Help Me Choose a Laptop

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xz124

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Jun 26, 2011
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Hey everyone,

I'm in the market for a laptop and I'm wondering which one or what I should look for in a laptop. Typical usage involves web browsing, videos, you know, the basics, maybe some light video editing, transcoding (although, I don't mind leaving this going overnight as long as thermals don't go through the roof) and maybe some flash games. Answers from that read before posting thing:

1. $400-500 give or take
2. A 15.6 inch? no smaller please
3. Doesn't matter, just an HDMI port to hook this up to my larger monitor
4. more desktop replacement than portable, but neither in particular, it can be bulky and have a large screen size, but it still needs to be light enough to move around every now and then
5. 2 hours or more on medium-high load
6. no games
7. basic video editing, photo editing and java development
8. 1T would be nice, but anything 320GB or greater is fine, most things come with 500GBs these days anyway
9. don't really care, reputable
10. 3-5 years
11. DVD Writer minimum (new laptop which has an optical drive but can't burn dvds? ;) )
12. I'd rather not go HP, really bad thermal management experiences with them, a pavillion entertainement laptop that would thermal shutdown anytime you'd open photoshop :??: and i'd rather not go dell, cause my current one is dell and i wanna switch things up a bit
13. USA
14. Thanks for your help!
 

legendkiller

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Jun 19, 2011
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If i were you, i'd get a $800 at least because 2-3 years ganna have more advance software which your $500 probably ain't fit for... 4GB of RAM with a 32nm Dual Core CPU w/HT and at least a GT 520 inside with LED screen which you should look forward to get...
 
At the top end of your budget:
With a 17" 1600x900 LCD screen Dell Inspiron 17r $500
I know you're not favoring the Dell brand but the price is right and the 1600x900 screen size sure is nice.
Speedy Sandy Bridge Core i3-2330M 2.2 Ghz CPU, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 17.3" 1600x900 LCD w/ HD 3000 Graphics.
Just over 7lbs with HDMI v1.4, USB 3.0, 1.0mpx webcam, WiFi & Bluetooth.




 
@ $480
ASUS A53E-EH31 15" laptop
Core i3 2310M(2.10GHz), 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, 15.6" 1366x768 LCD w/ HD Graphics
5.72 lbs with HDMI, USB 3.0, 0.3mpx webcam and WiFi. No Bluetooth.
Includes 1yr Accidental Damage Protection

@ $400
ASUS A53E-EH91 15.6-Inch laptop
Pentium B950 Processor (2.1 GHz) CPU (entry level Sandy Bridge dual core), 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 1366x768 LCD w/ HD Graphics
5.72 lbs with HDMI, USB 3.0, 0.3mpx webcam and WiFi. No Bluetooth.
Includes 1yr Accidental Damage Protection
 
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