Wanting a laptop for Qubes with longevity for my usecase, would appreciate suggestions

User Support Hardware Issues
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Could not find an answer to this on the forums.

My usecase is mainly just Whonix, although this may branch out later.

Upon browsing the forums some, it seems that a laptop is a better option for what I’m looking for than a desktop.

I am looking for the best laptop that will last have the best support for the longest time, in other words. Or, if this is too pricey, I want a budget option.

I have been looking over the certified hardware and community hardware lists.

I have noticed that some more expensive ones, like the NovaCustom V56 Series, don’t have the functionality for options like coreboot+Heads. I am a newb at this moment and I’m not sure how important things like these really are, but I because I want value, I was wanting to get a laptop with all of these kinds of privacy and security preserving functions.

I would appreciate any suggestions you all would have for me! It’s hard to balance privacy, security, budget, and longevity when first coming into this.

Thanks for your time.

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I started using Qubes OS with a cheap laptop that I previously used for almost 10 years, and all I had to do was add more RAM. And I’m currently using it on a 5-year-old second-hand mid-range machine, with more RAM again, and it’s smooth. Right now, I could buy a used laptop, upgrade its RAM and the total expense would be less than if I’d bought a brand new laptop a few years ago. Concerning the 10-year-old laptop, I think that the experience wasn’t smooth only because of the insufficient RAM.

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From my personal experience I can tell you: take something cheap and reliable like old lenovo laptops e.c. t420/t430 or x220/x230 series. Some of them are available with skulls preinstalled on ebay, so you can install heads yourself. Add some ram for 20$. Learn and after you can buy something more expensive:-)

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Upon browsing the forums some, it seems that a laptop is a better option for what I’m looking for than a desktop.

You will need a laptop with at least 8 GB of memory - 16 GB or more is better. The laptop will need to have both VT-x and VT-d enabled, or AMD equivalent, or Qubes OS simply won’t work. Some cheap processors don’t have these features.

A lot of people buy a Thinkpad off eBay or similar. An OK example is £100, a nice example is £200 - your local marketplace may vary. A lot of the cheap laptops look OK, but further investigation of the listings show problems - cracked cases, damaged keyboards, no charger.

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Thanks all for the replies. You all make good points, especially you @absent - I’m still in the phase of not really knowing how much I’ll end up using Whonix at the moment. It would be a shame to under budget and then kick myself for it later.

I think I was mainly surprised that a certified laptop would have a feature not supported. I don’t know how to take that other than the feature not being important?

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for most in your situation the answer is t480 (8th gen Intel quad core not dual core version) with 16gb ram. Even if you end up having a more complicated setup later, the Thinkpad is nice because mostly it just works and keeps working

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Sorry to possibly ruin it for you (but I might save you some dime, on the other hand) - if that’s the case, you most probably mainly don’t need Qubes at all.