Solved! Advice for Budget Gaming Laptop :D

[zingaliam]

1. What is your budget?
$350-$450 (no income atm )

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
14 inch and up (i will game/watch movies and transport isn't really an issue)

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Preferably 1400x1000, but i would go lower.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
I would lean more towards desktop replacement, due to my want for a portable gaming machine, with transport not really being the forefront issue.

5. How much battery life do you need?
2 hours would be nice, but i'd settle for 1 hour and less.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
I'd like to be able to play all 2009 games and any prior to that at max resolution with no lag.
Any newer games i'd like to play in medium settings (only low if necessary),

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
I'd game, watch videos, listen to music and maybe do some photo/video editing and programming, but nothing too major.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
200GB as a minimum, considering i'll need alot of space to save all of my stuff.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Laptops/Laptops/mcat-0002-0356-0032-.htm

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
Probably 3+ years, as long as it works for me really.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD Rom and probably dvd writer, i wouldn't expect more for the price i'm asking.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
My favourite brand is XPS, purely because the laptops are designed nicely, with the intent for gaming. I also like toshiba and acer, as they have decent cheap laptops.

13. What country do you live in?
New Zealand

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I am in New Zealand, so Trademe is my closest option for a laptop as i'm buying second hand. But if you think theres something better somewhere else, i'd gladly check it out. I'm currently looking at an XPS m1530(http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Laptops/Laptops/Dell/auction-388536357.htm). Its relatively cheap, has 256mb video card and is XPS . But please give me your opinion and let me know if this laptop is any good. (It would run Vista).

 

[AntiZig]

Umm, ok, if you were shopping for a new laptop, you would never find a machine for that price to meet your requirements.

that said and seeing that you want to get a second hand machine, it's possible that you might find something that is older, but it'll be hard to comment how well it'll be able to run the latest games without knowing what the specs are. So I think it'll have to be on case by case basis, find some machine that is in your price range put a link here and someone will take a look at it.

Regarding that xps: frankly, they are nice on the inside, but personally their outside finish is just crap. Even on the link you gave, you can clearly see the wear on the hand rest.

The link you gave for xps15, it looks good, considering its a 4-5 year old machine.
But, I doubt you'll be able to run medium settings and native resolution for newer games on this. As the poster says in comments, it will probably run 2009 games on low to medium well, but newer you will have to go to lowest and probably even decrease the resolution.

 

[zingaliam]

Thanks for the reply, i guess i'll have to skip that laptop and look for another

 

[zingaliam]

Anyone hve any opinions on the xps mentioned, it seems like my best bet.

 

[zingaliam]

bump

 

[jaguarskx]

Yeah, that Dell is your best bet for your budget.

You are not going to be able to max out any 2009 games and still get good performance though. If you want that then you need to spend more money.