Any1 have any recommended Laptops for under $500?

[ArmoredCore]

So im in the market for a working laptop but am quite clueless on what or if there are any good ones for under $500.

My criteria:
I dont play any games on PC.
Want it to be reliable
Just using it for office work
Surfing net
Netflix streaming here & their
Recent models would be prefered

thanks in advance to the tech gurus ^^

[Ed Oscuro]

Just look and see what you can find. It's always good to try to look for specifics (likely reliability problems / rumors, features, relative strength of the hardware).

Something like
the look of the screen (glossy or matte),
the keyboard (nasty flat keys vs. more traditional-style) and even
the noise the system makes during general use (or watching YouTube videos - depending on the resolution of the screen and the exact components used, some systems spin up their fan a lot more than others to watch a simple Flash video) might be most interesting to you.

[ArmoredCore]

thx, i did some review readings as well, their are just too many. I guess im also curious what others are using or bought as well.

[Ed Oscuro]

I think that at $500 the space is going to be mostly dominated by name brands. Probably one of the Hong Kong based manufacturers using their name brand (e.g. ASUS) will be a reasonable bet. I wouldn't pay extra money for a Dell or HP, dude

[drunkninja24]

I use the laptop one model down from this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834230531

Only difference between this one and the one I have is the slight bump in speed this has (2.3ghz from the 2.2ghz mine is), plus the (currently) $50 lower price

Works great and does what I need it to, and even plays a few games just fine.

[gct]

I am using the 3rd-generation Acer TimelineX 3830TG and have been very pleased with it. This one has the Nvidia GT540m, the 3830T just uses Sandy Bridge integrated graphics and is cheaper. I believe certain big-box stores sell their own configurations with lower-end i3 CPU and you can get it around $450.

The battery lasts a long time, screen is big enough to do actual work on, yet the system is light enough for daily transport. Massively upgradeable should you wish to do so.

But that Asus linked above looks pretty nice too.

[KBZ]

Thinkpad on craigslist

[Ed Oscuro]

I am using the 3rd-generation Acer TimelineX 3830TG and have been very pleased with it. This one has the Nvidia GT540m, the 3830T just uses Sandy Bridge integrated graphics and is cheaper. I believe certain big-box stores sell their own configurations with lower-end i3 CPU and you can get it around $450.

That reminds me, I would stay away from Optimus systems now (the ones that switch between on-CPU graphics for power saving, and the discrete graphics for more difficult tasks).

[matrigs]

+1 on a thinkpad. impossible to destroy, reliable and good components.

for example something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad ... 3ccb49f1f5

14" is imho the perfect compromise between portability and size and with 1400x900, has plenty of room.

[gct]

Ed, just curious as to what are your reasons against recommending Optimus? I haven't experienced any problems yet but just want to know what I should be wary of.

[Ed Oscuro]

The guy who programmed DSfix for Dark Souls, Durante, has quite a few lines of discussion at his personal website with folks who were having difficulty due to the unique driver and hardware structure. As I understand it, Optimus switches between low-power graphics (on-CPU or otherwise) and regular gaming-grade discrete graphics, based on some kind of determination of necessary graphics performance. The intended result is low-power graphics for appropriate tasks, keeping battery life long, and only using the graphics system powered up as necessary.

It sounds reasonable enough, but there are some difficulties that arise from it. Even Mr. Linux gave it a thumbs-down, stating that nVidia wasn't supporting it for notebooks.

[gct]

Thanks Ed. I knew about the Linux troubles although it's not really applicable to me. Are you sure the statement made was in regards to all notebooks, or just Linux? Last I updated, Nvidia was still providing their Verde driver package for Windows-based notebook systems.

Anyway, sorry for the thread derail... Has the OP made a decision yet?

[ArmoredCore]

Hmm, that asus drunkninja posted. $329.99 seems really good, im close to buying it lol. Just giving myself some more room for researching. Thanks for suggestions all. Any good recent thinkpads with similar price?

[Ed Oscuro]

Are you sure the statement made was in regards to all notebooks

It seemed like it. If you wanted to look at some of the Dark Souls concerns, check out some of the older (~version .5 and thereabouts) DSfix homepage comments threads here:
http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?tag=dsfix