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Posted: **Tue Nov 22, 2011 12:02 pm**

I am getting my 18 year old a laptop for Christmas, but have no idea what to get. Don't want to spend too much, but want him to be able to play games. Any ideas on what to look for and what to stay away from???

Posted: **Tue Nov 22, 2011 12:29 pm**

Budget?

Posted: **Tue Nov 22, 2011 1:47 pm**

Hope to be under $500 - the lower the better.

Posted: **Tue Nov 22, 2011 2:16 pm**

That doesn't leave much wiggle room. You'd get more bang for your buck with a desktop. Also, laptops aren't exactly "gaming machines".

However, if you're going laptop, stick with the major brands: Dell, HP, IBM, Sony, etc. so if it breaks, support will be more available.

Make sure you get Windows 7, but in terms of specs, I honestly don't know in that price range.

I'd say to watch the websites for those companies, and certain retailers (Amazon, Best Buy, etc.) and when you see something you like, post a link or the specs here and we'll let you know if it's good or not.

Posted: **Tue Nov 22, 2011 4:33 pm**

It is my understanding that Walmart has Win7 laptops right at $200, but I would want to know what kind of "gaming" is going to be required.

Posted: **Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:23 am**

For a laptop, the graphics card will be the most important part when gaming. You can have the best of the best of everything else, but if it's just the integrated video card it WILL NOT GAME. So, at $500, you'll be taking a hit in CPU, RAM, etc to make sure you get a decent graphics card. But to be honest, I don't know that you'll be able to get a gaming laptop for $500. Unless the games being played are Diner Dash and the like. If he's in to Modern Warfare 3 and things like that, $500 won't really be enough. The laptop will run the game, but not very well.

So, what games are going to be played? And your best bet is to stat posting specs here so we can let you know what you are looking at.

Some general tips:
Core ix (x = 3, 5 or 7) Those are the good CPUs
nVidia or Radeon for graphics cards. If it includes either of those, it's at least not the integrated Intel graphics
7200 RPM for the hard drive. This one's not as important as the two above, but it gives a good performance boost.
As much RAM and hard drive space as will fit in the budget after buying the above. Plus, RAM and HDD can always be upgraded later. So, buy a faster CPU and Graphics with lower RAM, and then upgrade RAM for his birthday or something. Even the smallest of hard drives put in laptops is a big hard drive that will hold a lot of games, music, pictures, etc.

Posted: **Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:50 am**

He wants to play Civ 5 and Guild Wars 2.

Posted: **Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:25 pm**

Really, about the best place I've found to get the biggest bang for your computing dollar is woot.com. I know some people here dislike the site, but if you've got time to wait and watch they might have something that will fit the bill between now and Christmas.

Although at that price it will be a little bit of a challenge for a good laptop. Not impossible, but in terms of getting something with a little oomph for it's category, that's more the price for a good tablet or netbook than a good laptop.

Posted: **Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:37 pm**

Check out:

Laptop

It's only 15.6" screen and not the greatest video card, but, it's decent.

It's a bit over budget though. The video card is in the middle of mid range cards. So, it will play those games, he'll just have to bump the settings down so it will run smooth. Which means it won't look as nice as it could. It will be plenty playable, just not super clean.

This website will help you know if what you are looking at is good.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-.....0.html

That laptop isn't a 'holy shit must buy now!', but it's pretty good. This time of year, it's always a gamble waiting to see if something better comes along. Most laptops that try to be the 'holy shit must buy!' type are super low end laptops for <$300 which would NOT work for games.

Edited By Cakedaddy on 1322070144

Posted: **Fri Nov 25, 2011 7:31 pm**

Been looking around, and it seems the best deal you're going to get for a GAMING laptop is about $1k.

Posted: **Fri Nov 25, 2011 8:30 pm**

For $600, this one is pretty solid.

I'd think you could get something to run those games in the 450-650 range.

Key: Discrete graphics, i7 processor, 4GB RAM. HD is only 5400 RPM though.

ASUS A53SV-TH71 15.6" Black Laptop

Memory Type: DDR3
Memory Speed: PC3-10600
Memory Speed MHz: 1333MHz
Memory Slots (Total): 2
Total Memory Size: 4GB
Maximum Memory Supported: 8GB
Display Type: LED
Screen Size: 15.6”
Maximum Resolution: 1366 x 768
Processor Class: Core i7
Processor Brand: Intel
Processor Type: Quad-Core
Processor Speed: 2.2GHz
Processor Number: 2670QM
Lifestyle: Desktop Replacement
Entertainment
Condition: New
Operating Systems: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Platform: Laptop
Capacity: 640GB
Drive Types: Hard Drive
Hard Drive Speed: 5400 RPM
Graphics Description: Dedicated Graphics
GPU/VPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 540
Video Memory: 1GB VRAM

Posted: **Sat Nov 26, 2011 1:11 am**

Need to find out if a GT video card will be enough for GW2. Civ, yes. Not sure about the new FPS games.