Laptop for college?

[theswerdy]

1. What is your budget? $450

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? Any, I have a 17.8 Toshiba that I wouldn't enjoy lugging around campus but I can if I have to.

3. What screen resolution do you want? Any, wont be gaming, hd video watching or anything like that.

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

5. How much battery life do you need? I have never had to worry about battery life but I think four hours should be enough?

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? No I'm building a desktop for that.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? Primarily going to be used for note taking in class. Other than that just web browsing, Microsoft office stuff, and if possible programming. I would like to be able to us that auto note taker with it.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? My campus has wifi, and free network storage so the hdd doesn't need to be too large. 250g would still be nice for music though.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. HAS to be from Newegg. I have a $100 gift card that I want to use. unless there is some killer deal somewhere else that is cheaper than buying it at Newegg even with $100 off.

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

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

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. Whatever has the highest price v performance ratio or whats on sale.

13. What country do you live in? United States

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. Just to be clear I'm asking for a laptop that costs me only around $350, but factor in the $100 gift card and the budget is $450 if its from newegg.
Also I am very open to refurbished or open box deals. especially when they are discounted alot like this one from newegg. Is that a good deal? Can I do better?
I would like a sandy bridge i3/i5 for the updated intel graphics because I hear the second gen igraphics are much better than their predecessor.

Thanks for the help!

 

[WR2]

Right now there aren't any Sandy Bridge laptops in your price range.
new lenovo IdeaPad Z560 15" Core i3 380M $450
That Core i3-380M has performance on par with the Core i3-2310M 2.1Ghz Sandy Bridge CPU.
Lenovo IdeaPad Z560 Review

Lowest priced Sandy Bridge notebook in stock @ NewEgg:
HP ProBook 4530s $475
Core i3 2310M(2.10GHz) 2GB RAM 320GB HDD 7200rpm 15.6" 1366x768 LCD/w HD Graphics 3000.
HP ProBook 4530s Notebook review

 

[WR2]

Looking at your refurbished ASUS U52F-BBL5 @ $370 laptop you could be well advised to skip that in favor of a new laptop at the roughly the same price:

lenovo G570 15" Notebook $380
Pentium B940(2.00GHz) 2GB RAM 320GB HDD 15.6" 1366x768 LCD w HD Graphics

Pentium B940 review
Lenovo G570 Review (not equipped identically to the NewEgg model)

 

[theswerdy]

Thanks for the reply I appreciate it!
I guess I can move my price range up $30 if it means I can get the Intel HD Graphics 3000.
The ProBook you linked to has 2gb of ram and is 32 bit. shipping is 9.99 and then newegg has this ProBook with 4gb of ram and 64bit windows for only $10 more AND it is free shipping so it ends up being the same price as the 2gb ram one.
I could also upgrade the ram to 8gb if need be and the reviews say that upgrades are easy on the probook.
the only downside I see with the 4gb model is that there is no usb3.0, but I'm okay with making that trade off. Is there anything else I'm not seeing that hurts the 4gb probook?

 

[WR2]

No;
The free shipping/4GB model is definitely the better value. It comes with Win7 64bit OS.
Right now a 4GB stick of RAM is running around ~ $28, although 4GB is going to be plenty.
When you get right down to it - 2GB would be plenty for your intended purposes.

 

[WR2]

It's looking like $480 is the entry price for basic Sandy Bridge laptops ATM.
Acer Aspire AS5750 $480 or Lenovo G570 $485
The business class HP ProBook has matte finish anti-glare LCD screen which might come in handy. Easier to read outdoors and less glare indoors.

 

[alvinyang]

For $450, you can get a decent AMD A-series based laptop. This way, you get battery life, affordability and portability.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834101253

 

[tuixx99]

I found other reviews about 4530s like: http/www.bestlaptopsreviews.org/hp-probook-4530s-xu015ut-15-6-led-notebook