I need a laptop for school that's dependable, durable, and fast but am working on a limited budget

I need a laptop for school that's dependable, durable, and fast but am working on a limited budget.

Is the Thinkpad T420 a good option? I can get a refurbished model for $200

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Yes

Absolutely, got one in highschool, now 2nd year mech eng and still going strong even for CAD work. Max out the ram, get an ssd and you are set until you finish studies AT LEAST.

Specs? What software do you use?

The standard: i5-2520M, iGPU, 900p screen, 9cell batt. Got it with 8GB RAM and 320 hdd, now have 16GB RAM, 1TB hdd in the main slot, 240GB SSD in the mSATA and 2TB HDD in ultrabay slot. Thinking of getting quad cpu but they're still damn expensive.
I use OS X El Cap as main OS and run Windows VM for all incompatible soft. It performs surprisingly well. My usual soft includes Matlab (native OS X), PTC Creo, AutoCAD (native) and Rhinoceros 3D.

think about the x220 also. a bit smaller which may help if youre carrying it to class every day

when buying a t420, make damn sure the screen is 1600x900. there's no point in having a 14" screen in 1366x768

Yes. T420 is literally cheaper than some textbooks if you actually buy them instead of pirating.

The X220 also goes a little cheaper for the same specs.
Where I live the i7-2620M model was as expensive as a T420 with an i5, also i7 X220s come with USB3.0 which is nice.

I'm impressed the HD3000 can handle 3D.

where do you live, here in yuropoorland are even i5 X220 at least twice the price of T420

It is fine as long as you only work and then render on a proper hardware. If you were to try rendering you'd probably hang yourself after a few hours

I'm from Germany.
lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/lang/x/f/949/
This is the vendor I bought my X220 from, but they're currently out of i7 X220s and only have 2 i5 versions left.
When I bought mine they had around 6 different versions.

how much of a hassle was it to install El Cap on it?

did you need a Mac to do the whole usb creation or not?

No.

I did it from an OS X VM but there are ways to make an installer even without that.
Most complicated part was probably flashing unwhitelisted bios and chaning the wifi card for a supported one. Then you just grab one zip, put it on the usb and boot. Check out insanelymac.

Is a T450 for $500 a good price?

Thread related, where can I buy a laptop without an OS that has 2 16GB SSDs and a 1TBHDD, an i7, at least 8GB of ram, and a DVD burner

T420 and just hotswap one of the drives for the dvd burner.

Hotswap one of the drives, and have to unplug the active os drive potentially?

>16GB SSD
>2
why

wut
OS on drive 1 or two, hotswap and unplug the third then use the dvd burner and plug the drive again.

Ok, then hotswap the drive that has the data? The same size drives will both be OS drives, and the other is data.

carry an usb dvd burner then :^)

also this for what purpose, ssds that small are slow as shit and 120gb ones are dirt cheap nowadays

Put the burner in a dock which, holy fuck, is what docks are for. Alternate option for MUCH better burner, buy old high quality full height burner in a full height USB enclosure. You don't need a burner on the go, you need it attached for desktop usage.

Thinkpad docks are wonderful, yet so many Pad owners forget about them despite their trivial cost.

How large to not be slow?

I'm the weird kind of guy that carries around 3 blank DVD-RWs so I do use burners on the go.

USB DVD burner then

120gb minimum.

> for school

buy a macbook pro if you want any semblance of social life

Yes I think you should consider a newer tp, I just bought a new t450s for 650 eur.
It's a fucking new laptop