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I'm looking for a decent laptop for my daughter. It will be used for light gaming, watching movies, and internet. I want one with HDMi out so she can hook it to her TV to watch streaming movies on her TV if she wants. I'd like to find one that would last a while. I wasn't impressed with Dell's, Lenovo's, or Sony's offerings. They offered no customization and were pricey for the hardware specs they were selling.

I found this on HP's site and customized it as follows: ($609.99 less shipping)

Pavilion 17z-e100
• regal purple
• Windows 8.1 64
• AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 Processor + 1GB AMD Radeon™ HD 8670M Discrete
• 17.3-inch diagonal HD+ BrightView LED-backlit Display (1600 x 900)
• 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 500GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
• No Additional Office Software
• Security Software Trial
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• Standard Keyboard
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam w/ integrated digital mic
• 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth® [1x1]

Would I be better off looking somewhere else? If so where? I also don't know much about AMD's mobile offerings.

Does she need portability? That 17" won't be light and probably won't have much battery life.

Here's a nice deal. The Intel HD 4000 video is adequate for light and casual gaming. I can run L4D2 on it. Great price for a Core-i5. It's already discounted from $600 to $429, but the Coupon Code "MASTERPASS" will take another 10% off.

For that price, buy an SSD for it and you'll have a real nice laptop.

From Techbargains.com:

Acer Aspire E1 Intel Core i5-4200U HASWELL 15.6 Laptop $386.99 Free Shipping

Better than Cyber Monday Pricing. Newegg has the Acer Aspire E1-572-6870 Intel Core i5-4200U ULV Dual-Core HASWELL 15.6" Notebook Computer for a low $386.99 Free Shipping after 10% off Coupon Code: "MASTERPASS" when you check out with MasterPass (Exp VERY Soon). Tax in CA, NJ, TN.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834314150

FlyingPenguin wrote:Does she need portability? That 17" won't be light and probably won't have much battery life.

Here's a nice deal. The Intel HD 4000 video is adequate for light and casual gaming. I can run L4D2 on it. Great price for a Core-i5. It's already discounted from $600 to $429, but the Coupon Code "MASTERPASS" will take another 10% off.

For that price, buy an SSD for it and you'll have a real nice laptop.

From Techbargains.com:

Acer Aspire E1 Intel Core i5-4200U HASWELL 15.6 Laptop $386.99 Free Shipping


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834314150

That's perfect. Thank You. She's only 9 so I wasn't looking to spend too much. The only reason I was looking at the 17" HP is because it was cheaper than the 15".

I am tempted to get one myself at that price, but I don't need it.

I just ordered it. I had to set up a Masterpass account but it was worth it for an extra $40 off.

Thanks again.

I got it today but I'm ready to send it back. Windows 8 is the most frustrating experience I've ever had with a computer. I can't even figure out how to close an app. Microsoft's instructions don't work. When I place the cursor in the upper left hand of the screen as stated, there's nothing there.

Before you send it back, try installing ClassicShellSetup 4.0.2. It will give you an option on how the desktop behaves. I have a win8 test bed on my work bench and I have it installed to make it look like win7 desktop. Works great.
http://www.classicshell.net/

Executioner wrote:Before you send it back, try installing ClassicShellSetup 4.0.2. It will give you an option on how the desktop behaves. I have a win8 test bed on my work bench and I have it installed to make it look like win7 desktop. Works great.
http://www.classicshell.net/

Thanks. I installed the 8.1 update (which you have to install from the store) and it's a major improvement. Now I can boot directly to the desktop. I'll probably install classic shell also. Even after adjusting the size of the apps in the menu, I still have to scroll over to see them all.

I was getting very frustrated because most of the instructions on Microsoft's site that I found were written assuming I had a touch screen. I also don't like that Microsoft asks to login with a Live account but at least there is an option to bypass it.

I never use those apps as I don't see a point to them in a Windows PC.

Once you add the classic shell, it looks and behaves just like Win7 for the most part.

Install Classic Shell, configure to use the Windows 7 style start menu. Replace the crappy Classic Shell start button with this one that looks just like the Win7 start button: http://soldcentralfl.com/bob/Start_Button.png

In the Windows 8 settings in Classic Shell disable ALL active corners.

Change the file associations for JPG, BMP, PNG & TIF to the Windows Photo Viewer. Change the associations for WMV, WMA and MP3 to Windows Media Player (or your preferred audio player). Install Adobe Reader or Foxit Reader and change the PDF association to point to it.

You will NEVER see the metro desktop again. For all intents and purposes Win8 will look and feel like Win7 - but with the benefit of Win8's faster kernel.

This is how I run my Win8 laptop and gaming rig, and what I do for all my clients running Win8.

Thanks everyone. I followed all of your suggestions and now everything works great.

They are going to eventually going to put out another update that will render the metro start menu obsolete. It is still dumb to not give people the option to begin with.

ZYFER wrote:They are going to eventually going to put out another update that will render the metro start menu obsolete. It is still dumb to not give people the option to begin with.

I agree.

I've used the metro start menu one time since installing classic shell to find the camera app to take pictures with the webcam. I'm impressed with the start and shut-down time of windows 8.

Ya, regardless of being on the start menu or desktop, holding the start key and hitting the X key will give you a bunch of options.