Need help picking a laptop for college

[swiftyku]

1_What is your budget? around 700 us dollars

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? doesn't really matter but i guess nothing bigger than 17in because of the weight

3_What screen resolution do you want? doesnt matter

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? this laptop will be my only computer but i also need it to be portable enough to carry it to classes and such

5_How much battery life do you need? i guess anything thats 3hrs + would be nice

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? i would like to play games that are going to be released in the future on atleast medium quality (games like new cod, shogun total war 2, starcraft 2, mafia 2)

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.) just gaming, watching streams/movies, and just basic college studying tasks

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
500gigs would be plently

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
newegg

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
4-6 years atleast

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? just dvd r/w

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
N/A

13_What country do you live in?
usa

14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
im going to need a hdmi and dvi port to connect to my flatscreen or a LCD monitor

ty in advance

 

[Maziar]

I would strongly recommend going with this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115796
Although its $50 more,its definitely worth it

 

[swiftyku]

thanks for the suggestion it seems good but i think it might be too big size wise and weight wise. i know i said 17in would be okay but now im leaning more towards 16in or less. ima be walking with the laptop all over the campus and less weight would be more wise choice

 

[Maziar]

Well if you go with a 16" laptop or less, the best VGA would be noticeably slower than a 5650M,is that OK with you ?

 

[swiftyku]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220735
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152157
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152159

aright so i found these that i might have enough money for, which should i get? im leaning towards the asus because of their reliability and the size and i dont have to mess with msi rebates but asus is lacking in cpu

 

[evm2556]

I dont think anyone will thumbs up (recommend) a core 2 duo laptop or older. Not with $700.

I wouldnt get my grandma a Pentium dual-core (Asus laptop).

Those wont last you 2 years in college before you wanna break the slow thing. I havent done too much looking but Maziar's looks like a good deal, get something with similar specks?

 

[swiftyku]

hmm are core 2 duo really that outdated?

 

[toolinthemist]

core 2 duo aren't THAT outdate, but with the new i series (i3 and i5) making their way into more and more laptops, you'll be better off aiming for a newer cpu. i5 would be good, especially if you're looking to have this laptop for 5 years or more.

Also, are you going to need this laptop for any kind of special work for your classes such as CAD or digital media work? Or is it just for limited office software like word and excel?

of those three laptops, the asus has the strongest gpu based on the benchmarks i've seen, but i definitely would not recommend the pentium dual core.
If you're open to it, I would suggest looking beyond newegg for options. Newegg is great for computer parts, and thats where i've gotten most of mine, but its selection of laptops is a bit limited.

 

[swiftyku]

its probly going to be just simple note taking and essay writing tasks

 

[toolinthemist]

hmm, well then the real task is just finding a good cpu/gpu combo.
I'm guessing you probably want to avoid this, but have you considered refurbished?

 

[swiftyku]

well i dont think theres an i3 or i5 with a decent video card in my budget, refurbished might be a possibility if i cant get any more money. wat are some sites with reliable refurbished laptops