Laptop Suggestion for $600

I've been tasked with finding a laptop for $600. Not an easy task. The computer will see light use, comprising Internet surfing, Microsoft Office duties and general file management. It won't be gamed on, nor will the laptop see extensive or heavy Photoshop use.

Am I best to recommend something with an i5 or i7 processor (likely looking at Acer or Asus in this price range), or go with a more modestly spec'd Toshiba or MSI, which I suspect will have better build quality?

screen size?

intel or amd? whoops you said i5 or i7

sometimes frys has them for under 500 dollars

I am kind of partial to the portability of my x60. The only down side is the optical drive is in the ultrabase and intel GMA graphics. They can be had on ebay fairly cheap as core 2 duo is yesterdays tech.

Since my only suggestion would be to spend more than $600, I am kind of useless here.

If it were for me, I'd be spending more than $600 as well.

What do you folks think of the reliability of Lenovos? In this case, I'm almost thinking it's worthwhile to sacrifice a little bit of power for reliability. I've heard mixed reviews of Lenovos, but I'm willing to trust your opinion.

Are any of the other laptops I mentioned any good these days.

As for AMD or Intel: I think either would do.

A lot of early lenovo (more specifically the R series) seemed to have a problem cooking mobos. 1 drive later in my x60 (Just got it back yesterday from seagate) and no major hardware failures to speak of. Although its worth mentioning the backlight bulb was shot when I got it (Im not sure if that was a failure or just that the previous owner managed to break only the bulb somehow)

Basing my recommendation on my x60 I would recommend lenovo. The only reason I wouldn't buy another lenovo is they have recently started locking down everything about them (Can only use the wireless card it came with and I have heard people say the same thing for the hard drive) Without a modded bios image. Which is complete bs. If the wireless card (and all are) is certified by the fcc then what particular laptop I choose to put it in is my business not the manufactures.

East wrote:A lot of early lenovo (more specifically the R series) seemed to have a problem cooking mobos. 1 drive later in my x60 (Just got it back yesterday from seagate) and no major hardware failures to speak of. Although its worth mentioning the backlight bulb was shot when I got it (Im not sure if that was a failure or just that the previous owner managed to break only the bulb somehow)

Basing my recommendation on my x60 I would recommend lenovo. The only reason I wouldn't buy another lenovo is they have recently started locking down everything about them (Can only use the wireless card it came with and I have heard people say the same thing for the hard drive) Without a modded bios image. Which is complete bs. If the wireless card (and all are) is certified by the fcc then what particular laptop I choose to put it in is my business not the manufactures.

Dell and HP are starting to do this. the new hp laptop i'm getting probably will only keep for less then two years, because of this.

http://dealnews.com/c49/Computers/Laptops/?o=hotness


Check daily you can come up on a great deal.

Thanks everyone. I had a look this weekend and I think I may have figured out a few recommendations. An laptop featuring an AMD quad core with dedicated ATI graphics appears to offer the best bang for the buck.

if your looking for best bank for the buck with amd and radeon. Look at Fujitsu life models... I think it's life

Yeah. There are a number of decent laptops with those components. Acer and Lenovo seem to offer good price points.

We used to have small Fujitsu laptops at work. They seemed pretty reliable -- more so than the Dells that we have now!

Dells make me cringe . . .

Mind you, prior to that we had some old Panasonic toughbooks that would be hopelessly outdated now, but they did live up to their names. I know some people who, shall we say, "tested" just how tough they were . . .

Nice. It's amazing what staff are willing to do with work-issued equipment.

"Willing" would be the wrong word. "Clumsy" leaps to mind.

Ah, so this wasn't purposeful testing?!

Is it ever?

There are times.

Iago wrote:Mind you, prior to that we had some old Panasonic toughbooks that would be hopelessly outdated now, but they did live up to their names. I know some people who, shall we say, "tested" just how tough they were . . .

That is the reason I like messing with them so much and that they have a ton o inner ports you can hardware hack to put gps and ton of other stuff into. What models did y'all have?

I wish that I could remember. We have switched laptops a couple of times since then, and we do not do that terribly often -- it has been several years since we had them.

Seamaster what did you decide on ... I would like to know, just because.

Ended up picking a nice a little Acer with a quad-core AMD processor and dedicated ATI graphics chip. Certainly not what I would call a gaming computer, but it fit the bill as a general use computer (think Internet surfing and light Office duties). I can't recall the exact model number off the top of my head, but I will get that for you -- it was a fairly new release from Acer. I liked the idea of the quad core and separate graphics chip, even if it won't be gamed on. Even general use requires graphics support and keeping that stuff separate help keeps the laptop cool and running more smoothly. At least that was my thinking.

I was a little wary about recommending an Acer, but I did some research and they don't seem to be as bad as I had thought. They have a 18% fail rate out of the factory, which I thought high until I learned that Apple has a 17% fail rate and Toshiba a 19% fail rate! The boutique builders might do better, but they were out of the price range allotted.