Toshiba C655-S5507 Satellite Laptop / Intel Pentium processor B960 / 15.6" LED-backlit TFT-LCD HD /

You have found it!

I say single-tasking because you need to know that it is a single-core computer and set your expectations accordingly, do not expect it to work as well with multiple programs open at once.

This gets a very admirable 5.1 on the Windows Performance Index, where all of the other laptops that I looked at in the sub $400 range get 4.4 to 4.9. Desktop Graphics is the lowest of the scores at 5.1, and suprisingly it picks up a 5.9 for Gaming Graphics! Surely you won't do any hardcore gaming with a computer in this price range, but since I will be doing light vector graphics work as the primary use of this computer, I was very happy to see this.

I was fortunate and found it for $330 at a local retailer, and IMO it becomes the best option with considering cost to performance of similar laptops. Also to my suprise, the SATA controller had AHCI mode already active, so I will probably look into getting a low capacity SSD to boost the performance a bit more, although it already seems quite snappy on the 320GB 5200 RPM drive that it comes with.

For tinkerers, there are two panels on the bottom with one screw in each, one gives you access to the two RAM slots, the other gives access to the HDD. There was a lot of pre-installed "junk" that I got rid of for the most part, but I hung on to a few of the apps as they seem useful, such as a hardware setup wizard that lets you adjust BIOS settings from within Windows, and the native driver updates application.

Of all of my WiFi devices, this one seems to pick up signals that I have never seen before, so I imagine that a lot of this is due to the low density and therefore unobtrusive materials used for the chasis and body rather than a super-powered WiFi module. Regardless of the reason, it is a nice bonus.

UPDATE: Installed 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD without issue. I have also had an opportunity to work with the computer a little and after selling my first generation ASUS zenbook after several months of ownership and use the only difference I notice is aesthetic. One more positive that should be noted about this laptop that I have noticed after some use is the screen. It is not the highest resolution, but it is crisp with very good color reproduction and max brightness looks very usable and good.

I purchased this laptop at Best Buy on July 7, 2012. 5 months later in December it stops burning dvds. I called 800-457-777 given under properties in My Computer for Toshiba support. Don't waste your breath. The little laptop did well for 5 months, but even with the one year warranty which he acknowledged covered all hardware issues you have to pay $49.95 for the phone call if you want them to "fix" this issue over the phone.

There is no yellow exclamation mark in device manager it says the device is working properly. It will read cds and dvds and will burn cds but stopped burning dvds about a week ago.

I would suggest looking around to see if there is any company left where you can understand their "tech support" and will honor their warranties. If you are just looking for an inexpensive laptop to search the internet and get email then this one may do just fine for you.

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