Curse

womBonk · Mar 07, 2012, 09:30 PM // 21:30

This will be my first laptop purchase. So, I'm really not 100% on where to shop or what manufacturers to look out for. Could basically just use some input and suggestions...

Price range: $650 at the absolute most

What I'll use it for:

Taking lecture notes
Watching videos / Movies
Web Development (Coding / Photoshop / GIMP / Databases / Using lots of tabs and multiple browsers) I could live without Photoshop or GIMP on my laptop I suppose.
I might one day decide to install an IDE such as Visual Studio 2010 (for C# .NET dev) or Eclipse
Light gaming (Guild Wars/WoW) can do without games it would just be nice

Laptops I've been looking at

ASUS A53E-NS51 Notebook $599

Intel Core i5 2450M(2.50GHz)
15.6" Screen
6GB Memory DDR3
750GB HDD 5400rpm
DVD±R/RW
Intel HD Graphics
6-cell lithium ion battery

On newegg : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834230234

MSI X Series X370-205US $539

AMD Dual-Core E-450(1.65GHz)
4GB Memory DDR3
500GB HDD 7200rpm
AMD Radeon HD 6320
13.4" Screen
8-cell lithium ion

On newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152287

HP ProBook 4430s (XU012UT#ABA) $504

Intel Core i3 2310M(2.10GHz)
4GB Memory DDR3 1333
320GB HDD 7200rpm
DVD Super Multi
Intel HD Graphics 3000
6-cell (47 WHr) Li-Ion Battery

on newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834157838

HP ProBook 4530s (LJ519UT#ABA) $619
Intel Core i3 2330M(2.20GHz)
4GB Memory DDR3 1333
500GB HDD 7200rpm
DVD+/-RW SuperMulti
Intel HD Graphics 3000

on newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834158136

Showtime · Mar 07, 2012, 09:39 PM // 21:39

google slickdeals... go to hot deals forums... scroll down til you see laptop deals...
there's usually some decent deals on dells, hp, etc a couple times a month. Sometimes they have crazy good deals like notebooks with video that you can game on for $600ish.

Quaker · Mar 08, 2012, 03:57 PM // 15:57

There's no reason why any of the apps you listed wouldn't run on a laptop, even a $600 one. The only difference would be the performance of the CPU and how fast it does things.
However, if you want to do any gaming, the GPU becomes important, and basically, the on-chip GPU in the Intel machines sucks for gaming (or even for watching HD videos on YouTube).
So what I would recommend overall, in that price range would be something based upon an AMD "A" series APU such as:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834101277
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834131187
etc.
The main thing with the APU is that the CPU side is a bit weaker than the Intel based units, so your apps would run a bit slower - it might take a few extra seconds to do something. But the GPU side of the APU is much stronger than the Intel, so gaming performance would be much better. (And HD YouTube videos would run much smoother.)

Btw, that MSI with the E-450 APU seems way overpriced for a laptop with that chip.

If you find a laptop in your price range with an Intel CPU and a discrete GPU, then it would be more of a toss-up, but the APU based units are usually much better overall within that price point.