Hello all!

Not directly pertinent to this site, but since there's such a large concentration of like-minded persons here, I figured I could ask for help here.
My current laptop, which I got around 2009 (a Core2Duo Toshiba Satellite) has served me very well, and still has absolutely nothing wrong with it (aside from a reduced battery life, I suppose). The issue is that the work/research I'm doing now has requirements that are beyond it, most specifically, no USB 3.0 ports. It's a bit complicated, but I can't use a converter, backwards compatibility isn't going to help here, and installing a USB 3.0 on this system isn't going to work.

Since I figure it is about time I get a new laptop anyhow, I figured this was as good an opportunity as any. Something I can use for my work right now, as well as keep for everything else for hopefully at least another 5-6 years.
The optimal specs for my work (other than the aforementioned USB 3.0 port) are essentially:
i5 Quadcore or more
2.4 GHz or more
8GB RAM or more

I have no issue with sizes (although the screen needs to be less than 24 inches, which I don't think will be a problem), weight, battery life (will mostly use it plugged in), brands, OSes (my work requires Windows 7/8, which I have a license for, although it would be nice to have enough space to dualboot with linux), or HD space (although again, this being for long term use, and hopefully dualboot so something as low as 120GB probably wouldn't work).

I'm looking locally as well, obviously, but I've got an opportunity to be able to order it from the US (if I can decide within the next week). I've looked around online using various sites with some relevant (and loads of irrelevant) filters- amazon and newegg weren't very helpful.

Can someone suggest to me some procedure through which I can find the cheapest choices for my criteria?

What kind of laptops are you planning to buy? Is it a normal or gaming laptop?

But for this time, I'll include those 2 into one. I'd say ASUS X550JX-DB71, with the price of $879.00 at amazon, $827.99 at B&H (international shipping), and $827.99 at Newegg. The price may still differ from other online markets that I have yet to mention.

Specs and other features of the laptop:
-CPU: Intel Core i7-4720HQ 2.6-3.6GHz Quad-Core + Hyper-Threading
-GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 950M 2GB
-Screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 (Full HD/1080p) Matte display, so no reflections on your screen. Intel dual-band 802.11ac WiFi adapter
-1TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM
-Numpad
-Bluetooth 4.0 and a DVD Drive

Also, there is an ASUS 1 year international warranty. 1 Year Accidental Damage / 30-Day Zero Bright Dot.

P.S.: I don't recommend you to buy laptops that have SLI graphics cards. Although laptops with SLI graphics cards provide us with higher frame rates compared to those that don't, the probability of these SLI graphics cards failing on running certain games is quite high to ignore. Good luck on finding a laptop that fits your criteria the most. :)

Sorry if some of the prices are inaccurate compared to what you might find later.

This method may not be the smartest; but I typically just go to the store, ask what I can take home right that instant for around 400€, and haven't really had a problem so far. Admittedly I do tend to get a new one every couple of years so I don't care as much as someone who wants a super good laptop for half a decade, but still, it does the trick and I game quite confortably there.

Amazon isn't that helpful, but Newegg? There are filters for everything you want.

That's the cheapest that the search turned up that matches your criteria.

Some other comments:

If you can find a brand that has an international warranty that would be a plus, especially if you have local support.

Why 2.4GHz minimum? Oh, and by the way, the low power Core i5 tend to be Core i3, that is, two cores with multithreading. If that's not what you're looking for, it would be a bit harder to search. The laptop I linked to is like this.

Oh sorry, I didn't read that line.

That's fine as long as you remember to go into the right store :o)

Basically my work is related to eye-tracking, development, some (hopefully light) 3D modelling, and other than that regular usage. The explicit requirements I listed are essentially those given by the devices I'll need to use. I'm trying to keep it below $800...hell, I'm trying to keep it below $700 right now. As you mentioned later, it is because while I can filter to i5 and i7 on newegg, I still have to doublecheck to see if the one listed is a quad core or a dual core (like the one you linked).

Speaking of, any idea how this laptop is this cheap? Is this normal pricing? It doesn't seem to be refurbished or 2nd-hand or anything:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/toshiba-15-6-satellite-notebook-12-gb-memory-1-tb-hard-drive-brushed-aluminum-in-satin-gold/1312192193.p

Won't "the closest one" or "the first I can find" do?

If you get it from the US remember to get a plug adaptor as needed.

Good luck with the search, it is indeed often painful to find such info in an easy to sort / search / compare manner.

Sorry, as I haven't bought a laptop in some years can't really help you.

I cant necessarily recommend a laptop but i can say with confidence coming from a shop of 50k computers from desktops to laptops, chromebooks to ipads, and all the in-between. Dell's are not that bad anymore, Lenovo's are a pure money game with shit parts... Acer is a death sentence, along with Toshiba... Asus while crappy housing has decent hardware. And like Dell, HP laptops have turned around recently.

Pretty much my top picks are:
Apple
Dell
HP

Middle Ground:
Samsung
Asus

Avoid:
Toshiba
Acer
Lenovo

Awww...my 6 year old Toshiba is still perfectly fine!

Although now I've made my decision and ordered the laptop of my choice, should hopefully have it in hand in about 2 weeks.

For those interested, I had narrowed it down to 3 picks, heavily in favour of lower price:

A Refurbished HP ENVY Touchsmart Laptop with an i7 2.5GHz Processor, 16GB RAM and a 1TB HD (Which I then had to give up on because it wouldn't be delivered in time)
A Toshiba Satellite with an i7 2.6GHz Processor, 12GB RAM, and a 1 TB harddisk (Same series as my current laptop, although way ahead in specs, and not refurbished, but then it got beat out by my final chocie)
A refurbished ASUS N551JK with the same Processor as the HP, but with 16GB RAM, 750GB HD and a GTX 850M graphics card

That last one is actually more powerful than the desktop I have at home! I was told the slight reduction in processor speed was more than balanced out by the 33% more RAM. Plus it has a separate graphics card! Hopefully refurbished doesn't mean "Will break in 2 days"...

Search for some T420 or T450. The x30 and x40 series are bad business.

They are expensive but easy to open up and upgrade, don't heat up or anything even when playing longer sessions on saturdays.

Also Elitebooks are good stuff

Still using my T420 with NVS GPU for lighter gaming. (i7-2620M, 8GB RAM, SSD in HDD slot and 1TB HDD in Ultrabay), still works although it's getting morally old

refurbs aren't to bad... they take returned products that customers dont want for one reason or another "open box" or "display model" are the titles of the items.. then they do a basic diagnostic test with a quick 1-2 hour burn-in for CPU/heat and a SMART check on the HDD.

after that they say "all good" and ship it out with a fresh image.

ive gotten "refurbished" mother boards with blown capacitors, bulging and oozing the blackness... but it works, and continued to work for a few years... this was on a very old obsolete mobo which doesn't exist in a "new" state due to age.

That ASUS there looks like it'll fit the bill for your needs, make sure you have the latest chipset and gpu drivers and you whould be all good.. maybe a windows 10 upgrade for optimized speed and memory management.

It is not as simple as that. Pretty much every brand has at least some bad stuff. Usually, no matter which brand, the business lines are of decent quality while the consumer devices tend to be of mediocre quality at best. That probably does not matter that much if you do not intend to use the laptop for several years, although when selling a used laptop you can get a lot more money for business laptops.