Hey guys quick question on buying laptops. The team i’m currently on used to have one of the FRC provided Think Pads but it is now unfortunately missing and as programming lead I desperately need to find a new laptop and fast. I was wondering if you guys knew any way to rent a computer for cheap or if there would be anywhere where we could buy laptops for cheap.
461 just bought a bunch of refurbished Lenovo Thinkpads from Newegg. We’re using them for programming, media and CAD activities. Not sure if it fits your budget but we are pretty happy with them so far.
https://www.newegg.com/lenovo-thinkpad-t460-work-business/p/1TS-000E-0SYN4
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Valid answer! eBay also has a large supply of them at nice prices. I work in a Dell shop, so I skewed toward the Latitude 5420 last year. The newer Latitude 5430 is also getting into that $300ish range.
In all cases, you want a business class laptop with:
- 16 GB of RAM (or more)
- 256 GB storage (or more)
- 11th generation Intel processors (or newer)
- A physical Ethernet port (hubs are nice for driver station, but sometimes you just need the fast option)
- USB-C charging
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depending on how old and how the previous owner uses their SSD drive, getting a new one off Amazon in the 250GB range is usually <$20 or so. 2x 8GB or 1x 16GB is usually in the $30-40 range too. Sometimes the vendor has to pull the Drive/RAM depending on who they are recycling for so you can get a really good deal off eBay with machines without SSD/RAM.
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You are correct about the recycling part, but there are enough laptops that ship ready for action in the marketplace that I’m 0-for-3 on deciding that additional refurbishment was worth it for me. (Two laptops for the team, one for my wife.)
Dell Inspiron 15 is cheap, and is what we use
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Reach out to some of your larger sponsors. Typically, larger companies have a replacement policy of a few years for their laptops. You can get a pretty good laptop and they are usually willing to give them to teams for free
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ThinkPad P51 with quadro video card. I just picked up 2 from ebay for $175 a piece and they look new, and can run inventor (and play current games like GTFO) with no issue.
I’ve been using one for close to 6 years now.
Has 16 GB ram, 512 ssd. Always check the video c ards on a reputable benchmark website - there is a lot of shenanigans with naming.
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The only concerning thing about that one is that the processor isn’t supported by Windows 11. And no matter how much I dislike it, Windows 11 is inevitable.
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If teams need to keep in the bare min cost, at a bare min, please make sure to get an Intel 8th gen processors - however, be real care and make sure that they are either the Dell and Lenovo business line of laptops (and HP as well). Beside needing an 8th gen of processors (majority of i5 and i7), the motherboard also need to have TPM 2.0 (you might have to enable this in the BIOS if the used machine didn’t already have it enabled). As far as I know, these 3 vendors’ common business classes’ laptop of that age will have them on there.
You can get prefectly workable laptops in these class for under $150 easily but do prepare to replace the SSD drive or replace the HDD that some might still use those.
As with buying anything used, do your research before hand. Certain laptops that didn’t have Windows previously installed will mean it will not have the Window’s License Key in the BIOS and you will need to acquire your own version of Windows (you can get Education/Non-Profit version at deep discount). If the machine previously has Win 10 (Pro is recommended) installed, the BIOS key should still allow you to do a full install of Windows 11 and be activated.
If windows 11 is sticking point, switch up to a P52 which will add about $50.
Your want at least a quadro m2200 or p1000/2000. I’ve got a bid of 300 in for a p3200.
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If you don’t mind paying a little bit more for warranted, refurbished then consider Refurbished tech that's better for the planet | Back Market. My wife and I have bought multiple devices from them. I just got a 9 month old ThinkPad that looked like it was just manufactured - perfect condition - and big discount and fast delivery. (I hate the Windows 11 bloat, though.) The WPILib 2025-Beta works fine on it.
Their stock changes continuously so check it often for something similar to what you want.
The refurbished units sold directly from the vendors like Lenovo and Dell are pretty solid.
I’ve bought several from both and I’d swear the units were new as they were physically perfect-o.
They come with a warranty and OS license so you are good to go.
You can see 40+% discounts. Earlier this year I bought a personal system that was a very high end Lenovo which listed for on the order of $4,800 for right around $2,200.
The stock changes so it pays to check back.
The other sources mentioned here are solid as well.
I will say that’s relatively normal for Lenovo, even for brand new laptops. They like listing high MSRPs but they sell the laptop at a lower price to make you think you’re getting a better deal than you are.
As long as you don’t need a dedicated GPU, the Dell Latitude 9420 and 9410 are very affordable for the performance on eBay. They have a 10th or 11th gen i7 and 16GB of RAM and can be had for $250 on eBay all day long. Only downside could be the 14" screen but if you don’t mind the smaller screen they are great.
Lenovo T15 Gen1 should be fine for programming and has Ethernet (the Gen 2 seems to not have it). You can get good models on eBay for $200-300. For instance (not an endorsement of this specific listing!!): Lenovo Thinkpad T15 Gen 1 15.6" Core i5 10th Gen 256GB SSD 16GB RAM WIN 11 PRO | eBay
T14 would be good too, just make sure it has a full Ethernet plug (avoid the “drop down” slim sockets; I have had mixed luck with those).
Latitude 5420, i5-11xxxx, 16GB, 256GB: $579 from Dell.
Latitude 5420, i5-11xxxx, 16GB, 256GB: $200 from eBay.
I recognize not everyone has the technical sophistication of the average FIRSTer (or the ability to buy off eBay in general) so there is a value proposition for some. But for that kind of price premium, it’d better do my taxes for me!
ThinkPad P50/51
ThinkPad T490
ThinkPad X390
Any non-E ThinkPad released since 2020.
Some options. You can even go older into the 260/360 range if you don’t care that much about performance.
YES!!! My company has a strict policy of replacing laptops every 24-36 months for confidentially reasons. They got rid of like 6-7 of these earlier this year Laptop. We are hoping to keep up with getting the freebies, the only thing is that they have to remove all the SSD’s and NVME storage before allowing it leave.
FIRST South Carolina arranged a similar thing with Fluor. They got a whole armada of ex-Fluor laptops, I think FSC had a couple people ensure they were ready to redeploy, and then they’re giving one to each FRC team this year.
It’s a good look if you have those relationships (and if your state PDO is about that life).
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