What brand/type of laptop should I buy?

I am an editor who needs to be able to open big PDFs. My current laptop is a 4 year old Acer (which I haven't been terribly happy with...) I need something that is fast (I would like a quad-core, but they're generally too expensive) with good RAM. I need to be able to have many windows/programs open at a time without my computer lagging or freezing. I need a bigger hard drive (bare minimum of 500GB, preferably 750. I don't want a size under 15". I do not know what brand to buy. I need something very reliable. I do not want to spend more than $500-$600.Any ideas?

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Recommended Answer:

ASUS laptop, this is a good work horse.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230987Core i5 3230M(2.60GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 1600 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce Dedicated 2GB GT 610M 1 Year Accidental Damage/30-Day Zero Bright Dot 5.8 lbsThis HP can be customized to what you need. If you want better performance upgrade the APU to a A10 and increase the ram to 8GB. http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C9W57AV;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000fb8mNv9y;sid=NID2W1inOb6JXwkRbh2qz4GoAJwzDmy78dUe8LW2AJwzDtPc7Kuhl6jI?HP-ENVY-15z-j000-Notebook-PC A8-5550M APU HD 8000 Series Graphics 6GB DDR3 750GB 5400 rpm HD Starting at $530Brand buying adviceYou get what you pay for. Systems with high end parts with low prices are to be viewed with suspicion. They have to cut corners somewhere to get the price down. What cost you less today is going to cost you more tomorrow.Apple makes a good quality laptop. The problem comes when it requires service or minor upgrades. It is near impossible to do anything with them. They even glue the battery and hard drive down so you can not change it. They solder the ram to the logic board so you can not increase it. They lock up most of the software so your stuck with what they approve.Lenovo has serious stand behind their product problems. They bought IBM PC division and proceeded to drive the quality of the system into the ground. Their customer service is well below par. They even makes Dell customer service look good. Lenovo will not allow people to read instruction on how to access the BIOS menu or to get info on their puters on their web site unless you connect to them thru Facebook. They do this so they can spy on their users. The last and final thing to remember about them is they are a Chinese Government own company. It is up to you if you want to trust them.Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony should be avoided because of their heavy modification of Windows and the drivers. If you remove some of the bloat they install, you can cripple the system.Acer, Gateway, and eMachines should be avoided period. Low end system that are driving the race to the bottom.Dell once made a good system and fell from grace. They are now struggling to regain their place in the market. Customer service is one of many problems with this company.Alienware are glorified Dells and are more name then product. Priced extremely high for what you get. They do perform but you can get the same for less by looking around, just not packaged to be eye candy to the gamers.Samsung has a history of using cheap parts in critical areas. Capacitors has been one area Samsung has a known history of going cheap, causing units to fail early. For that reason I would avoid them.ASUS and HP do not modify Windows as bad as the other manufacturers. They have excellent build quality. They might add a lot of bloat but they also makes it easy to get rid of it.Ultrabooks are the higher end of Wintel laptops but they have some of the same concerns as Apple. They make it next to impossible to change any hardware in them. Service of them will have to be done by the manufacturers. With most of them, you can not change your own battery or hard drive. They are designed to catch your eye but they are not any more special then other laptops except for the fact that they are slim or thin. Your paying for it being thin and slim. For the money your going to spend on it you can buy a much better laptop with more power.Hybrids are the worse of the worse. The flip or detachable touch screens are just a disaster waiting to happen.Never buy an All In One. They are far worst then laptops of any kind to service and they have a higher failure rate. Choose wisely.:)

Other Answers:

• Dell has many good options and by seeing your requirements I would recommend one option from Dell. It has good RAM, storage and it is reliable as well which can handle anything with ease like PDF's.Its features include:Intel Core i5 3210M 2.5 GHz which is perfect for fast processingPerfect multitasking 6 GB DDR31 TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive for storage17-Inch ScreenWindows 8And it comes under the price of $580. After seeing the good features here is a comment from an actual user which helps in assessing its performance. And according to the user it is affordable yet a good choice:http://www.amazon.com/review/R2250VTXAVWRWP/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B009LTUB9G&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=hawmekm-20So this one is really good choice with good ram, storage and good performance. Also this is one of other good options. See here is the list of laptops which are under $600 and popular ones. And popular ones usually are good options:http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_p_36_6?bbn=565108&qid=1374276696&rh=n%3A172282%2Cn%3A%21493964%2Cn%3A541966%2Cn%3A565108&rnid=2421885011&low-price=&high-price=600&x=-180&y=-3564&tag=hawmekm-20