looking for new laptop

[moocow0463]

hey guys im in the market for a new laptop for work, looking for popular brands or maybe brands to avoid etc i mostly will be doing web based applications, email, websites, spread sheets, running multiple windows at a time. I'd like to keep this budget as affordable as possible as this will be my own expense but i want to keep it reliable and dependable. just hopping on newegg, i see ACER ASUS DELL HP and gateway all in my criteria. i have had issues with gateway desktop quality in the past but im new to laptops and open to suggestions

what im looking for
larger screen 17"
multi core processor
built in blue tooth (preferred not required)
decent amount of RAM
GPU doesnt really matter
windows 7 would be preferred but i know hard to find now days
hard drive space wont really matter

 

[yogurt_21]

GPU doesnt really matter

Blasphemy!


You didn't mention your target budget. Touchscreen or no? (without a touchscreen windows 8 on a laptop is super annoying). Decent amount of ram to you is? 4GB? 8GB? 16GB? Size? 11" ok? 13"? 15"? 17"?
Screen resolution? Hard drive size?

There's so many different configurations around for laptops these days you can pretty much find one with pretty much everything you need. But without a budget number it's hard to recommend anything.

Brand wise I'm preferential to Lenovo or more custom brands. We use dell at work and they function well, but much of the time styling and extras aren't really present. HP might be fine as well but it's been along time since I've used one. ASUS = 10-15% price premium for the name. They've been solid over the years and now they charge you for it. Not a fan of Acer, feels like this generations emachines.

Popping in a few random search filters I get the following that would appear solid.

Lenovo G50
Lenovo G505s
Asus-X75A-DH32
DELL Inspiron 15 i3542-6666BK
Lenovo Flex 2
TOSHIBA Satellite C55-B5265

 

[moocow0463]

i think anything 8+ gb ram would be fine, HDD size isnt going to matter too much anything over 250gb, screen size i mentioned 17" id like to spend around $700 +/- $100

with multiple applications running i think id like to stick with a multi core i5 or amd equivalent

id prefer windows 7 honestly, but if it has to be windows 8 then yes i agree the touch screen is a nice feature but im not sure it is a must

 

[moocow0463]

with my criteria checked into new egg i basically found 2 option but neither are touch screen both running windows 8

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834300392R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834257889R

the HP has a bit faster processor more ram, the bigger HDD i dont care too much about but i suppose you never know when you need to load a movie or two up on it for traveling

 

[yogurt_21]

The HP is superior in every fashion to the dell but I'm always leery about used laptops, I then to go for brand new in box. Used + laptop just don't tend to go well together in my experience. People tear the crap out of them and open box signifies someone returned it for some reason.

 

[moocow0463]

so the HP laptop is out of the question they ran out of the open box laptops, at that price i would or purchased the extended warranty to cover it. so to meet my price range and needs ive decided to accept the fact that i can use a smaller screen if i get one with a good resolution.
any thoughts on this laptop, read some reviews looks like a few bad reviews from touch pads going out one from some dead pixels in the screen etc, other then that mostly positive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231521