Computer Geek Advice needed......

In the market for a new laptop.

Want to be able to do a bit of gaming (racing games, Flight Sim, etc)

Did a bit of checking. Apparently, there's some fantastic gaming laptops out there in the $1,500 - $2,500 range. Unfortunately, my budget will be about $700 MAX (preferably closer to $500). I'm not a techo geek, but I know it's important to have a good video card. Which one? As to what else is important, IDK.

Any recommendations?

Marshall

 

Gaming laptop recs? Try consulting with any 10yo neighbor boy,lol.

Marshall's next new computer shown below:

 

Perhaps one of our more savy computer guys will add their 2c but I wonder if a second hand laptop from a good source might work? Some of those gamers trade up all the time much like cars.
Anyway just a thought.

 

That might be worth a look, Jenn. Thanks for the suggestion.

Did a little internet work on the subject. Seems there's a Lenovo laptop that's highly regarded. A bit out of my price range though. ($900+)

 

KK - after a lot of looking around while in AZ we ended up at Best Buy and an ASUS. I have a Lenovo Tower at home, was never very happy with it, and most recently an ACER laptop that we did not like right from the moment we purchased it. So far this ASUS seems to be pretty good. I did have to purchase an external CD/DVD drive but it was inexpensive. I'm not yet truly conversant with MS8, I did like MS7, but it is more that I've not taken the time to go through the tutorial to allow me to take advantage of the software.

I asked a lot of folks who were camped with us over 2 months and I was surprised at how many had ended up with an ASUS. Reasonable price, good quality, been around a long time. I was going to buy a Samsung but $$$$$ scared me off. I did like the keyboard tactile feel of it's keyboard and just the computer overall, but it was 70% more than a similarly set up ASUS (and many others).

Anyway, just my input for what it's worth.

 

Marshall, "gaming" and "laptop" are almost an oxymoron… unless you are willing to shell out some big bucks on a Sager notebook. http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=category_browse&selected_cat=12

Having said that, you can get some fair gaming performance out of a laptop, but you might not be able to turn up the graphic detail settings to Max. If it doesn't have an ATI or Nvidia GPU, don't even consider buying it. Intel graphics chips are just good enough to run Windows and basic 2D applications and yield marginal 3D performance.

The newer the games you want to run, the more GPU performance you are going to need.
To give you a starting point for PC specs, you can look up the minimum and recommended specs for your favorite games here: http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri
This will give you a baseline to compare anything new you are shopping for against.

On a $500 - 700 budget, your options are incredibly slim.
I found two on Amazon that would fit the bill on your budget.

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-CX61-2PC-...ie=UTF8&qid=1397530508&sr=1-1&keywords=laptop

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-E1-472G-...B00HC3498M/ref=psdc1_t1_B00ISKS4A2_B00HC3498M

 

My wife brought home his ACER. Unfortunately, there seems no way out from buying Made in China. This thing loads up quickly, compared to the previous one we have. But, this Windows 8 is frustrating. Functions are hidden and the graphics program doesn't have an option for undoing mistakes. I ended up downloading Gimp. But, downloads aren't where they used to be.
Get a Mac or anything else with a non-MS OS

 

Marshall,
Look at the offerings here, especially the refurbished selections. They have many off-lease products and often have open-box units that someone has bought and sent back.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=17&cm_re=Homepage-_-Spot%2022-_-CatId_17

I've bought all kinds of stuff from them over the years and never had a problem. Sometimes they buy a whole batch of last year's model and sell them off at super prices. I paid $499 for my current HP Probook and it came with both win7 preloaded and a separate copy of win8. Most of these type sales sell out within a day or two and are received if you sign up for their email updates.

 

Marshall, FWIW, I run iRacing on a 6-year old Dell Vostro 3500 laptop with a Logitech G27 wheel and pedal set. The Vostro 3500 has an i3 CPU M370 @ 2.4 GHz and an Intel HD GPU. I've never had any problems with performance using this laptop.

The only other gaming I've done is rFactor, on the same laptop, and GTR Evolution. rFactor runs well, as does GTR Evolution, but GTR Evolution is a waste of money, IMHO. Maybe other types of gaming wouldn't work as well on this laptop, but I wouldn't know.

I had two Dell laptops at work, this current Dell laptop at home and three Dell desktops at home (one of the desktops has been scrapped, the other two still in operation). I've never had any complaints about the Dells.

You can buy a Dell for $589.00:

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/latitude-3540-laptop/pd

(BTW, I don't work for Dell, don't hold Dell stock, and don't know anyone who works for Dell. I just have had good experiences with their products. )

 

Good suggestions, all. Will have to take a closer look at this stuff a bit later......

Thanks!

Marshall

 

I was getting soooooo confused by all the combinations of styles and features. Finally figured out what I wanted.

Went to the big stores. I was a bit put off by what they had displayed. Didn't seem to have all that much selection in my price range. Went on-line at Best Buy and found this:

Dell Inspiron Ultrabook
15.6" screen
3rd gen Intel Core i7 processor
8 GB Ram
500 GB hard drive
32 GB solid state drive
DVD drive
backlit keyboard

Tremendous price. The downside - it's refurbished.
I'm hoping I get lucky.
Should be here in a few days.

 

I hope you get the gaming performance you need. This GPU is ranked comparable to the high-end cards from 2003.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

 

That should be good enough for me.....
I don't do all that much gaming. I'll be doing more than I've done lately (which is none), but overall maybe a couple of hours a week. I can always plug in something else.

 

Couple of friends went to Best Buy and bought from their "open box" section. Got desk tower models but said there were laptops too. All that means is they were store display models taken out of the boxes.

 

I just saw your post of FB but I'll say it again...EEEeee...congratulations. This laptop that I am using right now was a second hand that hubby purchased from a son of a friend. I've never had a problem with it which was good because we would have had no recourse. Mind you I don't play games on it...I gab mostly, hard to believe I know but it's true!
However since you are buying from Best Buy if you have a problem, they'll behind won't they?
Anyway hope it all works out...enjoy all that speed...don't forget to buckle up.