Gaming Laptop Under $700

[splink82]

One of my friends is considering purchasing a laptop. I have been browsing Newegg.com, but want your input. Here are the details:

1. This laptop is going to be used for gaming.

2. The price range is $700.00 USD and under.

3. The laptop will be purchased from the United States of America

4. There really is no brand preference.

5. This laptop will already be built

*

7. Possibly a bit of overclocking.

8. For 700 dollars, almost certainly 720p (1366 x 768)

9. Hopefully it will be ordered before July 14th

Thank you very much.

 

[lehtv]

Not sure if you can even get a gaming laptop for $700. The GPU on any laptop at that price is going to be a bit underpowered to run new titles even at 1366x768. At low settings it might do fine. The best GPU in a sub $700 laptop I can find on newegg is HD6770M, roughly equal to desktop 6570. That's a refurb HP Pavilion.

You'd have better luck just forgetting about gaming and going for other features... or building a desktop.

 

[ItzMar]

Exactly as lehtv said.

If you want to use a laptop of any sort of gaming your going to want to keep the system plugged in at all times. Based on this alone you might as well build a mini-ITX build for gaming so that its small enough to be portable but yet powerful.

There's a lot of hype about the BitFenix Prodigy case, also asus and asrock have some decent ITX boards built with overclocking in mind.

If you are definite that you want a laptop then you will have to pay a lot more dollar to be able to play games.

 

[splink82]

That HP looks nice, but is it a risk to buy refurbished?

 

[Skott]

That HP looks nice, but is it a risk to buy refurbished?

Some people have no trouble buying refurbished. Personally, I'd never buy a pc that was once broken or flawed in some way and had to be fixed. I just don't have that kind of trust. The question you have to ask yourself is, Do you?

 

[krnmastersgt]

Might not be because they broke, a lot of refurbs go for sale due to the fact that they were leased for some time and then once return due to not wanting to lease anymore/period ended/etc. they have to deal with all these second hand systems.

I have no qualms with buying refurbed from large retailers, especially for something like a laptop.

 

[lehtv]

That HP looks nice, but is it a risk to buy refurbished?

I just posted it to demonstrate that even a refurb that maxes out your budget will have pretty mediocre graphics. Personally would want 2+ years of warranty on a laptop.

 

[splink82]

Think of it this way; he wants to be able to play thw games on decent settings, not run them on ultra settings. That refurbished one looks promising for what he wants to do. Thanks.

 

[mfenn]

Think of it this way; he wants to be able to play thw games on decent settings, not run them on ultra settings. That refurbished one looks promising for what he wants to do. Thanks.

OK, so what you want is a laptop that can play games from time to time, not a gaming laptop. Check out Anandtech's laptop reviews. In particular, they just reviewd an Acer with a "decent" CPU and GPU right around your price range.

 

[DSF]

Think of it this way; he wants to be able to play thw games on decent settings, not run them on ultra settings. That refurbished one looks promising for what he wants to do. Thanks.

Depending on the game a $700 laptop might not run it at decent settings, that's the real issue I think. Certainly it won't have much longevity in terms of playing games a few years down the road.

Can you be a little bit more specific about which games he wants to be able to play?