I would suggest you get at least 8 GB RAM, size of hard drive, IMHO, is not as important as the amount of RAM

I use my computer for sewing and watching lots of youtube and other things in bed. I had a Dell that was all plastic and the place where the cord connected broke and a new one was $100. I now have an HP which is metal and I like it's durability much better. It also has four ports so I can charge my ipod. I keep my dongle plugged in all the time for sewing so it leaves other ports for whatever. Hope this helps.

I have an Acer and am very happy with it.

I went to Costco and bought an HP, wanted to make sure it had at least 2 USB ports and a CD/DVD player. It came with a 2 year warranty and I knew if I didn't like it that Costco would take it back with no trouble. And they have an on-line support team too. You can buy an extended warranty if you want. Can't remember what it cost, it was the low end but not the lowest because I needed the USB ports and I was surprised how many don't have the CD/DVD player.

We bought a HP six years ago, our first computer. It is still going strong with the old windows. We do no business on it just staying in contact with our family, storing photos and my sewing. If it were to go out we would buy another HP.

Look for one with an intel pentium processor. AMD is the next best. Avoid a celeron processor. My daughter got a Lenovo touchscreen with windows 8 for graduation and I think it's a lemon. She has a lot of problems with blue screens on it. She also doesn't like windows 8. Dell still sells windows 7 computers.

I agree with getting as much RAM as you can. You can always use an external hard drive but adding RAM to a laptop isn't as easy.

Yep. Great point!!

Sandy

I love Acer brand, have had several, and currently using one. I was in Office Depo yesterday and they had Levnovo
I believe at around $299. I was not shopping DH was, but he can't do laptops. He said levnovo is a good brand?.

I bought my DH a nice Dell running Windows 7 on ebay just for work. He has a new HP with Windows 8 and found it impossible to run most of his programs.

I'd suggest that if you're using it mainly for sewing, and make sure it has a DVD/CD drive and a couple of USB ports. I only paid $80 for the Dell and it looks like new and runs great!

Steer away from Windows 8 and make sure you can 'WRITE and/OR BURN" to the CD/DVD player. Some laptops just read CD/DVDs...Intel is the best processor and the more RAM you can get the better. It has to do with the speed of the processor. With saving embroidery patterns, I find it best to save them to a portable hard drive like a Passport instead of clogging the laptop with lots of patterns. Good luck in what you choose...