Help me find a new laptop

My old laptop is slowly beginning to die. I've had this computer (hp pavilion dv6000) since my soph year of college, which is about 5.5 years ago. My laptop has to be ran using the charger as the battery no longer carries a charge.

I'd like to purchase an Ipad along with a simple, basic laptop. I am not a gamer or music junky so I do not need any special hardware.

I use my laptop for work (I'm a teacher), and wasting time online.

I'd like to spend less than $400 or so. If possible, I'd like to stick with HP as I grew to like the brand.

What do you guys recommend? Where should I purchase it from? Should I purchase it in person? Should I stay away from amazon?

I'm not familiar with HPs, but we have three laptops and a netbook in the house. Two are Asus, great machines. One Sony, I'm on it now and it's been a good machine. One Acer, the biggest piece of crap in the world.

If I was headed out to buy a new one, I'd be looking at Asus and avoiding Acer like the plague.

What kind of work? What programs? I have a friend who uses the Google Chromebook for teaching high school English, and loves it.

Asus is your horse, though I deal in their gaming stuff, so I'm AS sure how their consumer level laptops are. I've got 2 eePC's from them as well and they're great.

Another guy that's happy with Asus.

If you are not getting a Mac, then it really doesn't matter.

Seriously, go to Costco and get the best model you can for your budget. Your needs are pretty simple, so why stress? All modern computers are pretty powerful these days, you can't go wrong.

We have nine refurbished Dell laptops in the family, all from their Latitude line. Only problems in the last five years have been one dead hard drive and one dead power supply. None cost us over $275. http://www.dfsdirectsales.com/

I also have an Asus I bought in 2009, one RAM module went bad but no problems otherwise.

My experience has taught me to avoid HP and Toshiba.

+1 to above. HP has had some issues and I absolutely hate my Toshiba.

Get whatever refurb that is onsale at Woot.com, replace once the warranty expires, rinse, repeat.

Thanks for replies, looks like I will be heading to costco for an Asus.

+1 with the buy to your budget......I'm still rocking my 8yo macbook without issues, so I'm of no help on modern CPUs.

All of the computers I've ever owned have been HP's. Never had any issues whatsoever. In fact I just bought two new laptops one for m wife and one for me. It would take a lot to get me away from HP. Both have windows 8 and we have no complaints at all with them. YMMV.

I've had a good run on ThinkPads. Currently on a 2nd-hand ($200) T400 with impressive specs for its age, used pretty much for web browsing and word processing. I quite like how unfashionably boxy and black it is.

ASUS is unfortunately not what they once may have been. Especially if it ever breaks, enjoy paying to ship your computer to fix their poor engineering, or accepting them shipping a laptop fedex ground, uninsured. Unlike Dell, HP, etc, there is no top tier secret phone number to call, there's a call center somewhere in asia, connected to the usa by what sounds like a CB radio underwater, they have no real connection to the company, only able to issue RMA numbers and give you uninsured fedex ground shipping, if you beg for it, all while trying to blame you for ASUS's berkeley ups. In my case, this was a $1600 gaming laptop with a failed power jack, (looking at the broken off pin, the design is laughable, the base of the pin tapers to half its diameter). They shipped it back to me fed ex ground with no insurance too.

I recommend something business class. I have an HP EliteBook (business class) and it is head and shoulders above the regular consumer grade HP my fiancee has. The chassis is obviously tougher, but lots of little things like more USB ports, better cooling, the track pad and buttons are waaaaaay better, and it has better draining out the bottom if you accidentally spill a drink on it. The track pad and buttons are the things I notice most. After having this thing, I can barely surf the net on her's.

But you're just a teacher, not like classrooms are a tough environment on equipment or anything...

You can get worthwhile used netbooks for $100-200 on ebay. If you don't need any high powered parts they will get the job done and are pretty much disposable at that price. They are less of a hassle to tote around too.

You can also get new batteries for your old machine. Just take the old battery case apart and swap out the batteries inside for $20 bucks or (so in most cases).