Suggestions on a ~$400-$500 Laptop

[johnnydrinkawater]

I'm looking for a 13.3" or 15.6" to be used for internet browsing, smooth video playback, word processing, and outlook.

I was thinking at least 2GB RAM, bright and clear screen, HDD space not important.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!^_^

 

[Decembermouse]

If you're looking for smooth video playback anything should be good. If you want to watch Youtube in HD or anything else in HD, or plan to do video encoding or decoding, I would get one of the new Athlon II M300 laptops, which has the radeon 4200 graphics chip. Right here:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+-+Laptop+with+AMD+Athlon%26%23153%3B+II+Dual-Core+Processor+-+Coffee+Brown/9605383.p?id=1218130488875&skuId=9605383&st=athlon%20ii&cp=1&lp=5

About 3.5 hours battery life. These new processors from AMD are comparable to the mid/upper range of Core 2 Duo processors, like T6700 and some of the P series, from what I have read, although nobody has actually done too many benchmarks comparing the two. Not that you're looking for a super fast processor, but suffice it to say these CPU's are pretty nice.

If you want to extend battery life let me know, there are ways you could probably get 4 hours or so.

 

[xenolith]

I agree with Decembermouse's recommendation.

Walmart has a HP Athlon II (K10) M300, 3GB DDR3, 4200 Radeon 15.6" laptop for $398. The only difference it has that I can tell with the Bestbuy Gateway is it has less RAM (3GB vs 4GB), has no HDMI, and has a smaller (250GB vs 320GB) hard drive.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...ct_id=13071842

 

[Decembermouse]

Wow xenolith, good find. That's a good deal, you'd pay $450 for one of those at Best Buy. A couple things though, and I'd really like to figure these out:

-Walmart claims the laptop has Sideport memory built in. I know of no design that supports this with these Athlon II motherboards. At least, not laptop motherboards. It exists on desktop motherboards (for instance the ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO).

-They also claim it has DDR3, which isn't supported by these processors. I'm pretty positive on this one...

This is a FANTASTIC deal though. The only reason I'm not getting it is I want the M500 at least, for its 128b FPU. I think this would help with Folding@Home, but am not sure if it would translate to real-life performance increases over the Athlon II's 64b FPU...

 

[xenolith]

I should have known better than to trust a retailer listed spec...

I have this laptop and it has DDR2, not DDR3.

CPU-Z reports it has a Quanta 363F 785GX mainboard. Good luck finding any info on a HP proprietary designed mobile MB... I seriously doubt it has sideport memory too.

 

[Decembermouse]

785G is AMD's desktop chipset. This designation is in line with its desktop counterpart with the Radeon 4200. Good to have confirmation on a part number, thanks!

 

[johnnydrinkawater]

I agree with Decembermouse's recommendation.

Walmart has a HP Athlon II (K10) M300, 3GB DDR3, 4200 Radeon 15.6" laptop for $398. The only difference it has that I can tell with the Bestbuy Gateway is it has less RAM (3GB vs 4GB), has no HDMI, and has a smaller (250GB vs 320GB) hard drive.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...ct_id=13071842

I saw that one on Newegg as well, Core2 competitor for a lower tier price.

Alas, the customer missed the boat on that one as they drug their feet consulting with another party...

 

[taltamir]

AMD laptops are made of fail and suck; AMD is competitive (barely, in the low end) in the desktop market, but their laptop CPUs are utter crud.
With intels you want to avoid the craptastic atom and the commonly foisted obsolete hardware for new hardware price... which make the vast majority of intel laptops ATM...

check this thread for arrandales i3 which are THE processor to get right now:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2044465
The CPU improvements in nehalem are ideal for laptops... many have little to no advantage in the desktop market but huge benefits in the laptop market (aka, their amazing management, GPU on chip, etc)

if 600$ is too much, then you should get the cheapest core 2 duo lappy, don't pay more than 400$ for one though, and make sure it is a C2D of some sort.