[SOLVED] Need advice on new laptop purchase!

[rhys.wynowen]

I'm wanting to upgrade my set-up from a desktop to a better laptop to take advantage of my Xbox's HDMI feature (when I move into my GF's....end of an era! ha!)

I'm not very experienced with modern PC gaming requirements as I play my 3A titles on my console - I use my desktop for mainly streaming, surfing, Steam and Origin as well as emulator gaming mainly (Sega Saturn era mainly but I wouldn't mind a laptop capable of emulating PS2 games smoothly).

The advice / questions i'm looking to answer are the following:

1. Am I best to stick to Windows 7 OS or get Windows 10? (main games I would play would be emulated and for context - games like Shining force 3 for Sega Saturn, maybe some PS2 games and at a push Fallout 3/ New Vegas). Do current emulators run better / smoothly on Win 10 or 7? i'm concerned Win10 will eat away at my processing power....

2. I've got a budget of £200-£300 so spec wise i'm looking for a laptop that can run say the Command and Conquer collection in max settings (C&C3, 4, RA 3 etc.) so what would I be needing spec wise in your opinion? i'm looking at gaming laptops online and I get the feeling they are overpowered for what I am looking for as i'm not doing any AAA gaming on it - but I wouldn't mind being able to stream in 1080p so decent video playback is desired.

my initial thoughts are:
RAM-8GB (is that too much?)
CPU- Intel i5 - 3Ghz?
Graphics - would I need a dedicated graphics card for the above games?)

i'm even looking at refurbs, has anyone had any bad experiences of refurbs?

Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions - i'm finding it difficult to decide as I've been out of PC gaming for many moons so I don't want to over spend.

 

[Phazoner]

That budget sounds too little. Can you please link some of the usual websites to buy in the UK, so we can check prices there? It can be tricky to find a good computer with that window.