Any gaming laptops under $800?

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wtburnette

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My son is looking to get a laptop that he can use for school work while on the go, plus some light gaming. Would prefer a better then 1366x768 res, at least a 13" screen and a minimum of 6GB of RAM. I'm going to do some research myself, but I usually get good recommendations from the forum here, so I thought I'd go both routes... :cool:

EDIT: When I say light gaming, I mean FPS and RPG games, not crap that will play on integrated graphics. It'll have to have a dedicated video card.
 
http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-15r-se-7520/pd

I just bought my son one of these for Christmas. Granted, it was a $1,000 model with 1080p, etc. But the 7730m video card can play all his games on medium or better, including FC3 and heavily modded Skyrim. It also has a backlit keyboard and is solidly built. Quality of the 1080p screen is very good compared to my 2-year-old 17" Alienware.

It is not a "gaming laptop" but I am very impressed with its capabilities. My son was previously using a computer I built for him with an AMD 6850 video card and i5-750 quad core. He does not miss it at all.

Good luck.

Edit: Two negatives....it is HEAVY and only has 3.5 hour batter life at best.
 
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$800 is about where the Y580/Y500 start. Just have to wait for the right deal to pop up.
Check the Barnes&Noble affiliate portal as always for your best prices (just create a new acct and log in, no verification).
Current best deal (they change every 24-72hrs):
Lenovo Y500 $839
i7-3630QM Quad core
Nvidia GT 650m 2GB
8GB RAM
1920x1080 display
1TB HDD + 16GB SSD cache
 
I'd also toss out a suggestion for the Y400/Y480 -- smaller since he'll be on the go. I've still heard a few complaints about it being large though.

But since he'll be on the go I do strongly recommend keeping it to 14" or less. I think Asus has a few gaming laptops in that range?

I'm personally a fan of Thinkpads and Latitudes. Great build quality and you can get them with discrete graphics (though often not the "gaming" versions, but in my experience it hasn't much mattered).
 
The only problem with the Y400/Y480 are the screen options.
Specifically: There are no screen options. A 1366x768 TN panel is what you get.
 
Another thing, the laptop should have a 1600x900 or 1080p display. My son will use the system for AutoCAD as well as gaming. He may go over the $800 budget as well, to find the perfect system for him. We're looking at an Inspiron 17R Special Edition right now, but it's got less of a video card then the Lenovo Y580 he's also looking at. There's an Asus (can't remember the model), but the video card is a 635. Not sure if that's too low end or not? I know I'd read something about the 640 being pretty low end and I'm assuming the 635 would be worse.
 
Check out the Thinkpad T-series as well. It comes with a professional graphics card, which should be alright for gaming as well, and you can get the better resolution as well I think.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. We'll look into these and see what works. It'll be a couple of months before he has money saved up, but we're doing our research now... ;)
 
wtburnette said:
Thanks for the suggestions. We'll look into these and see what works. It'll be a couple of months before he has money saved up, but we're doing our research now... ;)
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In a couple of months Haswell might be out, so that's something else to consider. I'm assuming it'll herald the release of several new laptops along with it.

Though even so I still recommend the Thinkpad T or W series for your needs, assuming that AutoCad is as important (or moreso) than the gaming aspect.
 
I'll have to check with my son to see which is highest on his priorities for this system.
 
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