Recreational and School use laptop pickings??

I got until Jan 10th till school starts, and I need to get a laptop.
I just built a Desktop 3 months ago, and I do mainly online classes, so I spend a lot of time on my desktop. So the need for an i7 w/5770 in a laptop is not exactly what I need.

Some of the laptops I have been looking at are:
HP TM2T, HP G62t, Asus K42, EEE tablet and U series. Then a handful of Toshiba satellites and proteges.


1. What is your budget?

I wanted to spend somewhere between $500-800ish

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

Something between 11-15"s,

3. What screen resolution do you want?

Just what ever is standard for that size screen

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

Well my current laptop, only holds a charge for 3mins, and my desktop is super power, so it will be replacing my laptop and for the most part, i wanted it to be my desktop away from home.

5. How much battery life do you need?

Well I need a solid 4+ hours of continuous use minimum, but prefer something very good, so I can go all day without having to be stuck to a wall!

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)?

well it would be nice to play some of my old steam games like half life and stuff. But I really don't plan on playing exclusively on it, but I wouldn't mind having the option, as long as it doesn't cut into the battery area.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)

Well, listening to music, using all of MS Office 10', lots of research and internet, I read some ebooks now and then, but mainly just school stuff for when I am at school, cause at home my desktop is filled with all my main programs like CS5 and stuff.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?

Well I wanted to get one that has a 2nd HD drive so I could install a SSD into it later, but 500gb seems to be a good amount, but no less than 200gb.

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

Newegg.com bestbuy.com HP.com Dell.com or anyother manufacture site

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

I want it at least to last while I am in Junior College which is 2-3 years as of now.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

Standard DVD+R DL w/burning, blu ray would be only if it was a good deal

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.

Well, Asus, Toshiba, and HP, were my main lookers, Dell and Sony are kinda iffy to me, but I really don't mind as long as it isn't crap. Even Acer would be ok.

13. What country do you live in?

I live in USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

Well I want to find a good solid laptop, with all round good features mainly being, upgradeable to two HD's, decent build on keys and mouse, Excellent battery life and medium ranged internal components.


My ideal laptop or dream laptop would be:

A 12-14" screen, with nice backlit keys and muli-touch mouse. It would have all the regular inputs like 3 usb, hdmi, and ethernet. It would have a 2nd slot so I could add additional storage. I would be able to check my email in the morning and take it school and go to study hall with out ever having to charge it till later that night.
The components in it would be an i3 370 or 380 minimum but more like an i5 maybe a 560, 570 or 580. It would come with either one 4gb stick so I could buy a second, or something cheap, so I could just buy an 8gb set. The HD would be 500gb and I would put in a 128gb ssd into the 2nd slot. The graphics that would be in it would be at minimum an ATI 5470 but would prefer something like the 5650.

Then its price would be 1000$ max, or 1000$ before shipping and tax!