Need a 500$ facebook machine

[roman161]

I need a sub $500 facebook machine. I hate Lenovos, I prefer Dell/HP (or any laptop that doesn't have OEM bloatware). I'm very rough with laptops, so nothing made out of paper. Thanks.

What is your budget? 500

What country will you be buying this in? US

What size notebook do you prefer? Thin and Light (13 - 14-inch screen) Mainstream (15 - 16-inch screen) Desktop Replacement (17-inch + screen)

What brands do you like or dislike? Dislike: Lenovo

Would you consider a refurbished laptop? No

What are the primary tasks you need this notebook for? Web Surfing, Office and Productivity Software, Video Chat and Conference, Movie Streaming and Viewing

Where will you be using this laptop? Will be used different places and Will stay on desk

How many hours of battery life do you need? [strike]10[/strike] 6-8

Will you be buying online or in store? online or in store

Which OS do you prefer? Windows 7

List the screen resolutions that interest you: Standard Resolution (1366 x 768) High Resolution (1600 x 900)

Do you prefer a glossy or matte screen? Glossy is fine

Is the laptops design important to you? Yes

Approximately what date will you be buying this laptop? Around 03/01/2012

How long do you want this laptop to last? 4 years

How much storage capacity do you need? 250 GB

Are you interested in SSD for storage? No

Do you want a built-in optical drive, what type? DVD Burner

 

[Rockdpm]

have you considered going to your nearest Best Buy?, Newegg also has great deals on laptops. Basically any laptop with a Nice Dual core or Quad Core will be fine, obviously if your playing games like farmville or other pointless facebook games. I recommend you getting your laptop with a Intel Core I5 or I3 processor, the built in Graphics chip will really help. as for the other uses as long as the laptop has maybe a low end AMD Video Chip in it or a NVIDIA GT** thatl be perfect. but for just web browsing for 4 years and stuff, Intel CPU is what you want. With AMD you could loose performance over time. Just an example, i have a Macbook from 2008 with a Intel Core2Duo 2.0 GHZ with 2gb of ram and played call of duty 4 with it for about a year or 2. since then all i have done is upgraded ram to 4gb because the memory went bad. and the laptop has been running like brand new since then. so its been used for about 4-5 years

 

[roman161]

have you considered going to your nearest Best Buy?, Newegg also has great deals on laptops. Basically any laptop with a Nice Dual core or Quad Core will be fine, obviously if your playing games like farmville or other pointless facebook games. I recommend you getting your laptop with a Intel Core I5 or I3 processor, the built in Graphics chip will really help. as for the other uses as long as the laptop has maybe a low end AMD Video Chip in it or a NVIDIA GT** thatl be perfect. but for just web browsing for 4 years and stuff, Intel CPU is what you want. With AMD you could loose performance over time. Just an example, i have a Macbook from 2008 with a Intel Core2Duo 2.0 GHZ with 2gb of ram and played call of duty 4 with it for about a year or 2. since then all i have done is upgraded ram to 4gb because the memory went bad. and the laptop has been running like brand new since then. so its been used for about 4-5 years

Can most laptops utilize the on-chip graphic accelerator from the i* series? When I bought my old laptop (a few years ago) there was an article I read saying that many laptops with an i3 don't benefit/use the accelerator.

I think I'll be looking into an i3. This is for college, so weight and size is also a concerning factor. Also I hate buying from BestBuy, mostly because of their lack of selections.

 

[Rockdpm]

True dat, when i got my ASUS desktop about a year back i used it for a little while then built a desktop realizing it would be so easy and better performance. So i can understand the best buy thing. Uh as for the on graphic accelerator. idk what article you were reading. I think the Intel graphics will be ok for what you gonna do but go do expecting to run any game like Battlefield or Call of duty on it. I recommend getting one with a descrete low end chip

 

[Wisecracker]

If you want to approach anything close to 10 hours of battery life I would recommend an E-Series AMD APU.

I snagged a Compaq 15.6 notebook, OCZ Agility SATA 6Gb/s 64GB SSD, 2x4GB of RAMs, Vantec External HDD Enclosure, Rosewill 400w inverter, and WiFi Key Fob Finder for around $500 during the holidays.

I stripped all the bloatware out of it and 'ghosted' the OS to the SSD, then swapped out the drives. This suckah is snappy and gets 6-7 hours (around 4 hrs playing back DVDs from the 320GB HDD in the external enclosure).

I was going to replace the 6-cell with an 8-cell to extend the battery life, but with the screen turned down quite low (and my mobile charging) I just haven't found the need.

 

[roman161]

If you want to approach anything close to 10 hours of battery life I would recommend an E-Series AMD APU.

I snagged a Compaq 15.6 notebook, OCZ Agility SATA 6Gb/s 64GB SSD, 2x4GB of RAMs, Vantec External HDD Enclosure, Rosewill 400w inverter, and WiFi Key Fob Finder for around $500 during the holidays.

I stripped all the bloatware out of it and 'ghosted' the OS to the SSD, then swapped out the drives. This suckah is snappy and gets 6-7 hours (around 4 hrs playing back DVDs from the 320GB HDD in the external enclosure).

I was going to replace the 6-cell with an 8-cell to extend the battery life, but with the screen turned down quite low (and my mobile charging) I just haven't found the need.

Hot damn, that's quite a rig. Where'd you find a deal like that?

 

[geekapproved]

Can most laptops utilize the on-chip graphic accelerator from the i* series? When I bought my old laptop (a few years ago) there was an article I read saying that many laptops with an i3 don't benefit/use the accelerator.

I think I'll be looking into an i3. This is for college, so weight and size is also a concerning factor. Also I hate buying from BestBuy, mostly because of their lack of selections.

On chip graphics accelerator?? It's not an accelerator, it IS the graphics, so of course it uses it, otherwise you wouldn't see anything on the screen lol.

Anyways, check Bensbargains.net, they post the best deals from everywhere. I would suggest a i3 or Pentium dual core.

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

You will not get 10 hours of battery life running that size screen....

All the best Brett

 

[geekapproved]

If it's for facebook you should just get a tablet or use your phone, I don't see the point of a laptop just for facebook.

 

[Wisecracker]

Hot damn, that's quite a rig. Where'd you find a deal like that?

Pieced it together from the Egg and Amazon. Here a similar HP (Warning! Best Buy! :lol: ) for $330 but it's a 1.3GHz dual core -- mine is 1.6GHz (Compaq CQ57-214NR)

OCZ SSD: $90 before $10 rebate

Vantec NexStar TX 2.5" SATA to USB 2.0 External Hard Drive/SSD Enclosure: $7
(might find it at Wall E World - of all places - for a dollar or two less)

Rosewill 400W DC To AC Power Inverter: $22 with code
(this baby is always on sale - sometimes as low as $15)

2x4GB SO-DIMMS: $40'ish
(I got the GSkill 1333 for around $30 on eblast)

The WiFi 'finder/signal strength' key fob was a combo with the note book for an additional $15 or so - they're kinda hard to find and some folks complained about 'intermittent' operation, but mine has been bullet-proof thus far.

If by 'graphics acceleration' you mean 'video hardware acceleration' which minimizes CPU utilization that is what the APU is all about. It off-loads the video processing to something called the 'Unified Video Decoder' (UVD). It handles most everything (I'm not sure about Silverlight/Netflix - it may have had some 'issues' but I think the latest Silverlight fixed it)

The amazing thing is how cool it runs -- when the fan kicks on it never has blown warm air, much less hot.

There are 8-cell batteries on Amazon for $50-$60. That might get you a bit closer to 10 hours, but as noted, it will be a few years before we get there.

 

[roman161]

Hi

You will not get 10 hours of battery life running that size screen....

All the best Brett

Yeah, I didn't think so. Thanks Brett. I editted my main post.

If it's for facebook you should just get a tablet or use your phone, I don't see the point of a laptop just for facebook.

Its mostly a laptop for school though. Lots of people like to call them "facebook machines". In reality it will probably be used for excel, homework, and word processing.

 

[dextermat]

get an asus laptop, any other will let you down

 

[madooo12]

HP 2000z series customize online

upgrade processor (E450), RAM (4GB 2 DIMM), and add bluetooth, also if you buy a bag and mouse, you should be able to get it for under 500$

that's 15.6" and is excellent for internet and office usage, can even play lots of games and HD video