My own longterm Qubes primary has been a used W520 quad core with four 8GB DIMMs for 32GB of RAM. Not bad for 2012 era laptop. [Avoid the dual core versions: they only have two memory slots and can only support 16GB Max.]
Storage: 1 x mSATA (300MB/s) slot; 1 x SATA (600MB/s) main bay; 1 x SATA (600MB/s) in media tray replacing optical drive; 1 x eSATAp (300MB/s) external port. Additional 1 x eSATA (300MB/s) on some docks. So plenty of fast-enough storage options. Plus an SD card slot. VGA. DisplayPort. Ethernet. WiFi. Modem. 2 x USB 3.0. 2 x USB 2.0 (1 is part of the eSATAp connector). More on some docks. FireWire and Expresscard (you’d generally want to disable both in bios for security reasons). Though...expresscard can be used to add another usb controller if two is not enough (e.g. to work around usb pass through issues with usbip). Core unit generally $250-$300 on eBay in ok shape (sans ram and storage which you can add yourself). Bit heavier than the x230, but I appreciate the additional RAM and cores most of the time. Install in legacy mode, disable discrete GPU. B -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "qubes-users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to qubes-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/c953df6c-145a-4380-b395-d49b2f4699b8%40googlegroups.com.