This Dell laptop will run your Minecraft server for £220
Or anything else you might want to do with a cheap used lappy.
Cheap laptops are great. They can run Minecraft servers, download stuff while you're away, let you practice programming, let your younger sibling play with or against you in retro or indie games. You might already have one lying around, in which case have a think about the possibilities - but if you'd like one and don't have one in a cupboard somewhere, you can grab a cheap Dell Latitude 7390 off Ebay for £219.99 in 'good' and 'refurbished' condition. For the money, you get an 8th-gen Core i5 processor with integrated graphics, a compact 13-inch design, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. All in all, it's a pretty sweet spec for the asking price!
The laptops come from trusted Ebay seller (and definitely not a Decepticon) VENO SCORP, complete with a one-year guarantee. Fairly obivously this is less well-known than a Currys, but with 98.8% positive feedback on Ebay they're probably quite likely to ship you a laptop (or face the wrath of Ebay's buyer support).
Having a little laptop like this is good fun, and I highly recommend it. I got my start writing articles and programming with a similar-but-way-worse-even-for-the-time Compaq model back in the day, which gradually lost its plastic chassis in the harsh desert landscape of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Even so, it could run basic Python programs, access the internet and play Game Boy Advance games, so I was thrilled. And because it was dirt-cheap, I was comfortable taking it to bits to install new hard drives and more RAM - all good experience for my eventual job as a professional computer nerd.
This machine is much more powerful and is likely to retain its skin even in hostile climates, so why not pick one up?
I'd be curious to hear any little laptop stories from RPS readers in the comments too. What do you get up to on your portable friend - and does this look a good deal? Enquiring minds want to know!