Looking for a new laptop?

Hey I'm looking for a new laptop computer and could use some suggestions!

Right now I have a HP Pavilion dv7 that is a little over 17 inches. I've had this since 2010. One year after the warranty something happened where the computer didn't "recognize" its own software or something like that. So every time I had to start it up it gave me a black screen and I would have to press a key to get it to continue to get to windows. To fix it I would have had to send it off and wait like a month to get it back and I didn't have the time for that so I have just learned to deal with it. But now it just seems to be so slow and the left shift key keeps popping off. I also can't find a good laptop cooling pad for this size of computer so I think it is just time to get a new one.

I'm looking for suggestions on different brands. I have usually always used HP and I have an HP wireless printer and I would like a laptop that will work with that (HP Officejet 4500 Wireless). I've heard that Asus is usually good and my dad said a tech guy he talked with suggested Lenovo but I haven't heard of that brand before so I don't know anything about it.

I'm looking for a laptop that has plenty of memory for documents (I'm currently a college student and I'm thinking about graduate school) and pictures. A laptop that is good for searching the web. I also like to play the sims on occasion when I'm not too busy will school. So it would be nice for a computer that can run a few games

Added (1). However, I don't need something that is considered a gaming laptop. I just want one that could smoothly run Sims for the times I have time to play lol

I don't want any Apple products.

Guest

Buy Sony Or Acer!

ChanGeez

Acer Aspire E1-572-6870 http://amzn.to/...to/1kOwipA
For general use, Acer's Aspire E1 is the clear winner in this roundup. Acer crams a lot of value into this laptop's $580 price tag, including a Haswell-class CPU (Intel's 1.6GHz Core i5-4200U) and a 15.6-inch LED-backlit display with native resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels.
Though Acer uses quite a bit of plastic in the Aspire E1's design, you won't be ashamed to pull the notebook out of your bag. A smooth finish and rich color-Acer calls it Clarinet Black-make the 1-inch-thick machine very attractive.
AcerThe Acer Aspire E1-572-6870 is the easy winner of this roundup.
The chassis and lid, on the other hand, exhibit quite a bit of flex, so you won't want to subject this machine to rough handling. The upside to all the plastic is low weight: At 4.6 pounds, this laptop has an advantage of more than 1 pound over the other 15.6-inch models I looked at, and it weighs just over a pound more than the ones with smaller displays.
Capitalizing on the display's generous size, Acer includes a full-size keyboard and a numeric keypad on the Aspire E1's deck. I expected the island-style keyboard to be somewhat flimsy, but I was pleasantly surprised by its solid tactile feedback. It's not backlit and it's a trifle noisy, but I have no complaints about how it felt under my fingertips.
The Aspire E1's display is plenty bright, producing vivid photos and videos, but off-axis viewing is merely adequate. Acer also shaved a few bucks off the Aspire E1's asking price by not including a touchscreen, but its highly responsive trackpad supports several Windows 8 gestures, including two-finger scrolling, zoom, rotate, and flip. You can also slide in from the right to open the charm bar, and slide in from the left to switch between applications.
The trackpad, which has a wide bar at its base that provides both right and left mouse-button functions, is off center in relation to the display, but dead center to the keyboard. It looks a little odd until you lay your hands on the keyboard's home row.
The Aspire E1 has only 4GB of DDR3/1600 memory, but you can open it up and pop in a second module to double that amount to 8GB. Storage takes the form of a 500GB, 5400-rpm hard drive. There's no SSD, to handle cache or anything else, and I noticed what appears to be an empty bay where an optical drive might go.

Ron