Anyone here have a pc laptop they love/seen any great deals lately?

[B.A. Baracus]

In the market for a laptop for my girlfriend, but having trouble distinguishing what's actually a "good deal." She will just be using it for basic stuff-- Microsoft office for grad school stuff, Internet browsing, and storing pictures. She also doesnt want or need a big screen size. It seems like this is very doable for under 500 bucks from my research thus far, but I'm just not sure what exactly constitutes a "good deal" and how the various processor and spec decisions will impact performance. So if anyone could chime in I'd really appreciate it! Thank you!

[DonMan]

When in doubt, go to newegg and look for things with lots of good reviews. Here's one you probably can't go wrong with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834230531

[duck]

For $500, you'll want at least 4 GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard drive...Core i3 processor at the minimum, Core i5 you are doing pretty good. I personally like Toshibas and Dells (never had an issue with a home-use Toshiba yet), but my most recent laptop purchase (this summer) was for an Asus laptop and it has been a good performer for me.

You have to decide how large a screen you need--17" are nice as "desktop replacements", but a PAIN to lug around.

If you go Windows 8, you will need the touch screen option--I don't have 8 yet, but we've tooled around with it at work and though you can make it work without the touch screen, you find yourself reaching to do things because touching is intuitive (in my opinion).

Finally, go to bestbuy.com and look at their laptop selection, and sort by $400-$499 to get an idea of what a brick and mortar store is selling in that range. I would say your chances of getting ripped off is low nowadays, but you should educate yourself as to what is available in that price range. I'm not saying you need to buy from BB, but they have a decent site to shop, look at comparisons, etc.