Which of these systems is best? Any help?

[QuadRings]

My brother @EvilByTheNugget needs a new PC. He has $400 and refuses to buy anything used. We've brought his range down to 3 models:

Custom Tower with an i3 6100 (No upgrades to go in), Iris 530, 8GB RAM, $370 + $130-monitor

Lenovo laptop with a 15.6" screen, A10-7300 (1.8-3.2GHz), R6 graphics, 8GB RAM, 1368x768 display, $380

OR HP laptop with a 17.3", A10-7300, R6 Graphics, 6GB RAM, 900P display, $400

Are the R6 Graphics still good for their resolutions?
Is it really worth over $500 for that tower?

He'd much rather get a laptop if he can. He wants to run game makers like Real Engine, older games and new ones at at least 30 FPS. He also wants to record old games and do 2D animation. Any help?

While he'll take a tower if he has too, he'd rather have the mobility of a laptop.

 

[Tradesman1]

Of the 3 I'd go the desktop as it can be upgraded down the road, 2nd would be the (as is) would be the smaller Laptop with the 8GB of DRAM - he's going to lose some of that DRAM fo rthe GPU (as is the other laptop) which isn't going to leave much for games/apps. Neither laptop will really be much good for gaming, et al and he'll prob be frustrated with it in a short period of time

 

[QuadRings]

This good then (He can only shop at Amazon
Lubuntu will be used for the OS
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($124.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($60.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($39.94 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 88R MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.74 @ Amazon)
Total: $367.63

Single stick RAM is there so he can go to 16GB (and add a GPU) later on

 

[Tradesman1]

Looks good 😉