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Gaming with a $500 laptop possible?

post #1 of 18
10/31/12 at 3:45pm
Thread Starter 
Hello! My wife's 7 year old laptop kick the dust today. I was looking for a replacement that will possibly play some games. Not really looking to play BF3 at 60fps... but for games like The Sims 3, Torchlight 2 and some emulator games. Basically, I'm looking to purchase the most powerful $500 laptop I can get.

There is no preference on anything, other than the gaming part. I've seen some that look good, but only have integrated HD4000 graphics and also others with HD7660Gs. So do I have any options?

I may be able to squeeze in a little bit more, but not much.

Thanks. thumb.gif
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post #2 of 18
10/31/12 at 3:59pm
Possible yes I had a Asus K53TA with a 6720G2 and a A6-3400m which I bought for $500 and played BF3 and Skyrim with decent performance.
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post #3 of 18
10/31/12 at 4:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Derko1 View Post

Hello! My wife's 7 year old laptop kick the dust today. I was looking for a replacement that will possibly play some games. Not really looking to play BF3 at 60fps... but for games like The Sims 3, Torchlight 2 and some emulator games. Basically, I'm looking to purchase the most powerful $500 laptop I can get.
There is no preference on anything, other than the gaming part. I've seen some that look good, but only have integrated HD4000 graphics and also others with HD7660Gs. So do I have any options?
I may be able to squeeze in a little bit more, but not much.
Thanks. thumb.gif

My 400 dollar samsung laptop will run sims 3 and Diablo 3 pretty well, the only thing is it gets HOT. AMD apus tend to be better for gaming in the low end laptop segment. HD 4000 would probably work too for the games your are looking to play.

Mine is an AMD a6-3420m with integrated radeon 6520g.
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post #4 of 18
10/31/12 at 4:35pm
The A8 is much better, yes, but gaming performance in this case is more a matter of GPU.
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post #5 of 18
10/31/12 at 4:37pm
Thread Starter 
What if I am willing to go up to $750... is there anything else you'd recommend?
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post #6 of 18
10/31/12 at 4:51pm
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131393

This would be a nice option at the 750 price point, it has a dedicated gpu that will hybrid crossfire with the gpu on the processor. I had an A8 setup similar to this and had a decent time playing Skyrim smile.gif
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post #7 of 18
10/31/12 at 4:58pm
just be warned short of a budget of 900+ any "gaming" laptop you have is going to have sub par cooling... If you push the gpu and cpu it will get pretty warm, watch temperatures and possibly get a cooling pad to help keep air moving. These are not gaming laptops, they are laptops with integrated or onboard discrete graphics chips. Just make sure whatever you pick to read some reviews and see if you can get an idea of how hot they run... the cooler the better. you might also consider trying to find a used clevo with a 460 or 560m in it, you might be able to find one used in the neighborhood of $750
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post #8 of 18
10/31/12 at 5:18pm
Thread Starter 
What would you guys say to this? If I was willing to go to $1k?

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/B2P41UA?HP-Pavilion-dv6-7014nr-Entertainment-Notebook-PC
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post #9 of 18
10/31/12 at 5:42pm
Thread Starter 
Well... the first one that was suggested. By adding a few options. I saw that were pretty much necessary, I was at around $768. Then I figure that $250 is not going to be that huge a difference, for the performance increase that you can get. It seems like it's way more cost effective. Plus it will be much more future proof. Seeing how my wife has had the laptop that died for 7 years, it seems like it may be a better option.

Makes sense? No?
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post #10 of 18
10/31/12 at 7:37pm
What about a Sager from Xotic PC?

They have a 15.6" NP6165 notebook that starts at $823 with dual core i5 8gb of ram ant a GTX 650m... you gotta at least add windows which will bump it up to $900 or so unless you have a copy laying around. Or you could upgrade the cpu to an i7 3630qm and windows and be around 970... only think you might consider is a wifi card upgrade, and it should keep you in the $1000 range...

Or get a stock config NP6350 which would be just under $1000 with windows and stock config. I know these are at the top of your budget, but these are machines that are more mixed for gaming/portability, I would also take any one of them any day over an HP. Just personal experience. If you're working in a budget of your original $500-750 they're a good choice, but there is better out there once you reach the $1000 range.
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