14"+ < 4.5lbs for $425? Under $475 with 7.2k HDD? Decent build quality possible?

[EliteRetard]

I'm browsing around trying to find a lighter replacement for an old 15" 2.4GHz C2D gaming laptop. Had a 9800M (maybe comparable to GT630M?)...not terribly concerned about it (pretty much only plays things like WOW/LOL/Facebook now), but I need as much IGPU as I can get, so Ivy 4k or a decent AMD APU. Not sure if any of the pentium/celerons come with an HD4000.

I'm pretty sure I can't get a lighter laptop without shrinking screen size (or busting budget), but if I can get at least 14" 1366x768 that'd be fine. If there are light weight 15" units in the price range even better...

Unfortunately the budget is $475 or less but I need a 7200RPM HDD at least...or one at a lower price so I can get a faster HDD/SSD. Not sure if SSD cache can make up for a slow HDD, so I'm still avoiding anything with a 5400RPM in it. Storage isn't a big concern, 128GB SSD would be fine.

I'd like to get at least decent build quality if possible...and wifi performance/connection is really important too. I can probably do a refurb if it were good quality to begin with. Some of those Dell outlet sales would have been nice (like a 14z maybe)...but don't see any now. I do need this pretty quick... that's why I'm asking here. Get a couple of you guys to help and speed up the process

Thanks!

[EliteRetard]

Man I can't find squat. Its like nobody even makes a 14" notebook anymore. I've found thousands of 15" notebooks with IVB i5's as low as $400...but can't find a single 14" i3 IVB under $500. I can find 10-12" IVB netbooks at $300, but that's to small and no CD/DVD drive (which actually is needed). Hrm...

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Best Buy has this for $400. I bought it and added another stick of RAM to make 8GB and put a SSD in for about $500 total. However the stock HDD is actually reasonably fast and will hit 100MB/s sequential easily. I'm actually using it as a USB3 external drive because it is that good. That is about the best you can do in that price range.

Be aware if you want to upgrade the RAM and SSD the laptop is quite difficult to take apart and put back together without bending something up a bit. The built quality is only subpar.

I would think your best bet is this laptop or something used.

As a note upgrading the RAM gave me a noticeable improvement in gaming as it comes with one stick by default and upgrading it gives it dual channel ram. Since the IGPU runs off of the shared memory bus it really helped.

[EliteRetard]

Thanks for the suggestion, but not available in my area (and no online shipping) and no CD/DVD drive either. I do need to be able to burn DVDs with this, and while an external could work it wouldn't be ideal (the reason I'm looking for a 14" is so it's more portable).

[kbp]

Asking alot for $400 - 475.

[EliteRetard]

Not really, we've had notebooks at/under $300 for years. Plenty of those options today...and lots of i3 15" units sub $400. Recently I've seen tons of 15" options with IVB i5s for $450, as low as $400 even. All I'm asking for is a slightly smaller unit with lower end hardware.

$475 should be absolutely reasonable for a sub 5lb 14" 1366x768 i3 HD4000 1x4GB 500GB 7200RPM CD/DVD, when any 15" unit with those specs is under $375. I'm willing to pay a massive 30%+ premium for what should be a cheaper unit to manufacture...because I want a 25% lighter laptop (and a slightly smaller/more portable size). And yes, I think that the 30% premium could actually afford me slightly better build quality as well...

Yet I haven't found one...

There are some bare units like the one mentioned above that don't have CD/DVD...your saying $75 more isn't enough to expect an optical drive and decent HDD?
If they absolutely cant fathom a 7200RPM HDD then I think $25 should be reasonable to leave the CD/DVD in the unit, and Ill deal with the HDD myself since you manufacturers are to friggen stupid to understand the basics. Ill go get a decent a decent 7200RPM HDD or a 128GB SSD for $70, but you better let me install it myself (as*hats that hide the HDD or make it impossible to open/service the unit).

[kleinkinstein]

You're delusional. Dream on!

[Tom]

Sorry this won't help you right now but I got a Dell 14z from the outlet for $279. Its a 2nd gen i3 so has hd3000 gpu.

Surprising just how fast it is and I think its quite awesome for its price.

[EliteRetard]

I could tolerate an HD3000 for $279...not the $530 its currently at.

That i5-3210m 15" Dell was actually $375 new from BB...thought about it, but don't want a 6lb laptop.

Wish there was a decent outlet sale right now...I know I just missed a bunch of them.

[EliteRetard]

Originally Posted by kleinkinstein

You're delusional. Dream on!

Oh and I despise "live" music...hundreds of the worst people in the world trying to scream louder than the band they paid hundreds to go listen to.

Slowly shoving an unsharpened pencil into both ears until they rupture would be more enjoyable.

[HardcoreRobot]

Originally Posted by TakeNoPrisoners

Best Buy has this for $400. I bought it and added another stick of RAM to make 8GB and put a SSD in for about $500 total. However the stock HDD is actually reasonably fast and will hit 100MB/s sequential easily. I'm actually using it as a USB3 external drive because it is that good. That is about the best you can do in that price range.

Be aware if you want to upgrade the RAM and SSD the laptop is quite difficult to take apart and put back together without bending something up a bit. The built quality is only subpar.

I would think your best bet is this laptop or something used.

As a note upgrading the RAM gave me a noticeable improvement in gaming as it comes with one stick by default and upgrading it gives it dual channel ram. Since the IGPU runs off of the shared memory bus it really helped.

does that one really not have gigabit ethernet?

[asuka10456]

http://slickdeals.net/f/5641222-Stap...top-for-325-AC