I hope this post qualifies, but laptop on last legs, planning for a replacement...

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Stapling9851@lemm.ee⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

So again, the Lemmy verse is still really confusing and finding the right communities or the right post. This sub seems like they would definitely know about this though

I have always been a laptop guy my whole life because the portability, flexibility and comfortability of them. Never got into PCs or towers because I feel like you gotta have like a workstation and desk all setup.Id rather be able to lay on the couch in front of my TV while using a laptop lol

But anyway, my current dell xps 13 9310 running Debian 12 is slowly reaching its end. The thing only came with TWO ports, both being USB c. Well after years of heavy usage, they’re slowly breaking down. Idk if it would be worth replacing the mother board or just starting over?

Are there any good alternatives or options you guys can think of. I’m simple, in don’t game at all, purely just watch/stream stuff, browse and research and lately have been taking learning more about computing tech more seriously, so I’ve been tinkering and experimenting too. I plan to build skills to work with computer/tech professionally.

I’ve read about thin clients or even mini PCs and idk which route is best bang for buck and most logical. Or if there are known older laptops with great bones but need some minor upgrades to bring it back to current technology. I’m open minded but again, focused on something portable, affordable, smooth, flexible, durable etc. I’m talking a budget solution, like no more than $350ish. There’s probably technology available for this that I’m not even aware of!

Hope you all can help or point me to the right Lemmy communities. Thanks

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cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
You could get a refurbished Thinkpad. They are made for business use and tend to be more reliable than the super slim laptops and they work great with Linux. Newegg has a refurbished T480 for $238. It’s pretty nice and has a very long battery life if you get the extended battery pack.

The mini PCs are also nice if you don’t need something portable. They are more upgradable than a laptop.

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- Stapling9851@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Thinkpads seem to have such a huge following, so there must be a reason…I had one briefly but lost it due to unfortunate circumstances shortly after getting it… Any who my only complaint is the appearance of them, but that’s just me being petty. They LOOK like some old school type of machine and its not a nice site visually IMO lol but again, not a factor at all
  
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  - TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Add stickers; they look great with stickers.
    
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  - lemmybereal@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I can really recommend the old Thinkpad T-series business laptops if you don’t game on it. I have bought one for myself and my mother, works great!
    
    Otherwise the Dell Latitude which are business models too and can be bought cheaply.
    
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- JJGadget@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  i recently picked up one and love it. These thinkpads are also flooding ebay so some with great specs can be had for less than the $238 newegg is asking for. Just gotta look around.
  
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  - Stapling9851@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Ya see, I have no clue which models to be looking for. Surely some are better than others or more sought out than others, so I don’t really even know which is which. Perhaps you do? Or did you just pick a random model that fit the specs you wanted?
    
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- tomatobeard@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I’m replying from my T480 that I really love. I put Fedora on it and never have any issues. Biggest downsides in my opinion are bad speakers and display brightness doesn’t go very high (hard to work on it outside, for instance). Otherwise, super easy to upgrade and cheap to get parts for. Grabbed a big battery off Amazon and it lasts all day for me.
  
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Cleverdawny@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
You can get retired office thin clients for super cheap, and they all come with SSD’s. I’m talking $90 for a relatively capable desktop PC with a Ryzen processor

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- Stapling9851@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  So thin clients if I’m thinking right, are pretty much mini PCs too right? Its a portable computer but you need to add a display, mouse, and keyboard right? May not be too opposed then. I’ve already been searching for a wireless keyboard with touchpad, then just get a small display that is easily movable I could even use my smart TV too probably.
  
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  - Deebster@lemmyrs.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Yeah, the original thin clients were basically useless without the server they connected to, but nowadays even computers the size of a stick of gum are plenty powerful enough for consuming webpages and videos.
    
    You still need peripherals like mouse, keyboard and screen but you might get them as part of the package (sounds like you already have them though).
    
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  - Cleverdawny@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Yeah it’s basically a desktop PC made with laptop components. But not in a laptop form factor
    
    Like this: www.ebay.com/itm/285414533037
    
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AngryDemonoid@lemmy.lylapol.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
My use case sounds similar to yours, so I’d second the T480. I got one 7-8 months ago, and it’s been great so far. Only thing I changed was I put in a backlit keyboard.

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- Stapling9851@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Thank you! A backlit keyboard is definitely something I’d like. Was the replacement simple? Would you say its a pretty newb friendly project?
  
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  - AngryDemonoid@lemmy.lylapol.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Extremely simple! It’s literally just a few screws and unplug the old one and put in the new. Took all of 10 minutes and at least half of that was trying to find my small screwdriver bits. Lol
    
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stephenc@waveform.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

I have always been a laptop guy my whole life because the portability, flexibility and comfortability of them.

Decades ago, I would say that laptops didn’t really have these attributes. Back in the day, they were heavy, most had short battery life, and were very slow compared to a decent desktop. Laptops have come a long way in three decades. :)

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- Stapling9851@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Indeed!!!
  
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CaptObvious@literature.cafe ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Have you looked at something like a Mac Mini or older MacBook? I have a 2008-era MacBook that Apple abandoned years ago, but it keeps up with modern Linux just fine. I don’t think they’re very expensive, and they’re workhorses.

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- Stapling9851@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Dude no not at all, I honestly never thought of getting an old macbook. That could be a great idea. Are there generations or models that are better or worse than others? Like I wouldn’t know where to start, but I suppose something with good documentation and preferably a following or community would be best.
  
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  - CaptObvious@literature.cafe ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Anything from 2004(?) to 2020(?) is going to have an Intel processor. I’d do some research to find the last user-serviceable year, then get the best processor I could afford. Upgrade the RAM and internal drive to the biggest your Linux distro can handle.
    
    While you’re at it, check out the forums at your distro’s website. I’d bet good menu that someone has already worked out what you need and shared that info with the community. :)
    
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cpo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I am currently using a refurbed HP EliteDesk G3 with i5, 16G and 500G SSD.

It is small, silent and uses little power.

I run Portainer on it with a couple of stacks like:

Home assistant

Development tooling (git repo’s, CI stuff)

It handles it beautifully!

Not sure how attached you are to a laptop though.
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- Stapling9851@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Hmmm I’m pretty attached to laptops, but I’m sure there’s some portable display options that I could set right on my coffee table or even use my smart TV as a display…
  
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  - cpo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Hey, who needs it when you have SSH. Seriously ♥️
    
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crouton5776@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
FWIW new laptops are surprisingly cheap. E.g. this (albeit not new) only cost $400 slickdeals.net/…/16843367-asus-zenbook-open-box-e…

I see your xps 13 9310 has a 11th gen Intel CPU. It would be a bit hard to find cheap second-hand mini PCs from reputable brands with 11th+ CPUs. But you can find many mini PCs from some Chinese brands (Minisforum etc).

Another option is frame.work main board + a case theverge.com/…/framework-cooler-master-sff-pc-cas… but I think their parts are overpriced if you don’t value repairability etc.

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- Stapling9851@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Hmm I’m wondering if it would just be worth going ahead and replacing the motherboard instead of starting over… I have seen a few USB c reinforcement brackets… Can’t find much info about them though. I bought some of those port Klingon things, if you’re familiar, but of course my laptap is too slim for those to fit lol smh
  
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