Budget gaming laptop recommendation within $650 USD.

abigeo

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Jun 5, 2014
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I'm looking for a gaming laptop within the price range of 650 USD for some casual gaming, web browsing and video making.This laptop should be durable as I am a pretty clumsy person. I have found a laptop with the following specs:

Inspiron 14 3000 Series (3442) - 635 USD
-4th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-4030U processor (3M Cache, 1.9 GHz)
-4GB Single Channel DDR3L 1600MHz (4GBx1)
-NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) 820M 2GB DDR3L

Also I live in Brunei and I make trips to India every few months. Please tell me the best prices I can find in Brunei or India.
 

IInuyasha74

Honorable
Well the laptop you mention doesn't seem too bad for the money. It should let you do some light gaming. I will try and see another one that might be better.

Also, take i7Baby with a grain of salt. He is right and seems to know his high end laptop computers, but you would be very lucky to find an i7 laptop for under $650 of any brand with only integrated graphics. Finding one with the high end graphics card for that money is just not possible. Besides, for lite gaming, you don't need it. I have an Nvidia 620m, which is slower than the laptop you posted cause it is older, and I tend to be able to play games pretty well on it. I don't get the newest games so well, but even stuff from 2013 I manage to play without too much trouble.
 

IInuyasha74

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abigeo

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Jun 5, 2014
22
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4,560

IInuyasha74

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Well you could try and make do with a Linux version for a short while. Using Linux will let you use the internet, type papers, making videos, and even playing games though the game selection is a bit limited.

Then you could save up for a month or two until you could afford to buy Windows.
 

abigeo

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Jun 5, 2014
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4,560


My dad is actually buying this for me (I'm still a teen) and he said he's not paying any more than 650 USD. This should include the OS itself.

I've also found 2 other laptops:
http://www.flipkart.com/asus-s56cm-xo177h-ultrabook-3rd-gen-ci3-4gb-500gb-24gb-ssd-win8-2gb-graph/p/itmdjygh8bze2upp?pid=COMDJYGJJHBCRB9G&otracker=browse&pageNum=1

http://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-essential-g505s-59-379987-laptop-apu-quad-core-a8-4gb-1tb-win8-2gb-graph/p/itmdz5afmgr6facs
 
I think the Lenovo would the better out of those two.

But neither of those two have as good specs as the HP. Trouble is, we get a lot of HP laptops and pc's with problems on this forum. And HP don't provide much info to help diagnose the problem.

So - for better spec, get the HP

For better reliability, get the Lenovo

 

abigeo

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Jun 5, 2014
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4,560


I've never had an AMD laptop so I'm not sure yet. What are the drawbacks and advantages of choosing the AMD processor over the i3?

 

IInuyasha74

Honorable
Well out of those two its a hard call. I would probably say the Lenovo also.

The graphics in the PCs is close, but the Lenovo should have a slight edge.

As for the CPUs. Intel has better architecture, so it gets more done per clock, but the Intel CPU is just a Dual Core CPU with hyper threading and runs at 1.8 Ghz.

The AMD CPU is a quad core, and it runs at 3.1 Ghz max. Since the clock speed is so different the AMD should perform better in all areas, but have a bit worse battery life.
 


AMD are cheap but low performance. Intel are higher performance and more expensive.

The amd cpu's have better integrated graphics power than intel.

 

IInuyasha74

Honorable
Yes typically, but in this case its the 2nd fastest CPU AMD puts in a laptop, against probably the slowest i3 Intel uses. It makes a big difference.

Both of this computers also have dedicated graphics cards so that also makes a difference here.
 

abigeo

Estimable
Jun 5, 2014
22
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4,560


I guess I'm gonna buy the Lenovo laptop. What kind of games can I play and what will the FPS be like? Right now I've been playing Minecraft, Dota 2, LOL, TF2, Left 4 Dead 2 and once I get my new laptop I'll probably be trying out some new games. I also plan on running a server for 4 to 5 people in Minecraft. Will I be able to do all of this?

 

IInuyasha74

Honorable


Are you just considering these two now?

Okay well this is a really hard pick between them. In terms of CPU Power, the system with the A10 CPU is the fastest CPU AMD puts in a laptop, while the i3 is probably the slowest i3 of the 4th gen variety that Intel puts in a laptop. So its funny to see, but here the AMD CPU is actually fastest.

For gaming, Notebookcheck reports they are about even but in truth looking at FPS scores the i3 system is faster.

So I would say stick with this one for these reasons.
http://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-ideapad-g-laptop/p/itmdwmrq4dghhvgc?pid=COMDWMRQ5GDG7GSH&affid=besttechgu


  • While the CPU is slightly slower in all tasks, it is so while using a very small amount of power. Much longer battery life would be expected.
    The system has 8GB DDR3 which is the ideal amount of RAM for your system, and you will never need to worry about adding more.
    The GPU is faster.

For the GPU it is actually pretty good for mobile gaming. I have a laptop with an Nvidia 620m, which is the exact same chip but with lower clock speeds. I have mine overclocked to run at the speed yours does and it runs a lot of games on medium settings, and some even on high and performs pretty great. I am really happy with it.
 

abigeo

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Jun 5, 2014
22
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Ok. Can you give me the pros and cons of each laptop?If the ram was higher on the 1st laptop mentioned would it be faster than the 2nd laptop?
 

IInuyasha74

Honorable
More RAM does not equal faster RAM. RAM has a quantity, as in the amount of data it can hold, and it has a speed. These two things are not linked together. The speed of the RAM is not listed for either machine only the quantity. Also the 1st system already has more RAM than the 2nd system.

As for the pros and cons, I tried to lay that out in my previous message. Overall the laptop with the AMD CPU has faster CPU and faster GPU. It has less battery life and less RAM, but the other aspects are better.
 

abigeo

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Jun 5, 2014
22
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4,560


I recently found another laptop with the following specs:

Inspiron 14 3442 Notebook - USD 620 (It's on sale)
- Intel Core i5-4210U (2.7 GHz)
- 14” LED Backlit Display w/True Life
- 4GB (1x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3L RAM
- 500GB 5400RPM SATA HDD
- NVIDIA GeForce 820M 2GB DDR3L
- Windows 8.1 English 64bit
- Weight : 2.3Kg
It's basically the same laptop I mentioned at first except for the processor which is now an i5.
Now my question is should I take this laptop or stick with the AMD A10 lenovo laptop. Please tell me as soon as possible. Thanks for all of your help.