Pre-owned / refurbished ThinkPads can be found surprisingly cheaply on Amazon (and elsewhere, I suppose). If you value reliability over performance, formerly top-shelf ThinkPads provide that at a great price. I got a ~2011 x220 for about €230 a few years ago - works like a charm on Debian, and compared to what that money gets you in current hardware, it's still a kick ass machine - except for the low display resolution...