Laptop for under $400

[flamefire999]

My mom's laptop just crapped out. It would cost $600 for new parts and to repair it so she is just going to buy a new one. The main thing she wants is an HDMI output so she can connect it to the tv and to projectors. She said she also wants a nice trackpad. Her budget is $400 and she says the bigger screen, the better. She also wants a 500gb HDD because she has a lot of pictures and movies that she downloaded.

 

[ronintexas]

$400 is going to really limit the choices - what programs does she run on the laptop?

 

[flamefire999]

She uses Word and Firefox. Her favorite thing to do though is to watch movies on her 60" TV. I found this laptop: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1057128&gclid=Cj0KEQjwt7KiBRD9lOePpe_BhrgBEiQAHaS_11n-Hc4TemWinLJrHBj1Q9v9pgvtYb1q_hVOGeLLWc0aAljO8P8HAQ&Q=&is=REG&A=details . Do you think she should get this one?

 

[ronintexas]

That isn't a bad one here are a couple of alternatives:

1) http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-pavilion-15-6-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i3-4gb-memory-500gb-hard-drive-black/8827378.p?id=1219371333249&skuId=8827378&st=categoryid$pcmcat247400050000&cp=1&lp=1

2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834258900

 

[flamefire999]

This is the laptop my sister uses for college: http://www.amazon.com/15-6-Inch-Dual-Core-2-16GHz-Laptop-500GB/dp/B00L49X8E6/ref=dp_ob_title_ce . My mom might buy it off her for $200 (its almost brand new but my sister wanted one with a 10 hour battery life). Should she take it?

 

[ronintexas]

ASUS makes a good laptop. The core i-3/i-5/i-7 laptops give a bit more power for normal computing, and are upgradable to 8GB of RAM usually (4GB should be enough for today - but things always change). I have a core i-7 from ASUS - and I love it (it was around $800).

Since she is only using MS-Word and Firefox, she doesn't need the power from a core i-5/i-7.

This one is slightly over budget: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231656

 

[flamefire999]

What I'm going to do for RAM is pull the 4gb's she has in her broken laptop and stick it in the new one. And what laptop do you have? I'm looking for a laptop for when I travel and I can't find a good one that isn't $1500. I actually decided to get the laptop for my mom's birthday/ christmas present. I don't wanna spend more than $400 max.

 

[ronintexas]

I can't find the exact model that I have - but this one is close: http://www.amazon.com/Asus-X750JA-DB71-i7-4700HQ-2-4GHz-Windows/dp/B00HVMYLYG/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1414455172&sr=1-4&keywords=asus+laptop

 

[flamefire999]

What's the difference between that one and this one: http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-17-3-i7-4700HQ-Laptop-Drive/dp/B00DXFF6EO/ref=pd_sim_sbs_pc_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=05F1V0N5Y3YB7ZFS8A8Q

 

[ronintexas]

The big difference is the link I provided has a NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 740M 2GB DDR3 GPU - the link you have uses integrated Intel Graphics only. The link I provided has two 1-TB HDDs - compared to one with your link.

I took the 1st HDD out and replaced it with a 128GB SSD - but both laptops can do this....you just don't get a 2nd drive with the system. So that really brings it down to the GPU....It doesn't do great on gaming - you need the $1500 - $2500 laptops to get into the high FPS gaming. It does improve performance (about 3-4X speed of Intel Graphics)....but if you aren't a gamer, and you don't utilize graphic intensive programs, you don't need it.