Michael wrote:
I have to have a PC for my work, so I buy the cheapest Dell Inspiron that I can find and treat them as disposable. They typically last me 3-4 years and when they get at all wonky and are out of the 1 year Dell and additional year AMEX warranty I just drill the hard drive and recycle the whole thing and do it again.

I have an Inspiron N5110 that's 2.5 years old that I payed somewhere in the $300 range for and it's started going to sleep when I move it around. I can keep it from doing it if I use it on a lapdesk but it's beginning to irritate me. I'd bet I caused some sort of a short in the laptop from repeated placing and lifting it from the floor to my lap while the screen was open, holding it by the corner. I'm trying to remember to always close it before I put it down and when I replace it I'll try to do the same thing. I'll replace it as soon as Windows 10 comes out and looks stable (if the current reports of it being WAY better than 8 are true).

That said, if I needed a new laptop today, I'd buy this one for $250: http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-15-3531-laptop/pd?oc=fncwc3001h&model_id=inspiron-15-3531-laptop

I don't want a touch screen on my laptop; that's what my iPad is for. I'd buy something with Windows 7 if I could find it cheap, but they are getting expensive. You can also get one with a permanent copy of Office installed for more. I don't need that since my college has a license that allows me to load it on a personal computer.

rz wrote:
[quote=Filliam H. Muffman]
With some discriminating shopping of closeouts, you can get better specs in a $400 laptop than a 2012 Mac mini. I would call that decent.