Gaming Laptop For approx £500

lettuce

lettuce

lettuce

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Am after a gaming laptop for around 500 notes, i saying gaming but it wont be constatly used for game, would just like it to be able to handle average games, im not expecting it to run Crysis at 40+fps on high settings, but would like the option to play crysis on it with medium settings.

Would it be best to get a laptop with a i3 or i5 chip (better power consumption?), or are older chip still regarded to be fine, I know its more to do with the gpu than the cpu, so would a laptop with a GeForce GT 310M
cut the mustard, what is it comparable to in regards to a desktop gpu?, an 8 series nvidia card? No lower an 320GB HD, and the bigger the screen the better.

Was looking at the Asus K52F, but not sure how good the gpu is, Geforce G102M?

Any suggestions? Thanks
 
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I have been looking for something to replace my desktop pc with and one that can handle games. One that I am considering and might interest you if you can stretch your budget is the Toshiba Satellite Pro L650-165 at about £570 - £600. Basic specs are nothing special i3 processor, 320GB HD, 2GB ram, 15.6 inch screen but more interesting is the 1GB ATI 5650 it has. The graphics card seems to perform quite well according to the mobile graphics card charts I have seen.
 
Leighs said:
I have been looking for something to replace my desktop pc with and one that can handle games. One that I am considering and might interest you if you can stretch your budget is the Toshiba Satellite Pro L650-165 at about £570 - £600. Basic specs are nothing special i3 processor, 320GB HD, 2GB ram, 15.6 inch screen but more interesting is the 1GB ATI 5650 it has. The graphics card seems to perform quite well according to the mobile graphics card charts I have seen.
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Ive been looking at the Acer Aspire 5740G, there appears to be a few version, i3 and i5 version, with them also having the ATI 5650 1GB cards in, but these seem to be out of stock everywhere!!!!, and also versions with ATI 5470 512MB card which can be had for around £500. One thing i have noticed with laptops, is there are a lot of different version with different components that seem to share the same model number, so you have to be on your toes. I'll have a look as the, Toshiba Satellite Pro L650-165, or though it appears to only have 2GB of ram, ideally want 4GB.

Is there any other laptops i3/i5 laptops that have 4GB of RAM and the 5650 1GB cards in??
 
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Fisha said:
Just over, plus VAT and postage? makes it more like 600
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Nope remember it was around £525inc VAT, delivery (which is on free offer), etc. I picked up an i7 Studio 15 on there with quite few extras for £524 around 2 weeks ago. If you keep looking you can stumble across some right bargains on there.
 
lettuce said:
Am after a gaming laptop for around 500 notes, i saying gaming but it wont be constatly used for game, would just like it to be able to handle average games, im not expecting it to run Crysis at 40+fps on high settings, but would like the option to play crysis on it with medium settings.

Would it be best to get a laptop with a i3 or i5 chip (better power consumption?), or are older chip still regarded to be fine, I know its more to do with the gpu than the cpu, so would a laptop with a GeForce GT 310M
cut the mustard, what is it comparable to in regards to a desktop gpu?, an 8 series nvidia card? No lower an 320GB HD, and the bigger the screen the better.

Was looking at the Asus K52F, but not sure how good the gpu is, Geforce G102M?

Any suggestions? Thanks
Click to expand...

310M is horrible for gaming... unless your happy to play at 1024x768 with all details on low.

Don't worry too much about the CPU - unless its an Intel Atom - almost any modern laptop CPU will be more than capable of pushing your average laptop GPU. (1.6+gig for i5/i7, etc. and 2+gig for AMD and intel Core 2 based*).

nVidia wise the minimums I'd go for if you want to play crysis on medium:

8800M
9700M
GTS150M
GT240M (GTS250 better)
GT330M (GT335 better)

For ATI:

Mobility Radeon 3670 (might struggle a bit 3850 or higher much better)
Mobility Radeon 4650
Mobility Radeon 5650


*Celeron CPUs might struggle.
 
You dont want the i3 chip with a gaming card. Big no. Only go down the i3 chip road if your getting a good card, GT330m 1GB+
 
lettuce said:
Ive been looking at the Acer Aspire 5740G, there appears to be a few version, i3 and i5 version, with them also having the ATI 5650 1GB cards in, but these seem to be out of stock everywhere!!!!, and also versions with ATI 5470 512MB card which can be had for around £500. One thing i have noticed with laptops, is there are a lot of different version with different components that seem to share the same model number, so you have to be on your toes. I'll have a look as the, Toshiba Satellite Pro L650-165, or though it appears to only have 2GB of ram, ideally want 4GB.

Is there any other laptops i3/i5 laptops that have 4GB of RAM and the 5650 1GB cards in??
Click to expand...

I bought the toshiba pro L650 - 165 about 2 weeks ago, I have to say this laptop is a must to get for gaming. It handles all of my games perfectly on highest settings like left 4 dead 2 etc.

The i3 is pretty fast and is more then enough for a gaming system.
I bought this laptop with the intention of upgrading the ram to 4GB, so far 2GB is plenty for my games + applications but I would strongly advise getting this laptop as it looks really nice (all black) and has a 4 hour battery life :))

*feels really nice
*really nice layout on keyboard
*full Qwerty with NUMPAD

When I buy i'm very picky, and since i spend a lot of hours on it, it has to have a perfect keyboard, perfect texture and quietness. I can say this laptop has all of those features, I recently returned my alienware m15x because a.) the trackpad was crap B.) the plastic felt akward and not smooth which makes you feel irratated.

I give this laptop 10/10, best laptop i've owned.

To begin with I considered the Acer with the 5650 1GB ati but the keyboard was a huge let down, it didn't feel right and comfortable and the buttons too much spaced out, plus on top of this to conclude it, toshiba is the most reliable laptop brand out there.
 
Linx said:
I bought the toshiba pro L650 - 165 about 2 weeks ago, I have to say this laptop is a must to get for gaming. It handles all of my games perfectly on highest settings like left 4 dead 2 etc.

The i3 is pretty fast and is more then enough for a gaming system.
I bought this laptop with the intention of upgrading the ram to 4GB, so far 2GB is plenty for my games + applications but I would strongly advise getting this laptop as it looks really nice (all black) and has a 4 hour battery life :))

*feels really nice
*really nice layout on keyboard
*full Qwerty with NUMPAD

When I buy i'm very picky, and since i spend a lot of hours on it, it has to have a perfect keyboard, perfect texture and quietness. I can say this laptop has all of those features, I recently returned my alienware m15x because a.) the trackpad was crap B.) the plastic felt akward and not smooth which makes you feel irratated.

I give this laptop 10/10, best laptop i've owned.

To begin with I considered the Acer with the 5650 1GB ati but the keyboard was a huge let down, it didn't feel right and comfortable and the buttons too much spaced out, plus on top of this to conclude it, toshiba is the most reliable laptop brand out there.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the informative post. I'll take a more indepth look at the tosh then, how easy are laptop to upgrade the ram?

Are the any other alternatives people can suggest?
 
Range said:
You dont want the i3 chip with a gaming card. Big no. Only go down the i3 chip road if your getting a good card, GT330m 1GB+
Click to expand...

An i3 works great with a ATI 5650 @1366x768. I have the acer 5740g and plays everything i throw at it. For a larger screen res then I'd go down the i5 route.
 
i3 is fine for anything slower than GTX260m, 4850 or 5830 and will still do an OK job with those just might not get the most out of the very fastest laptop GPUs unless its running around 2.8-3+gig tho.
 
I got an acer 6930g for £500 about a year ago;
intel core2duo 2.13GHz, 4GB ram, 9600m GT, 320GB HDD, windows 7 upgrade.
It was by far the best spec for the money however the overall quality of the product is a bit poor, the keyboard is flimsy has a somewhat spongey feel, the keys get really dirty and one key has broken, a few other things are bit naff aswell, overall i'd say although you seem to be getting better specs with the acer i'd look into the quality of it, you pretty much get what you pay for.
I think i rambled a bit but its just my experience.

Edit- btw overall i am happy with my purchase.
 
Linx said:
I bought the toshiba pro L650 - 165 about 2 weeks ago, I have to say this laptop is a must to get for gaming. It handles all of my games perfectly on highest settings like left 4 dead 2 etc.
Click to expand...


Linx, you would happen to know, what ram is fitted in the tosh from the factory would you, is it Crucial ram?, as i would like to try and get the same ram as whats already fitted
 
Range said:
Whoever said 335M runs better then a 330m, needs to do some benchmarking.
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Depends what your doing - for shader heavy stuff like 3d Marks 06/Vantage, crysis, etc. the 335M is a bit better. For older games it tends to be hit and miss which one is faster.

EDIT: Tho I will concede on medium settings they both seem to run exact same fps in crysis having looked at that, on high settings the 335m is faster.
 
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