Being laggy has nothing to do with a gaming laptop. It's not like the hardware slows down overtime. It's all in what you install and how you use it. Also the m13x. It's an ultraportable very limited device for a niche market of customers. You can't compare something that's designed to compromise things for portability.

Anyone know where to trade in old laptops and get credits towards a new one?

Maybe best buy or futureshop? Best to sell it 2nd though you get more money for it.

So I have a Acer Timeline(2.3GHz Core i5-2410M, NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M) 6 gigs ram 750 GB HD and I love it but after 2+ years of being abused by me it's starting to were out. How would this refurb Asus compare performance wise because I am completely happy with the performance of the Acer. Will probably replace the optical drive with an HD.

Intel® Core™ i5 3317U Processor
Chipset
Intel® HM76 Express Chipset
Memory
6GB DDR3 1600 MHz SDRAM, 2 x SO-DIMM socket for expansion up to 8 GB SDRAM
Display
14.0" 16:9 HD (1366x768) LED Backlight
Graphic
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 635M with 2GB DDR3 VRAM
Storage
2.5" SATA
1TB 5400rpm

Asus Ultrabook Core i5-3317U, 6GB RAM, 1TB HDD, DVDRW, NVIDIA GT630M/2GB, 14.0", 1366x768, Windows 8 English KB (S46CM-DH51-CA) (Refurbished) - NMicroVIP

Or this one with a 24 GB SSD catche and an I7: http://www.nmicrovip.ca/asus-ultrabo...a-refurbished/

O.K. checking out CPU and GPU benchmark the I5 is a bit slower. So I'm thinking the I7. Any thoughts?

The best upgrade I have ever done to my laptop was to install a solid state hard drive and remove my optical drive and replace it with a hard drive caddy. I haven't used a CD ROM drive for a couple years now.
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Just get the cheaper one. The extra bucks isn't worth the jump to an i7 and measly 635M (you could probably overclock the 630M to 640/50 territory).

Alternatively, you could just install a SSD into your current Timeline with a clean installation of Windows for like $100, which would save you big bucks. The i5-2410M in your current laptop is almost equivalent to the i5-3317U, so you would only be getting an upgrade in the GPU department.

The speed is fine but it's the case that's wearing out.

I'm going to look at this laptop today.

ASUS X450 14.1" Laptop - Black (Intel Core i7-3537U/ 1TB HDD/ 8GB RAM/ Windows 8) : Laptops - Future Shop

Looking to get a second laptop, one that's meant more towards being portable for school/work as my 15.6" is just heavy and the battery is basically shot.
I'm looking for 11-13" size
Windows 7 (I'll deal with Win8/8.1 if I have to)
NOT HP
Half decent battery life; can get me through ~3 classes per day (3hr)
SSD would be nice for boot/transfer times, but not necessary

Anyone have any ideas? I've seen a few Chromebooks that looked good, but I'm wary of the OS as I'm not 100% sure on compatibility with Windows/Microsoft programs.

Budget is up to 400$.

Chromebooks will not work with any windows programs and you have to be online to use some programs.

Thanks for the heads up!
I basically just need a cheap Word/Excel/Adobe/Chrome(Browser) machine then... I've been looking through NCIX and Futureshop a bit and there's a couple cheap Acers/Asus's on both...