Note
My "new" laptop arrived today. Out of the refurbished box it might only have 8gb of ram, a 3rd gen i5 processor, and a 240gb hard drive, but after cannibalizing parts from my other laptop (falling apart in terms of structure), and some other parts from at home I'll be ending up with an i7, 1000gb hard drive, 12gb machine for under $300.
Hopefully will get me through another 3-5 years.