[Trunks0]

I have a price ceiling of $700 cdn ($668 USD). Like to stay as far under it as possible. The Intended uses are primarly school, web surfing and video. I might do some lite rts or TF2 gaming as well.

Likes/Dis-likes
- 3-4Gb of ram plz.
- Battery life. More is always great.
- Screen size isn't important to me.
- HD size, not really a concern.

Little guidance would be great. My head is spinning over all the options out there.

[Judas]

If it isn't ASUS.... i wouldn't bother looking

[procupine14]

I really like the Toshiba that I bought in my sig. I know for sure that it can play WoW. Battery life is pretty good. I think over four hours is about what I get.

[Trunks0]

What is the build quality like on the ASUS and the Toshiba's?

[Callandor]

Toshiba's build quality is excellent, getting a Toshiba is also what I would recommend.

Asus, as you know make great products with pristine build quality as well, but a Toshiba would be more hardy. And that's not to say you should bang it around either. One more thing, I wouldn't recommend buying a refurb.

Should you be able to spend a little more consider one of the following two:-

Amazon.com: Toshiba Satellite A665-S6065 LED TruBrite 16.0-Inch Laptop (Black): Computer & Accessories

Amazon.com: ASUS N61JQ-X1 16-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Dark Brown): Computer &…

[Trunks0]

Crazy tempting, but would destroy my budget

p.s. I'd love to avoid an Intel GPU if at all possible.

[Callandor]

Here's an Acer with a triple core Phenom II processor that has a Radeon Mobility 5650 that would be able to do all you would like to do and play games for $719.00, Acer isn't bad I have a friend who's gone through two generations of them and loves them to pieces, he still uses his second one even now.

Newegg.com - Acer Aspire AS7551G-5407 NoteBook AMD Phenom II Triple-Core N830(2.1GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650

That laptop is probably the lowest you can go and play games on it too.

[nil4t]

With your price point I think it will be hard to get everything you are looking for.

If you could stand to spend a little more you could get this asus which has the memory, solid construction(with a surprisingly light weight), and a fairly decent video card.
Newegg.ca - ASUS K50ID-X3 NoteBook Intel Pentium dual-core T4500(2.30GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 320M

But imo if you really intend to use it almost exclusively for school you should forget about gaming and just go with an intel video card cause it will end up being cheaper and should give you a longer battery life and you will still be able to play some games just not tf2 or any rts you would probably want to play.
Newegg.ca - ASUS P50IJ-X3 NoteBook Intel Pentium dual-core T4500(2.30GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi Intel GMA 4500M

[edit]
Actually
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbaRFHjDJck
If this video is to be believed an Intel GMA 4500M can manage tf2. The ASUS P50IJ-X3 NoteBook is probably your best bet.

[Trunks0]

So the break down on hardware is, while staying under $700 cdn(gotta love the 12% HSTax we have)

- Intel i3 330/350M CPU with Intel HD graphics
- Intel Core2Duo T4400/T4500/T4600 with Intel GMA 4500M
- AMD Athlon II X2 P320/Turion 2 M520 CPU with Radeon HD4250/HD4200 GPU

*edit. Got an MSi A6200-216CA
Specs
CPU: Intel i5 450M @ 2.27Ghz
Ram: 4Gb DDR3
HDD: 320Gb HD
LCD: 15.6"
GPU: Intel HD
$579.99 Cdn
+12% HST
+Eviromental Handling Fee $1.20
Total: $650 Cdn

In the end, I went for CPU power

[Callandor]

Not a bad buy with the budget you had to work on, congratulations Trunks0, nice buy.

[Trunks0]

Thx.

Also seems to handle source engine games better than expected to top it all off. CS:Source and TF2 get about 50fps avg at the screens native resolution (Everything on high expect water to reflect world, Shadows to low, Tri-Linear filtering, HDR/Bloom & Blur off)

It's kinda funny how few people, who are not into PC's, have no idea who MSi is when I tell them the brand. They react like MSi must be an upstart

[Callandor]

Lol, I've installed my fair share of MSI hardware over the years. I guess its just people don't buy them as much and so don't really know the brand name as well, unless you're into computers you won't know who they are as they're not that popular among the mainstream hehe.

[laptopim]

Hi,

I would go with two brands today , Acer or Dell. Both have very strong and durable hardware and do not have any of the heating and fan problems that Toshiba , HP and Sony have.

You can get a 15.4" i3 Processor Acer or Dell for around 650$ and you will have a great laptop for at least 4 years.

Make sure it has a webcam , 3 or more USB ports and Bluetooth. Many models do not have these to save some money which is obviously not worth it.

[Trunks0]

I almost bought an Acer. It was sitting right beside the MSi. Featured an all metal casing, light up multi-touch enabled touch pad, nice screen etc etc. But it featured a i3 330M and would have busted my $700 budget by $140 bucks :\