<div dir="ltr">Thanks, all, for the great responses. I'm going to bother eBay sellers about custom W520 configurations.<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jun 18, 2014 at 2:31 PM, Dustin Strickland <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dustin.h.strickland@gmail.com" target="_blank">dustin.h.strickland@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">I second Jim on this one, the W520 is the way to go. Those are some<br>
solid machines, though the T-series "equivalent" isn't bad. Most of<br>
the T520's have an i5, but some of them come with a dual-core i7(as do<br>
some of the W520's, though most are i7 quads). It's very uncommon for a<br>
T-series to have dedicated graphics, but I have seen configurations<br>
with an nVidia card. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the T520's have<br>
a max capacity of 8GB of RAM?<br>
<br>
Some eBay sellers will create custom listings if you message them<br>
asking for certain specs. I don't know if many do this with laptops,<br>
but I know there are plenty of people and companies who will make minor<br>
modifications to desktop machines if they have the parts on hand.<br>
<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
On Wed, 18 Jun 2014 14:16:10 -0400<br>
Derek Atkins <<a href="mailto:warlord@MIT.EDU">warlord@MIT.EDU</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
> I have a T520; it's pretty good.<br>
> I've got a T540p that should arrive in the next day.<br>
><br>
> -derek<br>
><br>
> Jim Kinney <<a href="mailto:jim.kinney@gmail.com">jim.kinney@gmail.com</a>> writes:<br>
><br>
> > Look for a Lenovo Thinkpad W520. Do NOT get the 530 or the 510 even<br>
> > though the 510 will work. It's crap compared to the 520. The 530 is<br>
> > brain dead and may be the first one designed by Lenovi.<br>
> > The 520 is a honking desktop replacement with dual graphics each<br>
> > with dedicated ram. Intel and an nvidia.<br>
> > Be prepared to drop a was on it. They started at $2600 new. The<br>
> > 510/530 started at $1500.<br>
> ><br>
> > On Jun 17, 2014 9:56 PM, "Ed Cashin" <<a href="mailto:ecashin@noserose.net">ecashin@noserose.net</a>> wrote:<br>
> ><br>
> > Hi.<br>
> ><br>
> > Does anyone know of an online place where I can build a used<br>
> > laptop and select Ubuntu as the pre-installed O.S.?<br>
> ><br>
> > There's thinkpenguin, which is pretty much exactly what I want,<br>
> > but it's for new systems and the selection is limited.<br>
> ><br>
> > This is the kind of system I have in mind, but it's hard to<br>
> > find all this in a used/refurbished state. It's pretty hit or<br>
> > miss, mostly miss, on eBay.<br>
> ><br>
> > Intel i7 CPU<br>
> > 16 GB RAM<br>
> > 500 GB SSD<br>
> > 14" screen<br>
> ><br>
> > Ideally the graphics card would be programmable using Intel's<br>
> > GPU libraries, but I cannot remember whether their libraries are<br>
> > Linux-compatible.<br>
> ><br>
> > Thanks!<br>
> ><br>
> > --<br>
> > Ed Cashin <<a href="mailto:ecashin@noserose.net">ecashin@noserose.net</a>><br>
> ><br>
> > _______________________________________________<br>
> > Ale mailing list<br>
> > <a href="mailto:Ale@ale.org">Ale@ale.org</a><br>
> > <a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale" target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a><br>
> > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at<br>
> > <a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo" target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a><br>
> ><br>
> > _______________________________________________<br>
> > Ale mailing list<br>
> > <a href="mailto:Ale@ale.org">Ale@ale.org</a><br>
> > <a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale" target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a><br>
> > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at<br>
> > <a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo" target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a><br>
><br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Ale mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Ale@ale.org">Ale@ale.org</a><br>
<a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale" target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a><br>
See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at<br>
<a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo" target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr"> Ed Cashin <<a href="mailto:ecashin@noserose.net" target="_blank">ecashin@noserose.net</a>></div>
</div>