Asus K55 15.6" laptop (i5, 4gb ram, 500gb hd) $415 free shipping at best buy
 

Didn't see this posted so thought I'd share

Link [bestbuy.com]

Non mobile link [bestbuy.com]

Not bad for a 3rd gen i5.


3rd Gen Intel® Core™ i5-3210M processor
Features a 3MB L3 cache and 2.5GHz processor speed.
Intel® Core™ i5 processor
Features smart 4-way processing performance with a speed boost.
Intel® Turbo Boost Technology
Delivers extra performance when you need it and increased energy efficiency when you don't.
4GB DDR3 memory
For multitasking power, expandable to 8GB.
Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive
Create custom DVDs and CDs.
15.6" LED-backlit high-definition widescreen display
With 1366 x 768 resolution showcases movies and games in stunning clarity.
500GB hard drive (5400 rpm)
Offers spacious storage and fast read/write times.
UMA graphics
For lush images with vivid detail. HDMI output for connection to an HDTV.
Built-in 1.0MP webcam and microphone
Make it easy to video chat with family and friends.
5-in-1 media reader
Supports Secure Digital, Secure Digital High Capacity, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick and Memory Stick PRO formats.
2 USB 3.0 ports and 1 USB 2.0 port
For fast digital video, audio and data transfer.
Built-in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11n)
Connect to the Internet without wires.
Built-in 10/100/1000 Mbps Fast Ethernet LAN
With RJ-45 connector for quick and easy wired Web connection.
Weighs 5.6 lbs. and measures just 1.3" thin
For easy portability. Chiclet-style keyboard allows simple typing.
Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit operating system preinstalled
Provides a stable platform for word processing, Web navigation, gaming, media storage and more.

This post can and should be edited by users like you :)
 

Price History
1/30 - $419.99
1/31 - $414.99
2/01 - $419.99
2/03 - $449.99
link [bestbuy.com]

:) :) :)
Webcam: 1mp
HDMI
x2 USB 3.0

:( :( :(
GPU: UMA
Screen Resolution: 1366x768
Windows 8 with no touchscreen

Is this a good deal, guys??

This is a good price for a 3rd gen i5 laptop, especially from one of the better regarded brands. Webcam is 1.0 megapixel, better than the 0.3 MP crap that Asus typically offers. No Bluetooth, which will be a drawback for some buyers.

Does anyone know off-hand if Asus laptops bought from Best Buy qualify for Asus' accidental damage coverage? Or does it vary model by model?

EDIT: Answered my own question. Best Buy (both B&M stores and .com) is one of the retailers that does not participate in Asus' Accidental Damage Protection (ADP) program.

nothing special... should be 379... to be slick...

How often do you see 3rd gen i5 laptops for $379, especially with fairly wide availability as this deal is? Unless I'm under-educated on the current price landscape for laptops, which I don't think I am, it's pretty uncommon. Sure, you can score the occasional steal from the Dell or Lenovo outlets, but it's not easy to find an i5 Ivy Bridge laptop under $400.

I think I'm going to jump on this one. Tired of waiting for a better deal.

ASUS K55A-HI5014L Laptop Intel Core i5 3210M (2.50GHz) 15.6" @ Bestbuy $419.99 + Tax pickup/shipped
 

I was looking to get this laptop from Best Buy, it was $450, but today is on sale as "deal of the day" for $419.99 + Tax

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspa...b=overview

Thanks op, was looking for a good deal on a gen 3 i5.

Let me go ahead and do this for ya'll:

Windows 8 so I'll pass.

Yes, what is so bad about WINDOWS 8 ? I have never used it. I see many places now offering to downgrade from WINDOWS 8 to 7 for a price.

Really liking Windows 8 on my Vivobook. But it does have a touch screen so the experience is much different.

can anyone explain the whole Ultrabook thing for me?

Is this an Ultrabook?

What makes and Ultrabook?

Why do I hear so much about Ultrabooks?

This is a very good price for those needing a 3rd gen i5 lappy. As mentioned in previous post, not slick, but still a very good price and not at limited quantities so most people reading this thread would have a chance at picking this up. I'll skip only because I like to hunt for those elusive super slick deals.

This isn't an ultrabook
Ultrabook defined, read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrabook

There appear to be several reposts of this deal...

Anyway, it was 3.5 stars a week ago at 445, so....http://slickdeals.net/f/5810852-A...S-Best-Buy

In for 1. Haven't seen a deal on the 3rd gen i5 in a few weeks. Thanks OP!

My initial take on this is good processing speed...

It's a 5400rpm HDD.
It's 4GB RAM.
Windows 8 is not just an updated OS, it's a totally new UI (user interface) than Win 98, Win200, Win Vista, Win 7. You'd better have a bunch of time without deadlines to meet if you're switching.

The nice processor will only make things smooth and fast if it is below the the 4GB RAM limit and doen't involve program actions that read/write to the hard drive (like opening programs).

My conclusion is this...
Change the purchasing strategy from a single-purchase cheap laptop solution to maximizing $500.
Take out the slow moving HDD and watch SD for a $90 120GB SSD. You will immediately make this $420 laptop a ~$650-$700 valued laptop.

Utilize the USB 3.0 port to use a portable drive for your large space needs. 500GB HDD is marketing; every single person I know in real life does not use more than ~90GB on their laptop.
You don't want 500GB of precious data on a highly-breakable easy-to-steal device? 500GB is more to backup.
Maybe allot another $20 or so to finding a USB 3.0 portable drive enclosure to put that 500GB HDD into when you get a new SSD.

Freak, I just bought this exact same laptop a week ago for $450 shipped. Purchased on 1/23/2013. Does BB do a price match to this new price? Or would I have to return and re-buy it again?

They will price match.

Yes, this seems like a decent deal. I've been looking for a new laptop and was focusing on an Asus i3 for $380:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+...66&st=asus 15.6" laptop&cp=1&lp=5

No, its not a "slickdeal," but for $380, it seemed OK. However, BB said the mfr hasn't shipped it to them yet and they don't have an eta.

So, for $40 more, you get an i5 processor. Seems like a decent deal. Note, this is a "deal of the day," so it ends at 12:01am EST! Good Luck!

If you went the SSD route, could the 500 gb HDD drive be used as an external? Do they make a houing for a 2.5 drive? It wouldn't take advantage of the 3.0 USB, but some on a budget may not care.

edit: yes you can and for cheap

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Pro...ame=2.5%22

Can the 4GB memory be upgraded to 8GB on this laptop?

According to the spec, Yes, it can.

This is a good machine for it's price. I don't think I'd consider it "Slick" but a great deal nonetheless.
I would personally +~$50-100 for a dedicated graphics + more ram + bigger hard drive.

Maybe it's just me, after looking for months, but I think this is a great deal on a 3rd gen i5 with the specs it has. I haven't seen any cheaper third gen i5 (brand new).

As far as I know there is no reason that link through discount sites and a CC can't make this at least 4% slicker. Save another $17

Yep, I got $419.99 * 0.025 = $10.50 link through and $460.74 * 0.01 = $4.61 CC for a total savings of $15.11.

Not quite as good as the $399 3rd gen i5 Dell Inspiron I got from Best Buy in November (which had 5% Chase/Discover CB + a $25 gift card).

This can also be made slicker if you have been answering the daily Best Buy Reward Zone [facebook.com] polls on Facebook.

Quick 5 minute call to BB and they credited me back the $30. For those that bought a week ago, call them to get the price difference returned to your card!

How do you like the laptop? I am on the fence about purchasing this because I only use the touchpad and thats what is causing this laptop to get bad reviews.

I'm loving it, super fast. I haven't had any problems with the touchpad. My wife has a little problem since there's no side scroll on the mouse pad which sucks. Maybe it's people with small hands that have a problem bumping it? I have big hands...

I freaking hate windows 8 though (this is coming from an XP user). Still trying to figure out how to make it look more like a normal windows machine.

We plan to use it 90% of the time as a desktop. I've got a wireless mouse, keyboard and an external monitor with speakers. So I won't have to deal with the touchpad that often.

IMO
+2 for dedicated graphics and more ram
-1 for bigger hard drive

upgrading RAM can be cheaper than having it done on the manufacturer side.
If someone can make waffles, he can unscrew a plastic cover on a laptop and put the HDD into a "portable" hard drive enclosure like you just found. And buying the USB 3.0 model enclosure ensure you get faster read/write speeds. TOTALLY perfect for doing backups using a backup software or even the Windows 7/8 backup software

I bought this around Thanksgiving from Staples for just under $400 after coupon.
It came with Windows 7. I don't like the keyboard, but everything else is OK. It is very responsive using network neighborhood, more so than my other pcs. I use a mouse, so can't comment too much on the touchpad.
I swapped the drive from a Seagate Backup Plus 500GB portable usb3.0 purchased from Staples around the same time for $28 with coupon. The Hitachi drive inside the Asus was a little noisy. The Hitachi works fine in the Seagate enclosure, and I use it as backup.
Did a clean install, purchased the Windows 8 upgrade for $14.99 and am dual booting. Win 8 boots a little faster than Win 7, otherwise they are about the same. Using Classic Shell on both.
Upgraded to 8GB with GSkill 4gb from Newegg, item N82E16820231481 for $18 shipped.

Not bad for i5 laptop at this price. Thanks OP!

Check their open box if you are just looking for a cheap i3, maybe a cheap i5 I didn't really look for those. The 2 stores I checked both had 3rd gen i3 Samsungs/Acers for $260-280 and there is a 10% off open box coupon. I bought the AMD version of this laptop (K55N) last week open box for $252.

A lot of the touchpad issues I think come from Windows 8. Windows 8 has a lot of gestures and until you learn or disable them you will open random things on accident a lot.

Oh nice. The stock 4GB is a single module?

yes it is. I bought another 4gb on amazon.

Thanks for taking time to share this practical deal which is useful to me.

Really? Google "classicshell"

Can you give the link please ? I want to buy one. Thank you.

Want no part of Windows 8

Anyone know if this laptop uses : CL9 or CL11 RAM modules?
What does it come stock with?
Can they be mismatched?
Thanks!

Doesn't say in the Manual or User Guide. Only way to know is either hope someone has this model and will pop it open for you or call Asus Support.

Which SSD drive would you recommend. Thanks.

Um, what?

Go find me an i5 laptop under 500 from a good manufacturer, please.

Don't forget 5% from Shop Discover. Helps with the tax.

Slap on an extra 4gb of ram and an SSD and this will be a nice cheap capable machine.

I recommend anything from Samsung, Crucial, or Intel for reliability. If you are new to the SSD, then I recommend whatever is cheapest and affordable from these three manufacturers as for everyday usage, you can barely tell the difference in performance. What you want is reliability and these three brands have been proven to be reliable.

$5 off of MSRP. Am I the only one who saw that?

Asus is a great brand... Price is steep.

Windows 8 rocks with a touch screen.

Still better than all other windows without TS.

Just learn the gestures and key shortcuts, you'll be set.

Not a MS fanboy, but I must admit..
After the Vivobook, I love windows 8!

The price dropped $5 within the last few hours to $414.99. OP should update the title.

Def a good deal imo. Wish I had an extra $400 right now...

Newegg deal was much better.

Well, then you might want to come up with some sort of plan if you're intending on buying a new computer anytime soon because, guess what... they all have Windows 8, and it is going to get progressively harder to roll back to Windows 7 in terms of component drivers.

And it isn't that bad, but it def favors touchscreens.

Good deal, I'm tempted to jump on this, though I really don't "need" it.

If it isn't still live, who cares?

FYI, my wife bought this back in Nov 2012. 2 months later it didn't turn on and was sent in for rma. Asus rec'd it on Jan 10, 2013. Turn around time from the time asus rec'd it was suppose to be 10-14 days. I called in a few times to esclate the rma and was informed no updates. 2 weeks later my wife calls in and was told they are waiting for parts...and if the parts was not available that they will send her a new one. I called in again yesterday 1/31/13 to talk to a supervisor and was told they are busy on the phone and they would return my call as soon as they were off the phone. It is now 2/1/13 and no replacement. I have always been a good customer to asus but after this bad experience I will not recommend asus to anyone and beware their customer service. If anyone thinks this is a good deal...it is as long as it works. After that good luck. Terrible service

I got the 2nd gen version a yr ago for $430 & love it. Gonna tell the gf to grab this. Mine survived a fall from my car hood to the garage floor with no damage. I had to warranty the touchpad months later & it was painless. Good deal if you don't want to hunt for that hard to find super deal.

thanks man, been searching for long time for good i5 ivy bridge.. got it for 415+ tax

Got one a few months ago ... nice machine.

15.6" LED-backlit high-definition widescreen display
With 1366 x 768 resolution showcases movies and games in stunning clarity.

HA!

Seriously, if you will be using this laptop for years to come, you should consider a laptop with at least an IPS display, preferably high-res as well. It makes all the difference in the world. Once you start using a laptop with a nice display, you can't ever go back to these crappy TN panels.

If you can wait, I would suggest that you do so. Last week I got a Lenovo x220 with an IPS display for $470. Even though it has a Sandy Bridge processor, its still worth it. In October, they had Sony 15 inch laptops with 1080p IPS displays for $390. So if you can wait, there ARE deals for them.

Windows 8 isn't as bad as many people say. I've been using it for months on my main machine and my notebook.

i totally agree. the complaints on Win 8 having that Metro UI and some small stuffs are overblown. it's been more stable than Win 7 or any of the older versions during it's first year of release and surprisingly a joy to use with a touchscreen.

Anybody know if Asus will honor a warranty if I take this out of the US?

Why is everyone saying "Touch Screen? THis is not touchscreen, I am absolutely confused.

Will this run Civ5 decently? What about other steam games like CS: Global Offensive?

I'm currently using an old Toshiba with Intel Pentium from 09 or so, so anything is better than what I have, just not sure what I need to run games. (CS won't load on and Civ5 runs super slow on my current laptop [of course...])

everybody is talking about the touch pad....
some are saying that the touch pad sensitivity is not good and some are saying they are using a mouse to avoid using the touchpad

Looking for one with similar specs and price range but with touch screen. Guess I'll have to wait some more

Could you go into more detail on this. I am not sure what you mean.
Thanks

man where was this deal couple weeks ago. Got a diff one for the mom and made 'into' windows 7. I would wait for a touch screen laptop at this price to take advantage of windows 8. That's where it really shines, but using a touchpad is ok.

What is wrong with the Touch Pad, is it really that bad? Also will Windows 8 be compatible with Xbox Media Player Streaming?

I have this machine with windows 8, but i made it windows 7 functional with 2 free downloads. Object doc (a personal favorite for UI) and Classic shell (adds start bar and makes the OS start on the normal deskotp) These quick free downloads make Windows 8 almost exactly the same as windows 7. The only difference between the two OS is you can go to the weird tablet start menu for apps, if you so please.

In summary, don't let windows 8 scare you just download things to make it more functional like 7.
Total time required = 15minutes

This I5 features intel's HD4000 integrated graphics. It is no high end video card but it is decent for older games or new games on low settings. Google the games you would like to play with "Intel hd4000" Likely you will find youtube videos and forums addressing the same.

Summary:
Google: "Intel HD4000 Civilization 5"
Most new games will be playable with low-mid graphics settings

Whats the battery life on this one?

would this be a better option
http://www.costco.com/Refurbished...16545.html

That depends on what you are looking for. The envy is smaller, weighs less, and has a solid state drive. It also has 6gb of ram but that is negligible. Bluetooth is also built in.

The Processor is also an I5 but not as powerful. this is done to help conserve power and extend battery life.

The Envy does not have a dedicated CD drive or numberpad and comes with windows 7 instead of 8. It is also refurbished and costs more...

Which is better depends on what you are looking for. Personally I would take the new Asus for 420 than the Refurbished HP for 480, but that is only because it fits my needs better.

anyone think this deal will last til next week? don't have the money to buy this til then. lol.

hey thanks man, I will install objectdock and classic shell to get better interface on win 8 :lol::lol:


hahaha.. if u dont have money u can go for BB's financing options.. :yummy:

Presumably so that Best Buy can then try to sell you one instead. Such BS. You'll pay the same price as anywhere else, but get less for it.

CPU Benchmarks
i5-3210M - 3822 [cpubenchmark.net]
i5-3317U - 3089 [cpubenchmark.net]

The 2.5 GHz 3210M in the ASUS will have better performance, but the 1.7GHz 3317U in the HP will have better battery life. Personally I'd much rather have the 3210M.

Both have Intel® HD Graphics 4000 which is good enough for light gaming.
See the "Game Benchmarks" section at http://www.notebookcheck.net/Inte...168.0.html for sample frame rates.

nvm. newegg has it for a few bucks cheaper, since BB charges tax.

really ? can u plz provide me link

jump if your budget is under $500 and you dont game on your laptop. add $100 to grab a SSD and futureproof it for a couple years.

light gaming = flash games

Newegg $479

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Pro...6834230588

If you're worried about missing out on this deal, rest easy. For $5 more you can buy it all day.

Regular Price: $419.99
You Save: $5.00

Updated the price to $415. Sorry kind of quit watching my thread because I thought it was a "daily deal".

The graphic chip is not powerful enough, I will pass.

Still looking to upgrade my K53TA which has been a great laptop, close to four hours battery life off charge two years after I got it!!

I dont care to much about graphics as I dont play games and atm hate windows 8 wouldnt mind getting a newer one if this has better battery life?

Has the price increased today? Showing me 445 instead of 415.

Cravit8 is referring to bottlenecks.

If you think of RAM as a highway, then the cars on that highway would represent information sent from the processor. The faster the processor is working, the more cars. The amount of RAM (in GB) would be the number of lanes, and the speed (or clock rate in MHz) of the RAM would be the rate of traffic. So, if the RAM is a bottleneck, it could prevent the processor from stretching its legs and working at full potential.
To extend the metaphor further, your hard drive would be an enormous parking lot and its speed would be the number of entrances/exits.

Does that make sense?

Yes.
I never thought of RAM as a bottleneck.
I thought RAM was super quick...I know its a lot faster than harddrives.

Yep, price is showing up as $449.99 for me.

Price jumped to $449 no more $415
 

I missed this deal and now the price on BB website shows $449? does anyone know if it is availalbe around $415 as posted in the original thread? I really would like to buy a new laptop and this met the requirements i was looking for....

Fresh Install
 

Anyone have a link for instructions for doing a clean install of win 8 to get rid of the bloatware? Last new laptop for me was in XP days with real media. It's still working fine for most things, but needed a kid laptop... Hardly even a piece of paper in the box with these...
Any pointers appreciated. I don't see a key/serial anywhere, can you make a set of rescue discs or has all the os install changed that much?


(Touchpad is not so great)

How to load Win 7 Pro
 

My client needs Win 7 Pro installed (don't ask why, yes Win 8 is the greatest thing since blah blah blah) he just needs it.

This is the first PC I have not been able to disable UEFI set to legacy boot (CSM) and load Win - 7 Pro.

ASUS bios is a pain, I could start doing bios flashes of previous versions until I get lucky or return this and get a Dell, Toshiba, Gateway, Acer; all of which I've been able to "downgrade" to Win 7 Pro.

Any ideas, or just move on????

What type of memory does the laptop take? I wanted to order more today, but my laptop is at home.

And can you missmatch the memory (leave the stock 4Gig stick in and add another brand 4Gig stick)?