ASUS P-Series P2540UA-AB51 Busiess Standard Laptops with Office 365

EDIT:This laptop has returned to less than 500$ and I can recommend it whole-heartedly again...This is one of the most complete laptops, with a good form factor, that I have had the pleasure of using. Please note that this is *not* a gaming laptop, though some basic games will run fine. It is a well rounded, very competent entry into the business laptop category and should be a consideration, price wise, for those who might be thinking about dropping 2-3 times as much for a surface laptop.First, the negatives:1) It is all plastic. When I first saw this online, I thought it was metal top at least, if not entirely metal. Nope, etched plastic made to look like brushed aluminum. F-2) It has a DVD in it. What?!??! Did we hop in the DeLorean and ride back to 2007? Totally unnecessary today, as external DVDs are cheap and have a better form factor, plus the space could have been used for 1-2 SSD.3) It ships with 8 gigs of ram, which also is a plus (more on that and check the attached photo).The Positives:1) SHIPS WITH NO BLOAT WARE!!!! HALLELUJAH!2) Windows 10 updates to the Creators Edition as soon as you turn it on.3) Can drive two external monitors at 1920x1080 with ease.4) Keyboard is so-so, a decent size keyboard, but lacks good tactile feel. Call this one even.5) Ships with 8GB ram... IN ONE RAM STICK! YAY!Updating this thing to 16 gigs is a snap. Just remove to the two screws on the back panel and gently slide the panel towards you. You will happily see an empty DDR4 Ram slot for you to put another one in. It is highly recommended you get another 8 gig ddr4 ram chip right away. You will see some improved performance since Double Data Rate 4 chips want to be installed in pairs. From an article..."As was already stated, in order to optimize memory performance so that it operates in "dual channel" mode, you need to have matched pairs of memory sticks installed. If you have just one stick of the required pair your memory will operate in the less-than-optimal "single channel" mode."So, the memory in my Asus is Samsung 8gb PC4-2400T. For optimal memory performance, the chips must have the same timing and latency numbers. I'm going to try to find the specific memory chips and paste a link here... I'm not sure you will get the best performance if you use other chips.Edit: Found it. I did not find the memory chip on Amazon, but did find it on a certain "egg"y other site, of the "new"ish variety. The chip is SAMSUNG NOTEBOOK MEMORY 8G 1Rx8 PC4-2400T-SA1 (8G DDR4 2400), and you can find it directly by googling "Samsung DDR4 M471A1K43881-CRC. I'd do a direct link to the other online retailer, but I understand that through the Amazon EULA everyone agreed to, if I did that Jeff Bezos would get to punch me in the groin. It's true you have to watch what you are agreeing to with those things.

This is probably the best laptop you can purchase in the $500 range; with a few caveats:- The 1TB Hard drive is 5400 RPM, on the slower end of HDDs which means that programs booting up are going to be a bit slower. You can easily upgrade to a 7200 RPM HDD (which would be the baseline/standard) or if your willing to pay for a Solid State Drive obviously that would dramatically boost boot time. I purchased a Seagate 500gb 7200RPM for $40, ghost the OS and files and now use the 1TB as an external drive-Comes with 8gb of RAM but an additional slot is easily accessible on the underside. I immediately popped it open and dropped in a Crucial 8GB DDR4 2400 ($60). 16gb of RAM is plenty and can handle anything your planning on running on this machine. (If your looking to drop more than 16gb you should probably be shopping for a beefier machine overall (i7 processor, GTX 1070, etc)- Intel HD 620 integrated graphics; this model laptop cannot be upgraded with a more robust graphics card however the 620 isn't terrible. Arguably on par with the Nvidia GTX 400/500 series from several years ago, so nothing incredible but certainly usable for older games or non graphics intensive programs. Check out on you tube some benchmark test to see if its acceptable to you.- very little bloatware: seems trivial, but seriously, it can be exhausting researching pre-installed software and going through the uninstall process. I was immensely pleased that this machine had practically none on it.- In summary: a well balanced laptop with room for some easy improvements (you'll easily put between $100 - $150 in upgrades into it, but if search for a laptop that has the features I described already installed your easily look at a $300 increase in price.) If you are someone looking to purchase a new gaming laptop or something for editing picture/ video, you should probably look elsewhere. But if your shopping for a reliable, fast everyday use computer, meant for light gaming, internet surfing, etc. This is the one for you.