My eight year old is dying! (Laptop that is..)

Windows 7 is my current favorite. I don't like the tiles on Windows 8. As far as your cost requirement, I suggest you check out http://newegg.com for cheap laptop/netbook deals. They consistently have fantastic service and low prices. The user reviews are in-depth and usually right on the money, too.

May I recommend against Windows 8 based on the few times I have used it. My testing Windows 8 was the reason my boss saw me give the finger to my monitor at work.

Don't hold the worn-out items against the Dell; I've never gotten more than 3 years from a battery, and replace my power supplies every couple of years for cord damage. My advice is to get one of the corporate fleet models, like a Thinkpad or a Latitude. Parts are cheap and plentiful, and they are generally tougher than consumer models like Ideapad and Inspiron. There have also been a lot of them issued to middle managers who played Solitaire on them for three years then got an upgrade. Those are what show up as refurbs, especially on the Dell Outlet website. In fact, I'm headed there to buy a refurb 15" E-series with Windows 7 Professional.

I am very pleased with my ThinkPad, and at least all the T- and W-series ones I've seen have been very sturdy (I haven't played with any of the IdeaPads yet). They have a deserved reputation. I would keep an eye on for bargains, and read the http://notebookcheck.net/ review (if there is one) for anything under consideration.

Thinkpads are excellent; you can beat them up for years. Lenovo will build them to order for you at a substantial discount. However, their fulfillment operation is terrible. Do not order direct from Lenovo unless you are prepared to wait weeks for shipment, all with crappy customer service and no real-time data on when your system will actually ship. Their outlet might be better (assuming those laptops are actually in inventory); otherwise, find a reseller if you get a Lenovo. Avoid Windows 8 at all costs. You should be able to find a PC, especially a corporate line, with Windows 7. If you cannot avoid Windows 8 on a new PC, then find a used one on eBay, or get a Mac or a Chromebook. Windows 8 is that bad.

I have a ThinkPad at work and love it.

I have been leaning towards Lenovo. I have a couple friends who recommend them for the quality. I had looked at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312838 on newegg.com earlier in the month I could care less about the touch screen, but the rest of the specs looked decent (maybe?). I think maybe I need to play with Windows 8 some. Do you think it will hinder me that much if I ended up with a Windows 7 machine?

So I just bought a new laptop; here's some of what I've learned so that two can benefit from my research. Durability/Portability – I've found that three years is a long time for a battery to hold a charge well, and that the power supply connection goes around that mark as well. Eight years is a really long time in laptops, so you may want to adjust your expectations downward a little here. Battery Life – Solid reputable hardware: So the way that Intel numbers its chips now are in the form Core iA-BXXX (e.g. core i5-4200). The A is either 3, 5, or 7 -- 3 is a low-end budget CPU, 5 is mass market and 7 is for high-end computation tasks. The B is the generation of the processor; 1, 2, 3 or 4. Here is where you have either really great or really bad timing. The fourth generation of chips ("Haswell") are just starting to come out into the mass market. The big improvements they made over the third generation ("Ivy Bridge") is in battery life -- they aren't much more powerful, but they use half as much power. But older laptops still have pretty good battery lives -- the Haswell bump is either into extreme 8+ hour battery life, or into laptops that are superthin and thus don't have very big batteries. So this is a really good time to pick up the still-good 3rd generation chip based laptops right as the prices are getting dropped. Connectivity – Everything should have wifi; the new superthin laptops are now starting to get rid of the LAN port in favour of wifi if that tells you anything. Windows 7 or Windows 8 – I would get Windows 7 probably. The new stuff on 8 seems like frustrating cruft to me, and there will be a solid userbase on 7 for years. (I got 8 on mine, but it is a convertible tablet where the "features" added in 8 might be actually useful.) I have had good experience in the past with Lenovo, although I've never owned a computer for eight years in usable form. Two sources to check out are http://www.laptopmag.com/best-laptops.aspx, who have the ThinkPad Edge E431 as their best bet for a value laptop, and http://thewirecutter.com/leaderboard/laptops/, whose HP pick for cheap laptop is now discontinued but who describe key features in some detail. But yeah, sounds like you should check out the Lenovo outlet.

I am not super up-to-date on Windows machines, but I want to chime in to say that batteries typically wear out way before the computer does. Case in point: AppleCare doesn't cover them past a year. Everyone I know who uses Windows 8 hates it (and I hear them bitch about it every day!). 8.1 is supposed to be better, but I would personally get 7 even if you have to pay a little more for it. I had a Thinkpad T41 (last of the IBM models) from about 2004-2008 and it was a good, solid machine. It was fairly light and very durable. I actually have an old T410 at work and it's pretty sturdy although it's super heavy. The one thing I know about buying computers is that if you upgrade anything you'll get the most bang for your buck on RAM. It's cheap (you could even buy it aftermarket if you want and get it cheaper) and really speeds things up. If it's not in the cards right now, almost all computers are upgradeable (except my freakin new MacBook, which is why I ordered it with 16gb).