Need help choosing a laptop ~600$

[Red Sky Harbor]

Hey guys,

I need some help with choosing a laptop for my upcoming first year in college. I've done a fair bit of research on my own and looking at other recommendation threads and everything so far has been pretty underwhelming. This laptop is strictly for school (CS major) and some light gaming, like minecraft and terraria or some other indie games, possibly netflix and twitch streams, you know the usual stuff.

 

My price range is $550-700 with a fair amount of wiggle room, but id rather not pay 700 unless its really worth it.

Again, school, indie games, netflix..

preferably nothing ugly..

Decent battery, doesnt get too hot

A SSD would be cool too, never used one before but I can live without it.

 

Any suggestions? Anything I should keep in mind?

Thanks a ton guys, much love to you.