you sit all night at your computer

[minkhollow]

And now, an experiment in crossposting, mostly so I have everything gathered in one place for this.
So... the time has come to replace Hex. It's still a reliable little machine in its way, but it's nearly eight years old and can't keep up with the Tubes properly anymore. Pottermore was one thing - I was expecting to have some trouble with all that Flash - but I can't load a page with a lot of .gifs or Youtube embeds and expect to see the whole thing in a timely fashion, if at all. The final straw was having to crash my browser rather than work on a Google Doc with two sentences in it the other night. I want to look into possibly getting some freelance things, and I can't do that if I can't work on anything.
So once my tax refund's in, I'll be shopping around (not getting rid of Hex just yet, but it's time for a new primary). Since I get a discount at work and it's rather cheaper overall, I'll be going PC for the first time in my life, aside from this being the first time I go computer shopping for myself; Hex was a high school graduation present.

Do you guys have any recommendations for which brands have worked well for you? My only requirement is that it be a laptop. I've heard good things about Sony and Toshiba and iffy things about Dell, HP and Acer; I'm expecting my budget for this to be around $500, not including sales tax, though it could be a bit more.

Comments

[quinby.livejournal.com]

You know my comments. <3. (Also, I'd probably suggest spending more in the 600 area. It's only a bit more, but in my experience, that price point is actually significantly better.)

... but we can talk about it later. I'm just harassing your LJ.

[minkhollow]

I'm being conservative because I don't know what my refund will actually be, as of yet. I don't see 600 being out of the question, though. (And, well, if something that was originally 600 is on clearance for less, as happens sometimes, win/win, right?)
<3

[misslucyjane]

Sonys are super, super expensive. If you've only got $500 to spend I'd look at netbooks. Google something like "top ten netbooks of 2011" or "top ten laptops of 2011" to get reliable reviews from places like PC Magazine. They're pretty objective and give you things like prices and memory and performance.

(Of course, I tend to buy the prettiest one even after research :P.)

I've had an HP for ... 4 years now, I think? and while it occasionally runs hot, keeping it on a cooling pad and compressed-air dusting the keyboard tends to help with that. I've also had a Gateway netbook for about two years now for word processing and internet, and I'm really happy with it for those.