Laptop buying advice forum: Budget Laptop (&lt; $600) for Graduate studies

Answer Best answer as chosen by user agpalm1

Budget Laptop

by leighdavidus - 11/18/11 5:45 PM

In Reply to: Budget Laptop (< $600) for Graduate studies by agpalm1

Check the Asus - Laptop / Intel® Core™ i5 Processor / 15.6" Display / 6GB Memory - Aluminum Lake Blue Hairline

on sale at Best Buy for $629 -- battery life is longest in it's class up to 7 hours -- a lot of computer for the money -- well worth going slightly over your budget here's a link:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i5+Processor+/+15.6%26%2334%3B+Display+/+6GB+Memory+-+Aluminum+Lake+Blue+Hairline/3411128.p;jsessionid=09622BEEED56EC5A694D0F30FA07A879.bbolsp-app01-37?id=1218399206867&skuId=3411128

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Answer Best answer as chosen by user agpalm1

The Usual Suspects

by paul_saute - 11/18/11 6:13 PM

In Reply to: Budget Laptop (< $600) for Graduate studies by agpalm1

Under $500:
- Dell
- Acer
- HP
etc.

Make sure that laptop is 64bit Win7 or Win8 and add MSOffice 2010 Student/Home ($150) if it isn't included... At least 6 gig of on board memory and an Intel double processor.

If you plan to edit images, add $50 to improve the graphics display.

So that makes about $625 - $675

Cheers,

Paul

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Suspect No. 1

by richteral - 11/19/11 12:25 AM

In Reply to: The Usual Suspects by paul_saute

All for under 500 bucks:

http://www.pcmech.com/article/3-hp-laptops-for-under-500-you-should-check-out/

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Microsoft Office doesn't deserve your money!

by opo2002 - 11/19/11 4:11 PM

In Reply to: The Usual Suspects by paul_saute

Before you shell out $100+ for MS-Office, ask yourself this: With all the time it takes to develop freeware applications that have 3D intensive graphics and are much more difficult to develop than a word processing program, why does Microsoft get away with charging so much money for a word processing program that doesn't really have any different functionality than it did 10 years ago? The answer: There is no good reason for this. Don't buy MS-Office for word processing or creating spreasheets, and instead go download Openoffice at openoffice.org- it is a FREE and FULL office suite with all the functionality that you probably will ever need, AND it's compatible with all the office file types (.doc, .xls, etc...)

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Answer Best answer as chosen by user agpalm1

Manuacturers Outlets

by Zouch - 11/19/11 6:23 AM

In Reply to: Budget Laptop (< $600) for Graduate studies by agpalm1

You might also want to check out the Outlet sites some manufacturers have, for example, HP and Dell, where "refurbished machines" are offered at significant discounts. These can be reworks, warranty repairs, discontinued models and such like (they rarely say which!). They usually come with a full manufacturer warranty but do check that on any you like the look of. Or try the retail stores for ex-demo units (usually discontinued models), which should also have at least the balance of warranty.

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Answer Best answer as chosen by user agpalm1

Lenovo or Sony Vaio ?? Might shell out $700

by agpalm1 - 11/21/11 3:31 AM

In Reply to: Budget Laptop (< $600) for Graduate studies by agpalm1

Thank you Guys for the response. I am still stuck with some choices. I would like to buy either a Lenovo (Ideapad/ Thinkpad) or Sony Vaio but I am not able to decide the one. I am soon going to join a US university for graduate studies. Need Help !!!

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