Costco had a few Lenovos, but they were over $1000. Are you basing your recommendation on the brand, or the performance?

Both! Lenovo offers several combinations to suite most needs for everyone, personal or business, and every competitive price range.

Costco historically has tended to sell WAAAY over-equipped PCs at discounted prices. Example - you'll find $2000 laptops for $1500. $1500 laptops for $1200. But does the average user really need 16GB of RAM, a blazing microprocessor, and a SSD? No.

I took a look at the Costco.com site and they seem to have realized they were missing a market segment, and now have more moderately priced stuff. That's a plus, their tech return and support policy are very generous. If you're just now upgrading from a PC with Vista, I'll guess you don't need a high powered machine and might be very happy looking for something suitable in the $750 range.

I too am a Lenovo fan, most of my PCs are theirs. I've bought ThinkPads for my kids (awesome laptops and have been for a long time, this was the line purchased from IBM). Of the ones I have now, not one cost over $750.

It very much comes down to what you want the computer for. Either of the two you mentioned is more than sufficient for web browsing, updating your Facebook status, and streaming media. My gut reaction:

• - Processor really doesn't matter that much unless you're editing video or huge images with lots of layers in Photoshop. Most computers are going to have a current generation Intel core i5 or i7 processors.

• - Memory does matter, 8 GB is the minimum for acceptable performance. 12 or 16 GB would be better.

• - SSDs are orders of magnitude faster than traditional hard drives but that only comes into play when starting or opening really large files. My SSD isn't going much as I type this message.

• - 2 TB of storage is insane unless you like to save zillions of pictures or videos.

• - Spend the money on at least a full HD screen.

• - Make sure you have enough ports to meet your needs.

• - If you are "touch" typist and type a lot, make sure you like the keyboard.

Love the Lenovo Legion Y520 I got last summer from Costco. They may have new model now.

To save money, instead of getting another MAC, I picked it for the Intel i7 Processor, NVIDIA graphic card, 16 GB RAM and 2 TB storage. It is a low end gaming machine, I do not play computer games, but use it for photos and videos. Paying below $1100.00 (including tax) for the processor power, graphic card, storage, and Costco warranty, it is a great bargain. It should serve my needs for at least next 7 years.

I hook it up with a monitor, key board and mouse, and use it as a desk top. When travel as a laptop, its 15 inches screen is very adequate. It does not come with a CD ROM (to me it is a plus to reduce weight), but when I need to read/write CD, I just connect it with an external CD ROM, (costs around $25.00), it servers the purpose.

So far the laptop has been performing flawlessly, very reliable, like the MAC laptop I have. I am very happy.

Buying a laptop is a pure personal choice, just share my experience here.

What do you plan to do with the machine? Basic web browsing, light file writing/reading? Gaming? Multi-Media playing? Video Editing?

What are the other specs of the laptops? What kind of displays? What is the video card used in each, are thy part of the cpu or do they have discreet graphics as well? What are the warranties of each? On my last Dell PC, if I had an issue, and still had a warranty, they were extremely great to work with and often overnited parts if needed. Once my warranty ran out, they seemed like they wanted nothing to do with me.

How mobile will you be with it? Personally, I'd take the SSD over the the slower 5400 rpm drive in terms of performance, but also reliability especially if it's in a mobile laptop that gets moved and bumped around a lot. If it's more stationary, then an hdd would be adequate.

Regarding connecting Win Pro to your work domain, is this something your work would even allow? I know my company would definitely not allow that, but we also don't allow BYOPC. I would check with them first before making a buying decision on that.

HP's and Dell's are both decent computer brands. I also agree that Lenovo is typically better, but know that they are owned in part by the government of China. There can be some tinfoil hat stuff if that concerns you.

Well, Steve, I've considered many of the things you mention. One thing I want is a video port (either HDMI or DisplayPort) which has 4K resolution; I believe both of these have that. Although I don't do a lot of video editing, I do use Lightroom a lot to manage my 4K (or more) raw photos. My work does allow me to put my computer on the work domain; I don't know how necessary that is, but I think it would provide better connectivity, especially when connecting to printers and servers.

Also, as I mentioned above, the Dell, with 16GB RAM and Win Pro, while the HP has only 8GB.

I also compared with similar laptops at Staples and Best Buy and they were much more expensive, and Best Buy has a very restrictive return policy; Costco's is very generous. I also need to go back to Costco and get more details on the specifications of their computers.

@azmom: Above you stated, "when I need to read/write CD, I just connect it with an external CD ROM." Would you mind sharing what external CD ROM you are using. I am asking, because I bought one and as it turned out it needs to plug into two slots at the same time (hope I am stating that correctly) and my laptop has only one. That is the only external CD ROM purchase I ever made and do not want to make that mistake again.

What do you mean by "two slots"? My portable DVD uses a single USB connection.

Well, I thought the one I ordered used one slot, too. However, when it arrived it needed two slots - just as I stated - for each USB attached to the device.

You might see if Costco has display units that are powered up that you can play with. If so, try out the keyboards and touch pads for a while to see if you like them. I suggest this because I had a Toshiba laptop that I liked just fine, but that was replaced with HP (now have 2 HPs because one was given to me) and in comparison, I find the touchpads somewhat not as responsive, and the layout/functionality of some keys not as convenient on the HPs.

There's a standard for how much power is to be supplied by a USB socket and it's not all that high. Devices that need more than the standard power available from one socket have two USB cords. Both need to be plugged in for the peripheral to run - one is for the data connection and some power, the other just for power.

My portable DVD player has to be plugged into 117 volt power.

That's another approach. You'll find two-USB cord devices as well as those with AC power as you mention on the market.

If you have only one USB port on your computer, and your DVD needs two, can you use a USB charger for the one which provides the power?

Walnut, I got the LG Ulta Slim Portable SP80NB80 . I use it for reading/writing documents instead of watching movies (not sure about its performance for this purpose). It needs one USB slot only, it could be used with MAC and Wintel machines. It was $24.99 when on sale at the Best Buy. Frys Electronics had it on sale at the same time too.

I don't plug many devices to the laptop via USBs, but when in need, an USB hub could always solve problem.

mtv,

Before I made the purchase, I know that Lenovo Legion Y520 does not look as bright and sharp as some other laptops, but it is adequate to me. In fact, some laptops are so shape they hurt eyes.

Gaming machines are suitable for your application. If I were you, I would get at least 16GB RAM and 1 or 2 TB storage space.

I decided if I could avoid, I would never get a wintel as my personal laptop after decades experience of using Dell at the work place.....I have been pleasantly surprised by the Lenovo Legion Y520.

You should be able to power the dual usb rom drives with either a USB power adapter, or even better, a powered dock/hub.

Also, I think some of the newer laptop & tablet offerings no longer come with video out ports, and rely on the usb-c/thunderbolt port to connect either a dock/port replicator, or dongles with video or network adapters to connect peripherals. Not sure who ever thought we’d like to bring back dongles... SMH. I use a dock at work and at home for my hp to connect to my networks, monitors, keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals. It’s just one usb-c cable to connect it all.