What laptop should I get?
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- Feb 7, 2011
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I can get you a halfway decent laptop for gaming for $700. $600? Probably not.
For about $650 you can get an Acer Aspire 7741G-6426. It's got in intel i5 processor, a radeon HD 6550M graphics card, an 17.3 inch display, and a 640 gig HDD.
It's decent at gaming, will run Metro 2033 and Crysis on high settings at a playable frame rate, and will run things like Left4Dead or TF2 with absolutely no problems whatsoever.
The problem is that the computer runs hot, so you'll need a cooling pad, the HDD runs at 5400 rpm, so that'll be a little bit slow, the battery is only a 6 cell, so it only lasts about 3 hours when running on minimum power, and only like 45 minutes when actually gaming, and the parts aren't super high quality, so don't expect the computer to last longer than 2 or 3 years.
You really have to make quite a few compromises and sacrifices if you want decent power at that price, but you can definitely have a laptop that's decent for gaming.
For about $650 you can get an Acer Aspire 7741G-6426. It's got in intel i5 processor, a radeon HD 6550M graphics card, an 17.3 inch display, and a 640 gig HDD.
It's decent at gaming, will run Metro 2033 and Crysis on high settings at a playable frame rate, and will run things like Left4Dead or TF2 with absolutely no problems whatsoever.
The problem is that the computer runs hot, so you'll need a cooling pad, the HDD runs at 5400 rpm, so that'll be a little bit slow, the battery is only a 6 cell, so it only lasts about 3 hours when running on minimum power, and only like 45 minutes when actually gaming, and the parts aren't super high quality, so don't expect the computer to last longer than 2 or 3 years.
You really have to make quite a few compromises and sacrifices if you want decent power at that price, but you can definitely have a laptop that's decent for gaming.
Laptops are not for playing games. If you need something to play games on, either spend the money building a tower or don't bother with PC gaming. If you need a laptop for work/school, then buy powerful enough to handle the programs you use. If it is powerful enough to play some games, then great, but you SHOULDN'T buy a laptop for the sole purpose of playing games.
You could get a solid desktop for 600. You'd just have to know how to build a PC on the cheap.Dirty Hipsters said:
What do you want to use it for.
For internet and basic word stuff, a cheap netbook will do acer is generally good.
For gaming depends on the game look at graphic spec and processor and compare it to the games you plan on playing.
If you want to really game on a budget PC wise I would go for a desktop then you can get something decent and later you could upgrade it. Its pretty simple to do and I am sure i and others would be more than willing to help.
For internet and basic word stuff, a cheap netbook will do acer is generally good.
For gaming depends on the game look at graphic spec and processor and compare it to the games you plan on playing.
If you want to really game on a budget PC wise I would go for a desktop then you can get something decent and later you could upgrade it. Its pretty simple to do and I am sure i and others would be more than willing to help.
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Oh yeah, definitely, you can build a decent desktop for $600 if you get the parts separately and put it together yourself, but the OP wasn't asking about a desktop, he was talking about a laptop, and for $600 you won't be getting a laptop that can do anything but play some pretty basic games from a few years back, nothing new.Stall said:
Well...if you really need it to be a laptop, and you really want to play games on it, and you really want it to be inexpensive, and you're OK with turning down graphics...
Get a Core i3 CPU with the Intel HD Graphics 3000 (see this chart [D8DE2E65081A8194])
Sandy Bridge CPUs are quite potent, and it uses an integrated GPU so that'll help keep costs down. Its graphics are about as strong as you can get for being an integrated GPU, but it's still not as good as a discrete one.
Still, if you're really set on it being an inexpensive laptop, check out the benchmarks [http://www.anandtech.com/show/4524/the-sandy-bridge-pentium-review-pentium-g850-g840-g620-g620t-tested/5] and see if this is something that might work for you.
Note that the HD 3000 is one of the blue bars, not one of the highlighted ones.
Get a Core i3 CPU with the Intel HD Graphics 3000 (see this chart [D8DE2E65081A8194])
Sandy Bridge CPUs are quite potent, and it uses an integrated GPU so that'll help keep costs down. Its graphics are about as strong as you can get for being an integrated GPU, but it's still not as good as a discrete one.
Still, if you're really set on it being an inexpensive laptop, check out the benchmarks [http://www.anandtech.com/show/4524/the-sandy-bridge-pentium-review-pentium-g850-g840-g620-g620t-tested/5] and see if this is something that might work for you.
Note that the HD 3000 is one of the blue bars, not one of the highlighted ones.
You absolutely can get a decent one for that price. Mind you, it won't be top of the market but the margin isn't as high as people like to think it is. I've got an ASUS G73 that I bought earlier in the year so it's probably a couple hundred less now than when I bought it. Plays anything I can throw at it.
For 600 bucks you absolutely can get a workable one though. Consider going the ASUS route. I know best buy caries a decent stock of them.
For 600 bucks you absolutely can get a workable one though. Consider going the ASUS route. I know best buy caries a decent stock of them.