What's worth a look in the old laptop market?

[WD Forte]

Here's the thing.
I have an old Dell Inspiron 9300 circa 2005 I bought for £20
1.86Ghz single core Pentium M, 2 Gb ram 80GB IDE HDD
with 17" screen running win7/32 quite happily considering it shipped with XP
further upgrades not really an option.
DVD ROM knackered but not that bothered, battery so-so
The backlight inverter has gone and while I wait for another to arrive
I'm using a desktop monitor.

I know it's a ratty old banger of a laptop and so I've been looking
around at possible and affordable options for plenty cheapness.
the cpu scores a miserable 441 on cpubenchmark.net compared to say 10,000 for an i7
but despite this it serves me pretty well

I don't need nor can I afford a whizz bang laptop but a SATA HDD, more RAM
and potential to upgrade would be nice
I like a big screen but will consider a 15.x" ish one

Currently musing over some older Dell precison M series and Samsungs

Bearing in mind my very old banger budget, are there
any makes worth considering or ones to definitely avoid?

Intended use:
Interweb, VLC player, Arduino type stuff ( USB), USB oscillscope software
Open office and minor bits and bobs.

TIA
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bikers smell of wee

[Rogerborg]

Old mobiles are a real gamble. I've had a lemon, a lemon, and an Acer that struggles along with a GPU that needs baked every couple of weeks.

When I say "lemon", I mean "diagnosed and bad chip desoldered and replaced but still wouldn't POST".

Don't put out monies unless it demonstrably boots to desktop or CLI, is my motto now.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[Pete.]

Used elitebook. Great high-res screen and solid build. Good spec for £100-ish.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[UncleFester]

M6500 are sometimes good but avoid the ATI based ones as they cook themselves.

M6600 are probably a better bet but again, watch out for graphics issues.

Anything you do get, be prepared for a strip and clean of heatsinks and replacing of thermal paste as that's the usual reason for an untimely death.
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2017 Z1000SX

[WD Forte]

Thanks for the replies so far.
I was told to avoid Acers, dunno if this advice
was based on multiple machine experience or just one bad/unlucky one though.

Had to google Elitebooks and read generally good things about them
so added them to the watch list.

I nearly went for a Precision M6500 ( intel core2duo) but decided to
do more research first as I was advised by son to get a smaller display for
better battery life, less weight, and more choice.
I get it, this 9300 weighs a fookin ton when yer traipsing about town with
it in a bag, I probably look like ( and feel) I've been knicking paving slabs.

At the mo I'm seriously fancying an Elitebook.
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bikers smell of wee

[dydey90]

When I had an office job they gave me an elitebook and it was probably the best part about the job. Solid, did everything I asked even when connected to two screens and doing some pretty intensive stuff. Was about 3 years old when I left and still had around two hour battery life.

Only down points were the arrow keys are a bit crowded and the little keyboard lamp next to the webcam would flick itself into the on position if you breath too hard near it. Not exactly critical problems.
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This post is probably not serious and shouldn't be taken literally.
Past: CBR125,ER6f NINJA 650, ZZR600 Current: VFR750

[Derivative]

Casual necro post cometh.

Frau Derivative has a modern-ish Elitebook (200 quid range IIRC). Seems like a very solid piece of kit - good build quality, nipple mouse, 1080p 15" display etc.

My ASUS UX31 has been going strong for a few years, though last I checked they still went for 300+. Don't think I'll bother with a non-ultrabook again, it's useful to be able to chuck it in a rucksack and not think about it.

It did have about 6 hours battery life though I'll probably have to replace that at some point.

Downside with ultrabooks is that they're difficult to repair / not expandable. To me the benefits of the size outweigh it (I prefer to have a naff phone and a decent laptop, browsing on a phone makes me cry).

As far as I can see, new laptops are either shit, or 1K+. It's like the midmarket just doesn't exist.

[sinedtomuch]

[WD Forte]

Eventually I picked up a old 9300 for a tenner and made one useful one out of the best bits from each as my cheap knockabout experimenting box where I wont burst in to tears if I drops it type thing.
I couldn't find an Elitebook with a 15.5" screen within budget, I didn't fancy anything smaller so got a Dell Latitude i3 thing which works AOK for £95 which has plenty upgrade potential should I ever feel like it.
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bikers smell of wee