Websurfing-email-chat laptopt < $600

[Mighty]

1. What is your budget?
$499

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15"+, albeit 17" would be nice

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Hoping to find something above 768. That's a little cramped.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Bedroom laptop, occasionally taken on trips

5. How much battery life do you need?
N/A. It'll be plugged in the vast majority of the time

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)?
No

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
Surfing, email, chat. Probably the toughest thing this machine will do is run YouTube videos or possibly Blu-Ray movies. I usually have several windows/tabs open at once, so an honest-to-goodness 2+-core CPU would make a noticeable difference.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
N/A. The smallest drive available these days has more than I'll need for this machine

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
No preference

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
For such light activities, it should last several years. Unless some New Big Thing comes along that nobody can get along without.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Blu-Ray would be nice. Could live with DVD

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.
My brother works for AMD, so unless the bang-for-the-buck is completely out of whack I'd like AMD components.
Aesthetically, I tend to not like the Gateways. But if it's the only brand with the features I want then I could be talked into it.

13. What country do you live in?
US

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
This is a replacement for a 2-yr-old 15.6" laptop that my cat dumped a drink on to.

Built-in Wi-Fi N would be nice. Could live with G.

My budget is based on my tug-of-war between wanting to keep this really cheap vs wishing the screen was larger than 768 lines. That's just so darned cramped. It gets in the way a lot. If I can get 1080 for $550-ish then I'd be willing to stretch it that far. If I can't find larger than 768 in this price range then I'd like to drop my budget to <$425 (based on advice in this review, a step above bargain basement). 1660x900... um. I'm torn. I haven't used that size before, so I'm not sure. An extra 132 lines would prolly make a difference. So, that prolly falls somewhere between the extremes in my budget.

I appreciate any advice,
Drake

 

[shadamus]

That's a tough budget for wanting a higher-resolution screen. If you're willing to go with Refurbished models, that buys you a bit more flexibility, but still not likely to get out of the 1600x900 @ 17" category for $600... High-res screens in the 15" range are inordinately expensive.

One example I found, with an AMD CPU, 1600x900, 17" was:
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214192

TOSHIBA Satellite L675D-S7102 NoteBook AMD Athlon II Dual-Core P360(2.30GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Radeon HD 4250

I'm not really a huge fan of Toshiba laptops, but that's just one example. Acer and Gateway models can also be found in that range, or HP if you go Recertified.

Good luck

 

[Mighty]

Yeah, kinda what I was finding. I was hoping someone knew of a deal somewhere.

Can you tell me what you don't like about Toshiba laptops?

Considering this is really a tertiary computer I think I will go with recertified. I found a 17.3" Toshiba for $464 at NewEgg. Barring any horror stories you might have, that one will probably be Good Enough.

Thanks for helping me think it through,
Drake

 

[shadamus]

I could have worded that a bit better...

A few of the C2D Toshibas I used a couple years ago had marginal build quality. Nothing too serious but just didn't seem to fit together as well as I thought it would. I've got the same complaints with various Acer, Dell, and HP/Compaq units as well... some are nice and tight, some a bit sloppy.

 

[cadder]

Somebody else just asked about resolutions above 768- a quick search of bestbuy.com and newegg.com found a couple of machines for under $1000 with resolutions above 768. One was 15" and one was 16", I didn't try looking at 17" machines. I think the problem is that everybody is buying 15" panels from the same manufacturers and that is the cheapest/most common resolution that they come in. With 16" panels then you get more options.

But for the casual use that you state, I think 768 is not so bad. The 2 machines that I use the most at home have that resolution.

 

[Mighty]

Shadamus, thank you for sharing your thoughts. I am aware that at this low end quality can be a bit of a dice roll.

Cadder, I am familiar with the fact that many LCDs across laptop models all come from the same factory. I was just hoping that something had changed recently and that someone might know of new models that I hadn't turned up.

As I said, I had been using a 15.6" screen that was 768 high. It certainly did work. But that short screen bugged me pretty regularly. I have to admit I'm a bit spoiled with dual 1200 pixel screens on my main machine

The refurbished Toshiba I found on NewEgg may be a little underpowered. But at that price it's pretty close to the budget I was hoping for.

Drake

 

[WR2]

Look this over:
Dell Inspiron 17r $600 Sandy Bridge CPU
Core i3-2310M 2.1GHz Dual-core CPU, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 17.3" 1600x900 LCD w/ Intel HD 3000 Graphics

Or from Dell Business: Inspiron 17R $575
Core i3 370M (2.4GHz) 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 17.3" 1600x900 LCD w/ Intel HD Graphics

 

[WR2]

Acer Aspire AS7741Z $500
Pentium dual-core P6200 2.13GHz (part of the i3/i5 family) 4GB RAM 500GB HDD 17.3" 1600x900 LCD w/ Intel HD Graphics

 

[WR2]

For a 15.6" 1366x768 bargain:
HP Pavilion g6 $419
Pentium dual-core P6200 2.13GHz (part of the i3/i5 family) 4GB RAM 320GB HDD 15.6" LCD w/ Intel HD Graphics

 

[Mighty]

WR2, thanks for the suggestions. But for 1600x900 I think I'd prefer to keep the price below $500. In addition, that Toshiba uses AMD parts, which I'm partial to.

Drake

 

[WR2]

One reason the AMD costs less is the CPU is considerably less powerful than some of the Intel options:

Passmark CPU benchmark scores:
http/www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

AMD Athlon II P360 @ 4.5Ghz = 1272
Intel Pentium P6200 @ 2.13GHz = 1669
Intel Core i3 370M @ 2.40GHz = 2239
Intel Core i3-2310M @ 2.10GHz = 2753

 

[Mighty]

The specific one I'm looking at has a Turion II P520, which the chart you pointed at posts as 1442. That's in the ballpark (just over 10% difference) of the P6200 that is in the last two you suggested. And the CPU in the machine I'm replacing was a Turion X2 RM-72, which the benchmark has listed at 1040. So, even the P520 will be a small step up from what I had grown used to.

And, again, the price for the screen size I'm getting appeals to me.

I'm not at all anti-Intel. But I am pro-AMD, since my brother works there. I'm also pro-competition. AMD was a serious contender a few years ago, and they still do an adequate job of keeping Intel on their toes and help keep prices down. I would like to do my very small part to help AMD hang on long enough to achieve another breakthrough that will spur even more innovation.

Drake

 

[Mighty]

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the 17" Toshiba with the AMD P520. I appreciate everyone's efforts and advice. Even if I didn't follow it, you helped me clarify what I wanted within the budget I was aiming for. That was very helpful for me.

Drake

 

[WR2]

Let us know how it works out for you once you get it up and running.

 

[Mighty]

Will do. It should be here Friday.

 

[Mighty]

Got here a day early. Got it fired up last night. Don't have everything installed, yet.

It did initially have a problem where IE refused to download anything. It would display most web pages, but wouldn't download Firefox. A few other pages, like download.com did have rendering issues. I fought with it for a while and then rebooted. That seemed to clear it up.

It might be a sleep issue. Since I plan on having this plugged in 24/7, and I run SETI@Home, I'm setting it to never sleep while it's plugged in.

Those extra hundred-odd lines of screen space really do make a difference in usability. 768 just isn't quite enough to be comfortable with many of today's web pages.

So far, I'm very happy with it. Performance is plenty Good Enough.

Thanks again for the advice.

Drake

 

[Mighty]

Best answer selected by Mighty.