Gaming Laptop Question...

[kennedy]

My son wants a gaming laptop for Christmas. We are looking for one that is on the lower price range. Does anyone have any suggestions as what to look for or where is a good (inexpensive) place to buy one from?

I've bought stuff from the guy who used to do the best buy deals, can't remember his name though. Does anyone know who I'm talking about?

 

[Commander Keen]

Why a laptop? And what's your budget?

If it's something he's basically going to play with in his room, you could get more bang for your buck in a desktop.

If he's set on a laptop, try here (not knowing your budget): http://www.dell.com/us/dfh/p/alienware-laptops

Refurbished (or a dent/ding like model) will allow for better hardware in a given budget.

Some of the biggest things will be the GPU (graphics card), RAM (probably 8GB+), and a small-ish SSD to boot from. A cheap external drive would suffice for any bulk storage needs.

One thing you might do is ask what game(s) he's wanting to pay then check out what the recommended hardware specs are for it.

Again, desktops are generally preferred for price/performance, and one would be much more open to future modifications and upgrades.

 

[kennedy]

He's wanting something for games and to use for college next year. I'm trying to stay around $500

 

[Haram]

http://www.lappylist.com/ is a curated list for all kinds of laptops. In that budget a refurbished one is a good option or you might try looking at an older (last years) model. New models come out and the old ones sometimes take a dive in price.

 

[kennedy]

That's what I think I'm going to have to do is buy an older model. Those suckers are expensive.

 

[NightShade]

A true "Gaming" laptop that will be viable for a few years can not be had at that price point.

If it has to be a laptop though you want to find something that has either a Nvidia or AMD graphics. If it says intel hd graphics you may as well keep looking.

Alienware is one you can look at, MSI is another, ASUS ROG, and there are a few others. My wife has one of the ASUS laptops and even though it is a couple years old it works great. When we first got it everything could be played at max settings, now it's all in the midrange for new stuff. She has an ASUS ROG G75VW, I doubled the RAM to 16GB and swapped the WiFi card out for a Intel 802.11 AC one with Bluetooth 4.0 from the 802.11N that was in it.

No matter what you end up doing here is my recomendations.

Core i5 CPU or i7 CPU
Minimum 8GB of ram and 16GB is better
Discrete graphics, nothing below a Nvidia GTX 670M or a Radeon 7950M
If you are looking at a true gaming laptop they often support dual drives. SSD for the boot drive around 240GB and a HDD in the second at around 750GB is a pretty good place to start. Could also do dual striped SSD's for a total of 480GB if speed is more of a concern than space.

Anything below this either has to be user upgradeable easily or considered a throw away after about 2 years in my opinion. And let me say that swapping parts on a laptop is not for the faint hearted. To swap out the WiFi on my wife's laptop I had it almost halfway disassembled.

 

[kennedy]

Thanks for the input. I know very little in the realm of laptops and want to find something decent and upgradable.

 

[Haram]

I spend way to much time on The Wirecutter. You may find this information useful in your search for a budget laptop. http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/how-to-buy-a-budget-laptop/