Need help picking a new or refurbished Laptop $500-650?

[budmonster]

My previous HP Pavilion m6-1035dx fell and the hdd is all messed up, don't know if its worth fixing or just upgrading to a new laptop?

Anyways, my budget is around $500-650, yet I can find any good deals on Cyber Monday, go figure. I'm OK with a refurbished as long as no scratches or dents or visible.

Some quick checkpoints I need. At least 1920x1080, HDMI, 8GB+ memory, 750GB+ hdd (1TB would be nice), a dedi graphics card if possible, keyboard backlit & an optical drive would be useful but if I can save a good bit of money then I can live without one. I'd be using this as an all purpose machine. Minor gaming as I'm in no way an extreme gamer, maybe a couple hours a week. I'll be streaming large files to my TV's in the house, using Photoshop and other image/video editing software.

I know in my price range I really can except the greatest machine to do what I'm asking so I understand some things here and there will have to be sacrificed. I just want a machine that'll last me for the next 3 years.

I've been looking at Lenovo a lot recently, especially the Z40's, everything on there website is half off or some huge discount.

Thanks and Happy Holidays.

Edit: Before I forget, I have CC's with Amazon, Newegg, Best Buy, TigerDirect & B&H Photo Video, so I've been trying to check those places out. Lenovo accepts Amazon Payments which is why I was looking at them.

 

[stokieben]

1 - http/www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-V3-572G-587W-15-6-Inch-Platinum/dp/B00K81O3PY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417520273&sr=8-1&keywords=840m
2 - http/www.amazon.com/MSI-GP60-LEOPARD-010-9S7-16GH11-010-15-6-Inch/dp/B00IQ4E0ZI/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1417520273&sr=8-6&keywords=840m

here are some light gaming orientated laptops good for general use, they don't fit your specs completely the 2nd one being a little premium however these are what you can expect in that price range. Have you tried looking at custom PC website too ?

If not try http/www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-15416-laptops-ct-95_51_149.html

 

[budmonster]

How about this Asus? I think it just went back into stock.

ASUS R510DP-FH11 Notebook AMD A-Series A10-5750M (2.50GHz) 8GB Memory 750GB HDD AMD Radeon HD 8670M 2GB 15.6" Windows 8 (64 bit)

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-231-521

$629.99 1920x1080, 750gb HDD, 8gb ram. Yeah it's an AMD a10 cpu but at least the gpu is a 2gb Radeon hd 8670m.

What do you think, pull the trigger?

 

[jaguarskx]

The Asus R510DP is not that great of a deal. The Radeon HD 8670m is less powerful than a GeForce 830m even when it "dual graphics" with the integrated Radeon HD 8650g graphics core. Also "dual graphics" will only work with DX11 games (maybe DX10). That means if you play a DX 9 game like Skyrim, then only the slower integrated graphic core will be used.

The link to the MSI laptop above is a better laptop for your needs.

 

[budmonster]

Damn, $150 more for a slightly better gpu? Is that all that is different? I really wanted to stay in budget after I just bought $1000 in parts to build my new PC. Any other choices?

Also I had a question can you stream movies from a chrome book to a television? I was just curious on how useful chrome books are?

 

[budmonster]

And the price of that MSI just went up to 849$

 

[jaguarskx]

Chromebooks are basically low cost laptops that operates with a web browser OS known as Chrome. Everything you do will be within a web browser. As long as the Chromebook has a HDMI port you can connect it to the TV. If you want to stream something wirelessly to a HDTV, then I am sure Google sells a device that will do so.