Reliable laptop for school

[Sourtop]

So I've realized that I'm going to need to get myself a laptop to bring with me back and forth to school. Its just too much of a pain relying on my supervisors when I have to do a presentation or something. I'm only looking for a reliable laptop that can get the job done. No gaming a such. Dell or Asus seem like the best choices and I was looking at spending at most $400. If I could get away with less that would be great.

Again, I'll be using NCIX or newegg.ca to order this.

[glc]

Newegg.ca - Recertified: ASUS U52F-BBG6 Notebook Intel Core i3 380M(2.53GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 640GB HDD DVD±R/RW

That's the only one I can find for $400 that I'd buy.

[Sourtop]

What would be the next most expensive laptop you'd recommend? I would rather not buy a recertified laptop if I don't have to.

I should have also mentioned that a numpad would be a huge bonus. That one you linked had one and I assume most (or all?) wide screen laptops would have a numpad.

[glc]

There's no other Asus at Newegg I'd recommend for less than $650.

Looking at NCIX:

NCIX.com - Buy ASUS A52F-XT22 15.6IN HD Core i5 480 4GB 500GB Blu Ray WIN7 Prem Black Notebook *1 Year Warranty* - ASUS - A52F-XT22 - in Canada

NCIX.com - Buy ASUS K53E-A1-CBIL 15.6IN HD i3 2310M 4GB 500GB WIN7 Prem Mocha Notebook - ASUS - K53E-A1-CBIL - in Canada

I don't see laptops with numpads very often.

[Nuclear Krusader]

E-machines are in that price range, we have one here at the shop for 399.

[jdeb]

IBM Products and services - Used laptops — certified by IBM - United States

[glc]

He's in Canada.

I wouldn't sell a E-machine to my worst enemy.

[Sourtop]

I figured I would just continue with this thread instead of making a new one.

I didn't really need a laptop last semester so I didn't bother getting one, but this semester I'm doing a graduate course in numerical analysis and a laptop for class would be a great help.

The main use for the laptop would be for writing documents and using Maple (symbolic mathematics software). Since I do some pretty heavy numerical work with Maple and other software packages I'm looking for more CPU than anything since this laptop won't be for games.

The budget is pretty much whatever I need to get the job done. That being said, I doubt a $800+ laptop is really necessary for what I want to use it for.

I'll be buying this off of NCIX's Canadian site so any suggestions should come from there. Also, a numpad would be a huge bonus since its so much easier to use than the number keys under the function keys.

Would something like this be good?
ASUS K53E-DH51 15.6IN HD Core i5 2430M 4GB 500GB HDMI USB3.0 WIN7 Prem Webcam Mocha Notebook - ASUS - K53E-DH51

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=62699&...nufacture=ASUS

[Nuclear Krusader]

As the charging knights in Lords of the Realm would say: 'Excellent!"