Best gaming laptop for under £600?

BobbySixKiller · 26 Jan 2011 at 19:15

Hi all

I have decided to buy a semi gaming laptop (not alienware but something with a bit of power) so far I have found these which look to be the best in my price range.

Acer Aspire 5742G

MEDION® AKOYA® P6624

Please can you help me decide, or even better suggest a better laptop for the price

Thanks in advance

-Drew

Yulaw · 27 Jan 2011 at 11:03

No competitors remove the links quick.

BobbySixKiller · 27 Jan 2011 at 13:28

Yulaw said:
No competitors remove the links quick.

Done thanks

olivier renault · 27 Jan 2011 at 14:33

The medion (i5, GT425M?). However, it's not exactly a gaming laptop, but it will do gaming.

If you are looking for competition, you'll be looking at HD 5650, GT 330M, GT 425M, and i5 or i3. Toshiba has the Satellite Pro L650-165, Samsung has the R580, R530 with GT330M, Sony has the Vaio E with HD 5650, Acer has a collection of Aspire with various graphics configuration.

Prices will vary from £750 to £500. The Medion looks good, but quality of components will suffer. You can save some money by going i3, which will be fine for gaming (at least compared to the graphics options you will have anyway). You may find good deals on Open Box items, but availability is patchy.

davewhite04 · 28 Jan 2011 at 03:27

Do a search for a MSI FX600.

I searched high and low for what you're looking for, and this is the best for under £600 I found.

Check flea bay, there is one on there dirt cheap (£449.99) with 12months warranty. I can vouch that this laptop is pretty good for games, F1 2010 for example looks class on it, as does Mafia II.

Vern1961 · 28 Jan 2011 at 11:33

What about a Toshiba Satellite A660-18D? The specs seem to indicate this has an Nvidia graphics card and a few places have it around the £600 mark.

BobbySixKiller · 28 Jan 2011 at 14:42

Thanks chaps

ThomasTheTankEngine · 28 Jan 2011 at 15:01

davewhite04 said:
Do a search for a MSI FX600.

I searched high and low for what you're looking for, and this is the best for under £600 I found.

Check flea bay, there is one on there dirt cheap (£449.99) with 12months warranty. I can vouch that this laptop is pretty good for games, F1 2010 for example looks class on it, as does Mafia II.

You're kinda gettting what you pay for though. The GT 325M is a fair bit slower than the HD5650 in the acer he mentioned in the OP.

2725 for the ATI vs 1753 for the NVIDIA in vantage.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

(mega useful site if you're buying a laptop)

I recently bought the aspire 5942G and would definitely recommend it. It runs New vegas, Bad company 2 and l4d2 all on maximum settings.

davewhite04 · 28 Jan 2011 at 16:33

jimbob27 said:
You're kinda gettting what you pay for though. The GT 325M is a fair bit slower than the HD5650 in the acer he mentioned in the OP.

2725 for the ATI vs 1753 for the NVIDIA in vantage.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

(mega useful site if you're buying a laptop)

I recently bought the aspire 5942G and would definitely recommend it. It runs New vegas, Bad company 2 and l4d2 all on maximum settings.

The HD5650 is faster agreed, what laptop has this card for under £600?

Temi_D · 29 Jan 2011 at 21:31

Sony E series 15.5" (EB series). You can configure one with a core i3 580M (2.53GHz) and a 1GB HD5650 for £599. I have one and the gpu can easilly be overclocked from stock (450MHz) to 600+ (mine does 650MHz). And the thing is sony undervolted the GPU in the bios so it runs really cool. The load temperature when OCed is the same as when at stock (not been past 64*c when running crysis and max cpu temp in IBT is 62*c). Runs Crysis at a solid 40fps with 720p and medium settings. All my other games run at 1080p (I picked the 1080p screen)

Also I have never liked Sony laptops but when I saw this one, I was skeptical about it but you cannot get anything better at that price and it has been faultless so far. Its also completly inaudible under normal use and the noise isnt much higher when gaming

EDIT: My only complaint is that the speakers are shocking compared to Toshiba's Harman Kardon ones and HP's Altec Lansing. But I use headphones so doesnt matter to me.

The Running Man · 29 Jan 2011 at 22:43

Dell 15r with i5 and 5650 for 539 but not from dell.

Also Phenom quad core 5650 HP too for 499.

Vern1961 · 30 Jan 2011 at 08:24

Now I can't post the link or name of the company here due to the competitor rules, but on recommendation from someone on another forum was referred to a company that does custom build laptops. They have put together what I consider a reasonable (obviously not top end) gaming laptop for just over £600 - it's not going to run Crysis 2 but should be adequate for Railworks or Trainz 2010 which is what I tend to use the portable for.

That's all I can say at the moment as the machine is still on order and yet to be built but hopefully here by the end of the week.

spoonjaffa · 30 Jan 2011 at 12:04

Check to see if good air circulation as i'd say any none official class gaming laptop will get extra hot if gaming long on them.

davewhite04 · 30 Jan 2011 at 15:36

Temi_D said:
Sony E series 15.5" (EB series). You can configure one with a core i3 580M (2.53GHz) and a 1GB HD5650 for £599. I have one and the gpu can easilly be overclocked from stock (450MHz) to 600+ (mine does 650MHz). And the thing is sony undervolted the GPU in the bios so it runs really cool. The load temperature when OCed is the same as when at stock (not been past 64*c when running crysis and max cpu temp in IBT is 62*c). Runs Crysis at a solid 40fps with 720p and medium settings. All my other games run at 1080p (I picked the 1080p screen)

Also I have never liked Sony laptops but when I saw this one, I was skeptical about it but you cannot get anything better at that price and it has been faultless so far. Its also completly inaudible under normal use and the noise isnt much higher when gaming

EDIT: My only complaint is that the speakers are shocking compared to Toshiba's Harman Kardon ones and HP's Altec Lansing. But I use headphones so doesnt matter to me.

I can only configure it with a 310m(not too good), and even then when I set the rest of the spec the same as the MSI it comes to £740.

davewhite04 · 30 Jan 2011 at 15:42

Nickg said:
Dell 15r with i5 and 5650 for 539 but not from dell.

Also Phenom quad core 5650 HP too for 499.

Very cryptic, that should help the OP.

The Dell comment was pointless, because it just responds to my post, it doesn't give the OP a clue where to get the machine.

Plus what model HP are you talking about(another pointless comment as there was no model number for the OP to work with), I seriously doubt you will get a HP Quad Core, 4GB, 500GB HDD and 5650 for £499.

To the OP, hope you've managed to get something you're happy with, as this thread is becoming more of a minefield then actually looking for one.

davewhite04 · 30 Jan 2011 at 15:45

spoonjaffa said:
Check to see if good air circulation as i'd say any none official class gaming laptop will get extra hot if gaming long on them.

Just like to point out that the MSi has stunning airflow. These guys have been making PC components for eons and even though they don't have the flashy mainstream name, they use quality components, which is what counts for me.

AceTK · 30 Jan 2011 at 15:53

That msi has only 48 cuda cores. Although it is hard to find a system that has a better all round spec for the price. Personally I think it's a bad time to buy pc hardware. I would wait till later this year or perhaps even this time next year. Ul start seeing the new AMD fusion APU's with the full speed phenom cores (not zacate ultra low etc) and they should bring the same performance at a lower cost ratio. Or even the same MSI laptop would be a lot less as intel is going 22nm later this year too.

Temi_D · 30 Jan 2011 at 17:24

davewhite04 said:
I can only configure it with a 310m(not too good), and even then when I set the rest of the spec the same as the MSI it comes to £740.

Really? I just checked and its £30 cheaper now:

escape sanity · 30 Jan 2011 at 17:33

davewhite04 said:
Very cryptic, that should help the OP.

The Dell comment was pointless, because it just responds to my post, it doesn't give the OP a clue where to get the machine.

Because it is so difficult to type "Dell 15r" into the price comparison website of your choice and look at the ones that cost around £539?

It really is the best offer on this thread other than maybe the OP's Medion so not pointless at all.

The Running Man · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:15

Davewhite it was a HP dv6 with 4gb 500gb HDd. But now 549 you snooze you lose.

The 15r with i5 4gb 320 still 539.98. With 5650 1gb.

I've played with both the dell chassis and the dv6 range in a retail store they are both well made
No flex or closeness like a Acer 5742g for instance.