I'm going back to school in the fall and need a new laptop. I've already decided I want the cheapest I can get with a minimum of 4 gigs of ram. So far I've found one HP Chromebook and one Asus with Windows 8, each with 4 gigs of ram and each at $280.

I was wondering if you guys could give me your thoughts, especially regarding the pros and cons of chromebook (since I never used it before but don't really want to get windows 8) as well as what you think the best bang for the buck is regarding laptop companies. I've heard good things about Lenovo as far as upgrading and maintaining (and their hardware in general) but what are your thoughts?