kinda lost at finding a good budget laptop for some gaming - Hardware & Software

I've been doing some research for a while and I can't seem to stick with a laptop that will allow me to play a few games without costing around 1k -2k. I really want something affordable that can play some indie games like outlast; or games like tf2, gmod, sir you are being hunted, borderlands 2 and, hopefully, borderlands pre sequel. And elder scrolls oblivion since I've always had that in my library but have NEVER touched it because I simply can't. :C Can anyone offer advice or point me in the right direction and give me some good laptops that can play some games? [editline]15th October 2014[/editline] I get paid again next friday, I only have about $382 in my bank right now and I severely doubt I can't find a nice computer that can do some games. Also, I really don't care if they can't play anything on medium - high. It'd be nice but I really don't care. Thanks!

You're looking at 6-700$ minimum to do any gaming on a laptop.

Just ask in the pc building forum here, we can whip up a gaming desktop for 400$ (provided you already have a screen/keyboard etc.) Laptops are more expensive and cant be upgraded, (leaving you with more money to spend later).

I would love to have a desktop again but sadly I have absolutely no room for one right now D; I've never had a laptop that could play games so this would be my first try at buying one. I gotta go to work in a bit but I've been browsing newegg for a bit here, what about these two right here? [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314535[/url] [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152586[/url] All I really want to play is borderlands 2 and oblivion

The MSI would be a better choice since it's build quality and support aren't trash, but it's GPU performance is noticeably worse.

[QUOTE=fudge blood;46241108]I would love to have a desktop again but sadly I have absolutely no room for one right now D; I've never had a laptop that could play games so this would be my first try at buying one. I gotta go to work in a bit but I've been browsing newegg for a bit here, what about these two right here? [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314535[/url] [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152586[/url] All I really want to play is borderlands 2 and oblivion[/QUOTE] Stay away from Acer, HP (Non professional) and Packard Hell.

Tbh I'd just get a tablet for mobile games unless you are doing something that requires a laptop/desktop such as video editing or programming. Nexus tablets are really cheap. I'd save the rest of the money to get a desktop when conditions allow it.

[url]http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Black-Licorice-15.6-15-g035wm-Laptop-PC-with-AMD-Quad-Core-A8-6410-Processor-4GB-Memory-500GB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-8.1/38203209#Product+Reviews[/url] what do you guys think of this one? The one review it has says it can run battlefield 4 on low settings fluidly. [editline]17th October 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=thelurker1234;46252442]Tbh I'd just get a tablet for mobile games unless you are doing something that requires a laptop/desktop such as video editing or programming. Nexus tablets are really cheap. I'd save the rest of the money to get a desktop when conditions allow it.[/QUOTE] the moment I can, I'm most definitely going back to desktops, I miss them so much

If you're okay with it failing in 2 years and constantly overheating until then

I take pretty good care of my devices, I've never had anything overheat on me. I get a little overprotected when it comes to their health :v:

[QUOTE=fudge blood;46241108]I would love to have a desktop again but sadly I have absolutely no room for one right now D; I've never had a laptop that could play games so this would be my first try at buying one. I gotta go to work in a bit but I've been browsing newegg for a bit here, what about these two right here? [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314535[/url] [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152586[/url] [B]All I really want to play is borderlands 2 and oblivion[/B][/QUOTE] both of those can be played fine on a cheap laptop with Intel HD Graphics 4000+, just FYI [editline]17th October 2014[/editline] (Source: I have a Lenovo T430u with Intel HD Graphics 4000 and both are fairly playable on this system)

[QUOTE=Lyokanthrope;46258655]both of those can be played fine on a cheap laptop with Intel HD Graphics 4000+, just FYI [editline]17th October 2014[/editline] (Source: I have a Lenovo T430u with Intel HD Graphics 4000 and both are fairly playable on this system)[/QUOTE] oh sweet, so do you play them on low, medium? How is bl2's fps with co-op?

Oblivion's playable on med-high, BL2 is playable on low with some .INI tweaks. 30-40 FPS.

[QUOTE=fudge blood;46258615]I take pretty good care of my devices, I've never had anything overheat on me. I get a little overprotected when it comes to their health :v:[/QUOTE] You can take care of it all you want but shit-tier parts are going to fail regardless.

I totally understand. Can you guys recommend me some good, stable laptops at a decent price? probably under $700 if it's possible.

[URL="http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y40/"]This[/URL] first model is pretty good, although I am not a fan of AMD's mobility drivers. You should also get a popup on visit to get $100 off by signing up to their email list. [editline]17th October 2014[/editline] Although I've heard some issues with the build quality here and there, I've never seen any issues with the several I've seen in person. [editline]17th October 2014[/editline] You also [I]might[/I] be able to find an MSI GP60 in your budget if you hunt hard.

[QUOTE=taipan;46249339]Stay away from Acer, HP (Non professional) and Packard Hell.[/QUOTE] Hey, higher-end Acers are actually pretty okay. For being ultrabooks they're maintainable, cheap, get great battery life and they pretty much only make the only ultrabook with a dGPU within a certain price range. I got my Acer V7 after much deliberation for $600 (refurb, eBay) and going through around 10 different laptops from different manufacturers and aside from the keyboard it's my favorite laptop I've had so far.

yeah I've actually had a great experience with acer products. My current one is 5 years old and is pretty damned durable, but its definitely not meant for gaming anything past tf2, gmod, etc.

Every Acer I've touched has practically disintegrated if I sneezed at it :v: And god, the bloatware they come installed with is awful.

I agree, the bloatware is SO shitty [editline]21st October 2014[/editline] I personally haven't had any bad experience with a laptop brand, however my step dad and my brother did with a Vaio laptop

[QUOTE=fishyfish777;46266545]Hey, higher-end Acers are actually pretty okay. For being ultrabooks they're maintainable, cheap, get great battery life and they pretty much only make the only ultrabook with a dGPU within a certain price range. I got my Acer V7 after much deliberation for $600 (refurb, eBay) and going through around 10 different laptops from different manufacturers and aside from the keyboard it's my favorite laptop I've had so far.[/QUOTE] I owned one as well. I liked it allot as well. However I also sold pc's and laptops for 5 years as a side job during my studies. HP's Acers and Packard bells where the laptops with the highest failure rates. Packard bell just falls apart, HP (Dv6/7 ugh.....) and ACER overheat and have random motherboard/PSU failings. ASUS used to be really good, but I heard they recently went to shit as well.

[QUOTE=taipan;46292639]I owned one as well. I liked it allot as well. However I also sold pc's and laptops for 5 years as a side job during my studies. HP's Acers and Packard bells where the laptops with the highest failure rates. Packard bell just falls apart, HP (Dv6/7 ugh.....) and ACER overheat and have random motherboard/PSU failings. ASUS used to be really good, but I heard they recently went to shit as well.[/QUOTE] Out of curiosity with your experience in electronics what would you say is the best brand for laptop wise? It'd like to know in case I make another purchase in the future.

None. But I guess Lenovo, or anything corporate.

I might get some flak for this, but 2 years ago, after I got my tax return, I went to BestBuy to buy a laptop to replace my old one. I just wanted something that could run games decently while I compile all the things I need to build a system. I ended up with a $700 Sony Vaio of all laptops, and this is why... For $700, I got: a touchscreen laptop running windows 8 Intel Core i7 3632QM @ 2.20GHz Quad Core Ivy Bridge processor 8GB RAM ATI Radeon HD 7600M Graphics Card (Intel HD Graphics 4000 Integrated Graphics) 900GB Western Digital HDD It's been running like a champ for 2 years now and is still as fast as the day I got it. Runs games very well even on integrated graphics. Doesn't get hot or anything like that. I always run firefox in a second monitor, teamspeak/ventrillo, and whatever game and it never breaks a sweat. The only problem I've had was trying to get the ATI graphics card to work. It was just a driver issue though. Is it the best rig? Not even close. Was it worth the money? Every single penny. I know Vaio's have a bad rap, and rightfully so, but this one changed my mind about them.....

[QUOTE=kingstead;46295558]Out of curiosity with your experience in electronics what would you say is the best brand for laptop wise? It'd like to know in case I make another purchase in the future.[/QUOTE] Note: Ive been out of the business for 3+ years. Asus, Lenovo, MSI, Sony and to some degree Toshiba usually had the least problems. I think Lenovo and Asus really where the best consumer laptops. Asus recently fell of its throne tough. For overal best laptops I would say the HP Elitebook series. But those are for the professional market. We did not sell Macbooks.

[QUOTE=taipan;46301269]Note: Ive been out of the business for 3+ years. Asus, Lenovo, MSI, Sony and to some degree Toshiba usually had the least problems. I think Lenovo and Asus really where the best consumer laptops. Asus recently fell of its throne tough. For overal best laptops I would say the HP Elitebook series. But those are for the professional market. We did not sell Macbooks.[/QUOTE] Thanks greatly for your opinion! I've always been interested in talking to someone like you about these sort of things, that weren't trying to make me a business pitch. :v:

Why the dumb? I get a lot of laptops in, and there's no brand I really trust. It's on a model by model basis. I've used shit systems from every company, and great models from almost every.

[QUOTE=Levelog;46304720]Why the dumb? I get a lot of laptops in, and there's no brand I really trust. It's on a model by model basis. I've used shit systems from every company, and great models from almost every.[/QUOTE] I wasn't quoting you when you answered. :v: You seem really dead set on desktops based on your previous posts (which I mean more power to you but I was asking about laptops) so that's why the dumb rating because it just seemed really silly to me, I don't think you're dumb. Are you really that concerned about one dumb rating?

[QUOTE=kingstead;46306513]I wasn't quoting you when you answered. :v: You seem really dead set on desktops based on your previous posts (which I mean more power to you but I was asking about laptops) so that's why the dumb rating because it just seemed really silly to me, I don't think you're dumb. Are you really that concerned about one dumb rating?[/QUOTE] Not concerned on the rating, just wanted to make sure I clarified. The point is don't buy for a brand, buy for a specific model. As fishy has said, the Acer v7 isn't a bad machine, but there's about where any recommendation from Acer stops. Lenovo's are generally a good buy, but their current E series and some of their G series are really questionable on build quality and some features. And in general, yes I recommend desktops, but obviously it's not an option for everyone. Most of my posts may be about desktops, but most of my posts are also in the PC Building subforum...

[QUOTE=Levelog;46306629]Not concerned on the rating, just wanted to make sure I clarified. The point is don't buy for a brand, buy for a specific model. As fishy has said, the Acer v7 isn't a bad machine, but there's about where any recommendation from Acer stops. Lenovo's are generally a good buy, but their current E series and some of their G series are really questionable on build quality and some features. And in general, yes I recommend desktops, but obviously it's not an option for everyone. Most of my posts may be about desktops, but most of my posts are also in the PC Building subforum...[/QUOTE] I myself would love my own desktop but I can't afford that or have the space right now for it, so I have to settle with a laptop (but I love my current laptop to bits). I know what you're getting at now. You seem like a really level headed dude, so thanks for your input, my apologies if I came off as standoffish or anything.