Not computer savvy, Help

Hello scentsyaholic;
'Netbooks don't usually have a DVD drive. What software do you use when you 'do papers'? Would you use MS Work, MS Excel and MS Powerpoint at the same time?
Can you explain 'portable hard drive' more? That's a really unusual request. Does the instructor mean no tablet or pads?

What is your budget?

Well, I would really like to be able to watch the textbook supplemental DVDs. Maybe I should look at small laptops.
I probably will need to have Word, PowerPoint, and the internet up at the same time.

All she said was that she was going to require all of us to carry a portable hard drive so that we could save and share the supplementary films and animations for class that would overwhelm a flash drive.

I am ridiculously broke, but I can scrape up $600 or so. Less is best.

That's not what a 'Netbook does. It can do each of those....just not at the same time.

Here is a good deal on a 15" Lenovo G560 $487 Core i3-370M 2.4GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD and 15.6" 1366x768 LCD with Intel HD Graphics.
Lenovo Ideapad G560 reviews

The deal on that Lenovo expires tonight so I'll give you a listing of other 'on sale' laptops to look over. LogicBuy laptop deals

Thank you for your help. I think I will go with the Lenovo   It got great reviews online, and seems like it would work.

It doesn't seem like you need anything too high-powered. I found something I think would be good for you, the Toshiba Satellite C650 for $379. Should be more than enough for what you're trying to do! It's portable and lightweight. Here are the specs:

Screen
15.6" (1366x768) HD
Processor
2.3 GHz AMD V Series Processor v140
RAM
3 GB DDR3
Storage
250 GB HDD 5400 RPM

What do you think?

Kevin
Windows Outreach Team

Thank you for your suggestion