[Labtop] $700ish?

P

perro

Veteran XV
I'm about to purchase a new laptop, but I haven't had to buy a new computer for four years so I'm a little out of the loop. I looked around and found a few seemingly good deals within my budget (around $700). I would prefer not to buy off ebay, though I have bought computers on ebay before without issue. So far the best deals seem to be:

Dell Inspiron 15R-2nd Gen - $699
-i5-2410M processor 2.30 GHz
-8gb RAM
-15" screen
-750gb HD
-6 cell battery

ASUS U46E-BAL5 - $699
-i5-2410M processor 2.30 GHz
-8gb RAM
-15" screen
-750gb HD
-8 cell battery

I guess my question is why are these so cheap, while a lot of less powerful systems on sites like newegg and even amazon are more...is there something I'm missing?

Basically I want the most powerful system I can get for $700ish that is 14 or 15 inch with 8 gb ram, an i5 or better, etc.

I'm leaning toward the asus because of the bigger battery, but maybe it will hog more power and last the same amount of time? Any help would be appreciated.
 
I just bought my dad a lenovo e420 w/ the i5-2410m 4gb ram, 14" screen (preferred), and 7200rpm hdd, 6cell battery. It was $609 after tax and shipping.


e420.png


You can get the 15" if you want, but it provides the same rez screen and obviously weighs more.
 
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That sounds like a good deal Glytch. I like the faster HDD and 14 inch is probably fine, but I'm worried about having half as much ram...I realize ram is cheap, but I'd prefer not to have to install more myself. Is the 4gb less ram and hald as much disk space worth saving $100?
 
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recently bought

Amazon.com: Acer Aspire TimelineX AS3830TG-6431 13.3-Inch Laptop (Cobalt Blue Aluminum): Computers & Accessories

was on sale $699, they sent me a free xbox 360 (used a buddy's edu email address to order), free shipping. added a 128gb samsung SSD and got an external enclosure for the 5400 hdd ($14). battery life is about 8-9 hours. it only kicks in the nvidia card for games when you tell it to, and runs most things fine, obviously it's not a powerhouse but you can definitely game on it.

the 14" is regular 699, has a dvd drive.

anyway i like it
 
Installing ram in a laptop is ridic easy. 8GB from Newegg is like ~50. I prefer the keyboard and build quality of Thinkpads as well as the faster HDD.

Just things to consider. Huge storage wasn't a necessity for my dad. All he uses it for is word processing and web browsing.

What are you using it for?
 
If portability/battery life is priority, I would take a look at one of those Ultra-books coming out soon. Low volt i5's with decent graphics, 8hrs battery life, as thin as a Macbook Air. All the major players have announced a few models, several starting around $700ish.
 
I would suggest using a netbook before you pull the trigger. The low rez and small keyboard's can be a deal breaker.
 
a netbook size definitely wouldn't work. I'm leaning toward your suggestion right now Glytch. How does the build quality seem? Did it come with any annoying preloaded software? Where did you buy from?
 
Weird buddy. I didn't mean to get your hopes up but the 14" model isn't available on the US site (lenovo.com). I assume you are american since you pasted a bestbuy.com url.

So it looks like you can get the 15" e520 model with the labour day special for $569. Same specs that I listed previously.

Lenovo is good about keeping the bloatware to a minimum.
 
Yeah, at least with this model it's 4GB in 1 DIMM. You can buy another off newegg.com for ~$20 and get up to the 8GB you wanted.

That's $590 for same specs as the models you originally were after. Only compromise at this point is battery and HDD capacity.

In 3 years when the battery loses it's charge spend the $50 on a new 9 cell.

edit: that Amazon one has a bigger 500GB HDD @ 7200rpm. Get it!
 
my current system has the shitty old onboard card and i can play most games at medium settings just fine and its 4 years old...im not worried about shared memory for graphics either way, but the onboard cards aren't as horrible as people think they are.
 
The two that I've recently read about are not due out until the end of the month. But essentially you are paying a $100-$200 price premium for high quality materials, sleek design, and extremely long battery life over similar configurations available on the market today. For me it would easily be worth the premium price and wait. But if you need things right away, and are not wanting to go any higher on the price, then I would look elsewhere.

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The new 3000 intel video is much better than the old integrated.

and wtf shadow, $1195 for that new ideapad. okay....
 
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