What Laptop Should I Buy With $200-$500?

[RTevi]

I'm looking into getting a new laptop sometime soon and i want a decent laptop. I would like to know your ideas on what I should get with a maximum of $500 here in the United States. Of course $530 is good etc as i'm sure some laptops are priced around there.

I honestly do not care about the 'brand' i have read plenty about how large brands such as the Toshiba (im currently using), Dell, HP Etc. buy the computers. So brand names don't quite matter to me right now. I want to know which laptop can i get the most out of.

I plan on using it for the following reasons.

• 
  -Gaming (Such as League of Legends, Combat Arms Etc.)
  -School Work (Pretty easy, Writing papers, research, Etc.)
  -Video Editing/Web Coding (I'm thinking about starting a small YouTube Channel soon so i have the software just as far as hardware goes, as well as i like to design/code websites, this is pretty basic i believe such as the school work i have a VPS to run all of the scripts on so no need to put them on my computer)
  -Other basic uses (This consists of web surfing, video viewing -YouTube-, Music Downloading, Movies, and that's about it.)

So far i am thinking about getting one of these

http/www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-Black-15.6-D550MAV-DB01-Laptop-PC-with-Intel-Bay-Trail-M-N2830-Dual-Core-Processor-4GB-Memory-500GB-hard-Drive-and-Windows-8.1/38250812

http/www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-Black-15.6-X551MAV-HCL1201E-Laptop-PC-with-Intel-Celeron-N2830-Processor-4GB-Memory-500GB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-8.1/43280208

http/www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-Black-15.6-D550MAV-DB01-Laptop-PC-with-Intel-Bay-Trail-M-N2830-Dual-Core-Processor-4GB-Memory-500GB-hard-Drive-and-Windows-8.1/38250812

Space/Storage wont matter as im buying an external hard drive.

However, i want the best computer for my money. Please let me know which computer you think i should buy and why. As i said, don't worry about the brands because that means nothing to me. Thank you for your time!

Regards,
-Ettevi

 

[Calculagator]

There are three important things I would recommend:
First, get one with a well-reviewed keyboard/touchpad or one that you have tried and like. No matter how "good" a laptop is, a glitchy touchpad makes it torture to use.
Second, get an SSD. You can make do with less storage. For a laptop, hibernate and boot times are very important. An SSD will give you a much better experience. You will also have the benefit of no moving parts. Laptop drives die all the time, especially if you actually carry your laptop with you. SSDs are pretty much immune to mechanical failure caused by dropping.
Third, get a nice screen. I think 1080p is probably the best resolution that you can get on a budget. A quality TN or any IPS screen really does make a difference. Many budget laptops have genuinely horrible screens that make long use painful.

It is difficult to find a laptop that both meets your budget and fits those requirements. My advice would be to either expand your budget or to buy the cheapest thing that will work and use it until you can afford better.
If you can afford more, I would take a look at the Zenbook UX305.
http/www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/ASUS-Zenbook-UX305FA-USM1-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.313303100

You can also look at used/refurbished laptops. Both the macbook air and lenovo yoga/yoga2/yoga3 have good models that can be had for less than $500

I don't really like transforming notebooks, but this one much faster than the ones you have listed, while being more portable, with a better screen, in your price range:
http/www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Acer-Aspire-Switch-11-Core-i3-Signature-Edition-2-in-1-PC/productID.308793400

Otherwise I would recommend an HP Stream 11 or 13 to keep you going until you can afford better (some models have a year of office included as well):
http/www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/list/Laptops/categoryID.69404900?sortby=listPrice%20ascending&filters=

I recommend the microsoft store because they have decent prices and their laptops come without all of the normal crap installed that could slow them down.

 

[jaguarskx]

So far i am thinking about getting one of these

http/www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-Black-15.6-D550MAV-DB01-Laptop-PC-with-Intel-Bay-Trail-M-N2830-Dual-Core-Processor-4GB-Memory-500GB-hard-Drive-and-Windows-8.1/38250812

http/www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-Black-15.6-X551MAV-HCL1201E-Laptop-PC-with-Intel-Celeron-N2830-Processor-4GB-Memory-500GB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-8.1/43280208

http/www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-Black-15.6-D550MAV-DB01-Laptop-PC-with-Intel-Bay-Trail-M-N2830-Dual-Core-Processor-4GB-Memory-500GB-hard-Drive-and-Windows-8.1/38250812

Space/Storage wont matter as im buying an external hard drive.

Those laptops are okay for everyday use, but not for playing games. Those are all Bay Trail generation CPUs which are low performance, but low power consumption CPUs.

I recommend you look at laptops closer to the top of you budget if playing some games is important. However, you will be limited to integrated graphics, but LoL has pretty low system requirements and it can run pretty well on a modern (non-entry level) laptop with only integrated graphics. The Lenovo G50-80 selling for $450 should be fine. It comes with a 5th generation Core i3-5005u (2.0GHz) and the integrated Intel HD 5500 graphics core.

http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/g-series/g50-80/


Here is LoL played on a Surface Pro 2 with the previous generation Core i5-4200u (1.6GHz / 2.6GHz) and the Intel HD 4400 which is about 15% - 20% slower than the Intel HD 5500. Also, the game is being played at 1920x1080 resolution is which higher than the Lenovo G50-80's resolution.

https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPOBeiNhVnA