Need advice for good laptop (not new high end), needs 2 run Linux (w/ Win7 on VMware)

Been out of the laptop market for 8+ years so I am a little lost and behind the times here. I have a number of concerns that maybe some of you can shed light on or alleviate.

For the last 2 generations of the Intel chips, I've been a little concerned about the built in wifi features on the CPU. I know this was discussed back in 2012 and it was speculated that in the near future it was going to be impossible to get a CPU w/o built in wifi. Now the WIFI I'm speaking about isn't what you use to connect to your local router, I believe it is something different and have read that there is a built in micro/nano antenna in many of these chips. Use your imagination as to what this could be used for and you will see why it would be a security issue. So that is one concern that has kept me from upgrading to new hardware (especially since Intel is very tight lipped about this feature and many "shadow" security firms have made very well founded claims that this feature is in fact being included in most, if not all by this point of time - 5+ years later - of their processors). IDK if AMD has followed the same path and if not, then that would seem to be the better path to take if this issue is a true concern.

So I've been using 8+ year old laptops (2GB ram and a 2.2Ghz Core 2 Duo, HP Elitebook) and it has gotten to the point where I can barely load Chrome, Firefox and Writer (Libre Office) all at once - even with a new install on Win 7 and almost no other software loaded. Something's wrong and I don't know how it could have slowed down to this point.

I need to get a useable laptop and I'm planning on running a Linux distro (been main OS for 9+ years but not sure what flavor I'm going to use). I like VMware Player/workstation (or maybe Fusion??/) to run a different OS, probably Win 7 or later, at the same time w/o rebooting. I'm used to a I7 3770K w/ 32GB RAM and very nice SSD's and WD Black HD's for large file storage/archival so I don't need something that will replace this, but something for light work - (Firefox/ & Chrome w/ :LOTS of tabs open in each app as I do a lot of research - 30-50 tabs per application isn't unusual). Other than that, Email client, Torrent client, terminal/SSH/PuTTY, Word & Excel like apps, GIMP.

I'm open to used laptops (NEW old stock would be ideal b/c I don't trust used computers so much anymore). Ideally 17" screen, USB 3 woiuld be good (not necessary).

I'd like to stay between $300-500 if that is possible, but I'm not sure pricing of laptops in this day anymore. I'll be adding my own HD/SSD no matter what I get unless it is new, so that isn't a major factor.

MUST NOT have WIFI integrated on motherboard (has to be a card that plugs into the MOBO, not a soldered chip - if they are doing that now....)

I appreciate any help or suggestions on what to look for and/or your opinions on the matter.. Thanks!

There was an Intel initiative to put Wi-Fi directly on the core/die of some Atom processors years ago but it never really worked out that I'm aware of, was more of an experiment than anything else, but as for desktop and laptop class Core processor technology (meaning the Intel branding, like Core i3, i5, i7 CPUs) there still isn't one mainstream desktop or laptop class processor with Wi-Fi "on the die," so to speak. I think what you might be leaning towards is the Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) which has caused some uproar in the privacy and security scene over the years because of the Management Engine (IME) that's part of these modern processors and it literally is a back-door directly into the virtual heart of any modern Intel-based computer using one of those processors.

Regardless, I've got a Dell Latitude E6400 which is a Core 2 Duo machine (P8700) with 4GB of RAM and it runs off a 250GB SATA II 5400 rpm Seagate hard drive and I can put any OS I want on it (from Windows 2000 through Windows 10) or any Linux distro I want on it - hell I can even run macOS on it, bare metal - and have no issues. I can easily run several browsers, an office suite, watch a 720p x264 movie encode, do basically anything I want and it never has any significant issues with performance to any degrees. Is it as fast as something more modern and current? Of course not. Does it run anywhere near the same as it would if it had a modern SSD in it for super fast I/O performance? Of course not. But does it ever get to a point where I can barely load anything? Hell no, it works fantastic considering the age (it was shipped to me in mid-2009 and it has never failed me to this day - and believe me, I'm [H]ard on my own computer equipment and put it all through the wringer multiple times over the given lifespan and my E6400 is still going strong.

I would suspect there's something else going on with that Elitebook, perhaps some RAM issues, or perhaps an issue with the hard drive, I don't know, but you cannot seriously expect such an older piece of hardware with a simply dual core processor to perform anywhere near what more current hardware (both from the processing viewpoint to the storage speeds) could match. But saying you can barely load a few apps at the same time, I'm not buying it - it's either defective in some respect or you yourself are too used to having access to faster more current hardware - and you did mention using the Core i7 machine with 32GB of RAM and SSDs and even fast physical storage aka hard drives - and your old trusty Elitebook simply isn't up to the snuff you're hoping it is. When you get acclimated to doing things at a certain level of speed and flow and you have to go back to using something older and slower, you notice the slowdown even more so because you got used to the faster response time and performance of the newer hardware. I'm sure your Elitebook works just fine, you're just wanting more which is completely understandable but I'm certain that laptop works without issues and it really isn't slow in and of itself - you're just "feeling the need for speed" more than anything else.

VMware Player is ok but I prefer Workstation myself for a variety of reasons I won't get into, either one of them is just fine for running a VM without issues. I don't use VirtualBox anymore because of issues I've had with it and VMware simply does things better in my opinion based on my experience and my usage patterns - I'm not saying VirtualBox is not an option to be considered, I'm saying for myself I don't prefer to use it over VMware products, that's all. As for Linux, that's entirely up to you and I won't get into the Linux distro shuffle at this point, you can figure that out on your own in due time.

A 17" display, that's kinda large but if that's what you want so be it, there's basically only one class of machine that comes to mind if you want something fast and powerful and that large that I would consider recommending:

A Dell Precision mobile workstation aka laptop in the M6x00 series, the last one being the all-too-awesome M6800 loaded for bear. I had an M6600 about 2 years ago, loved the damned thing, I miss it really even considering its age but even so it was crazy awesome hardware in a sweet form factor that worked fantastic for me in the time I owned it. Now, there are other 17" laptops, sure, and HP has some 17" Elitebooks that might fit the bill for your needs and requirements, but as anyone that knows me to even small degrees would point out I am a Dell fan but I wasn't always a fan, there was a time when I couldn't stand them or their products and considered them to be sub-par compared to their competition but sometime in the mid-2000's things changed at Dell and they started pushing out rock solid hardware, especially in their business class products like Precision desktops and mobile workstations and of course the Latitude line of business class laptops.

There are newer Precision laptops, of course, but to get something in the 7xxx class (the best Dell makes) you're going to pay a princely sum hence the recommendation to perhaps go look for a nice M6800 as loaded as you can get it. The M6800 might not come cheap, mind you, depending on the configuration - you could end up spending a few hundred bucks on one that has no hard drive (not really relevant since you'd be wanting to get some SSDs in it and yes the M6800 can handle two internal 2.5" drives, actually more if you use the UltraBay slot as well. And of course it can handle up to 32GB of RAM, and it'll have a nice Nvidia Quadro GPU in it too (my preference, but I believe there might have been an option for an ATI/AMD FireGL GPU on some specific configurations as well, not 100% sure on that).

The 17" display panel has several options including one that is considered their "Premiere" panel which is a gorgeous 1920x1080 IPS panel (which is what I had in the M6600 I owned) - if you want something higher resolution than that you'd have to get a more current Precision laptop so be aware that 1920x1080 is it for those M6x00 models). Not sure if they had a matte option which is what I prefer, can't stand a huge panel of super shiny reflective glass in my face in any environment.

It has a discrete Wi-Fi card slot in it, uses the (now older) mini-PCI-E standard interface so it won't work with the absolutely latest and greatest Wi-Fi cards using mSATA style connectors - I believe there is one or two Intel Wi-Fi cards with 802.11ac support for that form factor it uses, if not then you can search for something that's Atheros/Broadcom/Realtek/Realink based hardware just the same.

That's my recommendation if you want a power house mobile "beast machine" and there's not much out there to match it given the age but still incredibly useful hardware it's made of. Sure you can get something newer but then you'll be paying a lot more money as well so I'd say it's easier to get a monster mobile workstation like an M6800 and reconfigure it with newer faster SSDs (you'll be limited to SATA III operation, however, so no NVMe style drives are going to work unless you get some kind of mSATA to NVMe adapter but doing that would be a waste of money since you'd end up falling back to the slower SATA III speeds anyway. SATA III is damned fast anyway, obviously not as fast as NVMe can be in general use but how fast does your data really need to shuffle around?

But a well configured Dell Precision M6800 mobile workstation (yes I realize this entire post reads like an ad written by a marketing person, so be it, I recommend Dell and until they screw me over I always will) with gobs of RAM and some SSDs would absolutely meet the needs and requirements you spelled out, able to run all that along with several VMs at the same time without so much as breaking a sweat for just a few hundred bucks, I have no doubt of that at all because I've done it myself with the M6600 and the M6800 is a pretty big jump in overall performance even with a stock base model config setup.

As for not trusted used computers, they're all used even if they're "brand new in the box," so, once you understand this things get a bit easier to live with. As the line in my sig says, security is a has-been nowadays, and all people can really do anymore is make the best of what you can get your hands on anymore.

Ok, so I'm bored and like many people my imagination gets the best of me so for shits and giggles every so often I'll build a "dream machine" where I'll hit Dell's website and just find the best hardware they have to offer and then configure it to the max with every option that offers the best they have for a given device just to see the final price and laugh about it aka "Yeah, right, if I win a lottery or something..."

Anyway, just did that for the Dell Precision 7520 mobile workstation, their latest and greatest beast machine laptop and here's what it ended up looking like:



So yeah, a true dream machine for me seriously. My god, 16GB of video RAM, insane but boy that would be fun to mess around with and it's only $5420 - man what a bargain.

<and for those paying attention that DOES come with Windows 7 Professional x64 'cause that's my OS of choice>

Check out the outlets, and you can usually find decent solutions in the $800 range if you jump on them. The Thinkpad P50/70 (Skylake generation) can handle 64GB of RAM, and is what I use for my virtualization stuff, but...if you're ok with just 32GB of RAM, the options are greatly expanded at the cheaper end. Still want a quad core? That's still doable. The T470p is a 14" that can handle an i7 7700HQ and 32GB of RAM. Even the i5-7300HQ is a true quad core, and closer to your price range.