Best Hardcore Gaming PC under 600 bucks?

[Awesom3Gamer]

Hello,
I'm looking for a gaming laptop that can play modern games like Skyrim and Minecraft at highish settings at good framerate in HD! (and Wii and PS2 emulators at good framerate in HD!) that is under 600, preferably under 550 but it doesn't really matter. Please reply!

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

A decent gaming laptop costs several THOUSANDS....

For your price all games will run on LOW settings...

All the best Brett

 

[MKBL]

Under $600 laptops usually have IGP instead of discrete solution, which can play modern mainstream games at best mid-setting. I'm not sure what's your bar for high setting, but if you are talking about HIGH on Skyrim, you need to raise the budget significantly. Also, if you are aiming 1080 HD, you better look up higher.

 

[Awesom3Gamer]

Crap. How about desktop?

 

[ringzero]

Crap. How about desktop?

BUILD a desktop. It's fun, it's cheaper, it performs WAY better, and you can upgrade the hell out of it for years to come.

 

[rsktek]

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289 DVD Burner
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147123 Case
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136770 HDD
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150521 GPU
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027 Power Supply
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277 RAM
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121512 Motherboard
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116409 CPU


All of these parts combined will get you a working tower. It's just an example. I don't think you'll be able to run skyrim on high 1920x1080, but you can always splurge on a better graphics card.

Total price is around $550.


Hope this helps

 

[ph1sh55]

well..what system are you using to make this post?

If you have a desktop and have some components you can re-use you can get a quite capable system for $600.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

You're asking the impossible. A decent gaming laptop is gonna cost ya $1200 and thats taking into account expectations are lower on a lappie than on a desktop.

Don't even think about a "hardcore gaming desktop" for under that figure. A passable gaming desktop is in the $800 - $1200 category and much of that depends on how you define "passable".

 

[omega21xx]

Minimum to max Skyrim (without dipping below 30fps) requires a HD 6870 (or 560/560ti) and serious cpu power, i3 might be fine after the performance patches, but add in mods and other stuff you may want and you'll need an i5 2500k @4ghz

 

[MKBL]

Here is my build, which is enough to play ULTRA on Skyrim with 1920 x 1080 @50-60FPS. Actually it seems over 60 now after the recent Geforce WHQL driver update. I think my spec is probably the minimum for such playability, so you may want to get even higher spec, especially CPU and motherboard, for future proof. If you are going to buy a prebuilt system with similar performance, probably you will have to pay over $1200.

===========New Purchase October 2011 ================
i5 2400 $159@ Microcenter
MSI H67 Motherboard $ 90 @ Amazon
Corsair 1333 Mhz 4GB x 2 $ 42 @ Amazon
EVGA GTX 560 Ti 448 Classified $290 @ Newegg
Antec 300 Mid-tower $ 48 @Microcenter
Antec HCG-620 PSU $ 54 @Microcenter
LG DVD-RW $ 21 @Microcenter

New purchase total $704
===== Reuse from old build======================
Samsung F3 500GB HDD
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Cooler Master 212 Plus CPU Cooler

 

[hapkido]

Hardcore Gaming and Laptop are mutually exclusive terms. Desktops can have much faster parts because they manage heat and power better.

For <$600 you can get a game that's capable of playing new games at 720p, but not at highest settings. I'd look into AMD's A-series APUs. If you can wait a couple months, AMD is releasing a new line of APUs that's supposed to be faster (I read about 10-15% for both the CPU and GPU). You can probably get a quad core APU with a 720p screen in your price range.

 

[Rockdpm]

As said before me, 600 for a laptop on even medium for skyrim is impossible. now you could buy time travel and go ahead a few years where computer performance is so advanced Skyrim is like sitting at the desktop the whole time not using any usage what so ever. Now a Desktop the possible is in the current time.

If you would want to play skyrim, your best bet is probably gonna be go get a Desktop from like Bestbuy or a brand name PC. then change out the Power Supply and put a graphics card in it. the best time to buy one of the 500 series is gonna be when the 600 series comes out. if you are looking for a radeon card, its gonna be a bit before they lower prices for the new 7000 Series. I could spend hours putting together parts on this laptop to recommend to you as a desktop build, but most people that do that, they're build is never chosen and they spent 2 hours seething through deals to put somthing together

 

[WR2]

New purchase total $704
===== Reuse from old build======================
Samsung F3 500GB HDD
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Cooler Master 212 Plus CPU Cooler

For the OP who might note have have the reused items - it would cost him an extra $314 (or maybe $214 for Win7 Home Premium).
And he might need a monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers as well.

 

[WR2]

All of these parts combined will get you a working tower.

You left out the cost of an OS.
And a working tower might not be the same thing as working system.

 

[speracado]

NZXT Source 210 Black = $39.99
Seagate Barracudea 1TB 7200/64 = $79.99
MSI 760GM-P34(FX) AM3+= $52.99
EVGA SSC 02G-P4-3653-KR GeForce GTX 650ti 2GB = $169.99
Termaltake TR2 430W PSU = $39.99
G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB DDR3 1866 = $54.99
AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE $94.99

Total = $523.92

Should handle most games today just alright on normal settings.

 

[speracado]

Supporting Documents:
1. GPU: http/www.anandtech.com/show/6359/the-nvidia-geforce-gtx-650-ti-review
2. CPU: http/www.overclock.net/t/1131374/htl-bf3-beta-cpu-gpu-settings-comparisons-965vs2600k (albeit not from what I would call a verified source)

 

[hapkido]

This thread is over a year old. I'm sure he purchased something by now.

 

[jaguarskx]

^^^

.... and there is nothing "hardcore" about a $600 laptop for games.

 

[Brett928S2]

Best answer selected by Brett928S2.

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

CLOSING due to age... but please start another thread if you are still having problems , which I will answer promptly...

All the best Brett