New Laptop and Playing Games

Terrysdelight

Hi

For those who recognise me, I've finally given up trying to speed up the old laptop and realise it's time for a new one (managed to make it much faster though).

Laptop is for my son - he plays games, things like Minecraft, Portal 1, GMod and he wants to play Team Fortress 2.

I've been looking at 3 machines :

Acer Aspire V3-5710 8GB, nVidia geforce 630M (P = i5 3210)
Acer Aspire 7739G 6GB, nVidiaGF610M 1GB (P = i3 380)
Asus X535D-SX189V 8GB, NVidia GT6102GB (P = i5 2450)

Are any of these machines suitable, and if all three are, which would be the best?

Many thanks
Terri

Terrysdelight

I've managed to answer my own question - none of the above, but I've found the following which comes quite highly recommended for everyday gaming (not the extreme stuff)

Acer Aspire Timeline UM3 - 581TG

It has a dedicated graphics card GE Force GT 640M and the processor is i7.

I've found it for £750.

If anyone can recommend anything better for around the same price, I'd be happy to know.

Many thanks

brutus1983

If it was upto me I'd get a desktop you can a lot more for the money in a proper pc than a laptop especially if a more demanding game comes out that a laptop can't handle

Terrysdelight

brutus1983 wrote: »

If it was upto me I'd get a desktop you can a lot more for the money in a proper pc than a laptop especially if a more demanding game comes out that a laptop can't handle

I did think that and I've suggested it, but he likes to play in different rooms so it's quite awkward.

If I could persuade him, does the prospect of having a proper pc, mean that it could easily be upgraded if necessary?

Cisco001

Acer Aspire V3-5710 8GB, nVidia geforce 630M (P = i5 3210)
This is the best among those three.
What is your budget? There may be other better options...

brutus1983

Terrysdelight wrote: »

I did think that and I've suggested it, but he likes to play in different rooms so it's quite awkward.

If I could persuade him, does the prospect of having a proper pc, mean that it could easily be upgraded if necessary?

Yep more cheaply too

brutus1983

Also I'd tell your son be happy he's getting a new computer if he complains tell him buy a laptop himself

Terrysdelight

Son has now googled something about minecraft only to find out the users he plays with don't have laptops but desktops.

He now agrees to a desk top. Think this will be better as they don't overheat like the laptops.

If I can get away with paying no more than £750 I will be pleased.

Any ideas for desktops?

Many thanks
Terri

gonzo127

desktops are far far far better for games than laptops.

couple of things to consider however just so you dont get to setting it up and realise that you need something else or have a problem

sorry this is a 'over the top' list of things to consider, as some will not be a consideration for most people, i just think they are worth having in mind incase they might be an issue

screen how big? where is it positioned (sunlight?)? any space limitations? does he have a TV which he might wish to or could use as a monitor to get a better computer (more budget for computer parts)?

pre built or self build? - self build usually means slightly better system or at least a better quality of component as you can pick every part yourself, pre build means no extra work for you but you will be limited in choice even when going to a custom builder website

keyboard mouse speakers headphones controlers or which combination? wired or wireless?

wired or wireless internet? powerline adaptors etc to get less 'lag' for his gaming

is he someone who will want bragging rights over the major parts, or is he willing to drop to slightly less powerful main components and get a more balanced system (thinking dropping to a lower powered CPU to get a good SSD)

Terrysdelight

gonzo127 wrote: »

desktops are far far far better for games than laptops.

couple of things to consider however just so you dont get to setting it up and realise that you need something else or have a problem

sorry this is a 'over the top' list of things to consider, as some will not be a consideration for most people, i just think they are worth having in mind incase they might be an issue

screen how big? where is it positioned (sunlight?)? any space limitations? does he have a TV which he might wish to or could use as a monitor to get a better computer (more budget for computer parts)?

pre built or self build? - self build usually means slightly better system or at least a better quality of component as you can pick every part yourself, pre build means no extra work for you but you will be limited in choice even when going to a custom builder website

keyboard mouse speakers headphones controlers or which combination? wired or wireless?

wired or wireless internet? powerline adaptors etc to get less 'lag' for his gaming

is he someone who will want bragging rights over the major parts, or is he willing to drop to slightly less powerful main components and get a more balanced system (thinking dropping to a lower powered CPU to get a good SSD)

Thanks, really appreciate this info. No he won't want bragging rights.

I'd like to get him a decent desktop - he's already got a 32 inch tv which he connects his laptop too, so guess he'll do the same again with the desk-top.

What is a SSD? (Sorry!!)

Many thanks
T

gonzo127

a SSD is a solid state drive and are used as a hard drive, the main difference being they use 'flash' memory and not spinning platters, this makes them much faster in getting information and writing information to them, and brings together such as 20 second boot times and virtually instantanious load times for applications saved on them

their big downfall is their price to capacity when compared to a 'normal' hard drive in that for the price of a 1tb normal hard drive you will only get a 128gb (around 1/10th the size) SSD