Hooray, I get to go back to the mountains. I intend to bring a laptop with me this time. I expect to use this mostly to:
1. Look at pictures of my wife and kid
2. Watch videos of my wife and kid
3. Watch DVDs
4. Listen to music
5. Surf the web
My family in-law is going to throw in and get me a laptop for Christmas so I would like to keep the price pretty close to 500USD. Quality of parts is obviously and issue since I wont be doing any reasonable RMA/repairs over there. Scouring the web and reading all the brand wars I think I'd like to stick to a Toshiba (best price/performance and good reliability?) or Asus (best quality?) Ive narrowed it down to
http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+Satellite+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i3+Processor+/+15.6%22+Display+/+4GB+Memory+/+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/1552571.p?id=1218268438309&skuId=1552571
or
http/www.officemax.com/catalog/sku.jsp?productId=prod3211067&history=ylesmgrc|prodPage~15^freeText~asus^paramValue~true^refine~1^region~1^param~return_skus^return_skus~Y
I know I get more with the Toshiba but I looked at a Toshiba and they seem like they have a lot of wasted space (looked approx 15% larger than comparable notebooks) and the Asus I looked at appeared to be built a little better. Should I sacrifice processor and GB for the Asus brand?
If its possible I'd like to take CIV IV and V and play them, maybe SC2? I know you need a discrete graphics card for any big stuff but I'm kind of hoping these are not so GPU hungry I cant run them on integrated graphics?
Any help, advise, or other purchase ideas are greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
1. Look at pictures of my wife and kid
2. Watch videos of my wife and kid
3. Watch DVDs
4. Listen to music
5. Surf the web
My family in-law is going to throw in and get me a laptop for Christmas so I would like to keep the price pretty close to 500USD. Quality of parts is obviously and issue since I wont be doing any reasonable RMA/repairs over there. Scouring the web and reading all the brand wars I think I'd like to stick to a Toshiba (best price/performance and good reliability?) or Asus (best quality?) Ive narrowed it down to
http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+Satellite+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i3+Processor+/+15.6%22+Display+/+4GB+Memory+/+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/1552571.p?id=1218268438309&skuId=1552571
or
http/www.officemax.com/catalog/sku.jsp?productId=prod3211067&history=ylesmgrc|prodPage~15^freeText~asus^paramValue~true^refine~1^region~1^param~return_skus^return_skus~Y
I know I get more with the Toshiba but I looked at a Toshiba and they seem like they have a lot of wasted space (looked approx 15% larger than comparable notebooks) and the Asus I looked at appeared to be built a little better. Should I sacrifice processor and GB for the Asus brand?
If its possible I'd like to take CIV IV and V and play them, maybe SC2? I know you need a discrete graphics card for any big stuff but I'm kind of hoping these are not so GPU hungry I cant run them on integrated graphics?
Any help, advise, or other purchase ideas are greatly appreciated.
Thanks.