AUTISMAXXING : Second-hand laptops

Second post in my "AUTISMAXXING" series where I share what I've found during my time spent 'tisming whatever I'm currently interested in. Most often, I share tips for buying things second-hand.

Today: laptops.

So you want to change laptops ? New is out of budget or out of question for you but you're struggling to navigate the vast seas of second-hand offers ?

I have small pieces of advice and a big trick to share.

Very generic advice

I'm no hardware expert, and it's precisely because I have nothing to defend here that I'll take the liberty of giving very opinionated, non-nuanced advice.

One component at a time :

1. CPU: always get the biggest one in your budget, to achieve this I'll tell you about my 🥊PUNCH🥊 method a bit further down.
2. Memory : 16GB minimum, and not much more unless you know better. If you're unsure, there's a 95% chance you don't need more.
3. GPU (dedicated, not onboard graphics): Only if you plan on doing some serious gaming. Just like the CPU, get the biggest one within budget, we'll also cover this in the 🥊PUNCH🥊 method.
4. Screen : IPS, period. YES I know OLED yap yap graphic designers yap gamut yap yap. Yeah right, as if you'll ever find a second-hand laptop with an OLED screen even remotely under 1000€.

Which models ?

If you want to game on it, you need a GPU. Given the budget constraints that means you'll have to stick to "gaming" laptops. While there are some "pro" models that come with a GPU, standard, they're rare and usually prohibitively expensive, even used. The offer pool is much more interesting on the "gaming" side of things. Good deals pop up quite often, and some models aren't even that ugly. Lenovo Ideapad Gaming, HP Omen, Acer Nitro etc etc.

No need for a beefy GPU ? Focus on "business" class machines targeted at large companies. The classics include : Lenovo Thinkpads, HP Elitebooks, Dell XPSes etc etc. Heck if you're lucky you might even stumble upon an absolute bargain because you searched at the exact time a big company was throwing away their old IT equipement.

In all cases, the idea for now is to find product ranges rather than specific models, and, in each range, to look for the model from 3 or 4 years ago, or possibly even older ones if you are on an even tighter budget.

If you're completely uninspired, just look up "laptop" on any classified ads website and write down the models you like.

The 🥊PUNCH🥊 Method

Now that you've defined the product ranges you're looking for and possibly even narrowed things down to a specific model or two, how can you even sort through the dumpster fire of offers ? How do you even find a good deal or compare offers at all ?

Let me introduce you to that one weird trick : price per 🥊PUNCH🥊

• The heavier the laptop is, measured in units of 🥊PUNCH🥊, the more 🥊PUNCH🥊 it packs
• The cheaper per unit of 🥊PUNCH🥊, the better

For each offer, we'll "weigh" how heavy the laptop is, in 🥊PUNCH🥊es, and compute the price per 🥊PUNCH🥊. In this method, a laptop's weight in 🥊PUNCH🥊es is its CPU Mark score (+ its G3D Mark score if you need a laptop with a GPU)

Every CPU's CPU Mark score is visible in the "CPU Mega List" on PassMark's website : https://www.cpubenchmark.net/CPU_mega_page.html

Same thing for the GPU, check the "Video Card List" Here : https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/GPU_mega_page.html. ⚠️ In the Category column header, uncheck All and only leave Mobile checked, this way you'll only see laptop GPUs and won't risk getting confused with the sometimes identically-named dekstop GPUs.

The 🥊PUNCH🥊, in practice

Fire up whichever website you find second-hand stuff on and search for your desired model.

Open up a spreadsheet, and, for each offer, write down :

• URL
• Price
• CPU model
• CPU Mark score

You can then compute the price in €/k🥊, according to this formula :

€/k🥊 = 1000 * (price / CPU Mark score)

If you want a GPU in your laptop, also add columns with :

• GPU model
• G3D Mark score

And replace the €/k🥊 formula with :

€/k🥊 = 1000 * (price / (CPU Mark score + G3D Mark score))

When you've scanned through enough laptops to get bored, you should end up with a spreadsheet that looks something like this :

Lo and Behold the power of the 🥊PUNCH🥊 Method : the prices now make a little more sense.

For instance : looking at #5, with its 5500H (the worst CPU of the bunch) but a big GPU. Should you take it or should you take #1 instead, with a much better CPU, but also almost twice the price ? 🥊PUNCH🥊 Method says : #5's a better deal at 15,30 €/k🥊 compared to 22,93 €/k🥊 for #1.

There you go, you now have a simple figure to compare offers.

All you gotta do now is sort by price and take the best thing you can get within your budget.

Tips and disclaimers

Sellers might forget to mention which exact CPU or GPU model the laptop has. In this case look for a spec sheet listing every option for the model you're looking at, and assume the worst : smallest CPU, smallest GPU. Lenovo produces amazing PDFs with exactly the right info (like this one), you might not be as lucky with other manufacturers.

The 🥊PUNCH🥊 Method does not take RAM or storage into account, these might be a good tiebreaker if you ever find two very similar offers.