Decently Priced Gaming Laptops?

[KaydeeKrunk]

So to my dismay today I hooked up my old desktop to play Sims and it completely crapped out on me, definitely something internal and I don't want to pay to get it fixed since as a desktop I don't really have much opportunity to use it anyways since my phone is more portable and I hate being stuck at the desk.

I don't need anything super fancy, I just want a decent gaming laptop that will let me play Skyrim and Sim 3/4 on it. As well as be able to do school stuff on as I am going to be taking online classes soon. It would be nice, but is not at the top of my list, to have one that is also a touchscreen/tablet as well cause it would be awesome to do some art on it as well. I don't want something I'd have to do work on or build because I don't know anyone that stuff, just something simple and easy. I'm willing to pay anywhere in the $500-800 range but willing to go a bit over if it's worth it.

If anybody has any suggestions I'd love to hear them! I'm not super knowledgeable on computers so I don't want to buy something and regret it like my boyfriend did with his ChromeBook thinking it was an actual laptop. Thanks in advance!

 

[helloxcutiee]

The gaming laptop I have is ASUS brand and if I remember correctly was around 700-750 dollars I believe. I have to see if I can find the model online so I can link it because it's a great laptop and plays the sims very smoothly.

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Okay so I found it but it's a little over your budget, sorry, I thought it was cheaper than $800.

ASUS gaming laptop

 

[KaydeeKrunk]

The gaming laptop I have is ASUS brand and if I remember correctly was around 700-750 dollars I believe. I have to see if I can find the model online so I can link it because it's a great laptop and plays the sims very smoothly.

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Okay so I found it but it's a little over your budget, sorry, I thought it was cheaper than $800.

ASUS gaming laptop

The price isn't a huge deal to me, it just means it will be longer until I can get it which is ok, an extra month is nothing. It looks nice but I'll have to find one with a CD drive as well, as it doesn't look like it has one. But I like the duo fans, and I think it's one or the other. I know how badly my olllld laptop overheated when I played games so it'd be worth it, or at the least I'll get a USB fan base to keep it cool.

What kind of stuff do you play on it? I just want to know if it can handle stuff like Skyrim. And maybe ESO

 

[Solus]

The rule of buying a gaming laptop is you do not want to go budget. You want quality, or else you'll end up having an extremely loud laptop that will slowly drive you insane. Poorly quality budget laptops have poor heatsinks or ways to managing the heat in the laptop that it eventually causes the laptop to break.

Second, if you want to play skyrim. Any modern computer with intel graphics can handle that. However, games like ESO, you want a laptop with a descrate graphic card. So, look for a laptop with graphic card such as Nvidia GTX XXXX. There a number after the name, and this name tells an individual the preformance of the graphic card. So, you should only buy laptops that have at least XX50 in the title. For example, Nvidia 1060 or 980. These are graphic cards that can handle any game. Anything below 1050 or 950 can hardly run games, and these are usually given laptops to extra boost in movies or mainstream usage. Most of the time, these XX40 or below cards aren't worth investing in. I've seen some that where intel graphics outpreform these weak dedicated graphic cards.

I strongly recommend reading which popular gaming laptops exist and go from there. Never buy a laptop that doesn't have reviews. Buy from popular brands too.

Here a laptop I recommend that LinusTechTips reviewed! It's a pretty good laptop for under $800. Personally, I recommend you spend at least one thousand on gaming laptop, but if you're tight on money. I recommend this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00Bi_iT1zzQ


You can learn about this laptop's graphic card preformance here: (The card built in is called Nvidia GTX 1050)
https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-1050-Notebook.178614.0.html

 

[KaydeeKrunk]

The rule of buying a gaming laptop is you do not want to go budget. You want quality, or else you'll end up having an extremely loud laptop that will slowly drive you insane. Poorly quality budget laptops have poor heatsinks or ways to managing the heat in the laptop that it eventually causes the laptop to break.

Second, if you want to play skyrim. Any modern computer with intel graphics can handle that. However, games like ESO, you want a laptop with a descrate graphic card. So, look for a laptop with graphic card such as Nvidia GTX XXXX. There a number after the name, and this name tells an individual the preformance of the graphic card. So, you should only buy laptops that have at least XX50 in the title. For example, Nvidia 1060 or 980. These are graphic cards that can handle any game. Anything below 1050 or 950 can hardly run games, and these are usually given laptops to extra boost in movies or mainstream usage. Most of the time, these XX40 or below cards aren't worth investing in. I've seen some that where intel graphics outpreform these weak dedicated graphic cards.

I strongly recommend reading which popular gaming laptops exist and go from there. Never buy a laptop that doesn't have reviews. Buy from popular brands too.

Here a laptop I recommend that LinusTechTips reviewed! It's a pretty good laptop for under $800. Personally, I recommend you spend at least one thousand on gaming laptop, but if you're tight on money. I recommend this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00Bi_iT1zzQ


You can learn about this laptop's graphic card preformance here: (The card built in is called Nvidia GTX 1050)
https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-1050-Notebook.178614.0.html

Thanks for all of the input, I'll check out that Inspiron as it's in my budget. I know that most beefy gaming laptops are $1000 or more, and if I in he future I game more frequently and for longer durations I could see it being more worthwhile for me to get a real gaming laptop from a reputable company that only makes gaming computer. But for now I will just be gaming casually, and I'm honestly not even sure if I will go as far as playing MMORPGs because I don't really play that often (and honestly I'm kind of trash at games and other people always kill me), it's main use will be as a normal laptop, I just want it to have the capability to play games as well.

 

[Alienfish]

Just saying, about graphics card and laptop, mine's got a GTX 765M and it can run Skyrim on almost highest level and run games like Garden Warfare 2 just fine.. so you don't really need the latest graphics cards that is out unless you're planning to do real heavy things.

But yeah, don't go too budget and always check graphics cards, processor and such. Mine have i7 I think but you can do with i5 as long as you don't burn it out completely.

 

[KaydeeKrunk]

Just saying, about graphics card and laptop, mine's got a GTX 765M and it can run Skyrim on almost highest level and run games like Garden Warfare 2 just fine.. so you don't really need the latest graphics cards that is out unless you're planning to do real heavy things.

But yeah, don't go too budget and always check graphics cards, processor and such. Mine have i7 I think but you can do with i5 as long as you don't burn it out completely.

Yeah I don't plan on spending hours at a time running games, it's going to be casual gaming here and there when I can, and I am likely going to get a cooling base and use my lapdesk or a flat surface each time I use it, because I destroyed my first laptop that I got way too young, so I am definitely going to treat this one right.

 

[Alienfish]

Yeah I don't plan on spending hours at a time running games, it's going to be casual gaming here and there when I can, and I am likely going to get a cooling base and use my lapdesk or a flat surface each time I use it, because I destroyed my first laptop that I got way too young, so I am definitely going to treat this one right.

yea same, i don't really play for too many hour(s) straight when I hook a game unless someone really wanna play and such those heavier things. and yep i have one of those cooling/fan base stands that you hook up via usb and it works

also get one of those dust cleaning compressed air bottles so you can remove the worst dust sometimes

 

[KaydeeKrunk]

Looking for last minute suggestions, as I get my check today and will likely be buying it the next few days!

 

[Alienfish]

Looking for last minute suggestions, as I get my check today and will likely be buying it the next few days!

Ooh noice. I can't say more that ASUS has some real good ones here, and yeah don't forget the compressed air dust-off bottles and/or usb fans.. they will be handy just saying.

GL buying and hope we can jav cards soon <3

 

[KaydeeKrunk]

Ooh noice. I can't say more that ASUS has some real good ones here, and yeah don't forget the compressed air dust-off bottles and/or usb fans.. they will be handy just saying.

GL buying and hope we can jav cards soon <3

yess, we will be able to do cards soon! and yeah I put the usb fan on my wishlist so hopefully someone gets it for my birthday if not I'll jsut grab one. its just a pill to find a laptop that actually comes with a disc port these days, like jfc, they want you to jav to buy all your games digital or buy an extra port but that's just silly. like just put it on there?

 

[Alienfish]

yess, we will be able to do cards soon! and yeah I put the usb fan on my wishlist so hopefully someone gets it for my birthday if not I'll jsut grab one. its just a pill to find a laptop that actually comes with a disc port these days, like jfc, they want you to jav to buy all your games digital or buy an extra port but that's just silly. like just put it on there?

<3 awesome.

and what they quit disc crap on laptops too? jfc.

Well I do/did buy most of my PC games online anyways unless there were some special/LE that came physical and as well in my early days so I jav a box full here lmao.

Yeah get that dust spray at least if you can unless you are pro at de-constructing things lel

 

[KaydeeKrunk]

<3 awesome.

and what they quit disc crap on laptops too? jfc.

Well I do/did buy most of my PC games online anyways unless there were some special/LE that came physical and as well in my early days so I jav a box full here lmao.

Yeah get that dust spray at least if you can unless you are pro at de-constructing things lel

Yeah we have that around the house already and I'm always sure to spray out my fans regularly on my electronics. and yeah I have a lot of digital stuff, like for sims 3 and skyrim, but I have some on physical and I prefer physical too so I want to be able to jav disc slot, especially now if I get iTunes and actually new music for my iPod I haven't updated in forever so I can load on my CDs

 

[Alienfish]

Yeah we have that around the house already and I'm always sure to spray out my fans regularly on my electronics. and yeah I have a lot of digital stuff, like for sims 3 and skyrim, but I have some on physical and I prefer physical too so I want to be able to jav disc slot, especially now if I get iTunes and actually new music for my iPod I haven't updated in forever so I can load on my CDs

Ah that's good then, hope you can get a fan eventually!

And yeah same I'm surprised people quit making those readers for laptops too? One thing if you do your own build but then you can include that too so :/ And yeah sometimes I put cd's in or buy physical thing so I would want that too. I think mine can even read blu-ray actually hah

 

[KaydeeKrunk]

Ah that's good then, hope you can get a fan eventually!

And yeah same I'm surprised people quit making those readers for laptops too? One thing if you do your own build but then you can include that too so :/ And yeah sometimes I put cd's in or buy physical thing so I would want that too. I think mine can even read blu-ray actually hah

Yeah, I'd want it to be able to play movies and stuff too, so it'd be nice to have blu-ray reader as well, but it's not priority.

 

[Alienfish]

Yeah, I'd want it to be able to play movies and stuff too, so it'd be nice to have blu-ray reader as well, but it's not priority.

Yeah had no idea mine had until I looked properly, but yeah it's cool. I hardly watch movies on my laptop by putting in dvd's or such but yeah I can see ya want that.

hope your new one comes soon!

 

[EmeraldJourney]

So to my dismay today I hooked up my old desktop to play Sims and it completely crapped out on me, definitely something internal and I don't want to pay to get it fixed since as a desktop I don't really have much opportunity to use it anyways since my phone is more portable and I hate being stuck at the desk.

I don't need anything super fancy, I just want a decent gaming laptop that will let me play Skyrim and Sim 3/4 on it. As well as be able to do school stuff on as I am going to be taking online classes soon. It would be nice, but is not at the top of my list, to have one that is also a touchscreen/tablet as well cause it would be awesome to do some art on it as well. I don't want something I'd have to do work on or build because I don't know anyone that stuff, just something simple and easy. I'm willing to pay anywhere in the $500-800 range but willing to go a bit over if it's worth it.

If anybody has any suggestions I'd love to hear them! I'm not super knowledgeable on computers so I don't want to buy something and regret it like my boyfriend did with his ChromeBook thinking it was an actual laptop. Thanks in advance!

I currently game on an Asus notebook with 16GB RAM, I5 processor and internal memory. I would recommend getting a diedicated card but it will cost you an extra 200-300, mine cost me 700 but it's a great little laptop I use for light gaming and work. I have 300 games on Steam and it can handle most of them, including Minecraft on lower settings. A good mod for minecraft is Optifine which let's you fine tune your graphics settings, further lowering them. It's also best for Minecraft to dedicate more RAM at at least half your capacity, in my case 8 but I bump it up to 14.