Looking to buy a laptop in the $400-500 range. Where is the best place to find good deals? I usually just go to best buy or HH gregg, am I better off looking on amazon or tiger direct or something like that?

8/24/2011 7:48:17 AM

newegg or amazon would be my first stops

8/25/2011 12:46:13 PM

+1 for newegg

8/25/2011 12:50:31 PM

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=32&name=Laptops-Notebooks&Order=REVIEWS&Pagesize=50

8/25/2011 12:57:32 PM

Quote :

"+1 for newegg"

8/25/2011 2:54:21 PM

also, check out http://www.slickdeals.net/

8/25/2011 3:01:10 PM

http://bensbargains.net/
http://woot.com

8/25/2011 3:37:53 PM

What I would highly recommend, if you don't need one right away, is to check slickdeals every day for the next two or three weeks. You'll most likely see a really nice deal between now and then.

8/25/2011 4:13:08 PM

Damn thanks ya'll. Some friends of mine have told me many horror stories about HP's, what do you all think? I've only ever owned Dell, looking to branch out a bit. Any recommendations?

8/25/2011 6:34:16 PM

You hear horror stories about everyone in the business.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ASUS+-+Laptop+/+AMD+A-Series+Processor+/+15.6%22+Display+/+4GB+Memory+/+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Brown+Suit/2881042.p?id=1218360613837&skuId=2881042&st=53%20asus%20laptop&cp=1&lp=1

Just got a cheap Asus K53TA from bestbuy for $450 during tax free weekend. It's a great value. The build quality is quite impressive for the price, equal that of nicer toshiba's above this price range. This is the only laptop that has quad core and a mid-range gpu to play games (actually dual gpu, 6520 in APU and 6650 dedicated). Also to boot, it has usb 3.0 and a decent keyboard with a number pad.

I've been hella impressed thus far. Battery lasts around 5 hours for normal use with 50% lcd brightness (which is still really bright. I keep it that even plugged in). Plays dirt 2 with max settings at 40-50 fps. GTA4 is about 25-30 (though it does bog down in some places). BFBC2 is arould 30-40 fps as well. SC2 should get 60fps on med/high settings with no issues.


The downside is that the LCD kinda sucks (only 720p, limited viewing angles, contrast is on the low side) but it's super bright on max. There was a banding issue when they first launched, but was fixed with a bios update, although there's still grain in dark areas that I can see; nothing to worry about. The 5200rpm drive is slow, but 500gigs is spacious. Async crossfire still has some issues and there's no way to set the 6650 as the default right now, but amd/asus should fix that in the near future. The 6520 is still plenty faster than the intel HD 3000 integrated gpu usually paired on 400-500 laptops.

Add an ssd and a pair of faster ram sticks and you'd be walking around with a pretty decent cheap laptop that performs like a mid-range i5 for a few bills less. Also, its easy to overclock.

8/25/2011 9:33:44 PM

Why not get a $700 laptop that qualifies under the free Xbox360 promotion and resell the xbox on ebay? You will get a better laptop and stay in the same $500 range.

8/26/2011 8:09:07 AM

[Edited on August 26, 2011 at 9:06 AM. Reason : .]

8/26/2011 9:05:39 AM

Quote :

"I've only ever owned Dell, looking to branch out a bit."

if it ain't broke don't fix it.

8/26/2011 9:42:40 AM

Quote :

"Why not get a $700 laptop that qualifies under the free Xbox360 promotion and resell the xbox on ebay? You will get a better laptop and stay in the same $500 range."

I was going to go that route, but didn't see any really good deals on any qualifying laptops (which is only a few models for each manufacturer and limited upgrade paths) during tax free weekend that had a decent gpu. You'd be lucky to get a 325M or a 520/525M. Usually you'd pay around 800-900+ for the latter. I was willing to pay around 900 if lenovo made their x220 with a gpu.

Out of the box, this laptop already plays modern games. With a simple and stable OC from 1.4 to 2.0ghz (2.2 for some) you can get this laptop to perform like an i5 system with a 540m gpu.

8/26/2011 4:13:19 PM

Quote :

"Some friends of mine have told me many horror stories about HP's, what do you all think? I've only ever owned Dell, looking to branch out a bit."

The Dells that I've had were kind of crappy in terms of build quality (i.e. won't charge, pieces literally falling off, had to replace the keyboard assembly, all within 2 years), so I got a HP dv7t i7 quad core. It's faster than my desktop! Also, it runs at about 70-98 degrees Celsius! When the processor's at less than 10%!!! Just by posting this I am putting myself at risk of burning my dick off.

What I'm getting at is that I will never buy an HP again and my Dells were all kinda crappy but still worth it for the price. ANECDOTES Y'ALL.

8/27/2011 10:16:08 PM

HP never quite understood cooling.

8/27/2011 10:24:55 PM

My lab partner asked me if my computer was taking off on Thursday.

8/27/2011 10:37:02 PM