Need recommendations for Grandpa Laptop!

Hi all,

I want to get my grandpa a new laptop for father's day to replace his super aging HP machine circa 2007. My budget is about $500 and the requirements are not extreme:

• Something that's dual core; quad core would be nice. AMD or Intel; doesn't matter.
• Min 4 GB of RAM
• Dedicated video card would be nice
• 500+ GB hard drive
• HDMI port is a most
• 15.6" screen, preferably 1280x720 or thereabouts. Would like to avoid a touchscreen.
• Decent webcam would be nice but not a requirement.

He'll primarily use it for surfing, writing, skyping and watching lots and lots of movies. He'll occasionally do a media project but previously, he'd use a dual core Athlon X2 4550e based machine so.... he doesn't need a work horse. And for what its worth - gramps is pretty solid with computers though Windows 8 may be a bit of a challenge


So - any suggestions?

Come on d00ds!

Either y'all are stumped or I am not loved enough

Lenovo Flex 15.4"? http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/flex-series/flex-15/

Fits most of your requirements, it's cheap, and you can get a decent warranty with any left over funds.

Or an HP Pavilion 15t or 14t and bling it out a bit?

Or get him a Dell?
Or maybe a bling'ed out chromebook?

Chromebook with an external HDD would cover most of the needs. You haven't specified if he needs access to program like Office, how fast his online connection is, whether he likes to install programs or just consume content etc.

I should mention that it has to be a windows box that will be used for office, media work (light-weight media projects) and media view (movies, etc). Windows, though, is an absolute must.