Best laptop for casual gaming from this list

[artuu28id]

Hello

I'm currently looking for a laptop for my wife who uses it mostly for working with Office, internet, movies, etc. However, she also likes to play games like Sims 3 and Diablo III and other games (Siberia, Nancy Drew, etc).

Currently she has a HP from 3 years ago. http/h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/kb/docDisplay/?spf_p.tpst=kbDocDisplay&spf_p.prp_kbDocDisplay=wsrp-navigationalState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c02540058-1%257CdocLocale%253D%257CcalledBy%253D&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

It handled Diablo 3 in single player pretty good. Sims 3 impossible to play even with the lowest possible settings when the game was more advanced. The laptop is about to die, so we need a new one urgently.

My main requirements are:

1- Handle games like Diablo 3 and Sims 3 with expansion packs running decently. Also Need for Speed series (no need to be the latest game)

2- Moderate heating knowing it may be long hours on during work or gaming (although we bought a DeepCool multicore x6 base with 4 fans these days for the HP)

3- Good quality of the components to stay alive in the next few years (I suppose this depends on the brand)

4- Not as noisy as that HP was. It sounded like a vacuum cleaner, and during videocalls that sound annoyed the receptor.

After a research I came up with these options (I know there are many, but there are things about processors and GPU stuff and I have no idea which is better balanced)
The price is set in Rubles cause we are in Russia. Starting from the highest till the lowest price.

(1)
18890 rubles
Lenovo IdeaPad V580c

i3-3120M 2500 mhZ
RAM 4gb (max 8gb) DDR3
GeForce GT 740M 2gb
320gb hard disk
battery life 6 hrs

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(2)
18699 rubles
ASUS K56CB

i3 3217U 1800 mhZ
RAM 4gb (max 8gb) DDR3
GeForce GT 740M 2gb
500gb Serial ATA hard disk
baterry life 3 hrs

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(3)
18470 rubles
Lenovo IdeaPad G580

i3-3120M 2500 mhZ
RAM 4gb (max 16gb) DDR3
GeForce GT 635M 2gb
1tb hard disk
battery life 4.5 hrs

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(4)
17690 rubles
Dell Inspiron 3521

i5 3317U 1700 mhZ
RAM 4gb DDR3
Radeon HD 7670M 1gb SMA
500gb Serial ATA, HDD

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(5)
16990 rubles
Dell Inspiron 3521

i3 3217U 1800 mhZ
RAM 6gb (max 8gb) DDR3
Radeon HD 7670M 1gb
750gb hard disk
battery life 4hrs

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(6)
16440 rubles
Lenovo IdeaPad P585

A10 4600M 2300 ghZ
RAM 6gb DDR3
Radeon 7660G SMA (don't know what SMA means)
1tb hard disk

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If there are more specifications you need to know you can ask me, I put the main ones cause the catalogs are in Russian.
By the way, I skipped options that included an Intel HD 4000 graphics cause as far as I know Intel cards are not as good as the ones in these laptops, is that right?

It would be great if you can rank these options (that's why I put the numbers upon each one) so that if they don't have it in the shop I can try to look for the next best option. If there is something

Sorry for the long post, but I would really like to buy a good laptop with a fair price that won't give us problems in the future, like this HP. Thanks a lot in advance!

Arturo

 

[patrick47018]

(1)
18890 rubles
Lenovo IdeaPad V580c

i3-3120M 2500 mhZ
RAM 4gb (max 8gb) DDR3
GeForce GT 740M 2gb
320gb hard disk
battery life 6 hrs

This one is probably your best choice for casual gaming

 

[artuu28id]

Great! thanks for your fast answer, patrick47018
Do you know what other known games would it run decently? What's its limit? I would like to have a reference when searching for new games knowing it will run correctly on this laptop.

 

[jaguarskx]

#1 is the best laptop for games. However, it is also the most expensive as well. But in terms of pure performance this is the obvious choice.

#2's performance will be close to #1 since the GPU is the same, but it uses lower performance, lower power consuming Core i3 CPU. But due to the battery life it probably has a smaller battery which implies lower weight.

#3 offers good gaming performance and is pretty decent for the price that you pay.

#4, #5 represents the best "bang for the buck" (rupee for you). The Radeon HD 7670m is marginally better than the GT 630m which in turn is slower than the GT 635m and GT 740m (a little slower than the GT 650m). That means it is still fine for the Sims 3 and Diablo 3; especially if the resolution is only 1366x768.

The primary difference is the i3 and i5 CPU. The i3 lacks Turbo Boost which is an automatic overclock as long as the CPU is not too hot. That means it runs above the base speed; max 2.6GHz for the i5-3317U if only one core is being used and probably 2.4GHz if both cores are used. Naturally, Turbo Boost does cause the CPU to also run hotter.

I would not really bother with #6.

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From a value perspective the best ones would be:

#3 if performance matters more than cost savings.

#5 if you want to save some money, but still have a laptop capable of playing the games listed.

 

[artuu28id]

#1 is the best laptop for games. However, it is also the most expensive as well. But in terms of pure performance this is the obvious choice.

#2's performance will be close to #1 since the GPU is the same, but it uses lower performance, lower power consuming Core i3 CPU. But due to the battery life it probably has a smaller battery which implies lower weight.

#3 offers good gaming performance and is pretty decent for the price that you pay.

#4, #5 represents the best "bang for the buck" (rupee for you). The Radeon HD 7670m is marginally better than the GT 630m which in turn is slower than the GT 635m and GT 740m (a little slower than the GT 650m). That means it is still fine for the Sims 3 and Diablo 3; especially if the resolution is only 1366x768.

The primary difference is the i3 and i5 CPU. The i3 lacks Turbo Boost which is an automatic overclock as long as the CPU is not too hot. That means it runs above the base speed; max 2.6GHz for the i5-3317U if only one core is being used and probably 2.4GHz if both cores are used. Naturally, Turbo Boost does cause the CPU to also run hotter.

I would not really bother with #6.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From a value perspective the best ones would be:

#3 if performance matters more than cost savings.

#5 if you want to save some money, but still have a laptop capable of playing the games listed.

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Thanks for claryfing many things for me, jaguarskx.

I had made this list taking into account I wouldn't mind paying for the most expensive if it had a good advantage over the others.
So according to your review I could go for #3 or #1. Since the price is almost the same (400 rubles is the price of a big pizza anyway) then I decided I will go for the #1 Lenovo V580c.

Knowing it will do everything I need it to do, do you have any idea of the heating it may produce taking into account the brand model and its components?
Also as I asked in the previous post, what other known or late games can it manage to play decently, to have an example of its maximum performance?

Thanks again for the answer!