Laptop buying advice

[Dannar26]

TLDR; Where does one go to get the most bang for his buck on laptop purchases?

I'm going away to basic training soon, and after that I'll be going to job training for several months. My understanding is that it's kinda like college (dorm living, classes, etc).

I doubt I can take my rig with me, so I figure I'd get a cheapish laptop to tide me over until I get home. Trouble is, I'd like something that can play games.

I primarily play WoW or Minecraft, so it's not like I'm gunning for BF4 at max settings. I don't really want to spend much more (if at all) than $600. I'll be in Georgia, at a military base, at the time.

So should I go get a dell through its website? Ibuypower? Should I order from newegg instead, with the hope it may have less bloatware?

I'm at least 4 months away from the purchase, so I'm looking more for the general strategy of laptop purchasing rather than any current deals.

If I were to buy now, I'd be looking at something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834312830

Looks like, at least on paper, it could do what I need.

 

[RayTheKing]

There's a sick deal on refurbished G46 laptops. $679/$700 for i5 3230m and GTX 660m. It's an amazing offer if you're willing to spend a bit more.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834231239

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834231238

PS: If you plan on upgrading parts (Like RAM or a SSD), this laptop is horrible for that. There's also no DVD player.

 

[fralexandr]

if you don't mind used, you can also find deals at lenovo outlet or dell outlet. They'll usually include a 1 year warranty on those.

the lenovo y series is pretty popular, but they start at $700 (you might be able to find a coupon on them)
http://outlet.lenovo.com/SEUILibrar...ex=1&facet-3=18&page-size=100&sort-criteria=1
a lot of the y series come with an i7 quadcore and a decent gpu

http://slickdeals.net/
http://www.fatwallet.com/
http://dealnews.com/
might be good places to check out for deals too.
dealnews and fatwallet have dedicated places for laptops. Slickdeals you would search their hot deals forums.

You can certainly find something that'll play WoW and minecraft for <$600.
You could even play it on an intel HD 4000
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4000.69168.0.html