I still enjoy the Thinkpad T series. They’re older and not sold new but they’re tough as rocks and meant to be user serviceable. Plus, reduce, reuse and all that.
If you’re doing bleeding edge graphics engine programming or ML it wouldn’t be my first choice unless you can deal with an external GPU.
My bad, you're right. I usually just buy them second hand.
Which is a pretty good way to go about it. The after market for parts is pretty strong. They're plentiful and refurbished units are cheap enough that you can get a backup or two. With a decent backup system you can clone your setup to a new machine fast.
If you’re doing bleeding edge graphics engine programming or ML it wouldn’t be my first choice unless you can deal with an external GPU.