Budget laptop/notebook suggestions?

[Venardhi]

I don't have reliable net access at home(leaching from a generous neighbor when I can), especially during the day, and find myself more and more in need of a mobile alternative to my home-bound beastie.

I've built my last 4 computers from parts, so I know very little about which companies are well trusted/use the best parts/have the worst bloatware/etc. these days.

I mostly just need a decent sized(and decent quality) screen, enough CPU power and RAM to run Photoshop or Lightwave if I need it in a pinch, and a good battery life. If it could run some lower-end games, that would be nice too but not necessary since my home machine is already plenty powerful for even the most recent stuff. The catch is that my finances are limited at the moment and I probably can't afford more than $400-$500.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Amaris]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5636849&Sku=S445-140011

I'm an Acer man. Good quality, good prices. In this case, the laptop above has the necessary power, screen size and battery life to handle your imaging software and some basic games. You also get 4GB of RAM, a 320GB Hard Drive, a DVD burner, an 8 hour battery, an Intel Core 2, it's thin, it's lightweight, and it's less than $500.

 

[RevDMV]

I recently purchase an ASUS 4GB ram, 500GB drive, DVD burner, Intel Core 2 for about $440.

Thin design, get about 4 hours on the battery, and I run VMware virtual machines for my development environments on the thing with no problems.

 

[Venardhi]

Anyone have any experience with the refurbished ones on TD? I'm weary, but in my experience most hardware failures are going to occur pretty early on in the lifespan of something like a laptop and should be covered by the limited warranty.

 

[Amaris]

Anyone have any experience with the refurbished ones on TD? I'm weary, but in my experience most hardware failures are going to occur pretty early on in the lifespan of something like a laptop and should be covered by the limited warranty.

Yes, I have experience with refurbs from TD. From my own experiences, the refurbs perform and last just as well and as long as a new one, except this time you get one that has the kinks worked out.

 

[CorporalClegg]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5636849&Sku=S445-140011

I'm an Acer man. Good quality, good prices. In this case, the laptop above has the necessary power, screen size and battery life to handle your imaging software and some basic games. You also get 4GB of RAM, a 320GB Hard Drive, a DVD burner, an 8 hour battery, an Intel Core 2, it's thin, it's lightweight, and it's less than $500.

+1 on the Acer. I own two Acer monitors, a netbook and just bought a Laptop last weekend. They're all excellent products.

The Laptop was a model exclusive to Staples (I had a coupon and a gift card) It has a huge 17.3 HD monitor. Unfortunately, it only sports integrated Intel graphics, but I've watched a few HD vids without any frame rate loss and was able to do some Photoshop work with fairly decent sized pictures. The only game I've tried was Chessmaster 11 and had a few small problems, but I think that might have been due to some compatibility issues with Win7.

 

[Venardhi]

yeah. It looks like everything in my price range is going to have integrated graphics without the option of upgrading, so I'll just have to do without. Maybe I'll get around to playing some classics I never finished.