Help choosing a cheap gaming laptop

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Dylan_G

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Its upgrade time and I'm doing away with my Dual Core lappie. Now I know "cheap gaming laptop" is a complete oxymoron, but its what I really want.

So say I have a budget of R6000. Pushing it to R6500 at most. What is the best laptop that I can get around that range? I guess the actual question is what laptop in that price range will have the best GFX card, right?

I've been told to wait for Christmas specials. Should I? Or would the stuff get more expensive?

One more piece to the puzzle is an SSD upgrade(if the laptop doesn't come with one). Could you possibly suggest some laptops that have this ability.

I've found this as a possible option:

snapshot6.png

Thanks for putting up with my demands. :D
 
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The Lenovo looks like a good buy for the price. I got myself a Toshiba a couple of weeks back, with the following specs:


Processor type : 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i5-2450M Processor
clock speed : 2.50 / 3.10 Turbo GHz
Front Side Bus : 1333 MHz
3rd level cache : 3 MB

Operating system
Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit (pre-installed, Toshiba-HDD recovery)

System memory standard : 4,096 MB
maximum expandability : 8,192 MB
technology : DDR3 RAM (1,333 MHz)

Hard disk capacity : 500 GB
drive rotation : 5,400 rpm

DVD Super Multi drive (Double Layer) compatibility : CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-R(DL), DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+R(DL), DVD+RW, DVD-RAM
maximum speed : Read: 24x CD-ROM, 8x DVD-ROM/ Write: 24x CD-R, 4x CD-RW, 10x HS CD-RW, 24x US CD-RW, 8x DVD-R, 6x DVD-R (Double Layer), 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R, 6x DVD+R (Double Layer), 8x DVD+RW, 5x DVD-RAM
type : DVD Super Multi (Double Layer) drive

Display size : 39.6cm (15.6”)
type : Toshiba TruBrite® HD TFT High Brightness display with 16 : 9 aspect ratio and LED backlighting
internal resolution : 1,366 x 768

Graphics adapter type : AMD Radeon™ HD 7610M Graphics (1GB dedicated memory)
memory amount : 1,024 MB dedicated VRAM. Available graphics memory can be expanded using system memory, through HyperMemory™ technology: up to 2,799 MB with 4 GB system memory installed, and up to 4,847 MB with 8 GB system memory installed, (with pre-installed 64-bit operating system).
memory type : DDR3 Video RAM (resp. Video RAM and system memory combined)
connected bus : PCI Express®

The Lenovo probably has better graphics, but I bought my Toshiba for R5900 and there are places that sell them cheaper. The only gaming I've done on mine so far was with Mass Effect 2 with everything running on high settings. I also bought 4Gb extra ram to make a total of 8Gb.
 
Recent got myself a Packard Bell EasyNote TS11 laptop at CNA for R4995. It's specs are as follows:

* Intel Core I3-2310m CPU
* NVIDIA GT 630M graphics card with 1GB RAM
* 320 GB HDD (5400 rpm)
* 2GB RAM.
* Full keyboard (including numeric keypad)

The CPU is a but weak and I'm not sure how well it will handle the latest games but according to my online research, it can play Skyrim on medium settings. The only game I've tried so far is Oblivion and that plays on high settings. Will be upgrading the RAM and hard drive once I have some spare cash.
 
The C850 is on special right now at Laptopland and I think R5580 isn't a bad price at all. Put in a 128GB SSD and you're good to go. There's also the faster L850 with a Radeon HD7670M, a slightly larger hard drive and a Blu-Ray writer.
 
You can also have a look at the Samsung Q1542N, which sports a Nvidia GT640M, Ivy Bridge i5 3210M, 4GB RAM, Win7 Pro 64-bit and 2 year warranty for ~R7600.

In the end: gaming laptops aren't cheap.
 
What games do you plan on playing? Cheap gaming laptops do not exist unless you want to play old games.

Stuff like bf 3, moh and perhaps the new cod won't run so well. Unless you can play with 20-40FPS which i simply cannot. Feels horrible and laggy, specially when you go online.
 
killadoob said:
What games do you plan on playing? Cheap gaming laptops do not exist unless you want to play old games.

Stuff like bf 3, moh and perhaps the new cod won't run so well. Unless you can play with 20-40FPS which i simply cannot. Feels horrible and laggy, specially when you go online.
Click to expand...

I'll play whatever I can for that budget. :) I'm not an extremely serious gamer. I understand that cheap and gaming don't exactly go together.
 
Dylan_G said:
I'll play whatever I can for that budget. :) I'm not an extremely serious gamer. I understand that cheap and gaming don't exactly go together.
Click to expand...

not necessary, squidoo.com have a list of budget gaming laptops, no 1 on their list is this one: Acer Aspire V3-551-8469 is currently the best gaming laptop for under $500, so landed in SA price is under R6k
here is their complete list:
http://www.squidoo.com/best-cheap-gaming-laptops-under-500
 
How about Acer Aspire V3-551-8469?
Detail Specs
1.9 GHz AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M (With TurboCORE Technology up to 2.8GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
4GB DDR3 RAM
500GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
15.6-Inch Screen (1366×768)
Radeon™ HD 7640G Graphics with 512MB of graphics system memory
1 – USB 3.0 Ports, 2- USB 2.0 Ports, 1- HDMI™ Port
Windows 8
4.5 hours Battery Life
 
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Here are three best gaming laptops under 500 comparison and reviews, you can take a look and see the details
 
Gaming laptops plus cheap will not be used the the same sentence ever useless its someone telling you it won't happen.
 
Ghost02 said:
Gaming laptops plus cheap will not be used the the same sentence ever useless its someone telling you it won't happen.
Click to expand...

So what constitutes a "gaming" lapto for you then? The ability to play at 1080p with high settings and 2x AA? Running Crysis on Ultra? Would you then say that this laptop below, for example, wouldn't be able to play games with pleasing visual settings because it isn't what you consider a "gaming" laptop?

Packard Bell Easynote TS44HR 15.6" @ R4732

katty said:
How about Acer Aspire V3-551-8469?
Detail Specs
1.9 GHz AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M (With TurboCORE Technology up to 2.8GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
4GB DDR3 RAM
500GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
15.6-Inch Screen (1366×768)
Radeon™ HD 7640G Graphics with 512MB of graphics system memory
1 – USB 3.0 Ports, 2- USB 2.0 Ports, 1- HDMI™ Port
Windows 8
4.5 hours Battery Life
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, I wouldn't go for this, mostly because the GPU only has 512MB of RAM and that will be a bottleneck even at 720p and medium settings.
 
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hi there

Where did you find this special ? do you have a link to the site / company ?

Please help. thanks
 
Geronimo6 said:
hi there

Where did you find this special ? do you have a link to the site / company ?

Please help. thanks
Click to expand...

Long gone my friend. Your best bet for anything approaching playability would be a lappie with Intel's HD4600 mobile graphics, which is mostly found in the Core i3-4000M or the Core i5-4200M. HD4600 is enough for gaming at 720p with low-to-medium settings and its perfectly suited for MOBAs or some less intensive games like Killing Floor. HD4400 is also decent enough for casual gaming and its found in a few more processors than HD4600, but it creates an even larger bottleneck on graphics. If there were more AMD APU options, that would make things much easier for budget gamers.

It is possible to play more modern titles on HD4600, but then you're going into very GPU-limited territory. You need to spend upwards of R8000 to get something decent with discrete graphics. That will change somewhat when laptops with Intel Broadwell-M chips become available, since the HD5500 integrated graphics is surprisingly capable of 1080p gaming.
 
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