My laptop finally called it quits. So I am shopping around for a new one. I need a laptop that can handle my work functions (word, excel, quickbooks...etc) and would like to be able to watch live TV on it. I don't need it for anything crazy like videogames or making movies. Does anyone have suggestions? I would like to stay under $600. Thanks!

You can cross out anything that starts with an "A" and rhymes with snapple.

I have an HP laptop at home that I use for the same purposes. You need the fastest intel processor. I think its a pavilion.

I just bought a HP Pavilion 7 in July. Love it. Excellent graphics,. and a big screen.

Apple MacBook Pro (Bimmer will back me up on that)

Go to tigerdirect.com and look look at the Core i5 processor laptops. Acer, Asus, Lenovo, HP, Toshiba - you can't really go wrong with any of those. Minimum of 6gb DDR3 but 8 is ok for your needs. Do not focus on internal storage as external drives are the way to go. You can get 1tb for $60-80 depending on brand/functions.

i7 would be best but for your price range I would stick with the i5 so you get more bang for your buck.

I am considering going with a tablet and keyboard docking station instead of a laptop. Surfing speeds are similar, I have apps through Google Play and Amazon that will allow for productivity working with Office documents, and between external drives and sites like Dropbox I am not too concerned about internal memory. Also portability would be better with the tablet.

Just wait 6 months to buy one... otherwise the one you buy will be outdated!

I bought a HP with Windows 8/AMD A6 with 8GB Ram and 1 TB hard drive for $619 back in December from QVC. I had shopped for a while and this was the best deal I had seen. It came with Microsoft Office plus some other software like a basic photoshop program - but what the tipping point for me was it also came with lifetime anti-virus (Trend) and lifetime U.S. Tech Support. It was one of their daily special values (TSV), so you may want to keep an eye out there too - I know they run them from time to time.

According to Consumer Reports, Acer, Sony, HP, Lenovo and Toshiba are the more reliable brands and Gateway and Dell are less reliable. I have an HP laptop at home, which I bought used about 3 years ago and it works well. Any difficulties are usually software-related and a reboot cures them. At work I have a Dell laptop and it works great. The battery life on the HP is not great, but then again it is at least 4 years old and I keep it plugged in over 90% of the time.

I just bought an HP Pavilion, I like it so far. It's not a touch screen, so I have Windows 7 vs. 8. Good battery life, screen is big and bright (matte finish too so no reflections), and so far has outpeformed my previous Dell laptop, which had operating system issues from Day 1 (that Dell would do nothing to help me with).

Edit Reason: Typing fingers are not so reliable.

how about your driving fingers?

We just switched to ThinkPads at work, very good, but a tad more than $600

I'm looking at laptops also. Someone suggested refurbished laptops on newegg.com.

Also, both Toshiba and Apple have their own refurbish stores. Last time I did price checking, prices were comparable getting a refurb from the manufacturer, but the warranty usually far exceeds anything you'd get from a third party.

I haven't had any experience with refurbished laptops, but did buy a refurbished desktop PC once. It was a nightmare, so many things wrong with it. Ended up returning it. Will NEVER go that route again.

i dunno about the refurbished ones, but Newegg in general tends to have pretty good deals. My ex-husband (he works in IT) swears by newegg.

I have tried so many times to buy a ready-made laptop at Best Buy or TigerDirect, but I always end up going onto the manufacturer's site and building/customizing the thing myself.

Anyone ever used fixmycomputer.com?

I'd like to attempt to salvage the old one before buying a new one.

Don't use iyogi.com. I thought I was calling the HP folks, and they represented themselves as such. I didn't have a virus until AFTER they got in my computer.... GRRRRRRRrrrrrr!! My fingerprint scanner wasn't working and I couldn't remember my signon to get in my computer. They did get the scanner back up and running.

Mac products are so overpriced right now. You can get a better PC at less than half the price.

There is another plus..... you don't have to deal with Apple.

Most of those sites just download antivirus, antispam and registry protection that you can get for free, and without installing additional BS software. Most of these antivirus software packages send out your information or download additional programs on your PC that slow it down or give you things you do not need,

If you have a pc and use at least Windows 7, I would recommend either the Microsoft Security Essentials (free) or Free AVG. You can also download Malwarebytes for free in case you get anything nasty on your computer.

However most users of computers do not realize that to manage your computer you need to continually download new virus definitions. This means to update your antivirus software. New viruses are created daily and the people who work to keep your software effective need to update your software.

Well I picked out a laptop I'd love, but I'm going to go the cheaper route and upgrade and fix some of the hardware and accessories on my current one. I'll spend half of what I would have spent for the laptop I wanted.