So I’ve wanted a laptop for some time now. Like most things I want, I didn’t want to actually buy it so I have been putting it off for about a year now. This year at school I am taking some security classes that are in an airgapped room. The catch is that you can get the school’s wifi in the room if you bring your own equipment (and promise not to plug it in to the room’s network on pain of failure of all classes that use the security lab).

A few weeks ago I picked up a $1200 HP. I was planning on using it as my full time computer as it was more powerful (I thought) than my existing machine (c2d, 4gb, 9600m gt). Well apparently I failed at reading reviews/benchmarks or they lied to me, as the 9600m gt barely outperformed my 7900gs (17 points on 3dmark06). On top of that I was having some strange issues with the sound and the “media buttons” (which are really like a touchpad of some sort) acting oddly. Since HP offers full money back guarantees (and pays return shipping, and shipping to me was free) back to HP it went, quite painlessly. Even though I wasn’t sold on their product, their return policy is pretty damn nice.

About a week ago, a buddy linked me to a slickdeals post about the Acer Extensa 4420-5963. $399 at Best Buy.

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