Budget Laptop for general use and light gaming

tomanders91 · 9 Jan 2007 at 16:34

Can anyone spec a budget laptop for around £500 for general use, lots of music/movie downloading (plus something else apprently), also being able to play Counter Strike Source at lowest settings smoothly.

This is for someone i know who cant find one anywhere.

thanks to any suggestions.

tomanders91 · 9 Jan 2007 at 18:50

Any suggestions please?

Plus something else he asked, if laptops are upgradeable with ram and graphics cards? i cant answer him as ive never owned a laptop.

masslac · 9 Jan 2007 at 18:52

RAM, yes. Graphics cards, tricky.

Acer have some great prices, if that helps.

tomanders91 · 9 Jan 2007 at 19:04

Ok thank you, will intergrated graphics such as Ati Xpress 200 plus 512mb/1gb of ram play counter strike source at lowest settings?

m_cozzy · 9 Jan 2007 at 21:26

If its any help my laptop with an x700 64mb & 512mb of ram played doom3 very nicely indeed! See what the modern equivalent is and you should be fine

masslac · 9 Jan 2007 at 21:29

tomanders91 said:
Ok thank you, will intergrated graphics such as Ati Xpress 200 plus 512mb/1gb of ram play counter strike source at lowest settings?

512 RAM is fine for CSS, you'll want at least nvidia 6600 gfx tho.

Vegetarian · 9 Jan 2007 at 21:43

Im selling my toshiba laptop - it plays UT2004 at 1280x800 all at the normal settings smooth. So should cope with CS....

Its got dedicated Radion 9700 64mb ram that does not eat into system Ram.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17672399

Colbaker · 9 Jan 2007 at 21:49

I wouldnt use the Xpress 200M chipset to be hounest, probably wouldnt play counter strike source, One thing i would watch out from Acer is that they do not offer a DOA swapout so if you recieve the laptop DOA you would have to send it off for repair.

Have you looked at a dell, They are cheap, Delivery is not good though and customer support is in india but probably why they are so cheap/

tomanders91 · 10 Jan 2007 at 18:25

dell seem to be very overpriced for what you get, but i like the cheapest media one. Ill suggest that to him.

Vegetarian · 11 Jan 2007 at 00:59

I think dell's look ugly too - look like standard generic laptops of 10 years ago! They reaylly should be looking like something Sony or Apple are making for that price!