

[purple]

asus a3e

 

[ki_atsushi]

XP is useless now, microsoft stopped supporting it and you can't even install the service packs and other updates through windows update anymore. I wouldn't use it. Just get something with windows 7.

 

[cdamm]

XP is useless now, microsoft stopped supporting it and you can't even install the service packs and other updates through windows update anymore. I wouldn't use it. Just get something with windows 7.

xp still great for mame because 640x480 native support.

 

[Neo Ash]

Anything with a Thinkpad badge on it.

 

[ki_atsushi]

xp still great for mame because 640x480 native support.

True!

For old school PC gaming though, I'd want to go back even further and use win98 for it's 16-bit executable and DOS compatibility. XP broke that. I can live without mame.

 

[90s]

XP is useless now, microsoft stopped supporting it and you can't even install the service packs and other updates through windows update anymore. I wouldn't use it. Just get something with windows 7.

Still use my old laptop with XP on it when my new one (Windows 10) annoys me. I even get updates on the XP laptop. Looked closely at some of the updates and they said they were for Windows 7. Not sure what is going on, but my old laptop is still functional.

 

[ki_atsushi]

Still use my old laptop with XP on it when my new one (Windows 10) annoys me. I even get updates on the XP laptop. Looked closely at some of the updates and they said they were for Windows 7. Not sure what is going on, but my old laptop is still functional.

Weird, I just reinstalled XP with service pack 2 on one of my old PC's I gave away, and I couldn't even update it to service pack 3. And microsoft took everything off the website. Assholes.