Looking for a Laptop, but could use

Alright, I like to consider myself pretty tech savvy. But it's almost my birthday and I really would like my own personal laptop. I started looking for one but I don't even know where to start. I know it can't be over 650-700 dollars. I play games like minecraft, occasionally steam, YouTube, netflix, nothing too huge. I've found a lot of good laptops but most are windows 8. And I'm not a huge fan of windows 8. I made the mistake of getting a samsung chrome book last Christmas. It couldn't download anything that wasn't on the chrome web store so it was basically a waste of my money. I need some ideas for laptops that are not super advanced, but not a granny computer. Don't want to waste another laptop so here I'm asking others. I will look up whatever laptops you list and hopefully find the right one to ask for. Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long post!