Gabe84 Share Posted April 14, 2016 (edited) Hi! I'm in the market for a cheap laptop to run Linux. For the moment I'm considering these options: 1) Dell Inspiron 15 series 3000 Linux Edition Intel® Celeron™ N3050 dual core 1,6Ghz/2,16Ghz 500 gb 5400 rpm HDD 4 GB DDR3 @ 1.600 MHz Price: 279 € OS: Ubuntu 2) Lenovo Notebook Essential B50-10 Intel® Celeron® N2840 dual core 2,16Ghz/2,58Ghz 500 gb 5400 rpm HDD 4 GB DDR3 @ 1.600 MHz Price: € 250,99 € OS: Free Dos Dell has a slightly better battery though. I will remove the HDD and install a SSD, I was thinking the Samsung EVO 850 120GB and install a lightweight distro like Lubuntu or Xubuntu, 64-bit version, and later upgrade the RAM to 8GB, however I know that the Lenovo one only supports 4GB, but I don't know if the RAM in the Dell one is user upgradable. I was thinking about the Lenovo for the more powerful CPU, but I don't really like the fact that I won't be able to upgrade the RAM and, at least according to cpubenchmark.net, the N2840 is not that much more powerful that the N3050 (CPU Mark 1051 for the N2840 VS 925 for the N3050). What is your opinion? Edited April 14, 2016 by Gabe84 Link to post Share on other sites
MariosX Share Posted April 20, 2016 Get the Dell. It has a better warranty customer support as far as I know. Also do not go that far and look for benchmarks 1051 vs 925 is 126 points difference but does not been +10% Faster CPU, apps must support it, games must support etc. Now about RAM I cannot suggest anything Link to post Share on other sites
HawkMan Share Posted April 20, 2016 cheap lenovo's havehorrible bios. the g50 is terrible to install new OS' on Link to post Share on other sites
Gabe84 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 Thanks for the replies!!! I was leaning towards the Dell anyway. Can you confirm the HDD is user upgradable? Even if it will run Lubuntu I don't want to be stuck with a 5400 rpm drive. Considering that it will be used mostly for work (LibreOffice and light GIMP) and web browsing, and that Lubuntu now runs fine on my 10 years old hardware (AMD Athlon + 3GB of RAM) I know it will be a breeze. 64-bit will be ok? Link to post Share on other sites
Avogadro Share Posted June 3, 2016 (edited) A used or refurbished Thinkpad core 2 x200 or a x220 with an i7 and m2 ssd could be a better option. You could even flash Libreboot or Coreboot on it to make it boot faster and remove intel ME attack vector. Link to post Share on other sites
StrikedOut Share Posted June 7, 2016 I cant recommend a good quality refurb unit enough. I used these guys, http://www.tier1online.com/ and got 23 Lenovo X1 carbons. They were the first gen models but light, fast and battery lasts more than enough time for our uses. Lots of different options and all with warranties too. I noticed you are looking in Euros which they do send to with a small postage charge. I have purchased Lenovo T400's, T410's and others, all were great products. Link to post Share on other sites
satysin Share Posted June 7, 2016 Buy an old ThinkPad T420. They are excellent machines (I have several), are cheap and run Linux with zero problems out of the box so you wont need to fight with difficult drivers as it "just works". Also the performance even on an older i5 will be better than either of those machines. You can buy them dirt cheap on gumtree and eBay. Link to post Share on other sites
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