Frequently asked but rarely answered,what's the best 550$ laptop?

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jadtheone

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Aug 23, 2018
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Hello,now the reason I'm typing this is because I would like a 4th?7th? backup plan incase the PC plan fails.
My question is,what is the best NEW laptop under 550$?
This is frequently asked but I never find a good answer,every answer I found is either outdated or on a used/sale item and the laptops are actually about 1000$ and not 500$,so I'm hoping to find an actual answer.
Now there's a few things the laptop needs to have:
8GB RAM minimum. (6GB at the very least.)
A quad core cpu,doesn't necessarily need an intergrated GPU. (I'm not sure if AMD fx-series is desktop only but AMD cpus are very cheap and good the fx-6300 is 55$ and has 6 cores.)
At least 2GB VRAM. (Nvidia is much cheaper than AMD Radeons.)
At least 500GB storage HDD.
Screen size doesn't matter all that much,I'd be fine with about 12".
Battery life not all that important since I'll keep it plugged in,3 hours minimum.
A CD drive,there's no way I'm downloading 351GB on 60kbps-80kbps,a CD drive is very important.
Please no sale/refurbished/used/rebate prices.
Other laptop related questions:
Can you change the storage of a laptop like if I get 500GB now can I change it to 1TB later?
Other questions:
After I'm done with this thread should I post a new one or edit this one and post a comment to "bump" it?
I appreciate the help,thank you for your time.
 

4745454b

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Apr 29, 2006
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This is for gaming I assume? I'm not sure there are any new laptops in the $550 range that would make a good gaming machine. Around a year ago I helped my brother get a gaming laptop and he ended up spending just over $800. Any new laptop that is in the $550 range would be using IGP. I know of no laptop that has 8GBs of ram, a real GPU, and costs less than $600. Good luck in that search.

After I'm done with this thread should I post a new one or edit this one and post a comment to "bump" it?
I appreciate the help,thank you for your time.

Let me put my mod hat on now as this is something that bothers me. First, Tom's has a rather strict no bumping policy. I'm not sure what you meant by "done with this thread", but you shouldn't ever bump a post. You can reply to the comments of course, but a straight "bump" post shouldn't ever be done. You shouldn't edit this post either. Second, there is no reason to start another thread. Start one thread per issue. Not one thread per part, but one thread per problem you are having. Your current problem is finding a laptop with XYZ specs. If you have another problem then please start a thread about it. (Monitor going black during games for example.) But you shouldn't start another thread tomorrow asking for help finding a $500 laptop. Nor should you start one tomorrow asking about a $700 laptop. This is your laptop/PC buying thread. Stick to it until you find what you are looking for.
 

USAFRet

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That is entirely dependent on what is available in your local market.
We could list 500 different laptops, but if none of them are available, that is a waste of everyones time.

How about you give us a list of whatever you can buy in your market, and we can tell you which one is the best.
 

jadtheone

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Aug 23, 2018
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Well if I was to give you a list it'd be a lot longer than 500 laptops.
And I've checked Digitalnet-Syria before,everything there is a complete lie.
I found an i7 8gb laptop for less than a dollar over budget but when I looked up the laptop it turned out to be a way worse one.
For the money conversion,I think it's about 520s.p per dollar.
 

Karadjgne

Distinguished
Herald
Budget + electronics + Syria + Good = impossible. You'd need to be looking at $350-400 laptops US to get anything around $550 after you pay shipping and customs fees etc. Unless that's already in consideration and the remainder is US$550.

Availability on Syria is dismal to say the least. Most local shops will buy cheap as possible, just to make their money back after they pay the shipping etc. So most things end up as cut rate junk, dual cores, 4Gb of ram, 500Gb hdds, integrated graphics etc.

You may end up searching Greek, Saudi, Egyptian, Australian, Singapore websites and see if they'll ship to Syria because locally will rob you blind and US/European websites will charge far too much for shipping and customs.
 

jadtheone

Great
Aug 23, 2018
17
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Well actually shipping would be 100$ the taxes are probably about 200$ and I would prefer a 4gb ram dual core over a 64gb STORAGE 512mb ram single core laptop.
To be fair Syria+good is like dividing by zero.
 
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