Hey computer geeks, did I get a good deal on this laptop?
 

My other laptop lasted a whole 5 years and then it passed on to laptop heaven so I had to run out and grab an early xmas gift for myself. After some checking around I went for this:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+L...&skuId=9556036

Keep in mind I haven't had to purchase a computer in 5 years so I don't know industry standards right now or if I got ripped off or if I got a decent deal... but it seemed good to me.

Thoughts?

Battery Life: Up to 5 hours and 10 minutes - this has to be wrong?

It's sooooo light weight, I'm loving it!!

Asus makes nice stuff. Looks like a decent price to me.

I really love my asus netbook, it advertises 8.5 hours battery life and I get over 6 with it.

I'd say it's a pretty good deal. HDMI output, 500GB HD, 4GB DDR2, Li-Ion battery, Windows 7 64-bit...

Not a bad deal, but the 5400rpm HD would have been the deal breaker for me.

slow ass hd 5400 is shit.

I agree asus makes great products, that is a great price, but their customer support is notorious for being incredibly bad. Their power plugs for their netbooks and power plugs are really bad, never last more than one-three months and then to get a replacement from the company, or one at all is nearly impossible, they never have them in stock and they are never readily available.

The harddrive could be better though :

Hopefully you have better luck, but overall that is a fantastic deal for those specs.

not a bad deal :thumbsup

Is it really that much worse than 7200? I consulted with one GFY'er through texts before the purchase and he said make sure to get 7200 but I don't remember seeing many laptops that had it. :(

At this point anything is better than my 5 year old laptop. :1orglaugh

7200 will cut your battery life by 40-50%, that's why laptops dont have it

looks like a good deal, I just got the wife for xmas a pink dell studio 15 laptop with similiar specs for $960 after tax. except I added the student addition of office, excel, and word. I think a 10 hour battery, and 1 year trial of lowjack security. I gave it to her already since she has been using my computer and so far very impressed with Windows 7.

I don't know honestly, I mean is a 2.2ghz that much better than a 1.8ghz? Is 4gb that much better than 3gb? All I can tell you is a 5400rpm HD is a little over 30% slower than a 7200rpm HD. :1orglaugh

BTW, I don't use laptops, I use my desktop with a Cheetah 15,000RPM scsi HD.

Well there you have it..I didn't know that. :thumbsup

For $600 you can't really go wrong with an ASUS.

Machines built 4 years ago can do what 95% of people need them to do today.

I cancelled my Qosmio order recently and going for the m15x alienware instead, should last a few years without the need to upgrade.

Seems like a decent deal to me :thumbsup

The fact that you need one now, no. The deal is pretty standard right now at the $599 price point for a T6600. You are getting a larger harddrive at 500 gigs over many laptops in that range at 320gig but really, with the cheap prices of externals, HDD space is just a luxury :)

And Judge, I have to disagree with you regarding a 7200 HDD using up 40-50% more power. That is completely not the case and is complete bullshit. At most a 7200 HDD would cut your battery life by a few minutes over a 5400. Laptops use 5400 as its just been a typical 'standard'. They're also cheaper hence the decent pricepoint.

Thanks for the info, I'm cool with a standard deal. :thumbsup Good point on the external deals, but I was living with a 40 gig on my old model and doing fine. I don't play any PC games or run anything too extreme (like editing videos for example) so I think any route I went would have been fine for the work I do.

You are right on. :thumbsup

All my notebooks were upgraded to 7200 rpm HDs. At first, I was worried about heat and battery life. I saw no significant loss in batter life or gain in heat and I do video rendering on mine.

For the, the graphics card would be the dealbreaker. That laptop will struggle with games and high def video.

Its a great laptop for 600 bucks for sure... I have asus N51 I payed a bit over 1200 and im loving it.

Enjoy your Christmas present to yourself! :thumbsup

it seems that I am not the only one who says it is worth, look above

Six bills ain't bad for all of that in a laptop.
I've always loved ASUS boards.. never had an ASUS laptop
If you're worried about thr 5400rpm drive, just go get a small cheap 7200 and use it for the o/s and programs... If you can install two drives in it, that is.

:thumbsup:thumbsup

It also does not have an expansion slot but it's perfect for his needs.

pretty cool for 600 bucks :thumbsup

Decent laptop for that price. No real gfx card but if you're not playing games, that won't be a problem.

and the whole 7200rpm drives vs 5400rpm drives is way overrated... djeez, it's a laptop, not a desktop.... Sony even uses 4200rpm drives in most of their bigger laptops....

You can't compare drives based on the rpm... other factors like data density are way more important... One could even say that most 5400rpm drives made in 2009 are faster than 7200rpm drives made in 2007....