Gaming Laptop on a Budget

pjheff

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Jan 4, 2003
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I find myself in the market for a new gaming laptop for my son's fourteenth birthday in two weeks. At the beginning of his summer vacation, I promised him one if he met the Presidential fitness standards for his age group, and on Thursday night, he completed the gauntlet by running an 8:15 mile with me. His requested specs include as minimums:
  • Intel I5 / I7
  • NVIDIA 10 Series Graphics Card (GTX 1050 / 1060 / 1070)
  • 8 GB RAM
  • 256 GB SSD
However, those same specs probably come from some other 13-year-old, and I welcome a more informed adult opinion here. The computer has to be portable, so a desktop is not an option, and I'd like to stay in three figures if possible. Cross-referencing Consumer Reports and The Wirecutter, I'm seeing favorable reviews for Lenovo and Dell Inspiron models, and I'd appreciate any additional guidance in the form of advice and links here.
 

pjheff

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He has mentioned the Razer Blade in the same reverential tones that I reserve for discussing a Big Green Egg kamado grill. But just as I bought myself another Weber Kettle for a fraction of the cost, he will have to amuse himself with a laptop in the sub-$1000 range.
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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Leaving in a bit to the studio :)
I've seen several variants of the Lenovo Y7xx series posted on SlickDeals recently for $900 or less (New). Reason I even noticed them is because I grabbed one for my son from the Amazon Warehouse on Prime Day for ~$550; they pop up there from time to time. (if you hit it right, another 8gb of matching RAM runs $50-60 on Ebay for a "pull", so you can plan ahead).

So if you're truly on a budget, your first stop, provided you don't mind a "return", should be the Warehouse. On top of that, certain items are currently tagged as Back to School, for another 20% off:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=bbn=13355615011&search-alias=warehouse-deals&field-keywords=laptop
 

Scott Cooper's Grand Slam

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The Wirecutter recommends the Lenovo Y520 at $950: http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-budget-gaming-laptop-so-far/

Edited to add: I see you're cross-referencing them already, just added a link for anyone curious. Generally: gaming laptops, even ludicrously-expensive ones, make significant compromises. Yeah, the laptop is "portable" but the battery is such that it always has to be plugged in.

For my money, the Nintendo Switch is the first time I've played portable gaming and not felt like I was missing out on something. But the Switch and the gaming PC are two totally different things, and the 13 year old is probably going to want the cooler PC games.
 
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Couperin47

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Eck'sSneakyCheese

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Stay away from Lenovos. You'll find the build quality just isn't up to par. They tend to have firmware issues as well.

If you're going to bite the bullet and purchase a gaming laptop, do yourself a favor and don't cheap out. The newer ASUS Strix models are nice and they come with a 1060 or 1070.The MSI laptops are pretty awesome. M.2 SSD plus a standard drive for storage,up to 16 GB of ram and either a 1050 or 1060 graphics card. The ASUS will run you around 1,500, the MSI for a couple hundred less.
 

Marceline

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I really like Asus in terms of value for the money, and the laptops are good quality. I haven't tried any of the gaming laptops but have gone through a couple of their ultrabooks and they have worked out really well.
 

The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa

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Stay away from Lenovos. You'll find the build quality just isn't up to par. They tend to have firmware issues as well.
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This is so sad. Even their successor to the Thinkpad line isn't the same and really hasn't been since a couple years after they bought the business from IBM. The first machine I bought from them post IBM arrived with a loose screen.
 

jtn46

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I really like Asus in terms of value for the money, and the laptops are good quality. I haven't tried any of the gaming laptops but have gone through a couple of their ultrabooks and they have worked out really well.
I've had 2 and have no major complaints. They come with a ton of bloatware, but are often a good bargain. I've found TigerDirect to be a good place to get a deal on those.

Right now I'm on an Alienware I bought on the Dell Oulet, saving about $300. The laptop shipped with bad memory, and I screwed up trying to add a hard drive when I first got it and Dell were fantastic in both instances at supporting it for nothing extra. I would recommend checking there as well.
 

cardiacs

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Jul 15, 2005
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I have had an Asus Republic of Gamers (G60V) as my everyday "home and occasional travel" laptop (gaming, movies, streaming internet, Office/Photoshop/etc) for 8 years now, using it heavily the whole time and it is finally wearing down on me. Not sure if the budget version RoG models are in your price range or not, but I am very happy with mine, especially durability-wise. I will be getting the Asus UX550 sometime in the next few months as a replacement as they have earned my brand loyalty.
 

djbayko

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I have had an Asus Republic of Gamers (G60V) as my everyday "home and occasional travel" laptop (gaming, movies, streaming internet, Office/Photoshop/etc) for 8 years now, using it heavily the whole time and it is finally wearing down on me. Not sure if the budget version RoG models are in your price range or not, but I am very happy with mine, especially durability-wise. I will be getting the Asus UX550 sometime in the next few months as a replacement as they have earned my brand loyalty.
I second this. I've had 2 ASUS ROG's, and I simply love them. Did a ton of research before I made both purchases. They're well, designed, durable and have the most bang for your buck specs-wise off the shelf.
 

Bigpupp

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I'll throw my hat in for an Asus ROG as well. Spent right around $1000 a few years ago and haven't regretted it yet.
 

pjheff

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Jan 4, 2003
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I figured I'd update the thread to announce my decision. After going down the rabbit hole of Amazon Warehouse Deals, I found an ASUS as an open box option at Best Buy:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-gl502vm-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i7-12gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-1tb-hard-drive-black/5712362.p?skuId=5712362

They have it going for $1250 generally and $1150 currently on sale, but I picked one up in excellent condition for $920. In fact, I grabbed two as my younger son met the fitness standards for his age as well. The specs are higher than originally requested (7th gen I7 processor, 12 GB of RAM, NVIDIA 1060 graphics card, etc.) but still stayed in budget. I appreciate the help that I received here which helped inform my choice.