Since my laptop is officially fried, I'm in the market for a new one. I'm looking for a 15" laptop (my old 17" was nice but a bit too big on my lap) with 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, and Bluetooth. A touchscreen would be very nice, but isn't a hard requirement. Price is a big factor, though. I can't afford a $1,000+ laptop. I'd say that my budget is $600 or less.

The laptop will be used for web development (text file editing, report file transfers, light graphics work), e-mail, word processing/spreadsheets, and light gaming. (My boys like playing a few online games, but nothing too taxing.)

I've been looking around and have found these candidates but am definitely open to others:

Lenovo Ideapad 310 for $480
http://www.staples.com/Lenovo-ideapad-310-15-6-Intel-i5-Processor-8GB-RAM-1-TB-Hard-Drive-Windows-10-Laptop/product_2477947

HP 15.6" Touchscreen for $449
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MYZIP7T/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3JS2199GQLB8L

Dell Premium Inspiron for $430
https://www.amazon.com/Premium-Inspiron-Touchscreen-i5-5200U-Bluetooth/dp/B01N0DAR0D/ref=sr_1_3

Dell. They are more reliable than Lenovo or HP. And I really liked IBM Thinkpads, but Lenovo doesn't have the same quality.

I agree, and Dell also has the best customer support.

Thanks. I'm actually veering away from the Dell that I linked to earlier because that's sold by a third party seller. I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that. If something should happen, I'd rather have purchased from Dell directly.

Right now, this is my top contender:

Inspiron 15 5000 Touch (AMD)
$499.99
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-5565-laptop/dncwgamd2830s
7th Generation AMD A9-9400 Processor with Radeon™ R5 Graphics
8GB DDR4 2400 (4GBx2)
1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
Integrated graphics with AMD APU
15.6 inch LED Backlit On-cell Touch Display with Truelife and FHD resolution (1920 x 1080)
Tray load DVD Drive (Reads and Writes to DVD/CD)
802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.1, Dual Band 2.4&5 GHz, 1x1
42WHr, 3-Cell Battery (Integrated)

I think the hard drive is the weakest link. An SSD would make a big difference with speed especially compared to an old 5400. Good luck.

I know an SSD would be faster, but I need the storage space so I'm sticking with the 1 TB drive for now.

Quote:

QUOTE:

I think you would be sorry with the performance..That processor benchmarks 2263..That is terrible. I have purchased several Intel I3's that bench in around 3200 and they are slow as well. You need at least an Intel I5.

I have worked on laptops with A10-9 processors and i3 and i5 and I would by far recommend the i5 if you can swing it if not an i3 over either of the AMD offerings.The only thing they have over the Intels is maybe battery life.

Thanks. There was actually an i5 model of the same laptop that I was also considering. Same specs except for a 7th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-7200U Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.10 GHz). It was also $100 more which have me pause, but I'd rather spend $100 extra than get a computer that's too slow for my needs.

Link to the laptop: http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-5567-laptop/fncwg2397h

Now that is your machine and well worth the extra $100. It benchmarks at 4732

HP Pro 3500 MT,Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit,Intel I-5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ,4GB Ram,Intel HD 2500 Video(Onboard)

How bout this Dell Jason...Almost identical specs from Dell and is free shipping and is $489.00
I think the only difference is one is touch screen and other isn't?? Is that worth $100? Only you know the answer to that question.

http://deals.dell.com/mpp/productdetail/81y

HP Pro 3500 MT,Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit,Intel I-5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ,4GB Ram,Intel HD 2500 Video(Onboard)

I think either is a good buy. A touch screen will offer advantages depending on how you like to work,

I'm not sure how often I'll use the touchscreen to be honest, but I think it might be worth the extra cost.

Just kidding .....

But I came across this site the other day - http://domaintoolschecker.com/pcqanda.com.html - and they had set the value of "pcqanda.com" at $3,569.
So, all you'd have to do is sell us down the river and you could have one heck of a great laptop and maybe even afford a trip back to Vegas. :lol:

On the other hand, it might be a good site to bookmark just in case, next time, the members don't ante up the minuscule amount required to fund us for a whole year.

Jim.

Thanks to everyone for all of the help. I ordered this laptop over the weekend. It should be here this week (assuming the huge snowstorm doesn't delay anything).

Meanwhile, I tested the hard drive from my fried laptop and it's still functional. I ordered a case from Amazon to turn it into a USB drive to first recover data and then use it as media storage.

So you have it yet? :)

The storm delayed delivery by a day, but I'm now typing from my brand new Dell laptop! (Dude, I've gotten a Dell! :lol: )

I've also decided I'm going to buy these "dust covers" to prevent any future "power plug mishaps."

Thanks again for the help, everyone.

How are you finding it as compared to the old one?A mini review would probably be interesting.

So far, I'm liking it. It's obviously smaller than my previous (17") laptop which actually works out better. Screen real estate is still good, but it doesn't threaten to topple off my lap due to large laptop areas not being supported by my legs. Of course, that would be true of any 15" laptop.

For the particulars, the touchscreen seems responsive and I'm finding myself using it more than I thought even for things like copying files. (Drag my finger to select a group of files and then drag the files to another folder.) The touch pad is responsive and has nice features like two finger scrolling/zoom-in/zoom-out.

About my only complaint right now is related to Windows 10. I'm not a fan. I've done my best to turn off the tracking and to get it looking like "Old Windows", but it still has its quirks. That's not a Dell issue, of course, but a Microsoft one. If anything, the Dell seems to be handling Windows 10 very nicely.

One caveat with all of this: Most of my use so far has been "Go to website to download X, download X, install X, make sure X runs." Nothing too stressful. My youngest son was very happy when he borrowed my computer to play Animal Jam, though. (A semi-educational Flash-based online game that he likes playing.)