It's well past time to introduce you guys to my ThinkPad T420. i7-2630QM, 8GB RAM, she's a beast. Plan to put a 128GB mSATA and 7200RPM 1TB HDD in her before school
Lenovo Thinkpad T420s review
Thinkpad T420s Review
ThinkPad T420 Hard Drive Replacement - iFixit Repair Guide
Worth doing: Thinkpad X220 with an mSATA SSD : r/thinkpad