What's the cheapest gaming laptop out there?

[StaticX]

If i wanna play like Diablo 3 or Crysis 3.... what's a good option where these games will play with no stutter. They wouldn't even need to be at the high settings. More like medium or just a bit better.

Weird request, thanks for any help.

 

[Cylotron]

you basically want something with an actual dedicated video card. normally such laptops "new" start around $1,200+. however, you can probably find some older used ones for as cheap as $500.

yes, laptop gaming is expensive.

 

[SNKorSWM]

Laptops tend to stutter because there is not a sufficient cooling system when things get intense and the cpu starts overheating. Better plan around that problem.

 

[Cylotron]

Laptops tend to stutter because there is not a sufficient cooling system when things get intense and the cpu starts overheating. Better plan around that problem.

If you have a decent gaming laptop you could play for hours on end without any worries(also helps to have a cooling pad). Whenever I get a laptop(gaming or otherwise), the first thing I do is disassemble it and replace the cpu thermal paste with arctic silver. Greatly reduces any worries about the cpu overheating + extends it's life.

 

[NeoSneth]

this is going to end poorly. You can certainly game with a laptop. I use my work laptop for some serious gaming (shhhhh ), but it's a fair bigger than most laptops. It has a dedicated nvidia GPU. I think it's a Dell 6530. You could probably get one refurbed for decent price.

Other considerations.
• Do you plan to game on the go, or do you just like having a laptop?
• 17" , 15", or 13" display?
• Budget? Are we talking $500, $1000, or $1500

 

[ki_atsushi]

Lenovo Y series laptops are great bang for the buck.

 

[Cylotron]

Look at the minimum requirements(video card wise) for the games you're interested in. Then search the laptops section of ebay for one that contains that card(or similar). That will be your best bet at finding one for a good price.

 

[T.A.P.]

What's a top-of-the-line desktop PC go for? I've wanted one for years, and I'm thinking of blow my tax refund on one.

 

[Endlessnameless]

I bought a used elitebook 8540p off of ebay fairly cheap that has a dedicated 1gb nvidia that I was able to play crysis with med-high settings fairly well even with only 4gb ram. PLus these things are durable. My daughter dropped my laptop from our couch onto the hardwood floor. Found this out when I came home from work one day. Turned it on, and everything works great. Nothing busted and screen isn't cracked.

 

[NeoSneth]

What's a top-of-the-line desktop PC go for? I've wanted one for years, and I'm thinking of blow my tax refund on one.

$1500 will get you a very well made Full Tower. $2000 will get you SLI and better cooling. You can certainly spend more, but you are paying to be the top 1% instead of top 5%.
You can certainly build a $1000 gaming PC that will beat any console or laptop.
I can't recommend this site enough. http://pcpartpicker.com/

 

[100proof]

$1500 will get you a very well made Full Tower. $2000 will get you SLI and better cooling. You can certainly spend more, but you are paying to be the top 1% instead of top 5%.
You can certainly build a $1000 gaming PC that will beat any console or laptop.
I can't recommend this site enough. http://pcpartpicker.com/

This. Can't recommend partpicker enough.

I've built PCs for myself, friends and family the last 10 years and it's BY FAR the best value for the dollar. Build it yourself and you'll spend half of what you'd spend on a pre-built desktop for the same parts and a third to a quarter of what you'd spend to get a laptop or Mac of equal power. Even then, a laptop will never cool worth a shit and a Mac... well, let's just say that power computer users generally don't buy Macs apart from very specific use cases.

So to answer T.A.P.'s question, it largely depends on what you mean by top of the line. If you want to build a machine that will play everything currently available on the highest settings, you'll likely pay $1200 if you build your own and about $2000 for a pre-built machine. Logical Increments is another place to gauge what parts you should use for what level of machine you want and about how much you're going to pay for them. If you have any questions, hit me up.

 

[ebinsugewa]

Rolling your desktop setup around on a cart.

 

[SNKNostalgia]

One thing I have noticed is that having a nice i7 or AMD equivalent helps prevent overheating as well. You will put less processing and heat when playing a lot of games that don't use too much CPU powa. I have a weird franken-laptop from Toshiba with an AMD 7670m 2GB 600 MHZ Core GPU, i7 3rd gen 2.4Ghz (3.4Ghz in powerboost mode) that has an intel GPU in it but isn't used and completely turned off even when I try to find it in the BIOS and what not. By no means is my setup good for games using Direct X 11.0 like Crysis 3, or anything... but works great for most PC games 2011 and under. I mostly use it to play games like Ys, Shadowrun Returns, Wolfenstien from 2009, emulators etc... The machine runs cool playing these games and barely turns the fan on for video and other simple programs. I got the laptop due to it being a $1000 machine for $700 2 years ago. The better Lenovos and HP Elites seem to be a good way to go though.