[mac336]

been looking at some lenovos, dells, and asus
 
will be used for school and home computer.  Mainly just surf web, schoolwork, maybe occasional movie
 
I cant really find anything better than dell inspiron 15r (i5, 8 gb RAM, 1 TB HDD) for $620
 
any recommendations of something better or alternatives?

 

[billybob_jcv]

The weekly Dell deals are usually pretty good deals. I think when buying a laptop, in addition to the basics of RAM, CPU & HD, you also need to think about the rest of the components more than you might for a desktop. You are going to be living with the built-in graphics, screen & keyboard for the life of the laptop, so make sure you are happy with those as well. Based on the uses you provided, I think that configuration sounds fine.

 

[JK1]

What is best will differ depending on your needs. If this will be your only computer, then you might want to consider something with a screen on the larger side(perhaps 17") even though a larger screen will probably mean more weight and shorter battery life.
If I was in the market for a laptop, I think I would probably buy this one for $430.
 
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavilion+17.3%26%2334%3B+Laptop+-+4GB+Memory+-+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Pewter/5769124.p?id=1218692934704&skuId=5769124

 

[Audio-Omega]

This might be a good time to buy existing laptops because stores are making rooms for Windows 8 machines.  

 

[billybob_jcv]

What is best will differ depending on your needs. If this will be your only computer, then you might want to consider something with a screen on the larger side(perhaps 17") even though a larger screen will probably mean more weight and shorter battery life.
If I was in the market for a laptop, I think I would probably buy this one for $430.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavilion+17.3%26%2334%3B+Laptop+-+4GB+Memory+-+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Pewter/5769124.p?id=1218692934704&skuId=5769124

Too big for me - I would have have a smaller screen - but I have a docking station on my desk and a large monitor/keyboard/mouse for serious work. I like 13" screens for laptops that I actually plan on using as laptops and/or traveling. I would also get 8 GB of RAM.

 

[JK1]

Many don't need 8GB of ram or a huge hard drive. I do fine with 4GB of ram. I am using less than 200GB of hard drive space. Most computers that come with 4GB though can be expanded to 8GB. The one thing that $430 laptop is missing though is usb3 ports, which some might find handy. I am content with using usb2, and wouldn't pay 50% more for a notebook to have 4GB more ram, 500GB more hard drive space and usb3.

 

[antberg]

Lately i have been looking -while i don't and wont need a new laptop- at Lenovo brand.I have been surprised about how cheap they are , with a lot of same component bigger and more expensive brands have.Maybe they dont have any retina display,but when my old samsung laptop will die i may give them a shot.Look at them too.

 

[Welh]

Get HP probook series laptop. They are very well built and it fits great for your needs.

 

[blackmarket]

to be honest, i don't think i5's are necessary in laptops unless you're doing some hardcore encoding or some kind of processor intensive work, like playing low end games. All i5-M's are dual-core HT, which the i3-M's are anways. I have an i5 in my laptop and honestly i'd rather have an i3 as it would probably use less power, and less HEAT. The i5 in my laptop heats up quick, and yes, i'm using a laptop cooler. Also, i feel that 8gb of ram is unnecessary, again unless you're doing some hardcore multi-tasking and have 5 billion things open at once, i have 4gb in my laptop and that is already much more than enough. I currently have Guild Wars 2 open, League of Legends, eight tabs open in mozilla, skype, foobar, msn, all my drivers, and i'm only using 3gb of ram.
 
If you're in Canada or US (NCIX only ships Canada or US), you could get http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=72597&vpn=K53E-DB31-CA&manufacture=ASUS&promoid=1267
 
Also, just my biased opinion, i wouldn't get HP or Dell as i've only had bad experiences with their stuff like snapping hinges, dead pixels, flimsy construction (though most stuff sub 700 is probably going to be flimsy to an extent). As for me, i swear by asus. I only use asus motherboards in my computer builds and my current laptop is an asus (U36).

 

[eahm]

 Any laptop here is good.

 

[JK1]

The $430 notebook I linked to is quad core. Having more cores not only gives more processing power, but typically uses less power at each level of computation. Notebooks often don't last that long if they are carried around often. For that reason I would prefer to spend less, and to upgrade more often. It is also very important to have a good backup scheme for the notebook, and to keep the backups separate from the notebook(ie. in separate cases when travelling)..  Notebooks that are carried around often might be stolen, or dropped destroying the hard drive. These are further reasons to keep the price lower, and have money saved for a replacement. I have heard of stories of people crying when a notebook was broken or stolen, not so much for the value of the notebook, but for the huge number of hours of work that was lost.

 

[robertsong]

Quote:

Many don't need 8GB of ram or a huge hard drive. I do fine with 4GB of ram. I am using less than 200GB of hard drive space.

 
 
Agreed. Unless you are using the laptop for heavy audio or video processing 4gb RAM should be plenty.