Hey I'm looking to buy a laptop under 300 if possible. Only requirements are it needs to be i7 if you guys think an i5 will be fast without lag then I'll settle with that. It has to have good battery life and a 1080p screen. Used or refurbished is ok. Thanks!

Hello and welcome to the forum

If you meant U.S. dollars (USD,) while I'm not sure about the battery life or the "1080p screen," the one here might be suitable. I don't think you will have a whole lot of choice for only $300.

Regards...

Ya I figured I wouldn't have to many choices I can bump my budget up to 400 if that helps. I like that laptop that you linked. I also have been looking at the hp 8560w and the Lenovo w530. If anyone else has anymore suggestions please let me know. Thanks!

At $400, you would be able to look into Dell Latitude E6440 or E7440's (E7440 is ultrabook, E6440 still full size laptop). Some of my personal choices for slightly older laptops. 4th Generation Core architecture, the main thing to watch out for is the LCD. They were available with your desired 1080P LCd, but they were ALSO available with a pathetic 1366x768, so you have to be careful when looking for them that you're getting the FHD. My own PERSONAL feeling is that anything prior to the 4th generation the advances in IPC would make newer 5 & 6th gen i5's superior to older non-quad core i7's.

I had a 8460 (14' version of the 8560 you're looking at), and IMO, the perfomrance is NOT worthy of spending money on anymore unless you get it CHEAP. They were great for their day, but their day is long past, and the 2nd generation core architecture is REALLY starting to show it's age in performance against newer processors (although not as bad as 1st gen. Dual core 5th gen i5's w/ hyperthreading are faster than 1st gen quad core i7's w/ hyperthreading). Not familiar with the W530 to comment.

Sounds like you need a gaming laptop. If not gaming than what makes you concerned about lag? What's the mission of the laptop?
FWIW Linus T. uses a mac laptop but they're not good for gaming. Most consider i7 to be overkill for gaming but that may change with Vulkan.

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Lenovo has a reputation for working and playing well with Linux. A used Lenovo might be worth a look.

I've had good luck with Dells, though Dell tends to favor Broadcom wireless in its lower-end machine. Broadcom can often take a couple of extra steps to get working.

Here are links to mobile processors and graphics cards rankings/benchmarks:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-....171212.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-C....149418.0.html

I'm only concerned about lag because I have a really old hp dv6000 running Linux and it works good, but sometimes it lags really hard. I'm a pretty busy college student, personal trainer, and real estate agent I'm always on the go and sometimes I need to print a document and libre office will lag and it just annoys me. So I just want something that won't lag and be reliable. Not really needed for gaming, but it would be a plus. Will use it for video editing as well. The main mission for the laptop is basically read and write all kinds of documents, browse the web, Netflix, and video editing.

My little $200 laptop in my sig (#5) will do the "basically" chores without issue. It's actually what I carry with me most often in case I need to VPN to my desktop at work and get actual work accomplished.

Timothy_miller you don't have any lag issues with that laptop? What do guys think about the dell e7240? I can't find an e7440 under 500 so that rules that one out same for the e6440.

Hi...

Unfortunately, unless you bought it, it's already been sold.

Regards...

No, the performance in "basic" tasks on my HP is really good. I'm sure if I tried to do anything complex, it would be brought to it's knees, but with basic tasks, I'm absolutely impressed.

As for the E7240, long as you don't mind how small the screen is, it's a great little laptop. The Latitude line are fantastic laptops, and far more likely to have Intel wireless instead of Broadcom since they're marketed at the business market instead of consumer so going for lowest price isn't as important.

I have a feeling your lag is hard drive not computer SSD's fix a lot and their cheap anymore.

This is true and for a college student this is the most bang for your buck. An SSD will make an older laptop much more responsive and quieter and cooler and have better battery life and it extends the usable life of the laptop.

So even if you buy a new laptop putting an SSD in the old one will buy you some time until you get a new one.

These are the laptops that have caught my attention. Most of these have i5 cpu's a couple have i7s. Which do you think would be the best?
Dell xps 12 9q33 i5-4200, HP Elitebook 840 G1 i5-5300, Dell Inspiron 7348 i5-5200u, Samsung ATIV book 5 NP540U3C i5 1.7ghz 5th gen, DELL XPS 13 L321X i5 1.6ghz, LENOVO IDEAPAD FLEX 14 (no had screen, but looks like a good laptop), Lenovo IdeaPad Z50 (this one also seems pretty good).