Emergency laptop replacement. Help!!!

[hansen01]

My laptop was run over today. The driver of the vehicle offered to replace or fix it. It was an inspiron w/ i5 3317u 15.6" screen, evo ssd, 6gb ddr3.

I am in the middle of studying for board exams and need a replacement ASAP.

IF YOU KNOW OF ANY DEALS LET ME KNOW. Local stuff (box stores) would be great otherwise a few days out w/ express shipping.

I basically need the most ram and cpu I can get for $5-600 us. The laptop started but screen was smashed and fan was hitting. Should be able to reuse ssd. MUST HAVE OPTICAL DRIVE OR ROOM FOR SECOND HD. I am an amateur phtographer and keep pics and study materials on hdd.

i5 or better (I use photoshop). Strongly prefer dell ultrabooks. Refurb fine if I can get it here fast enough.

If any suggestions are given I will follow up and see if they work for me.

Thanks in advance.

 

[jaguarskx]

I recommend the Dell Latitude 3540 for $541; it is a budget oriented business laptop. It is not an ultrabook, but then again ultrabooks do not have optical drives. It has a Core i5-4200u, Radeon HD 8850m and a 1080p screen. I purchased a refurb Latitude 3540 back in Jan 2014 and I am pretty satisfied with it's performance.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Latitude-3540-Laptop-i5-4200U-1080P-AMD-RADEON-HD8850M-4GB-500GB-WIN8-PRO-/191586379704?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c9b7027b8


If you want an ultrabook, then there's the 14" Dell Latitude E6430U for $485. But it does not have an optical drive and there is likely no room for a second SSD. The screen is only 1366x768.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Latitude-E6430U-Ultrabook-14-i7-3667U-8GB-256GB-SSD-Webcam-Backlit-Win-7Pr-/161697445408?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25a5eb3620

 

[hang-the-9]

Can you find the same model? If your hard drive is fine, you will just need to plop your drive into the new laptop if you get the same model and you're done.

 

[hansen01]

I ended up with a used hp envy j051nr. Plenty of power for photoshop where my previous i5 fell short. 12gb quad core i7 w discrete nvidia graphics. I borrowed a samsung in the interim and I have to say the dell was much more refined than both. Especially when it came to cooling. That thing never got hot and i hardly ever heard the fan.