Laptop Budget:$600...Open for Suggestions Part 2 (years later)

[Juan handed]

Well 2 years ago,I was looking for a laptop to replace a 5 year old Dell inspiron laptop,I asked for advice here:http://www.computerforums.org/hardware/laptop-budget-$600-open-suggestions-89650.html

At the time I was thinking it would be better to just replace computers every 2 years and just not think about it,so I am following through!

I bought the HP laptop,a G60,that was suggested by dude_56013.The specifications are in Post#2 in the thread linked above.

The HP is still going good,I would like to just make the 2 year old laptop my backup unit and take it on the road and rough it up if need be.

I don't game with the laptop,do some Google Sketchup work with it,and do a lot of surfing with it,for a lot of research,where I will keep 20 or 30 tabs open.I don't really do a lot of media tasks with it,it is mostly internet and work stuff.But who knows? Needs change.

So,I am in the market for another $600,most bang for the buck laptop.I'm looking for suggestions.

Dude!!!???

 

[Luke_Uk_Baggy]

Have a look at these 2:

Newegg.com - Acer Aspire AS5750G-6873 Notebook Intel Core i3 2330M(2.20GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M

Newegg.com - SONY VAIO EH Series VPCEH24FX/B Notebook Intel Core i3 2330M(2.20GHz) 15.5" 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 640GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW Intel HD Graphics 3000

The first is an Acer - which personally I find to be a solid, strong brand. I'd Probably opt for the first one out of the two - mainly on the brand name.
You also get a slightly bigger screen and resolution, and a dedicated graphics card (not a very good one - but its not a gaming laptop), its better than the onboard graphics on the other laptop though, so you may find you get a little bit more performance if you did need it in that area.

The second one has slightly better RAM, but you probably wont tell too much difference between either of them. The second one does come in white however, if you prefer that! The second laptop also has a bigger hard drive - I dont know if the extra 100GB makes a difference to you. Personally I'd never fill it - but I dont know your work, and could be a deciding factor.

Both come in just under $600 including delivery, and neither are too bad a choice.

Pretty solid laptops, good processor,

 

[Indigo]

That Sony link should be scored from your post and BURNED TO THE GROUND. Sony doesn't give a rat's butt about its customers, as evidenced by their "support". They continually berate us at work, telling us the issues we have with the systems can't be resolved because their inventory system can't track individual units, and they base their warranties on non-reliable pointers. They really piss me off as an IT guy.

The Acer is a fine unit, but I would recommend something with a little more power like an i5 based system. This one is only slightly more than the $600 cap, but you get a dedicated video card, and Intel's very fast i5 (true quad core, whereas the i3's are dual core with hyperthreading) and I believe this one to be a better buy just on that fact alone:

Newegg.com - Acer Aspire AS7741G-6426 Notebook Intel Core i5 480M(2.66GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory 640GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi AMD Radeon HD 6550M