Laptop with Discrete GPU on the cheap (obviously older, any will do)

[CainWalterVOA]

Hey there, I'm casually tooling around to find a laptop to replace my current Latitude e6500 with a discrete card better than the quadro 160m on-board (which can just barely run nba2k13). I've done a little research and found the the Vostro 3000 series which looks decent, anything with an i-series or AMD equivalent that can play modern games would be great. Here's the FAQ, as you can see it is pretty wide open, as I do a decent bit of gaming on my laptops but I dont expect to run CoH2 on it or anything, thanks and go wild!

1. What is your budget?
~325 USD
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
13 in. +
3. What screen resolution do you want?
1368x766+
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable
5. How much battery life do you need?
3 hrs.+
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)?
Yes, generally any games year 2010 and up on low/ (preferably) medium at fluent fps; sans the big-hitters of course unless that is possible.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Record audio on it (audiobook narrations, voiceovers, etc.)

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
320GB+ though 250 would be acceptable
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
Until it falls apart.
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Standard CD-RW will be fine, though none would work just fine as well.
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.

13. What country do you live in?
USA
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

 

[hang-the-9]

You won't find a new laptop with a real graphic card for close to $325, probably $500. Check ebay and craigslist listings as there are many possible models to fit what you are looking for. I'd lean towards craigslist as you can't test the ebay computers before buying them.

 

[CainWalterVOA]

I am totally fine with older and used systems, as stated, would you know of any old stalwarts or diamonds in the rough in particular though? I'm trying to pick as many brains as possible.

 

[hang-the-9]

I am totally fine with older and used systems, as stated, would you know of any old stalwarts or diamonds in the rough in particular though? I'm trying to pick as many brains as possible.

For an overall reliability and quality of build, Lenovo or ASUS. Lenovo T series are often available used, and you may be able to find a fairly recent model like the T410 or T420 for your budget and those often come with a real video card, although it's often a Quadro business class card. Still faster than the onboard stuff. For a consumer type laptop, the Lenovo G505 series are good budget gaming systems and used they should be in the $300 range since they are about 5-600 new. ASUS K55N-DS81 is another good one to look for.

Keep in mind that you will be playing on Low settings in many newer games to get playable speeds.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Hey I know that shopping around like this can be hard. I've been there.

I thought maybe an Intel HD 4000 graphics would be enough for you since you accepted older stuff. The graphics can normally play games of 2010 age on medium settings and older ones sometimes on low sometimes not at all. There are a lot of games like the original Bioshock which run perfect on high settings even which helps.

So to that end I found a few ideas for you.
http/www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-68855TU-DVD-Writer-Professional/dp/B00DPOEMMK/ref=sr_1_12?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1405303689&sr=1-12&keywords=Intel+HD+4000

This one is a little out of your price range, and has an average i3 processor. Wouldn't be terrible.

http/www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-Series-3-NP300E5C-A07US-Win8-i3-2-4Ghz-15-6-4gb-500gb-Notebook-Laptop-/321460018107?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item4ad8829bbb

This one I went searching for because its similar to the laptop I managed to get. The bright side to this being that its really really cheap. Its only about $200 for the full system. That leaves you money to upgrade some parts if you want and know how to. For the $125 about that you save, you could upgrade the RAM in it to be 8GB very easily, possible upgrade the CPU. I upgraded the CPU in mine also.

http/www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-Series-3-NP300E5C-A02US-15-6-Laptop-Core-i5-6GB-Ram-PRICE-REDIUCED-/181380473890?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item2a3b1e6422

This one is a little more like mine. It has 6GB of RAM and a faster CPU to begin with, and slightly faster graphics.Higher price though.