Looking for a new laptop

[tvfreak]

Well i was going to go ahead and upgrade and get a new PC set up. But i have since changed my mind and looking into getting a laptop (probably will still get a PC built maybe sometime this year).

I'm looking into the up to $600 price range (well try to stay below that if possible [] ).

I will most likely just use it to browse the net but also play some games as well. Any ideas of what brand of laptops you guys can recommend me? Screen size 15inch or larger.

I was also wondering if i do go this route and buy a laptop how easy is it to upgrade the memory and switch to an SSD drive instead of using the HDD? Or get a laptop that has an ssd drive. I don't plan on storing tons of music or movies on my laptop, so i don't need a 1trillion bite hard drive =P.

A good battery life would be nice. I will be buying the laptop on amazon because well i have gift cards from that company.

Thanks,

IaimToMisbehave you know

 

[kinggraves]

http/www.amazon.com/Acer-AS5560-Sb613-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Black/dp/B005J2JNDE/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

This is what I found. The AMD A8 will give you a decent amount of processing and gaming power for under 600.

How easy it is to change out the hard drive and RAM depends on the laptop, sometimes they have hatches that can be removed and sometimes you have to take half the thing apart. I couldn't quite figure out which type this is, Newegg's photos do show the bottom and it looks like a hatch is there.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215187

Switching to an SSD later can involve some annoying steps like moving the OEM Windows license from the hard drive over to the SSD. You will also have to double check the exact size of the SSD you want to put in compared to the HDD you're removing, as sometimes the bays are small. It's MUCH harder however to find one with an SSD prebuilt, especially a quality SSD.

One tip I give is to put the removed HDD in an external 2.5 inch enclosure so you can have extra storage.


Update:

http/www.amazon.com/Gateway-NV55S13u-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Ebony/dp/B005JCYZW8/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

This Gateway seems to use the same shell as the Acer and had a more informative manual. The hatch at the bottom of both models is the HDD/memory access. The Gateway costs more but comes with a Bluray drive.