I would like to buy a used laptop that is not too expensive (budget up to 250 euro) and have found a ThinkPad t420 that fits my budget. Does anyone know whether old games like Minecraft or Star Wars battlefront 2 (2005) would run on it as well as simple programming?
the laptop has:
intel Core i7 2620M
Intel HD Graphics 3000 (IGP)
8gb ram
250gb ssd
or does anyone know of a better laptop that can be used for this?
Minecraft maybe, it's not enough for Battlefront 2. Once the graphics card does not work enough, it is quite possible that you can't start it at all due to the lack of driver support, then the SSD is much too small, Battlefront 2 alone needs a good 100 GB of storage space.
Just programming shouldn't be a problem.
He's talking about Battlefront 2 from 2005, not the new one.
I do not know whether such an old game supports the drivers of the HD 3000 - in principle I would stick with my answer.
Should be fine. I also have a T420 (the series is from 2011) "flying around", which I used regularly until 2020 and which is still in use sporadically because my newer computer unfortunately causes problems. The machines are very reliable. You have to see if the HD 3000 is sufficient - not only in terms of performance, but also because the chip has a few "quirks" that some programs (especially games) can't "cope with".
However, the system (like any older computer) is susceptible to hardware-based side-channel attacks such as Specter, Meltdown, Rowhammer, RAM-Bleed, etc., and there are only software-based options to mitigate them, but this does not provide complete protection.
In addition, the processors from the SandyBridge series are already powerful nowadays with relatively "moderate" workloads (e.g. Playback of a FullHD video that is encoded with a "modern" codec such as VP9 / VP10 / AV1 / H.265) on your knees - and in extreme cases the system can even shut down "hard" after a long continuous load because the cooling system can no longer dissipate the processor's performance. For me that was one of the reasons to slowly "retire" the T420.
A little tip if the SSD is too small and you don't want to install a larger model: There are special "adapters" (from third parties) that fit into the slot for the optical drive (UltraBay) and can accommodate a 2.5-inch drive. There you could z. B. Install an HDD with a capacity of 1 TB or 2 TB to accommodate larger amounts of data. An optical drive is rarely needed these days. (Modern notebooks don't have any built in anymore.)
