Looking for a new laptop, any help is appreciated!

[joeloc]

So always used a desktop, nothing high end either, just enough to play current games without it being 15 fps. Heading to uni this year and need a laptop, I wanna be able to run games on it, but primarily its going to be used for work but higher specs is kinda good for anything.. right? I can spend anything from £350-500 maybe slightly over if needs be but thats kinda my budget. Any help or advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[LordVile]

So always used a desktop, nothing high end either, just enough to play current games without it being 15 fps. Heading to uni this year and need a laptop, I wanna be able to run games on it, but primarily its going to be used for work but higher specs is kinda good for anything.. right? I can spend anything from £350-500 maybe slightly over if needs be but thats kinda my budget. Any help or advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

No. Unless the games are things like papers please and undertale. You're looking at low end CPU's with anemic dedicated graphics at that end. The best I can see currently are Pentium golds with an MX150 and 4GB of RAM and a HDD not SSD and just under £500 on amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/HoMei-Dedicated-Graphics-Dual-Core-Bluetooth/dp/B079H2937Q/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1526161805&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=laptop%2Bnvidia%2Bgraphics&th=1

So that would be your best bet if you want to pray to the gods the RAM is upgradable by adding another stick (and hoping it isn't 2x2 and has an empty slot) You'd probably want to install an SSD in there later too if it has an nvme drive slot.

 

[joeloc]

Hmm well I honestly only really play wow and strategy games, total war mainly. I don't mean really high end games btw, things such as wow mainly.

Edit: £600 could be a option if that has anything more suitable within its price range

 

[LordVile]

Hmm well I honestly only really play wow and strategy games, total war mainly. I don't mean really high end games btw, things such as wow mainly.

Don't know the specs required for wow. I have a life.

 

[joeloc]

Such as scouring a forum on a saturday evening? interesting use of the word 'life'

 

[LordVile]

Such as scouring a forum on a saturday evening? interesting use of the word 'life'

Shush it's a south park joke. I looked around and the minimum for wow at lowest 720p is a duel core and intel graphics so you should be fine with the one linked earlier however I am wary of the brand and the RAM is a worry when browsing as it eats memory up. So maybe this would be better:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-S510UQ-BQ178T-VivoBook-15-6-inch-Screen/dp/B073WHY9SG/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1526163266&sr=1-1&keywords=Laptop&refinements=p_36%3A9708208031%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A1481781031%2Cp_n_feature_fourteen_browse-bin%3A8322505031%2Cp_n_feature_seven_browse-bin%3A8322553031

It has a weaker GPU but a better CPU a healthy amount of RAM and an SSD which is smaller than a HDD (A 1TB USB drive might be a good investment) but wow only takes up 45GB plus windows gives you 150-170GB to play with.

 

[joeloc]

Apologies! Thankyou for finding that looks ideal really, never actually had an SSD, too much of a cheapskate. Appreciate you helping me out. Looks pretty portable aswell as Ill be carrying it place to place.

 

[LordVile]

Apologies! Thankyou for finding that looks ideal really, never actually had an SSD, too much of a cheapskate. Appreciate you helping me out. Looks pretty portable aswell as Ill be carrying it place to place.

I have an SSD boot now and it's a lot faster than a HDD but not worth breaking the bank for unless you're making money with the computer. Not a fan of laptops you either have to look at chromebooks for cheap or start at £500 and hope for s deal.

 

[joeloc]

Yeh I still have a desktop pc which still isnt high end but better than a laptop gaming wise. The gaming side of it was more of a added bonus tbh

 

[LordVile]

Yeh I still have a desktop pc which still isnt high end but better than a laptop gaming wise. The gaming side of it was more of a added bonus tbh

If gaming is a bonus you could look at thin and lights

 

[joeloc]

Yeh I still have a desktop pc which still isnt high end but better than a laptop gaming wise. The gaming side of it was more of a added bonus tbh

If gaming is a bonus you could look at thin and lights

I'm not sure what they are? Do you just mean thin and light laptops?

 

[LordVile]

Yeh I still have a desktop pc which still isnt high end but better than a laptop gaming wise. The gaming side of it was more of a added bonus tbh

If gaming is a bonus you could look at thin and lights

I'm not sure what they are? Do you just mean thin and light laptops?

Basically. Ultra portable but they're pricier so you're looking at worse specs and IO for the price. But thinner can be good if you're using it as a portable device.

Another option would be a dirt cheap laptop and just use the extra like say 200-300 to upgrade the desktop.

 

[LordVile]

Yeh I still have a desktop pc which still isnt high end but better than a laptop gaming wise. The gaming side of it was more of a added bonus tbh

If gaming is a bonus you could look at thin and lights

I'm not sure what they are? Do you just mean thin and light laptops?

Basically. Ultra portable but they're pricier so you're looking at worse specs and IO for the price, think inspired by MacBook air . But thinner can be good if you're using it as a portable device.

Another option would be a dirt cheap laptop and just use the extra like say 200-300 to upgrade the desktop.

 

[joeloc]

Yeh thats an option actually, I'm running a gtx 760 atm so its low end, how much of an upgrade can you get for £300?

 

[LordVile]

Yeh thats an option actually, I'm running a gtx 760 atm so its low end, how much of an upgrade can you get for £300?

GPU prices are falling and at time of writing you can actually buy a 1070 founders edition for £379 on Nvidias website rather than 500+ on ebay. 1060 3GB cards are falling back to 220 and 6GB cards along with RX 580's for under 300 on amazon. Vega 56 is still 200 over MSRP though. All of these would be substantial upgrades provided you have an adequate CPU and RAM however the 3 and 6gb models of the 1060 have more differences than just memory capacity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S2cGdG2bX8

However there are rumours going around that NVidia will announce new cards in maybe a month or sometime in summer for a summer/autumn release so might be worth the wait.