Please help me find an affordable laptop for school

RedRhino

Honorable
Aug 10, 2012
4
0
10,510
I was looking at the other threads but I saw that others wanted to play games that were more demanding then what I was looking for....

1. What is your budget?
$500-$700

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Don't mind

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Nothing fancy really, standard resolution is fine :)

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Either works

5. How much battery life do you need?
A long battery life isn't necessary, I like bringing the charger along if I ever take my laptop somewhere

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 would actually like to be able to play minecraft and world of warcraft on it. (Don't mind playing wow on low~mid settings as long as I have around 40fps I'll be happy.)

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Microsoft office, youtube, surf the web.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Enough to hold WoW, Minecraft and word documents / few power points.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
None in Particular

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
2 years at least

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
CD DVD rom would be nice, but not needed.

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.
I usually hear people talk bad about Lenovo, HP, and Dell
While I hear that asus and acer are pretty good.

13. What country do you live in?
USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I would be super happy if it had a dedicated graphics card

I hope this can help people find their ideal notebook.

Additionally... you should also consider what support options are available in your area. If say you buy something abroad, will you be able to have it fixed near where you live? Does the warranty apply? How quickly do local accredited technicians fix laptops?
I'll be living at my university's campus so finding someone shouldn't be hard. :??:
 

RedRhino

Honorable
Aug 10, 2012
4
0
10,510
Well, the Acer 5560G is the fastest 450$ gaming laptop you'll currently find with Radeon 7670M, A6-3420M and 4GB HDD:
http://www.gaminglaptopsjunky.com/acer-aspire-as5560g-gaming-laptop-amd-quad-a6-3420m-radeon-hd-7670m-4gb-ddr3-449-97-100-instant-rebate-tigerdirect-circuitcity/

It's pretty good one with good build quality, thermals and noise levels (according to reviews) and it saves money so you can buy other things you need like flowers or an SSD.
The weak point is the LCD screen which I still don't know if you can replace.

Thank you for the reply! :D
How badly will the LCD impact game quality?
I'm not looking for high quality graphics and I hear wow has low min reqs.
The laptop looks like it has everything I'm looking for, I looked up on lcd screens and it looks like they are replaceable. :)

How is this laptop compared to the Acer 5560G?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215411&nm_mc=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r&cm_mmc=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r-_-Notebooks-_-Acer+America-_-34215411

Is the extra $100 worth it or should I stick with the Acer 5560G?