I need a budget gaming notebook....any ideas?

[Borg101]

posted on August 5th, 2010, 10:51 pm

Last edited by Borg101 on August 6th, 2010, 7:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

Ok, you guys need to help me out!  Most of us are tech geeks here!  So you guys know what its like trying to put together your new box or laptop and you want to get that next step-up processor or video card but can't justify the cost(s)!!  I'm looking for a new laptop for my wife, who's gaming prowess doesn't really go beyond Sims 3.  However, I occasionally may play a higher end game or two on it.  Does anyone have any suggestions for a moderate gaming notebook for under 1k?  Also I'm looking between 10" to 14" and something with decent battery life.  I found the Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820TG-434G32i, however I've read some places that the 13" get some bad reviews.  Anyone have any other thoughts or recommendations?

posted on August 6th, 2010, 7:51 am

I'll give this a bump so more people can see it.  Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

posted on August 6th, 2010, 3:06 pm

Gaming Computer capabilities is directly proportional to the size of the money you're willing to spend. The bigger the budget, the more likely you'll get a good one.

posted on August 6th, 2010, 3:19 pm

heh, well not exactly directly(you can spend a lot of money on junk ), but it is definitely a linear progression.  I would suggest an HP, but 6 GB ram a good graphics card with dedicated memory, and preferably i7 are needed to be good for game

the brand isn't as important as what is on-board.  I would just recommend HP first, dells are good, alienware is supposed to be good but I really don't know.  I noticed they had some really good 18 inch screen laptops on Sam's and Costco websites.

This will all cost you $1000+ though

I am  actually doing fine with a $600 computer I got on said for $450 with 4GB ram, 16 inch screen, duel core intel processor, win 7 32bit and a nvidia Geforce Graphics card(free 3 year warranty ).  It was a great computer for the price, but might have trouble running brand new games.  Works for FO though

posted on August 6th, 2010, 3:58 pm

As a very broad overview:

Dell; seem to offer good "business" computers. Good for what they do but not a whole lot of guts for gaming. I think they're slightly overpriced for what they are.

Hewlett Packard; seem to offer a good balance of value vs raw power and seem to be marketed at multimedia type stuff. A typical HP should manage most games at a respectable level, as long as it has a dedicated graphics card (for desktops) or a decent graphics setup (for laptops). Software wise they seem to be streamlined to include what they need. My mums new pc is a HP and it worked out of the box with very little hassle.

Packard Bell; not to be confused with HP as these one seem to be budget tat that's good for nothing other than maybe burning. My mum had one once and it was also full of package crap which is just not needed.

Alienware; Specs wise, they probably offer the best technology but they also sport some hefty price tags. If I were to be GIVEN an Alienware pc, then I wouldn't say no but alas, they are so pricey that they are just not worth it. I don't have a great impression of their customer service either. My mate bought an Alienware Lappy and it came with a dodgy RAM stick. It took them over 6 weeks to sort it out.



If I were to pick a brand; I'd go with HP every time as they offer a good range of pc's covering most bases on the market; including gaming. They're also not too bad for features and not bloated with crap. Not sure what they're like for customer service as I've never needed them for that.

posted on August 6th, 2010, 4:14 pm

HP has great hardware, but shitty software. Don't expect two HP products to have compatible software (getting an HP Fax machine/scanner to work with my HP computer still hasn't fully worked.) I haven't bothered with customer service people since every site says the same thing about the HP guys: they don't know what they are talking about (and the troubleshooting lists are extremely unhelpful too, which might be why the customer service people are unhelpful.) I once had my HP printer jam with paper and I had to restart the computer (not the printer) to get the printer to work, because the software kept thinking it was still jammed when it wasn't. HP also has seems to have problems cooperating with NVidia graphics cards, but eventually it will work if you reinstall things and update software enuff.

posted on August 6th, 2010, 4:25 pm

As a very broad overview:

Dell; seem to offer good "business" computers. Good for what they do but not a whole lot of guts for gaming. I think they're slightly overpriced for what they are.

They can be, but if you catch them during one of their "specials", you can get a pretty good deal on a customized monster.    My only true complaint with my Dell Studio 1749 is that has no Pause/Break key....even though the specifications said that it has a "full keyboard".  

The bottom line is that you really need to do your own research, preferably on independent websites, as none of us really know your own needs.  If I had to do it all over again, I would probably go the HP route since I can get a hefty discount on them through my employer.  I just happened to be able to get a Dell with better hardware for an equivalent price of a mid-ranged HP.

posted on August 6th, 2010, 4:29 pm

I am  actually doing fine with a $600 computer I got on said for $450 with 4GB ram, 16 inch screen, duel core intel processor, win 7 32bit and a nvidia Geforce Graphics card(free 3 year warranty ).  It was a great computer for the price, but might have trouble running brand new games.  Works for FO though

Because it doesn't have to be high-end and its for my wife, I'm thinking of going with the Acer.  You can get a 13" with an i5, 4Gb DDR3, with an ATI Radeon HD 5650/1Gb for around $800.00 depending on where/when you buy.

posted on August 6th, 2010, 5:25 pm

well 13 inch isn't something I would go for. 15-16 usually works for me but the rest sounds good.

posted on August 6th, 2010, 6:00 pm

Because it doesn't have to be high-end and its for my wife, I'm thinking of going with the Acer.  You can get a 13" with an i5, 4Gb DDR3, with an ATI Radeon HD 5650/1Gb for around $800.00 depending on where/when you buy.

Hmm, the last time I had occasion to fiddle with an Acer I found that their touchpads were kind of crappy. They didn't have good responsiveness, even when the sensitivity was turned up, and my finger didn't move easily over the pad. I haven't seen one recently so maybe the touch pads have gotten better. They also come with a lot of bloatware, mostly Acer branded things, maybe some you need, but others you can probably do without.

In general I'd say for even moderate gaming get at least an i5, preferably an i7. 4 GB of RAM sounds good but keep in mind how much it can take because RAM is easily upgraded. As for graphics, I prefer nVidia over ATI, but ATI is usually cheaper than nVidia for comparable cards so... Last note, go for a 64-bit OS if you get an option because you will need it if you ever want to use more than 4 GBs of RAM, 32-bit OSs only support 4 GBs.

posted on August 6th, 2010, 8:06 pm

ASUS makes some pretty good stuff. They're well built and they look really nice, and they also have good specs. But yeah, a "budget" gaming notebook will probably cost you around $900, and it won't perform nearly as well as a custom built PC for the same price. (Chances are the video card will have about 1/6th the power of what you could get in a PC for the same price) Something to keep in mind.

I find for gaming a 15" or 16" screen is good.

posted on August 6th, 2010, 8:09 pm

True, I forgot about ASUS.  Good brand.  It'll last a long time.

But for cheap, dell is good, but I recommend Compaq as they were recently bought by HP

their new ones are just lower end HP's

I have like 4 HP laptops, and the only thing I have noticed is that adter about 5 years, their hinges go bad, and their cords short out.(you will have this problem with all laptops though )

posted on August 6th, 2010, 8:17 pm

Yeah, the Dell XPS Studio 16 has good specs for about $900. There's also Dell's Alienware M11x. It comes with a good loadout stock for under $1000. I think it's i5, 3 GB RAM, 500 GB HD, 1 GB nVidia graphics. I only know because I've been looking for a new laptop and have been looking around.

posted on August 6th, 2010, 9:17 pm

My laptop has a 17" screen, but if I'm at home, I usually just plug it into my monitor.  If you find a nicely-valued notebook that happens to have a smaller screen, just see if you can pick up an extra monitor somewhere.  This will save some wear-&-tear on the book's screen, which I'd imagine is more difficult to replace/repair.  (I doubt a Newton's repair beam would be of much help)

[loki_999]

posted on August 7th, 2010, 4:21 am

Last edited by loki_999 on August 7th, 2010, 4:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

Just posted this in another thread actually, going on holiday and was horrified with the thought that I would be without FO, so tried it out on my wife's Acer Aspire One.  Works quite well.  Slows a little especially when large amounts of ships on the screen in combat... but there again, this can also happen on my gaming rig as well.

PS: One small issue.  If your vertical res is limited to 600 pixels you have to shift your start menu/taskbar over to the left or right of the screen so you can see some of the buttons in the menus.  You will not be able to see the whole button, just the top of it, so if you do not know which is Load Savegame and which is Start Game on the instant action screen you may press the wrong button.

Its a small issue but guess the devs didn't consider such small menus when fixing the menu in window mode.  Its not a problem playing stock because you can set full screen mode (although the widescreen makes everything look stretched).