Budget Laptop under 400

[darkfrostghost]

I recently built a desktop that I enjoy thoroughly, however lately I've been missing the portability of having something I could take to class or work. So with research I'll try to outline my thought process to see if anyone can help in the mad world of online buying.

First off, I've been looking into different laptop combinations and definitely want a ssd as my hard drive. Now, yes they are abnormally expensive.. I mean you put those three letters and a laptop jumps up 400$ (slight exaggeration).

I'm leaning toward buying a laptop with a good processor that could handle programs such as maplesoft or mathematica (with enough of a mind to also play lower grade games such as minecraft, binding of issac, age of empires 2, etc.), and upgrading its hard drive (and possibly ram) myself. Hence the small budget, since mods would cost ~160.

Long story short:

-Cheap (<400)
-Upgrade-able to ssd from it's Hdd (to save money)
-4-6 gb ram(I could always upgrade this as well)
-Good processor(I'm not sure what to get, amd or intel, just something with somewhat good integrated graphics)
-No dvd drive if possible

Thank you in advance, any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[aloof11]

This fits your criteria (somewhat): http/www.amazon.com/HP-Sleekbook-2-1GHz-750GB-Laptop/dp/B00DYH88N2/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1389407545&sr=1-1&keywords=a10-5750m
1) Slightly over your budget (by $12)
2) Ive heard problems with upgrading to SSD from HDD with Windows 8 btw (I dont know much about it though)
3) Already has 6GB of RAM
4) This is the only con I see, the CPU isnt the strongest but it makes up for it by having decent graphics (for a low cost), I would advise you to look for an laptop with an A10-5750M as the CPU this laptop has in it is a low power version of that (A10-5745M) but do to the low power you should see better battery life
5) No optical drive

At the $400 price point if you can get an A10-5750M machine its a great deal

 

[jacobian]

For 400, I think you should aim for a portable with a 35watt TDP Core i3 CPU with either HD Graphics 4000 or 4600 (4600 is better), 4GB of ram. The 15watt TDP models will be slower, but with better battery life, noise emission, and weight.

AMD's A10-5750M dominates Intel's Sandy and Haswell i3, in the sense that the CPU performance is about the same, give or take, you get more integer cores, but the integrated graphics is better than HD4600 by some 20-30% . However, the problem is that A10-5750M portables normally cost +500 at least. For 400 you get a A6 or A8 at best, and at that point it's directly inferior to Core i3.

 

[darkfrostghost]

Thanks guys, this was very helpful. I almost kick myself for waiting to long to get that one you listed aloof11. But I have been keeping an eye out now knowing what processor to stick with. Any thoughts or stories on refurb or open box?

 

[aloof11]

If you are buying from ebay then buy a "factory refurbished" laptop not a "seller refurbished" (like this http/www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Notebook-17-e049wm-17-3-AMD-A-Series-A10-5750M-2-50GHz-750GB-HDD-8GB-Memory-/291056807034?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item43c4566c7a) Ive bough one refurb and didnt have a problem with, sometimes you basically get a new laptop that had its HDD replaced with a working one. But its not a bad idea to look up the model, you notice certain models have alot more refurbs then others (I remember some old HP models that had heating issues, tons of refurbs were available on ebay).
Open box are normally okay (but you can sometimes expect some markings on item), Ive seen some rather powerful laptops on newegg.com with a very low price since they are open box (but they go out fast)