Student Budget Laptop

[ferny14]

I'm looking for a laptop for $250. I have my main rig with triple monitors and I do most things there, but I need something I can take with me and do some work. Nothing too hard just some word processing some spreadsheet and occasionally very light gaming, things like civ v, minecraft and Europa Universalis IV.

 

[vlxedits]

$250 to run even the least demanding games isnt enough.. I wouldnt even recommend getting a $250 laptop even if all you will be doing is web-browsing, because they are slow AF and slowly get worse and worse over the years. Just save up a bit or raise your budget to like $500, and then you can get an actual decent entry level laptop that will LAST .

 

[ferny14]

Are you sure this laptop seems ok
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-geek-squad-certified-refurbished-15-6-laptop-amd-a8-series-4gb-memory-750gb-hard-drive-black/7065158.p?id=1219668747764&skuId=7065158
Am I missing something?

 

[velo3100]

That laptop is ok but don't use it for gaming though. Its lifespan will greatly reduce. For normal things its good for the price.

 

[naturesninja]

This one comes with a dedicated card @ $300- It's equal to about an hd5500 or radeon r6 7300. It's processor is a little lacking though.
http://us-store.acer.com/aspire-e5-521g-60bx-notebook. This will also play games with a bit better processor at $280: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834319445&cm_re=g50_lenovo-_-34-319-445-_-Product
Then there are these two @ $350 and $390- http://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9b-34-314-822&utm_medium=display&utm_source=criteo&utm_campaign=9b-34-314-822&nm_mc=bac-criteo-b2b&cm_mmc=bac-criteo-b2b-_-notebooks+-+notebooks-_-acer+america-_-9b-34-314-822 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314813&cm_re=acer_7300-_-34-314-813-_-Product I have 3/4 of them, and they all play games at low-high settings @720/768.

 

[ferny14]

This one comes with a dedicated card @ $300- It's equal to about an hd5500 or radeon r6 7300. It's processor is a little lacking though.
http://us-store.acer.com/aspire-e5-521g-60bx-notebook. This will also play games with a bit better processor at $280: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834319445&cm_re=g50_lenovo-_-34-319-445-_-Product
Then there are these two @ $350 and $390- http://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9b-34-314-822&utm_medium=display&utm_source=criteo&utm_campaign=9b-34-314-822&nm_mc=bac-criteo-b2b&cm_mmc=bac-criteo-b2b-_-notebooks+-+notebooks-_-acer+america-_-9b-34-314-822 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314813&cm_re=acer_7300-_-34-314-813-_-Product I have 3/4 of them, and they all play games at low-high settings @720/768.

I'm liking the Lennovo do you own that one? If so how is the battery life? and how fast does it boot?

 

[ferny14]

That laptop is ok but don't use it for gaming though. Its lifespan will greatly reduce. For normal things its good for the price.

I don't plan on using it for gaming its just that I would like to have the possibility to game a little once in a while

 

[naturesninja]

This one comes with a dedicated card @ $300- It's equal to about an hd5500 or radeon r6 7300. It's processor is a little lacking though.
http://us-store.acer.com/aspire-e5-521g-60bx-notebook. This will also play games with a bit better processor at $280: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834319445&cm_re=g50_lenovo-_-34-319-445-_-Product
Then there are these two @ $350 and $390- http://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9b-34-314-822&utm_medium=display&utm_source=criteo&utm_campaign=9b-34-314-822&nm_mc=bac-criteo-b2b&cm_mmc=bac-criteo-b2b-_-notebooks+-+notebooks-_-acer+america-_-9b-34-314-822 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314813&cm_re=acer_7300-_-34-314-813-_-Product I have 3/4 of them, and they all play games at low-high settings @720/768.

I'm liking the Lennovo do you own that one? If so how is the battery life? and how fast does it boot?

Yes, I own the Lenovo G50 on my list, not the one you had originally posted about. The battery life is 4-7 hours depending on what you're doing and your power settings. I now have it updated to windows 10, with all of the most recent drivers installed from Lenovo. It has a dvd player too if you care. I upgraded the memory from 1x4gb of 1600mhz to 1x8gb of 1866mhz as it only has a single memory controller in it's APU. It has probably increased performance by 5%-30% depending on game or application, it was fine before, but is now perfect. With windows 8.1 and the latest drivers it was at the desktop in under 30 seconds, with windows 10 and the latest drivers, it's there in around 20 seconds. The hard drive is filled to about half capacity. You will have to delete a lot of bloatware that comes with it to get it to it's maximum performance. Newegg has $25 off $200+ with visa checkout today, so you can get it for $255 if you have a visa debit/credit to pay with.

 

[naturesninja]

Sorry, Yes the Lenovo g50 I was half in thought about another post, as you didn't mention it before, haha.