technology Any Cheap gaming laptops or PC's?

[SuperFlapjack 32]

I was just wondering if there are any good, Cheap gaming laptops or PC's preferably laptops (Small Gaming budget:)) I also wanna get a mic, I wanna be able to play + skype at same time, also I wanna start a gaming youtube channel I preferably want one £400 or under, If any of you play minecraft I want it to be able to be on at lest render distance normal (maybe even far) with a good texture pack + maybe optifine, also it can't be laggy if I wanna record it! I found a few cheap ones and wanna know if they are decent

 

Samsung NP350E7C-A04UK Laptop, Pentium B970, 6GB, 750GB, Windows 8 64, = £342.99

 

TOSHIBA Satellite C850D-11Q 15.6" Laptop = £289.97

 

Samsung NP355V5C-A06UK Laptop, AMD A6-4400M Dual Core, 6GB, 500GB, = £322.99

 

okay so are these good laptops and good prices!

 

 

 

[Zhooves 843]

After looking up the processors and stuff, I am not too sure if these are good enough for what you want to do... My 4 year old laptop have about the same specs as the the second one, and it overheats and such if I even dare play any games... Oh, and a lot of newer stuff can get laggy. Than again, the overheating I am pretty sure is the model, so let's ignore that for now...

 

I think you might want to aim a little higher if you're not planning on getting a new PC within the next year or so...

But if I were to pick, I think I would have picked the second one... As the dual-core combined with OptiFine could really make a difference~

Edited June 15, 2013 by Zhooves

[SuperFlapjack 32]

Uh I dunno what laptop I'm gonna get yet, my bro has a great Toshiba laptop, I messaged him to ask what it's called + how much it costed It was good and worked well (may be just cause I'm stuck with a rubbish (Family) PC at the moment!

[XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 777]

I'd suggest waiting it out for a bit. From what I've been told right now is the worst time to buy a PC for newer Mobo's coming out soon will wipe the floor with what we've got now. Even so, laptops aren't the greatest when it comes to gaming. It's true that there's lappies which can run just fine as any other gaming PC but they cost so much more due to their portability and limited capacities. A cheap gaming laptop/pc will run you at least in the $600-$700 range. 

 

I'd highly suggest saving up for a while longer and get somewhere around $1.5k at least, grab a tower instead of a laptop as well. A tower will outlast a laptop when it comes to parts and it's easier to change out specific sections. Even so, I have a gut feeling that you'll want to record something else than Minecraft in the days to come so it's a good idea to grab a rig that'll last ya for quite a while 

 

For websites to go to I'd suggest either Newegg or Digital Storm's Vanquish PC's. You can also try Tigerdirect, I haven't used them myself but my friends have and they said it's comparable to NewEgg. 

Edited June 15, 2013 by Accellerant

[Abstract 832]

Any laptop for that cheap is going to have terrible graphic performance. Two you listed have the AMD Radeon 7310, which is just about bottom-end. The other is integrated Intel graphics, possibly even worse.

 

If you want even decent performance, you're gonna have to up your budget quite a bit, or look into doing a desktop instead - you can get a fairly cheap, but decent off-the-shelf desktop and upgrade it yourself with a decent Radeon or GeForce card. To get what you desire, you're still probably gonna have to go over budget a bit, but not by nearly as much.

[Harmonic Revelations 8,835]

Toshiba is the way to go no matter what you choose, because they are sturdy, reliable, and you get good performance for your money. But I would aim in the five hundred or over range for decent performance in modern games.

Edited June 15, 2013 by Harmonic Revelations

[NocturnalRainbow 248]

I have actually been looking for a decent gaming laptop for a while now and if you want something cheap, yet reasonably good. I would recommend checking out the Acer Aspire V3 lineup. Plenty of laptops ranging from all different prices. I'm sure you'll find something to suite your needs.

A list of all of the Acer Aspire V3 Models

http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/models/notebooks/aspirev3

 

Also I would avoid any cheap Toshiba computers. I have one right now, it is horrible... All of Toshibas computer except the really pricey ones kinda suck... trust me, toshiba is probably not the way to go unless you have a good amount of money.

Edited June 15, 2013 by NocturnalRainbow

[GrimCW 658]

best bet is as someone else suggested, hold out a bit.

 

But not for the newer gear IMO.

Older gear can often be just as effective, if not near it, and still last awhile.

My 3-4 year old Samsung laptop can still play pretty decently with newer titles of yet, and it barely cost me $800USD when i got it. And topping all that, it already has a Blu-Ray drive. Many still don't have this!

 

Just watch for the clearance sales and such for good ones, but research the specs you want first. DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT let the sales people sway your decision. They often haven't a clue what they're even looking at and are just rambling off nonsense.

Or if online, don't  let'em con you into parts you just don't need.

 

Can't recall its model name atm but mine carries

 

Intel Core I7 CPU

Geforce 525m video

6gb memory

750gb hdd

 

competed with some of the higher end "gaming" laptops (which this is still not considered) despite all, and still holds out really well.

Most of the time any laptop listed as "gaming" is just selling you a title, not a better system. Just food for thought right there.

 

the key points are the CPU and the video card. Most laptops trash one of those in favor of the other, or end up with less memory than you'd want/need (though 6gig is roughly the standard these days, so its pretty good)

 

as for Desktops (sorry, PC is a general term... not technically for WIndows only systems ) 

Build your own is a pretty good angle. 
Sales on parts are fairly common, and it gets in what you want in it, not what some company wanted. + its upgradeable regardless, where pre-builts are usually factory designed to fail and be solid in their specs.

Building isn't hard, not nearly as bad as it was a ways back anyways, and pretty idiot proof.

Biggest part is find the mobo you want, download its manuals and make sure to get compatible parts.

That aside the rest is a dummies game of just sliding parts together as per the instructions.

takes maybe 30 min to assemble, about 2+ hours to setup with windows and all, depending on what else you throw in.

 

looking at Minecraft though.. mmm... memory and CPU moreso than GPU iirc.

Edited June 15, 2013 by GrimCW

[Level3rd 128]

Toshiba is the way to go no matter what you choose, because they are sturdy, reliable, and you get good performance for your money. But I would aim in the five hundred or over range for decent performance in modern games.

Toshiba....

 

Toshiba makes a decent Satellite commuter series, which is ok for just that...Commuters, but if you're looking for a performance brand, go with Asus if you can.  They've got some of the best warranties and are as durable as a brick.

 

If it needs to be a laptop, look into the G70 series of laptops, The G70 line has everything from low-end to high-end performance.

 

In the long run though, I would recommend a tower.  Easier to maintain, cheaper to build, and overall higher performance.

 

 

DO NOT GO WITH ANYTHING ACER!!!  Acer is the wal-mart brand of computer tech.  Acer is so shitty in all aspects of their products.

Edited June 15, 2013 by Level3rd

[NocturnalRainbow 248]

 

DO NOT GO WITH ANYTHING ACER!!!  Acer is the wal-mart brand of computer tech.  Acer is so shitty in all aspects of their products.

 

 

 

  All we've done is contradict each other. I recommended acer, you said it sucked. The person before me recommended me said Toshiba, I said Toshiba kinda sucks. We're getting no where

(I bet the next person is going too say that asus sucks...)

Edited June 15, 2013 by NocturnalRainbow

[Level3rd 128]

Ok, I'll put it fairly.

I've had 3 Acer netbooks.  Every single one of them ended up going back within a year of purchase, simply because of corruption.
I know that every bit of Asus hardware in my tower has never failed, despite being overclocked/over heated many times.  They've always been good to me in terms of warranty, when one of them had a defective board right out of the box.  Easy in/house replacement.  Acer wasn't so friendly, they insisted I send it out to the "Depot" to be fixed, when all I needed was a quick swap.

That's my experience, consequently, Asus has earned my undying trust and respect for their parts, whereas I wouldn't recommend Acer to my enemies. 

 

What's your experience?

[NocturnalRainbow 248]

Someone recommended acer to me (who has an acer laptop) I have used his laptop and it ran well and he's said he's never had any problems with it. I guess your reason kinda crushes mine!

[Flutter's lover <3 8,206]

if you want gaming, get a PC and build it yourself.,it's cheap inthe end. vs what you'll pay for a pre-built PC from a store.(Which you should never buy)

 

my PC cost me $800 3 or so years ago....and other then maybe a motherboard upgrade to support crossfire for my ATI. It's pretty much future proof. I'm also running an AMD Hexacore CPU and 8Gb of RAM. It's worked jsut fine for all my games.

 

and you could probably build my PC now for around your budget.

[SuperFlapjack 32]

if you want gaming, get a PC and build it yourself.,it's cheap inthe end. vs what you'll pay for a pre-built PC from a store.(Which you should never buy)

 

my PC cost me $800 3 or so years ago....and other then maybe a motherboard upgrade to support crossfire for my ATI. It's pretty much future proof. I'm also running an AMD Hexacore CPU and 8Gb of RAM. It's worked jsut fine for all my games.

 

and you could probably build my PC now for around your budget.

Yeah that's a pretty good idea I might be able to have the family PC then buy better parts for it, or I could just wait a couple of years for my brother or sister to get a new PC, theirs are really good!

[Gigachip 148]

OK, I put together a little list to follow for parts. Its in $ but I think its close to what you're after. Of course I had to add mouse/keyboard + monitor. I encountered someone saying "what if someone doesn't have that already".

Anyway heres the list:

 

 

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145299

MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131795

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121643

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145324

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103996

Mouse: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826193041

Keyboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823201010

Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254094

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811233117

of course Windows OS + $100

 

 

again the prices on the website are based off US. I'm sure you can play around with some of it to fit your needs if you go building your own rig.

If you already have M+K + Monitor, you also save a few bucks. Same if you already have a spare OS disc or go Linux.

Unless there is no other way, I would stay away from laptops for what you're wanting to do.

Edited June 16, 2013 by Gigachip

[Ron J 276]

You can usually get the parts for a computer that can run BFBC2 at a decent rate for somewhere around $500-600, to my understanding.

[A Blithering Div 247]

You aren't gonna find a cheap gaming laptop. They simply do not exist. No cheap solution can provide 60 FPS at 1366x768. At least not yet. Screen capping is going to annihilate a cheap laptop. Here's a review of the best integrated graphics around right now. The only thing on those graphs in your budget would be the 4600 (on mobile i.e. slower) and the A10-4600m. So if you're really set on a gaming laptop, you're going to have to double your budget, especially if you're gonna screen cap.

 

On the desktop side, things change a bit. Gigachip's build isn't all that bad and is one of the few cases where a bulldozer based CPU will work as you're set on doing a youtube channel (i.e. video encoding). It will easily handle skype and games and should (in theory) handle screen capping as well. Your load times will suck but the games will be playable. One thing I would do however is swap the GT 640 for a Raedon 7770. its only $20 (or about 3 pounds) more and significantly more powerful.

[SuperFlapjack 32]

OK, I put together a little list to follow for parts. Its in $ but I think its close to what you're after. Of course I had to add mouse/keyboard + monitor. I encountered someone saying "what if someone doesn't have that already".

Anyway heres the list:

 

 

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145299

MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131795

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121643

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145324

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103996

Mouse: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826193041

Keyboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823201010

Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254094

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811233117

of course Windows OS + $100

 

 

again the prices on the website are based off US. I'm sure you can play around with some of it to fit your needs if you go building your own rig.

If you already have M+K + Monitor, you also save a few bucks. Same if you already have a spare OS disc or go Linux.

Unless there is no other way, I would stay away from laptops for what you're wanting to do.

 

This was Pretty helpful thanks I will make sure when I get some money together, I will take a look and probably use these links,I think it will be worth it to spend a bit more to get a decent desktop that will last a while rather than getting a rubbish laptop, thanks everyone who posted, a real help

[websterhamster 203]

I am not familiar with the economy in Great Britain, but in the US your budget would barely get you a cheap budget PC. By its very definition, "Gaming PC" means an amped up PC with good graphics, fast processor, and lotsa memory.

 

However, don't let your hopes be crushed. I am currently gaming on a probably 5 year old desktop that was given to me by someone in my church. You can probably get a used computer for significantly cheaper than a new one and then upgrade components one at a time.

 

Good luck! I hope you are successful in your quest.

[Flutter's lover <3 8,206]

I am not familiar with the economy in Great Britain, but in the US your budget would barely get you a cheap budget PC. By its very definition, "Gaming PC" means an amped up PC with good graphics, fast processor, and lotsa memory.

 

However, don't let your hopes be crushed. I am currently gaming on a probably 5 year old desktop that was given to me by someone in my church. You can probably get a used computer for significantly cheaper than a new one and then upgrade components one at a time.

 

Good luck! I hope you are successful in your quest.

 

 

where are you shopping?

 

Also you can build a pretty badass PC for his budget. You just have to find the right deals and sales online or in-store.

 

My PC is a gaming PC, and it's not  "Amped up" by any means, just 8GB of ram a HD 6770 Vid card and a Hexacore 2.8Ghz processor. and I can play most of my games at Ultra/max settings. and cost me $700-$800 3 years ago.

 

He's looking for something with a budget of $630CAD/400GBP that's easily doable. and like I said above in a previous post, he could probably build my PC without going over budget.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Flutter Dash

[websterhamster 203]

Like I said, you do have to look for deals and such. But here in the States $600USD (which is the equivalent of 400GBP) would not get you anything new that would qualify for gaming purposes. The rig you describe could not be bought new for the budget of $600.

 

However I have been building computers since I was 7 and I have great faith in eBay, Craigslist, and second-hand computer stores. But you will have to do some shopping and bargain hunting in order to get a gaming rig for this price. It is completely possible, my brother has put together a (relatively, to me) impressive machine for probably under $300. But he had to buy each part one at a time, when he found good deals.

[long gone 8,929]

You see, as everyone else explained by now, laptops cannot perform the same as a desktop unless you pay a bit of a premium for it (for example, my MSI GT60 0ND was $1500, and I coulda paid more for even better performance) and even then there are some things it can't do as well as a desktop, such as some games (e.g. desktop GTX 675 can max out PlanetSide 2, laptop GTX 675M can run it on only Medium.)

 

For your budget, you are better off building a desktop.

[Kbblender 122]

While I don't know of any (currently existing) cheap gaming laptops you can buy, there is an interesting story on one that I was going to buy, a story made funny by schadenfreude.  It was a really good laptop that I could have easily used to replace the piece of junk that I have, the one covered in viruses and a broken battery that will not charge.  It was a really good laptop, and it even glowed in different colors on the top, and it made me happy, and it was only 350 dollars at the flea market.  I know what you're thinking, but I wanted it.  And so I *almost* got it, but when I had the money, the flea market had a fire, and the computer store it was being sold at burned down, and the laptop is now a melted pile of plastic.  And it turns out the fire was an electrical fire started at the same computer store.  Irony.  It hurts.

[Artleck 70]

Best way to get a cheap gaming pc is if you build it yourself. Buy all the parts you need, good graphics card and processor. trust me it should be alot cheaper building it

[GrimCW 658]

just a pointer since i saw it mentioned somewhere.., unless your SUPER sensitive to motion, and get motion sickness easy.. 60FPS is a waste of time goal to achieve.

some games just can't do it regardless due to bad coding, and many are capped at 30 anyways.

 

don't waste your breath on wanting or thinking you need that. its far over rated.

IMO 30 is a bit low, but 35+ is smooth sailing, and given most games have "motion blur" in them these days, 30-35 fps actually provides that on its own (though hardly noticeable unless you seek it) and is probably why more games are being locked at 30 fps (despite this lock often causes other issues such as screen tears on some systems).

 

hell, movies/tv shows are recorded at 24, and older tv's couldn't even get past 30. No one complained there... only real difference in new tv's is the additional waste of more refresh, and the higher resolution picture (when your up from 640x480 though, anything is HD by comparison)

and lets not mention the 120 refresh ones, its a scam where the TV "adds" frames to the picture.. not real...

 

as long as your monitor refresh is keeping up, turn of motion blur, get a few extra frames, and just have fun! MOST normal eyes won't know the difference.