37
Recommendations for cheap laptops?
(hexbear.net)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
37 points (100.0% liked)
technology
24378 readers
309 users here now
On the road to fully automated luxury gay space communism.
Spreading Linux propaganda since 2020
- Ways to run Microsoft/Adobe and more on Linux
- The Ultimate FOSS Guide For Android
- Great libre software on Windows
- Hey you, the lib still using Chrome. Read this post!
Rules:
- 1. Obviously abide by the sitewide code of conduct. Bigotry will be met with an immediate ban
- 2. This community is about technology. Offtopic is permitted as long as it is kept in the comment sections
- 3. Although this is not /c/libre, FOSS related posting is tolerated, and even welcome in the case of effort posts
- 4. We believe technology should be liberating. As such, avoid promoting proprietary and/or bourgeois technology
- 5. Explanatory posts to correct the potential mistakes a comrade made in a post of their own are allowed, as long as they remain respectful
- 6. No crypto (Bitcoin, NFT, etc.) speculation, unless it is purely informative and not too cringe
- 7. Absolutely no tech bro shit. If you have a good opinion of Silicon Valley billionaires please manifest yourself so we can ban you.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Get a refurbished enterprise or business grade laptop. Brand doesn’t really matter much, but Amazon has some awesome AMD HPs on their renewed store that run Linux like a dream. Probably around $300 but new they’d be over $1000 and are much more repairable.
Edit: I have this one. Bought it years ago and still works great. It was even still under warranty when I first got it. Probably not anymore: https://www.amazon.com/HP-EliteBook-Business-Processor-2-3-4-2GHz/dp/B0CRVF3GRR
in the past when I need a cheap laptop fast, I would search the scratch & dent return inventory at the dell factory outlet site. never say yes to any add-on, downgrade/no install all the software and support, and I would be holding something decent for $300 in 2 days.
I haven't tried to do that in maybe 6+ years, but it used to be reliable and cheap.
This is what I did in the past and it always worked out good for me. A number of these even had decent GPU's for some light gaming.
Dedicated GPUs in laptops are always a red flag for me. I don’t trust the thermal or cooling systems. Anything integrated is probably fine but I wouldn’t expect to play anything other than small indie type games. If you need real power, better to stick with desktops or consoles.