A refurbished ThinkPad T61p, Core 2 Duo, can unofficially be upgraded with 8Gb and an SSD, 1920x1200 in a 15" screen is now under £300. It is also many years old, but I suspect that a former top of the line ThinkPad would beat any modern bottom of the line laptop for the same money, and better screen spec too.
I'm uncomfortable about how old it is, though, hence wondering if you mean your laptop is falling apart, or if you mean it is too low spec for modern use.
I meant my laptop is physically about to fall apart - the screen doesn't stand up on its own any more, and needs to be propped up with some hefty tomes from my undergraduate days. I'm not able to upgrade it, really, either. I stuck an extra Gig of RAM in it, but the HD interface is an IDE, and there really aren't many non-SATA SSDs available.
Might look at a refurb as you suggest - thanks for the heads-up!
A refurbished ThinkPad T61p, Core 2 Duo, can unofficially be upgraded with 8Gb and an SSD, 1920x1200 in a 15" screen is now under £300. It is also many years old, but I suspect that a former top of the line ThinkPad would beat any modern bottom of the line laptop for the same money, and better screen spec too.
I'm uncomfortable about how old it is, though, hence wondering if you mean your laptop is falling apart, or if you mean it is too low spec for modern use.