donggun222

Accidental. Thought that was just a happy face Lol.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant Type Item Price CPU AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor $165.98 @ Newegg Motherboard ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $82.68 @ OutletPC Memory Team - Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory $89.99 @ Newegg Storage Crucial - MX500 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $49.85 @ OutletPC Storage Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $44.89 @ OutletPC Video Card PowerColor - Radeon RX 580 8 GB Video Card $169.99 @ Newegg Case Cooler Master - MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case $39.99 @ Amazon Power Supply Corsair - CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply $39.99 @ Newegg   Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts     Total (before mail-in rebates) $743.36   Mail-in rebates -$60.00   Total $683.36   Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-29 21:56 EST-0500    

If you do a lot of note taking, the Surface Pro might be a better option for you due to its Pen experience (the TypeCover and Pen however, are sold separately which can increase the cost significantly). The Surface Laptop also have the same Pen features as the Pro counterpart however, you can't make the display flat, and it wobbles if you write on Surface Laptop without holding the display.

I just bought a surface book and I love it. I’ve been in college for a few years now and I can say that for me the book has the keyboard and “laptop-ness” of the surface laptop, and the note taking ability of the pro. It is expensive, but very much worth it. Also at Best Buy right now you can get some good student discounts. 

oh. tbh this would be enough 
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($61.99 @ Jet) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($46.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Team Elite Plus 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($50.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: SK hynix SL308 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($76.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($47.89 @ OutletPC) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($33.98 @ Newegg) 
Monitor: AOC I2269VW 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor  ($89.99 @ Best Buy) 
Total: $438.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-10 20:23 EST-0500

The case. If it looks fast, it'll go fast.

I was willing to sacrifice the screen size for lighter weight and the use of a stylus again. Its great for lighter applications like word processing and stuff. The only complaint I really have is that its top heavy and its a bit tricky to use on your lap for extended periods of time.

I think it would be excellent for Powerpoint (ugh I'm tired and tried to make a pun, I am so sorry).
 
I have used mine for Excel and it was sufficient. Small enough to carry around with me, but large enough to choose the right fields to enter stuff. Granted, I was walking around a lab doing inventory, so I could have been using my laptop, but the Surface was much easier to walk around with. It works for me, but it's not perfect. 
 
Edit: To add to what @Slayerstealthwas saying, yes, the keyboard is trash. Like absolutely. Strangely, though, I feel it's mainly because they tried to add a touchpad and that fucks with the whole thing. The keyboard itself is fine, actually better than what you get on most laptops, but the mousepad is garbage. The sensitivity for clicks isn't consistent, palm detection is horrible, and... it feels weird. 

By general use I would assume you are talking about something along the lines of either school or business. If you aren't planning on using it for a whole lot and you want something really cheap, I would take a look at Dell's Inspiron lineup. They typically have good value with decent quality and admirable battery life. For example, the Inspiron 15 3000 series non-touch is a cheap laptop (not the best value) but has a good battery life and will be fine for word processing and email. http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-3558-laptop/dncwc104sb 
If you're looking for something faster, more powerful, and of a higher quality, you could venture into their Inspiron 15 7000 series lineup. The first one I referenced had an Intel Core i3, but this one features an Intel core i5. This makes it more powerful in terms of processing power. It also has an SSD, which means that your programs will load up to 10x faster than on traditional laptops with hard drives. http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/inspiron-15-7579-2-in-1-laptop/pd?oc=cai157nw10ph013&variant=6:INTHD~8:256SLC~11:10HHEE~146:5GHFH3~760:TFHDIRC&model_id=inspiron-15-7579-2-in-1-laptop#overrides=cai157nw10ph013:6~INTHD;8~256SLC;11~10HHEE;146~5GHFH3;760~TFHDIRC It's also a 2 in 1, which means you can use it as a tablet or traditional laptop. 
 
Take a look at those two and see if you like them. I'd go with the larger screen if you're planning on using it for media consumption or doing any kind of detailed work. 

its a tradeoff. as someone with a desktop i choose to get a 13 inch because i can use my desktop if i need the bigger screen. 

I generally day the 15. I have 17.3 because I like big screens, and I cannot lie.
 
To me a 13 inch feels more like a portable DVD Player. I'd say go to an electronics store,  play with a could screens and see what you like better.
 
What make and model are you looking at?

I highly recommend Borderlands 2 and all its DLC. It's a loot shooter RPG so its 3 games in one. Really funny game too.

- Rocket League
- Team Fortress 2
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- GTAV
- Smite
- Minecraft
- Civilization V or VI
 
These are some pretty popular options, depends on the type of genre you want. I'd watch videos of popular games and also watch some Twitch streams.

Overwatch has basically consumed my life since beta so I'd give it a try

My Qpad-MK80 mechanical keyboard with cherry blues that only cost me £30 (37USD) 2nd hand in a shop. The LED underneath the colon/semicolon key is broken, but this price for a legit MX blue keyboard was worth every penny.

Sony MDR-XB50AP
Best earbuds I've ever bought tbh. Good sound, have been through the washer, and still haven't been broken in the two years I've owned them.

My late 2013 top spec 15" MacBook Pro which I got for $300 somehow.

AKG Q701 at 50% off (note that it was sold for quite a lot of money in my country)
Sony MDR 100aap at 20% off (Some Sony headphones including the 100aap in Vietnam are considerably cheaper than the rest of the world, keep that in mind)
Oppo HA-2SE 
 
Welp, all are audio techs rite

My HP proliant gen 8 server that is now my NAS box, only around £100 or so (without HDDs) - I now don't have much local storage on my Main PC/laptop as almost everything gets downloaded straight to my NAS and  streamed from it (using FreeNAS). It has also made me a bit more competent, and can now do a freenas setup in a very short time. I have an old PC that I have now converted into a freenas box too for testing purposes, so that I don't mess up my actual NAS box while trying out something and learnign by trial and error, LOL
 
Also worth every penny:-
 
Nvidia shield tv
Nvidia shield k1 tablet
Panasonic 4k TV
xbox one s
My newest PC that I built

This one looks nice:
 
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/guide/JPG323/budget-homeoffice-build

internet banking and other granny stuff

My Huawei Y6 (cellphone) ... got it last year during Black Friday, the shop had a promotion where they would give you $100 in store credit for an old phone, and the Huawei was on sale for $100 AND for new subscription with the provider (Fido) they would give you a $100 pre-paid Visa.
 
So THEY paid me $75 (after taxes and I took a case) to get that phone!
 

If you're not using a gpu, check out 
SilverStone PT13B-120 Thin Mini-ITX Case
That way you dont have to worry about psu as it comes with an external brick
 
You'd need an external optical drive too, but a much neater solution I think

Low tier as it is, definitely my HD7850. I threw out $90 for one a few years back as a hail mary since I was having so many issues with getting my (brand new just released) a10-6800k to display video. The second I popped it in, hooked it up, and turned on my monitor it worked perfectly. Surprisingly stays cool, overclocks decently, and runs as well as I could ask of it. It even survived a power supply exploding. I'm planning to replace it soon, but it's definitely become a prized possession that's going up on the shelf as the piece that finally brought my first build together.

Mine is a three way tie between - 
2015 Macbook Pro IE80's at 50% off Box of Kleenex next to my desk during this cold