Sometimes you just get lucky on eBay. I scored a Dell Latitude 7480 for $90 shipped—solid shape, boots to BIOS, and had a clean chassis with no cracks or major wear. For under a hundred bucks, this was the perfect Linux project machine.
The original battery was toast (lasted maybe 20 minutes unplugged), so I grabbed a replacement on eBay for $18. Popped it in, and we were back to full 5–6 hour battery life. Honestly shocked how much life you get out of these machines with just a battery swap.
Next up: RAM. It came with 4GB—usable, but painful. I grabbed an 8GB DDR4 stick for $20, bumped it to 12GB total, and the performance difference was instantly noticeable.
I already had a spare 256GB NVMe drive lying around, so I threw that in too. Now this little laptop boots in seconds and handles everything from Firefox to VS Code with ease.
I installed Linux Mint XFCE, and it runs buttery smooth. Battery life is great, Wi-Fi and trackpad work out of the box, and it stays cool and quiet even under load. You could easily use this as a dev box, travel laptop, or kid’s homework machine.
These Latitudes pop up often—and with some cheap upgrades, you’ve got a $130 productivity beast. Below are live deal feeds I post for RAM, batteries, and the Latitude 7480 itself:
💡 Bookmark this page if you're thinking of building your own beater laptop.
✍️ Got a similar build? Tag me—I’d love to feature more DIY laptop revivals like this.