Help deciding which PC to buy ?

[Externet]

Greetings. Am after buying a laptop/notebook whatever be named,

- 11 to 14 inch screen,
- No fan, one that runs cool.
- Does not need to be thin nor lightweight.
- Removable hard drive or SSD, not the soldered ones.
- Upgradeable RAM if it has less than ~8GB, not the soldered ones.
- Capable of running Win11, Chrome and Linux (each in a different drive one at a time, not to share booting or partitions)
- Ethernet port.
- Nothing fancy that destroys the wallet.
- Plain home use, no gaming nor super performer.

Suggestions for candidates, brands and models, please ?

 

[rjenkinsgb]

It's got to be reasonably recent to be capable of 8GB RAM, as many older machines were limited to 4GB by the chipset.
Windows 11 also needs fairly recent or high-end hardware due to the stupid restrictions they have added to it.
And many newer machines have everything soldered...

And the no fan restriction is a killer.

The only type I know would work is a Toughbook CF-31, the same as I have.. That has no internal (eg. around motherboard) airflow, but it does have a ducted fan that can kick in when the CPU is running at high load.

12" screen, hard drive (or SSD) in an externally swappable caddy, up to 16GB socketed RAM, Ethernet, USB2 & USB3, HDMI, PCMCIA, Cardbus, SD port etc etc.
And up to 15 hours battery life..

You can get some models from about £300 secondhand, depending on the version & cpu; mine is a Mk5.

I believe the CF-53/CF_54 business grade 14" toughbooks have similar capabilities, but no direct experience with them - and there is not much in the price, those start at about £400 secondhand, depending on the exact options fitted. Those also have a full HD screen. Not sure about fans..

As you are in the US, Toughbooks are likely cheaper than here in the UK - and have a look on this site for any enthusiasts selling them at bargain prices:

~Toughbooktalk~ - Index page