What is a cheap but reliable laptop for gaming

CoDmC123

Honorable
Aug 30, 2013
3
0
10,510
Hey guys need help for 2014 laptops or tablets like a surface from Microsoft!!
The question is clearly the title, with this laptop I'm just aiming to play Skyrim the Ender scrolls V in normal or low settings and minecraft, maybe. My budget would be in between $100 AUD - $300. This would be very helpful! Thx!!! :)
 
Solution
Price of laptops (and probably electronics in general) is higher than what it would be in the US.

For example a Dell Inspiron 15 Touch laptop sells for $499 (regular price) in the US. In Australia it sells $594 and that is with a 15% discount for Boxing Day. It is difficult enough to find a laptop that you can use to play Skyrim in the US for $300. You are going to have a more difficult time in Australia because local prices are higher.

You are looking at a used laptop. Try and search around for a used laptop with a dual core Core i3 / Core i5 CPU that begins with a "3" in the model number like the Core i3-3110m. The "3" means it is an Ivy Bridge generation Intel CPU which will have an Intel HD 4000 graphics core that should be good...

tmacg55

Honorable
Dec 24, 2013
2
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10,520
A gaming laptop implies that it will have a dedicated GPU to handle your gaming needs. If you see a laptop with an integrated graphics card then it will be a very unpleasant gaming experience due to low FPS (lag), and some games don't support integrated GPUs in minor cases because of this. Now say if you were just playing Minecraft on simple settings, a $300 laptop will do just fine. Games like Skyrim even on low require intensive rendering. Hope you can up the budget if you plan to game on a laptop, so here are a couple options for you. :) *Suggestion: you get more performance for the money in a desktop*
-Dell $650: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/xps-ultrabook-14-laptop-4gb-memory-500gb-hard-drive-32gb-solid-state-drive/2886036.p?id=1219081527777&skuId=2886036&st=pcmcat287600050003_categoryid$abcat0502000&cp=1&lp=7
- Toshiba $810: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/satellite-15-6-laptop-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-ice-silver/1307602027.p?id=mp1307602027&skuId=1307602027&st=pcmcat287600050003_categoryid$abcat0502000&cp=1&lp=10
So again, if you are not in need of having the luxury of mobile gaming, then I would highly recommend buying a desktop because you will get double the performance and not have to to burn so much cash on the fact they are not compact and mobile. You purely just pay for power and performance in a desktop which is why I have one. Hope this helped. :)
 
Price of laptops (and probably electronics in general) is higher than what it would be in the US.

For example a Dell Inspiron 15 Touch laptop sells for $499 (regular price) in the US. In Australia it sells $594 and that is with a 15% discount for Boxing Day. It is difficult enough to find a laptop that you can use to play Skyrim in the US for $300. You are going to have a more difficult time in Australia because local prices are higher.

You are looking at a used laptop. Try and search around for a used laptop with a dual core Core i3 / Core i5 CPU that begins with a "3" in the model number like the Core i3-3110m. The "3" means it is an Ivy Bridge generation Intel CPU which will have an Intel HD 4000 graphics core that should be good enough for a mix of low and medium settings for Skyrim @ 1366x768 resolution.

Better yet would be a used laptop with an AMD Trinity A8 series APU like the A8-4550m which is a quad core CPU (although it is a bit weaker than an Intel CPU), but it will have an integrated graphics core that is more powerful than the Intel HD 4000 which should allow you to play on medium settings.
 
Solution

CoDmC123

Honorable
Aug 30, 2013
3
0
10,510
Thx guys but I already am getting parts to build my very own gaming PC but now I'm kinda thinking of getting a laptop for minecraft because I have 300$ pocket money, my parents are paying for the desktop. I'm hoping just to play minecraft in simple settings and I don't really need that much space on an ssd. And would a Microsoft surface with a 32gb ssd sound good?