Netbook or Notebook?

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NightSurge

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Well, my old 17" lappy was gettin aged for me, and I wanted some gaming, so I was originally gonna grab an $1100 gaming laptop, but then I decided I'd be smart and save some money.. so as of right now, I have built a desktop for about $600 to do all my gaming, and I sold my laptop for $350.

I want to keep the overall cost around $800 ($800+350-600=$550 left) or less so recommend me the best laptop for around $500 range. I'd prefer a 15.4" screen, dual core cpu, 3GB or more of RAM, and decent onboard graphics (not for gaming, just for regular stuff and maybe photos/video viewing). Preferably decent battery life too as this is for classes. A good warranty of at least a year is also wanted, and if it comes with a carrying bag or something, that's an extra bonus :D

Or, should I just grab a Netbook for $330 and save even more money? Really all I need the laptop for is school classes, MS Office, java programming, etc.

I am leaning more towards a notebook just because it would be nice to have an optical disc drive and a bit bigger screen for doing programming and word documents. So, any recommendations?
 
I'm not big on netbooks, the tiny screens aren't my thing and the keyboards are too hard for me to type on (big hands). I would agree to skip the gaming notebook, though.

A nice fit for a laptop I think would be this one
Newegg.com - ASUS M51 Series M51Ta-X1 NoteBook AMD Turion 64 X2 RM-70(2.00GHz) 15.4" Wide XGA 3GB Memory 250GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 - Laptops / Notebooks

Dedicated video card, too, place some nice games on there. Plus Standard Asus warranty is already 2 years.

If you want to go smaller you can score a decent 12.1" laptop and get good battery life and performance. I use a 12.1" laptop myself for portability reasons. This one looks good: HP Compaq 2230s Laptop plus 1 GB RAM FREE - Intel Core 2 Duo T5670 1.8GHz, 1GB DDR2, 120GB HDD, 12.1" WXGA, Vista BusinessXP Pro Downgrade, 1024MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz SODIMM Memory at TigerDirect.com

No dedicated video, of course, but still nice specs and everything.
 
I want the laptop to be around the $500-550 max range... sorry It was a bit confusing in the OP.

My total budget was $800, then I bought a desktop for $600. Then I sold my old lappy for $350 and my remaining budget is $550.
 
That's what I was looking at too, but I wasn't sure if anywhere else might have a better deal. Oh it's even DDR2 800 rather than 667 or 533! Yeah, that's probably what I'll end up with :p
 
I figured you'd seen it. I can't find anything that looks better for the money, though. Looks solid to me, good value.
 
I needed a laptop for the same things you mentioned and I went with a MSI Wind. The 10' screen takes a little while to get used to but the light weight and good battery life more than make up for it.

If you want a bigger screen the Dell Mini 12 is a option although it more expensive than the smaller netbooks.
 
I wanna buy a very inexpensive laptop for class too :]

Can you feel a big sense of lack of power with these netbooks or low end laptops?
Just asking because my mom has a powerbook G4 and it feels fine most of the time
 
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