[Gerry Zagorski]

The new Samsung laptops are getting good reviews. I'd check them out.

Having said that, with any new PC you are going to get stuck with Windows 8 and I'm not a big fan. There is a huge learning curve going from 7 to 8 and you are likley going to run into some compatibility issues with your current software or other hardware like printers. If you go with 8 you might want to make sure your printer has drivers to support window 8 and there is an upgrade path for any other software you are using or you will need to buy that stuff all over again.

As far as the specs, it looks like you are at the top with 17 processor and 8MB of ram... I would stick to your guns on this because switching PCs is such a PITA and although you might not need all that power, you want to have as much room for growth as possible.

One other thing to consider that really speeds things up is solid state drives, especially if you tend to shut down and restart alot... Solid state drive machines boot up a ton faster and use less power too. Some come with full solid state drives and others (but mostly in desktops not latops) are hybrids. They give you some solid state and some mechanical. If you go with full solid state it can add $250 or more to the price of the computer, but IMO worth it.

If you are a Costco member and not exactly sure if what you think you like is going to meet your needs, they have a very liberal returns policy so you might be better off purchasing through them so you can return it if you are not happy.