My 10 year old laptop is dying.
Over the years It has had failed video card and hard drives replaced on the cheap, started off with Vista installed and is now running W10 so it doesn’t owe me anything.
The video card is overheating every now and then and crashing so time for a replacement.
I generally use it for net browsing and the occasional bit of photo processing.
I also use it for ripping any new CDs that I buy although I am not averse to buying a separate optical drive.
Avoid HP, they are not good second hand buy’s as they are expensive. I have had two and both of them the power supply failed and took out the laptop when they were about 3 years old.
My choice is Dell Latitude as they are well made and quite quick and you can get loads of parts.
My 2c on the optical drive - it might limit your options looking for something with an optical drive, so as you suggest just look for something you like and bother about that later.
My desktop is an all-in-one (basically the plinth is the guts of a laptop, with a dirty great monitor on top of it). I then bought a USB-powered CD/DVD drive for the odd occasion I want to rip a CD. I happened to buy Samsung at the time, but a surprisingly sturdy one might set you back £15-20.
I would have paid more for new, but similar spec was minimum of £200 more, I am not sure really what you get for that, especially as it comes with a year’s warranty and of course the 14 day DSR returns gives me a chance to power it up and check it out.
I am not a gamer so don’t need that type of performance. We use Dell and Lenovo at work and they seem pretty reliable.