Advice for 150 dollar cheap laptop request

[leathco016]

I am leaving for a trip in a couple weeks, and need to pick up a bare bones laptop for the trip. Came up kind of unexpectedly. I was originally going to pick up a refurbished HP Stream 11 (4 GB RAM model) but while browsing ebay I saw the Lenovo ThinkPad X201, which has a first gen i5. Would the Lenovo outfperform the HP? The CPU gens are far apart, but it looks like the X201 would eat a new Celeron alive still.

Just using the laptop for blogging while away and some light gaming (Quake 3 is a definite, but would be great if it ran Diablo 3 as well!)

 

[Deleted member 245375]

Absolutely - the X201 would tear the Atom CPU in that HP netbook a new one twice over. Was going to suggest an older ThinkPad in the X series (to keep it small and portable) or the T series (slightly larger but more capable), or a Dell Latitude in the E6xxx series (like an E6230 which is a 13.3" model and awesome), and HP Elitebook - I wouldn't recommend anything like their Spectre series because they're so new and crazy expensive.

Check around and you might find an X220 for under $200 if you can swing a little more cash, those are awesome pieces of hardware all around (for under $200 don't expect it to the be the Tablet-capable model however).

Those HP Stream devices are about as bare as you can get and underpowered for their pricing (even used), they're just not worth the cash compared to an older business class laptop with a Core processor in it (even with a Core 2 Duo to be honest, but preferably a newer Core gen model like an i3/i5/i7).

 

[leathco016]

Alright, thanks. I have been out of the mobile game for awhile, and almost picked up a Stream thinking maybe the older higher CPU couldn't compete with a brand new lower end, but kinda got scared away when I saw the maximum RAM was 4 gig, and no way to add more, with most models only having 2 GB with no way of adding. That's what got me looking at older units. I appreciate the advice! Looking at the X220 units on eBay now (which seem to be in my price range but a higher gen i5), and also searching the others you mentioned.

 

[leathco016]

Just an update, pulled the trigger and bought a Lenovo Thinkpad X220. It looks like the keyboard got a lot worse on the X230 model, and the X220 has some insane options for upgrades. Only 8 gigs RAM max (which should still be fine) but actual support for an mSATA SSD is pretty awesome, plus I can add USB 3 using an expresscard. After I get back I will prolly max out the things RAM, toss in a 120 mSATA drive, pick up the expresscard for USB 3 and maybe swap the hard drive for a 1 TB and be a happy guy.