What to look for in a new laptop?

[gordyzx9r]

My personal laptop took a nosedive, I've had it since '04.  I took it in and windows suffered some kind of damage that requires it to be reloaded.  I nursed that thing along for years.  Only 2 USB (the old kind) ports, I had to use a wifi card as there wasn't an internal one...been fun, but not worth going to through the hassle of reloading windows.  I had just made backups of everything a few days prior so I didn't lose any information. 

I was browsing through office depot and wal-mart...holy crap, prices seem cheap but there are also way too many choices. 

What should I look for and what should I avoid when making a decision?

[SuperSix]

Base it on your budget, and planned use.

What is your budget?
What will the primary use be?

[daveismissing]

Needed to buy one over Christmas.
Determined an i5 was the minimum for futureproofing at this time.
Still happy with Dells, wait for a sale sign up for both business and consumer accounts and notices...

[gordyzx9r]

It's mostly for email, MS office, light gaming, IM, skype, etc...

Budget...I dunno, $600 or $700?

[SuperSix]

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/289687/Toshiba-Satellite-P755-S5184-Laptop-Computer/

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/791844/ASUS-U56E-RBL7-Laptop-Computer-With/

[SuperSix]

Nothing exotic needed. Core i5, minimum Core i3.. Buy cheap and put an SSD in it.

[gordyzx9r]

What is an SSD?

[SuperSix]

Solid State Drive - replacement for standard spinning platter hard drives.

Much more $$ per GB, but much faster too.

[daveismissing]

a very similar dell
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=bqct52a&c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&model_id=vostro-3550

[Steve Wood]

buy the one that the keyboard feels the best to you...all else is pretty much even in the real world today...

[TexasT]

I like my new ones to have an HDMI port so I can stream stuff onto the television. Big screen=very cool


Since I cut the cable we use the internet and netflicks, and a good old fashion antenna I picked up for $20 from Radio Shack. Much cheaper than the cable tv.

[gordyzx9r]

Picked up an HP 2nd Gen I3 2750 with 8G/640G hard drive for $499.  HDMI, 3 USB, etc...although, I see USB 3 is already out and kinda wish that would have been an option on this.

[TexasT]

I will scream compared to the $329 HP we picked up for my daughter for christmas. I figured her would get broken or stolen so cheaper was better in that case. Good Luck with yours.

[daveismissing]

Sound fine Gordy.
I continue to be amazed at the old 'n slow processors they still stuff into low end loss leader type laptops.

[SuperSix]

The pricing is disgustingly low. I use a 17" HP Core i3 - 4GB, 640GB HDD I got from Staples a few months back for $399.99. I didn't really need it, but at that price, I couldn't resist.