Spec me a very cheap gaming laptop

Phil87 · 19 Mar 2017 at 18:35

Hi, I'm helping a friend find a cheap gaming laptop to replace his current laptop which is struggling with games, so I'd like any suggestions you guys might have. His current laptop would have been considered entry level back in 2013 and I think cost just over £300. The spec was something like i3 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, GT 630M so you can see the problem with using it today.

I'm not sure if the rule about not mentioning competitors counts here considering Overclockers don't sell any laptop cheaper than £800, so maybe someone can clarify whether we're allowed to post links to other websites in this case. Until that's clarified I'll be vague - the best deal I've found so far is around £440 for a laptop with an i3, 8GB RAM, GTX 940M (it might be 16GB, the description is unclear).

Am I likely to find anything under £400 with a dedicated GPU without looking at 2nd hand / refurbished? Also are the laptops with and AMD APU worth looking at i.e. would integrated R5 graphics be a good upgrade over the old laptop?

MrFunex · 20 Mar 2017 at 10:42

eBay has a 17.3" MSI GP72, with a 2.6GHz i7 6700HQ, 8GB DDR4, 128Gb M2 and 1Tb with a GTX960M for under £900?

Probably from a competitor though....

Edit: is the actual budget £440?

reflux · 20 Mar 2017 at 13:03

I'm looking right now and the cheapest I can find brand new with decent specs is the HP Omen 15 which is available in a few different configs but comes with Kaby lake, 8GB RAM and a GTX1050. If you get the cheapest one and sell the Xbox Elite controller it comes with you should be able to pick one up for about £620. But if your total budget is £400 that doesn't really help

For brand new you will really struggle and I think maybe the one with the 940M may be the best you'll get.

Phil87 · 20 Mar 2017 at 14:14

Thanks both for the advice. Looking at what is available I think the budget is max £500, considering he thought he might be able to get something around £300. I think we were lucky to find the deal on his current laptop considering mine with a similar spec was around £500, which was about a year earlier but with no OS. Also am I right in thinking the 950M is much better than the 940M? From benchmarks I've seen it looks to be a lot better and probably worth spending a little extra for that.

I've also asked him if he'd like a desktop instead, because then I could build him a GTX 1050 Ti / Pentium G4560 system for around £400, which would be so much better than any of the laptops in this price range.

MrFunex · 20 Mar 2017 at 19:26

Other thing worth considering - does it have to be new? Might open up a few more options..?

Nurple · 20 Mar 2017 at 21:59

Dell 7559 2nd hand ?

Electroshadow · 22 Mar 2017 at 11:57

i can recommend a DELL 7559 just picked one up in the purple shop for £719 quite a good laptop really for the price:
i7 6700hq
8gb ram
960m 4gb graphics card
1TB hard drive with 8gb SSD

plenty of room for upgrades the maintenance hatch opens the whole bottom of the laptop with one screw. the laptop is quite quite as well which is a plus, only gripe is the key board which isnt a patch on a DELL latitude 5430 (materials on a whole are better on a latitude)

augus · 17 Apr 2017 at 16:23

Acer has some inexpensive but good models http://gaminglaptopunder1000.org/best-cheap-gaming-laptops-under-500-dollars/

Jack Wang · 12 Jun 2017 at 03:48

I can recommend Asus X756, 17.3 inch, 1920 by 1080 resolution display. It has an i5-6200U which is an ultra-low powered 2-cores/4-threads processor with 3M cache and is clocked at 2.30GHz with turbo-boost up to 2.80GHz. 12GB of RAM as primary memory for the device. For more options, the review and comparison may help.