Computer Help and Support

Dell or Lenovo.

That said Asus and Toshiba do make some decent machines.

I would stay far far away from HP if I were you their failure rate is far too high.


You can see three year failure rates here.

http://www.statisticbrain.com/laptop-malfunction-rates/

From your description of needs I would look for something with these specs.

Intel I3 processor at least preferably an I5 if you can find one in your price range. At least 8 gigs of memory. You could probably get away with 4 but 8 is much better if you do any multitasking at all. Drive space is not really that important unless you save a lot of pics and video. Most laptops these days come with a 1TB HDD which is more than enough for most people. If you can find one with an SSD drive instead of a standard drive I would consider it as SSDs make a noticeable improvement in performance.


The best thing you can do for yourself if possible is go in and put your hands on anything you are considering purchasing. Things like the keyboard and mouse pad are very important and can be the difference in you loving your computer or hating it. Trying them out before you buy them can make all the difference in your happiness down the road.