Looking for a laptop for general use/work - filled out the form

[chrisbek]

Looking to purchase a laptop for work. Hoping someone can help me pick a winner if possible.

1. What is your budget? $300.00 to 500.00 CANADIAN before taxes

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? Minimum 15 Inch

3. What screen resolution do you want? Decent screen resolution for work.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Portable - Plan to use it at work

5. How much battery life do you need? 5 to 6 hours

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?

I have a gaming desktop at home so this laptop would primarily be for:

Surfing the internet
Connect to wireless networks
Watching streaming videos/movies
Email
Office programs
Using the laptop to install and learn about Linux Operating System
Using the laptop to install and learn about Windows 7 Professional Edition 64 bit edition
Using the laptop to install and learn Windows XP Professional
The ability to connect to Windows 2003 server environments



The types of games I do play on my desktop are steam games. Games like farcry 3, cs:go, etc.
It would be nice to play such games if possible but not a requirement as I would like to simply use it more for work and browing the internet.


7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop?

I want a laptop that I can create a dual boot system using Linux Redhat, Windows XP and Windows 7
Laptop must have wireless connectivity to internet
Decent sound and graphics
Surfing the internet
Watching streaming videos/movies
Email
Office Programs (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Access)
Programming Using C++/Visual Basic.Net


8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?

I don't as I don't store or use many files that are huge. 250GB to 1TB is ideal if possible

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

www.canadacomputers.com
www.ncix.com
www.bestbuy.com
www.thesource.com


10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

2 to 5 years tops

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

I do need a dvd burner to write files to.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

Not too concerned on brands as long as it works for my intended needs.

13. What country do you live in?

Canada

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

Laptop must be easy to take apart if I need to upgrade or replace components such as RAM or the Harddrive.

 

[jaguarskx]

$500 Canadian is not a lot of money.

You will not be able to run Win XP on a modern laptop since manufacturers stopped developing Win XP drivers long ago. The same can be said of Win 7, but some business laptops are shipped with Win 7 Pro so those specific laptop models will have Win 7 drivers from the manufacturer. However, that is mostly limited to business laptops and they will definitely sell for above your budget. You can attempt to install Win XP and Win 7 in a modern laptop, but you will find that some things like the WiFi will not work without proper drivers.

The following Lenovo B50-80 is probably your best bet. However, it has Windows 10 installed and I really, really doubt Lenovo has any Win 7 drivers available for it so that you can install your own copy of Win 7. No specs are listed, but based on B50-80's from other sites it should have an optical drive. It has a 4th gen Core i3-4005u CPU which is basically the best CPU you can get in your price range. Laptops with Core i5 CPUs seems to sell for over $650 CAD.

http/www.ncix.com/detail/lenovo-b50-80-intel-i3-4005u-4gb-c7-113460-1671.htm