Buy a cheap base Lenovo and swap out the hard drive for an SSD and add some RAM. I think people would be hard pressed to tell the difference between an i3 / i5 / i7 in real world use that a student would be doing, but they could tell the difference between an SSD and a hard drive in seconds.

If you don't go with full SSD, I'd recommend a hybrid drive, if offered. Hybrids are a not as consistent as a full SSD, but significantly cheaper. Anything is better than a regular hard drive. Flash is expensive, but it's currently what will translate most to real world performance.

 

I have a brand new lenovo U310 for sale, let me know if you are interested, paid 700 for it as a present for someone. Looking to get 600-650 OBO, let me know!

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