Purchasing New Laptop - What Attributes Should I Look For?

It is time for me to replace my 9 year old ASUS laptop. I would appreciate input from folks on what attributes I should look for in a new laptop.
I use the laptop for: Microsoft Office (word, excel, powerpoint), video watching / streaming, internet surfing. I do not do any gaming.

I need at least: Windows 10, 8GB or more memory, at least 500GB hard drive, at least 3 USB ports (backwards compatible to USB2 to connect to external hard drives I use for backup), HDMI port for connection to external HD monitor, 14 inch screen. Don't care too much about how long laptop can run on battery.
Would be great to have a CD/DVD R/W drive, but if not, I can always purchase an external drive.
Price - less than $600

What other attributes should I look for? Do I care about the processor speed?

 

You answered all your own questions......minimum core i5 cpu, core i7 would be better but probably not necessary in your case.
Shop online, 256gb SSD with core i5, 8g ram, 15 hrs batt life.......for $549.00
Most laptops today dont have rom drives however yes, use an external rom to rip all your cd's to .mp3 and dvd's to .avi/.mpeg4 or similar to store on your HDD.

Disks scratch

 

It looks like you have already defined your needs (and budget ). The only thing I would do different is go with an SSD instead of a hard drive.

Processor speed matters, but it is not the highest priority. I would take a slower quad core over a faster dual core, for example. While many programs don't care about cores, the OS will take advantage of the extra cores. And the faster the OS can finish its tasks, the sooner resources can be freed for the running apps. That said, your stated use is not too demanding.

I think finding a notebook with an optical drive in that budget will be a challenge - especially if you are set on a small 14" display as that limits further the amount of space an optical drive could fit in.

 

If you haven't already purchased yet, this is $80 less then the one mentioned above at $469.99 versus $549.99 for the Acer.

https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/7901687/HP-14-cf0051od-Laptop-14-Screen/