Looking To Get A Cheap Laptop For School

Spent a lot of money on a nice desktop build last year and now I am just looking to spend a couple hundred on a cheap laptop for school/web browsing. My girlfriend has a surface ( the cheapest model) and I would get that, but I really want the full windows 8.1 and not the windows RT crap. I found this one, and a few others. This is gonna be the top end of my budget.

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satellite-C55D-A5170-Laptop-PC/dp/B00I79259A

Absolute needs

Windows 8.1
4 gigs of ram (at least)
500gb HDD (or better)
Good Battery Life

Perks I would love to have but not necessary

Touch screen
Backlit Keyboard
Better graphics then just Intel Integrated, such as the laptop linked above
Core i3 or AMD equivalent chipset (again, as listed above)



Like I said, this laptop is cheap on purpose, meant to just handle school and web browsing and minor programs. If it can run a few simple games it wouldn't hurt my feelings. If i really wanted a gaming laptop I would spend way more. But I have a desktop for that. I play a lot on a minecraft server and If i was able to at least run it and play semi smoothly, that would be awesome.

If you guys know of a better option then the one I listed please link it. I am hoping some good black friday deals will pop up. The only other laptop I have owned was a toshiba satellite, and that lasted me about 4 years, and I loved it.


Also, I don't want a chromebook!

Thanks for any help

 

I was in the exact same boat and had just come from a reasonable i7 laptop as well. I chose this and I'm still happy with it. It has a reasonable graphics set and a rather peppy little processor. I just spent $40 and threw 8gb of dual channel ram in (it comes with only one slot populated, single channel default) and it has been great. I'd be willing to send you the 4gb stick I took out when I upgraded if you also wanted to go to 8gb dual channel, provided you chose that laptop. Long battery life too (5-6 hrs.) This laptop says it comes with Windows 7 but it has a DVD for Windows 8.1 in the box.

The E series processors you are looking at in that Toshiba are very disappointing and very likely wont run Minecraft playable as it is processor dependent.

 

That looks like a pretty good pc. That processor is definitely a step up from the ones I have been looking at so far.

 

Bump?

 

bump bump bump