I'm not sure why people think that MORE RAM = BETTER? lol; the i5 is maxed at 8GB people, invest your money in a SDD SATA III.
But, with that said - this is THE best (laptop) computer I've owned, and I've built many gaudy things. You really can't beat it for the price, and with a little investment it becomes a true beast.
The only big downside is the GPU; with most renderings now it is definitely, as is the i5 / 2.5ghz cpu. Still though, for most people this things - even bare bones factory - will go unnoticed.
This is my work machine that I run HDMI to a Samsung HDTV 36" and VGA (with the screws cut-off to make room -.- ) to a 22" HP LCD.
Never have a problem, especially after upgrading to 2 x 4GB DDR3L's and getting a better paging size.
SSD's the last real investment I'll make, and probably won't even be larger than 240 gb - 480 gb, probably just enough for the system files, with the existing HDD mounted externally.
Great review though, thank for you diligence. Just found this site today and will definitely be returning.