ummmmmmmmmmm, first things first, you get what you pay for.
I got my son a $600.00 laptop for college, he put GW2 on it and plays it on medium settings. That was on Amazon. Had to also buy a cooling lap fan for it.
Walmart has crap laptops, some of them with dedicated video cards... but seriously they are poop.
Seriously, if your getting a laptop for gaming, i assume you are since your asking this question on a gaming website, spending over 1100.00 is really where you need to hit to get something decent.
You are better off getting a desktop for gaming if your on a budget, there are tons of budget builds on the internets, just google it.
I couldn't find anything with a dedicated card for less than $700, though I admittedly didn't look very hard. The best thing I found at around $600 was http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834313719. It's 12% off with free shipping at the moment.
You might be able to find something better on eBay or Craigslist, but from a retailer and at around $600, something with an A10-5750M in it is probably your best bet.
Firstly...don't let "sale" prices and special offers lull you into thinking your getting a deal. Your checkout price will be the same with or without their offers and rebates and all those other lies. Unless they are going out of business (for real) or it's black friday...that's all a load.
Secondly, don't count out small businesses. Like some local computer repair shop. They often do non-warrantied budget builds, partially off parts from stuff that would other wise go to recycle. You can save a lot of money having a local build it to spec. They often can't sell what they would use other wise. And so, you end up paying for time in more then parts.
For a sub-$600 laptop, you don't want a discrete card. Any discrete card you could get in that price range would probably be slower than integrated graphics. You want AMD integrated graphics. Here's a laptop with their best laptop integrated graphics:
If you're going to play games on it, you can improve gaming performance substantially by properly matching the memory channels. The laptop comes with a 2 GB module and a 4 GB module; pull out the 2 GB module and replace it with this:
I couldn't find anything with a dedicated card for less than $700, though I admittedly didn't look very hard. The best thing I found at around $600 was http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834313719. It's 12% off with free shipping at the moment.
You might be able to find something better on eBay or Craigslist, but from a retailer and at around $600, something with an A10-5750M in it is probably your best bet.
Firstly...don't let "sale" prices and special offers lull you into thinking your getting a deal. Your checkout price will be the same with or without their offers and rebates and all those other lies. Unless they are going out of business (for real) or it's black friday...that's all a load.
Secondly, don't count out small businesses. Like some local computer repair shop. They often do non-warrantied budget builds, partially off parts from stuff that would other wise go to recycle. You can save a lot of money having a local build it to spec. They often can't sell what they would use other wise. And so, you end up paying for time in more then parts.
While I agree in principle that you shouldn't get caught up in chasing sales, that's awfully cheap for the best integrated graphics on the market.
I couldn't find anything with a dedicated card for less than $700, though I admittedly didn't look very hard. The best thing I found at around $600 was http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834313719. It's 12% off with free shipping at the moment.
You might be able to find something better on eBay or Craigslist, but from a retailer and at around $600, something with an A10-5750M in it is probably your best bet.
Firstly...don't let "sale" prices and special offers lull you into thinking your getting a deal. Your checkout price will be the same with or without their offers and rebates and all those other lies. Unless they are going out of business (for real) or it's black friday...that's all a load.
Secondly, don't count out small businesses. Like some local computer repair shop. They often do non-warrantied budget builds, partially off parts from stuff that would other wise go to recycle. You can save a lot of money having a local build it to spec. They often can't sell what they would use other wise. And so, you end up paying for time in more then parts.
While I agree in principle that you shouldn't get caught up in chasing sales, that's awfully cheap for the best integrated graphics on the market.
how cheap is it after factoring in making the trail software permanent, upgrading the OS, and a 1-2 year warranty?...they will find a place to fill the cost. Either that or if you see this deal everywhere... that means something superior for a comparable price is about to hit.
I couldn't find anything with a dedicated card for less than $700, though I admittedly didn't look very hard. The best thing I found at around $600 was http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834313719. It's 12% off with free shipping at the moment.
You might be able to find something better on eBay or Craigslist, but from a retailer and at around $600, something with an A10-5750M in it is probably your best bet.
Firstly...don't let "sale" prices and special offers lull you into thinking your getting a deal. Your checkout price will be the same with or without their offers and rebates and all those other lies. Unless they are going out of business (for real) or it's black friday...that's all a load.
Secondly, don't count out small businesses. Like some local computer repair shop. They often do non-warrantied budget builds, partially off parts from stuff that would other wise go to recycle. You can save a lot of money having a local build it to spec. They often can't sell what they would use other wise. And so, you end up paying for time in more then parts.
That's the best A10-5750M laptop that Newegg has for under $600, I just felt like pointing out that it is currently 12% off. There's no point in trying to chase sales, but there's nothing wrong with scooping something up while it's on sale if you can. And, as Quiz pointed out, with the laptop being on sale the OP could also pick up another stick of RAM to solve the memory bottleneck and still be under $600.
Edit:
Trial software is bloatware, you delete it like always and it doesn't cost you a thing. No one forces a warranty on you, and the laptop probably comes with a 1 year manufacturer's warranty anyways. Newegg has sales all the time, hell I get coupons and special offers in their newsletter every day. There's no nefarious plot behind it.
The warranties are listed as additional costs on the side. also:
I believe that is the same machine for a few dollars more. Why? Maybe because when you click add to cart on amazon there is not an in-between ad page trying to push 3 peripherals on you like there is on newegg (peripherals that having 'saved money' buying it on newegg, your assumed to be much more likely to purchase). Of course amazon has it's own trick having something that is on the surface very similar for 1 cent less then newegg (processor is better but you don't get that radeon).
...point being (as I had said unless they are truly going out of business or it is black friday and they want to offload last go around remaining stock) there is no such thing as a sale. only sales tactics. You shouldn't pay any attention to how much your are supposedly saving. Because, that doesn't matter. And, you are more likely to get better overall experience going through a small business. Not only is there room to work out a better deal that you won't get for the most part online or with a big box store. But, you will be working with a person and not an automated sales program.
Just before buying online. See who is in your area. And, if you find a local 'computer guy'. go to the local coffee shop and ask about him before even setting first foot inside his shop. Ask him if he will work for part trade even (you might have something he wants that you don't).
I couldn't find anything with a dedicated card for less than $700, though I admittedly didn't look very hard. The best thing I found at around $600 was http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834313719. It's 12% off with free shipping at the moment.
You might be able to find something better on eBay or Craigslist, but from a retailer and at around $600, something with an A10-5750M in it is probably your best bet.
how cheap is it after factoring in making the trail software permanent, upgrading the OS, and a 1-2 year warranty?...they will find a place to fill the cost. Either that or if you see this deal everywhere... that means something superior for a comparable price is about to hit.
Who uses bundled trial software? Companies like McAffee have to bundle their virus protection with new laptops because their product is junk and they get most of their money from people who don't know any better. Everything else is bloatware and should be removed immediately.
If you need virus protection, use any of the free products out there. Microsoft Security Essentials (Windows Defender in Windows 8) is adequate and keeps the system resource usage low, which is what you want for gaming. You can get by without virus protection if your computer doesn't store any important data and you don't visit shady sites or download torrents.
Extended warranties are overrated too. Computers last 1-2 years, if you don't physically abuse them. By that time, you will probably want to upgrade again.
I believe that is the same machine for a few dollars more. Why? Maybe because when you click add to cart on amazon there is not an in-between ad page trying to push 3 peripherals on you like there is on newegg (peripherals that having 'saved money' buying it on newegg, your assumed to be much more likely to purchase). Of course amazon has it's own trick having something that is on the surface very similar for 1 cent less then newegg (processor is better but you don't get that radeon).
...point being (as I had said unless they are truly going out of business or it is black friday and they want to offload last go around remaining stock) there is no such thing as a sale. only sales tactics. You shouldn't pay any attention to how much your are supposedly saving. Because, that doesn't matter. And, you are more likely to get better overall experience going through a small business. Not only is there room to work out a better deal that you won't get for the most part online or with a big box store. But, you will be working with a person and not an automated sales program.
Just before buying online. See who is in your area. And, if you find a local 'computer guy'. go to the local coffee shop and ask about him before even setting first foot inside his shop. Ask him if he will work for part trade even (you might have something he wants that you don't).
You seem to have an incredibly irrational fear of shopping online. I'm not saying that buying local is a bad idea, but thinking that online retailers are out to get you is just silly. There's nothing wrong with shopping online and there's nothing wrong with saving a few bucks while doing so.
I don't know where your pulling the irrational fear from. I illustrated the still valid point that sales in the form of discounts -and this applies to nearly every venue- are generally a myth (and especially so online). And, that this should be a factor in the decision to buy from one online vendor/distributor or another. And I didn't say you can't save a bit of money buying online. Just that it isn't likely that between two online choices that you will really walk away actually saving any amount that was worth saving for the time spent figuring out where best to save.
Originally posted by MMOExposed good thread, but what about some cheap Desktops PC for gaming, and Game Engine game design?
If you want to do anything that involves development and especially if you will be doing renders (textures, 3d scenes etc.). make sure you get a board that supports (and that you also have with your build) dual graphics cards. And, that either of the cards supports dual displays (which you also would want to run). And, get a draw tablet.
Why does everyone insist on having a laptop ?......I travel a lot, I have one, a cheap $400 one. I played many new games and mmos on it with the settings turned down to nothing. But people seem to insist on running a game on max settings or not at all !
When I'm not traveling, my laptop goes into the closet and stays there....The thing is less than half of what my desktop is. My desktop is FULLY CUSTIMIZABLE. Ram is cheap, Graphics cards are cheap, everything is cheap. As long as you buy parts off the internet AND BUY LAST YEARS MODEL OF PARTS they sell for almost nothing !!!!! .......Do yourself a favor and buy a desktop, hook it up to your flat screen with a hdmi cable and your stereo.......I'm 99% sure you don't travel like me, and even if you do a little traveling, try going without a computer at all, because most likely your on vacation anyway !
ummmmmmmmmmm, first things first, you get what you pay for.
I got my son a $600.00 laptop for college, he put GW2 on it and plays it on medium settings. That was on Amazon. Had to also buy a cooling lap fan for it.
Walmart has crap laptops, some of them with dedicated video cards... but seriously they are poop.
Seriously, if your getting a laptop for gaming, i assume you are since your asking this question on a gaming website, spending over 1100.00 is really where you need to hit to get something decent.
You are better off getting a desktop for gaming if your on a budget, there are tons of budget builds on the internets, just google it.
agreed, its much easier to get a good gaming desktop computer for $600 or $700 than a good laptop for the same price.
========================== The game is dead not, this game is good we make it and Romania Tv give it 5 goat heads, this is good rating for game.
If you are on a budget for then it's better to get a cheap windows 8 tablet (x86) and a console. I've tried gaming on laptops a few times, but they get super hot. They are small and not meant for gaming. Even the ones that are designed for gaming get super hot. They will probably burn out fairly quickly if you play on them constantly. I feel desktop PC and consoles are for gaming unless you want to play Tetris, Angry Birds, or a Super Nintendo game. Desktops are generally fairly expensive though. I love to build my own, but it's cost me a fair penny over the years. I put a lot of my money into upgrading and building PCs over the years instead of others I could have done with it. It is a lot more multi purpose. I would never recommend a Laptop for gaming with 3D games or an MMO.
I couldn't find anything with a dedicated card for less than $700, though I admittedly didn't look very hard. The best thing I found at around $600 was http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834313719. It's 12% off with free shipping at the moment.
You might be able to find something better on eBay or Craigslist, but from a retailer and at around $600, something with an A10-5750M in it is probably your best bet.
Firstly...don't let "sale" prices and special offers lull you into thinking your getting a deal. Your checkout price will be the same with or without their offers and rebates and all those other lies. Unless they are going out of business (for real) or it's black friday...that's all a load.
Secondly, don't count out small businesses. Like some local computer repair shop. They often do non-warrantied budget builds, partially off parts from stuff that would other wise go to recycle. You can save a lot of money having a local build it to spec. They often can't sell what they would use other wise. And so, you end up paying for time in more then parts.
That's the best A10-5750M laptop that Newegg has for under $600, I just felt like pointing out that it is currently 12% off. There's no point in trying to chase sales, but there's nothing wrong with scooping something up while it's on sale if you can. And, as Quiz pointed out, with the laptop being on sale the OP could also pick up another stick of RAM to solve the memory bottleneck and still be under $600.
Edit:
Trial software is bloatware, you delete it like always and it doesn't cost you a thing. No one forces a warranty on you, and the laptop probably comes with a 1 year manufacturer's warranty anyways. Newegg has sales all the time, hell I get coupons and special offers in their newsletter every day. There's no nefarious plot behind it.
The warranties are listed as additional costs on the side. also:
I believe that is the same machine for a few dollars more. Why? Maybe because when you click add to cart on amazon there is not an in-between ad page trying to push 3 peripherals on you like there is on newegg (peripherals that having 'saved money' buying it on newegg, your assumed to be much more likely to purchase). Of course amazon has it's own trick having something that is on the surface very similar for 1 cent less then newegg (processor is better but you don't get that radeon).
...point being (as I had said unless they are truly going out of business or it is black friday and they want to offload last go around remaining stock) there is no such thing as a sale. only sales tactics. You shouldn't pay any attention to how much your are supposedly saving. Because, that doesn't matter. And, you are more likely to get better overall experience going through a small business. Not only is there room to work out a better deal that you won't get for the most part online or with a big box store. But, you will be working with a person and not an automated sales program.
Just before buying online. See who is in your area. And, if you find a local 'computer guy'. go to the local coffee shop and ask about him before even setting first foot inside his shop. Ask him if he will work for part trade even (you might have something he wants that you don't).
So when Sapphire was selling Radeon HD 5850s for $140 in April 2011, you're telling me that wasn't a sale? That would have still been a decent value for the money on a pure price/performance basis two years later.
Or how about the Antec Neo Eco 400C that New Egg briefly sold for $11 after rebate? That's not a sale?
Most "sales" are just marketing hype. But occasionally you do find things unusually cheap. The Lenovo laptop with an A10-5750M isn't quite the steal of the two things mentioned above, but it is an awfully good deal if you're looking to buy something today. Of course, it might not seem so great once Kaveri comes to laptops shortly, depending on how those are priced.
Originally posted by Flyte27 If you are on a budget for then it's better to get a cheap windows 8 tablet (x86) and a console. I've tried gaming on laptops a few times, but they get super hot. They are small and not meant for gaming. Even the ones that are designed for gaming get super hot. They will probably burn out fairly quickly if you play on them constantly. I feel desktop PC and consoles are for gaming unless you want to play Tetris, Angry Birds, or a Super Nintendo game. Desktops are generally fairly expensive though. I love to build my own, but it's cost me a fair penny over the years. I put a lot of my money into upgrading and building PCs over the years instead of others I could have done with it. It is a lot more multi purpose. I would never recommend a Laptop for gaming with 3D games or an MMO.
Heat is one of the reasons that I push integrated graphics for budget gaming laptops. If you have a 45 W CPU and a 75 W GPU, that's an awful lot of heat for a laptop. But the A10-5750M has a TDP of 35 W, meaning that for the CPU and GPU together, it will cap the heat output at a laptop-friendly 35 W. If heat output exceeds that, the chip will detect it within a fraction of a second and clock itself down as far as necessary to bring power consumption back to 35 W.
Originally posted by Flyte27 If you are on a budget for then it's better to get a cheap windows 8 tablet (x86) and a console. I've tried gaming on laptops a few times, but they get super hot. They are small and not meant for gaming. Even the ones that are designed for gaming get super hot. They will probably burn out fairly quickly if you play on them constantly. I feel desktop PC and consoles are for gaming unless you want to play Tetris, Angry Birds, or a Super Nintendo game. Desktops are generally fairly expensive though. I love to build my own, but it's cost me a fair penny over the years. I put a lot of my money into upgrading and building PCs over the years instead of others I could have done with it. It is a lot more multi purpose. I would never recommend a Laptop for gaming with 3D games or an MMO.
Heat is one of the reasons that I push integrated graphics for budget gaming laptops. If you have a 45 W CPU and a 75 W GPU, that's an awful lot of heat for a laptop. But the A10-5750M has a TDP of 35 W, meaning that for the CPU and GPU together, it will cap the heat output at a laptop-friendly 35 W. If heat output exceeds that, the chip will detect it within a fraction of a second and clock itself down as far as necessary to bring power consumption back to 35 W.
Good point, but most 3D games that are made in the last 10 years will struggle on an integrated GPU. The AMDs have decent integrated GPUs, but they are probably only a slight step above an Intel one? It's possible that one day we will see both power, efficiency, and heat combined in a laptop, but I don't think we are there yet. It is pretty amazing that I can run a full version of Windows 8 smoothly on a 200 dollar Lenovo tablet and it has a 32 gig hard drive. It also runs as cool as other tablets out there. I think it has an atom 15 watt processor and an integrated Intel GPU. It will never play serious games though. Even on low settings. I'd imagine the AMD APU would struggle a lot even on low settings for most games.
I have a Lenovo Y500 that I bought for about 950 and it runs everything on highest settings. It has a dual SLI nvidia, so yeah, but you could get a single card version for 500-600.
For the last five years, I've used gaming laptops as opposed to gaming desktops. It was a nice experiment. Laptops are great for low-intensive gaming with real life friends.
But here's my recommendation: get a cheap, no frills laptop for work. Then, spend the rest of your money in a gaming desktop. Desktops are just so much more superior for gaming in every aspect. I know I will no longer be buying gaming laptops.
Originally posted by Flyte27 If you are on a budget for then it's better to get a cheap windows 8 tablet (x86) and a console. I've tried gaming on laptops a few times, but they get super hot. They are small and not meant for gaming. Even the ones that are designed for gaming get super hot. They will probably burn out fairly quickly if you play on them constantly. I feel desktop PC and consoles are for gaming unless you want to play Tetris, Angry Birds, or a Super Nintendo game. Desktops are generally fairly expensive though. I love to build my own, but it's cost me a fair penny over the years. I put a lot of my money into upgrading and building PCs over the years instead of others I could have done with it. It is a lot more multi purpose. I would never recommend a Laptop for gaming with 3D games or an MMO.
Heat is one of the reasons that I push integrated graphics for budget gaming laptops. If you have a 45 W CPU and a 75 W GPU, that's an awful lot of heat for a laptop. But the A10-5750M has a TDP of 35 W, meaning that for the CPU and GPU together, it will cap the heat output at a laptop-friendly 35 W. If heat output exceeds that, the chip will detect it within a fraction of a second and clock itself down as far as necessary to bring power consumption back to 35 W.
Good point, but most 3D games that are made in the last 10 years will struggle on an integrated GPU. The AMDs have decent integrated GPUs, but they are probably only a slight step above an Intel one? It's possible that one day we will see both power, efficiency, and heat combined in a laptop, but I don't think we are there yet. It is pretty amazing that I can run a full version of Windows 8 smoothly on a 200 dollar Lenovo tablet and it has a 32 gig hard drive. It also runs as cool as other tablets out there. I think it has an atom 15 watt processor and an integrated Intel GPU. It will never play serious games though. Even on low settings. I'd imagine the AMD APU would struggle a lot even on low settings for most games.
Unless you count the $600+ Intel Iris Pro--and that price is for just the CPU, not an entire computer--AMD integrated graphics are far superior to Intel's. And the tablet version that you got is a severely cut down version of Intel graphics, at that.
The GPU in the A10-5750 would have been the highest end card on the market 8 years ago in any form factor. 6 years ago, it would have been considered a capable gaming card. 4 years ago, it would still have been a decent budget gaming card by desktop standards. Today, yeah, it's low end, at least as far as desktops go. But it's still capable enough that you should typically be thinking medium settings, not low--and in older games, you may be able to pull off high or even max settings.
Originally posted by Flyte27 If you are on a budget for then it's better to get a cheap windows 8 tablet (x86) and a console. I've tried gaming on laptops a few times, but they get super hot. They are small and not meant for gaming. Even the ones that are designed for gaming get super hot. They will probably burn out fairly quickly if you play on them constantly. I feel desktop PC and consoles are for gaming unless you want to play Tetris, Angry Birds, or a Super Nintendo game. Desktops are generally fairly expensive though. I love to build my own, but it's cost me a fair penny over the years. I put a lot of my money into upgrading and building PCs over the years instead of others I could have done with it. It is a lot more multi purpose. I would never recommend a Laptop for gaming with 3D games or an MMO.
Heat is one of the reasons that I push integrated graphics for budget gaming laptops. If you have a 45 W CPU and a 75 W GPU, that's an awful lot of heat for a laptop. But the A10-5750M has a TDP of 35 W, meaning that for the CPU and GPU together, it will cap the heat output at a laptop-friendly 35 W. If heat output exceeds that, the chip will detect it within a fraction of a second and clock itself down as far as necessary to bring power consumption back to 35 W.
Good point, but most 3D games that are made in the last 10 years will struggle on an integrated GPU. The AMDs have decent integrated GPUs, but they are probably only a slight step above an Intel one? It's possible that one day we will see both power, efficiency, and heat combined in a laptop, but I don't think we are there yet. It is pretty amazing that I can run a full version of Windows 8 smoothly on a 200 dollar Lenovo tablet and it has a 32 gig hard drive. It also runs as cool as other tablets out there. I think it has an atom 15 watt processor and an integrated Intel GPU. It will never play serious games though. Even on low settings. I'd imagine the AMD APU would struggle a lot even on low settings for most games.
Unless you count the $600+ Intel Iris Pro--and that price is for just the CPU, not an entire computer--AMD integrated graphics are far superior to Intel's. And the tablet version that you got is a severely cut down version of Intel graphics, at that.
The GPU in the A10-5750 would have been the highest end card on the market 8 years ago in any form factor. 6 years ago, it would have been considered a capable gaming card. 4 years ago, it would still have been a decent budget gaming card by desktop standards. Today, yeah, it's low end, at least as far as desktops go. But it's still capable enough that you should typically be thinking medium settings, not low--and in older games, you may be able to pull off high or even max settings.
So far I haven't seen a laptop that runs cool under load. Even just browsing the web they seem to get hot after about 20 to 30 minutes of use. 35 watts does seem quite low. I believe that you need somewhere around 10-15 watt for passive cooling that doesn't get to hot. I recall reading that when looking for an x86 tablet that wouldn't get to hot. Usually laptops have fans, but they spew out hot air all over the place. That is pretty neat if you can run most games on medium settings. I wouldn't have thought that even with the most powerful APU available.
So far I haven't seen a laptop that runs cool under load. Even just browsing the web they seem to get hot after about 20 to 30 minutes of use. 35 watts does seem quite low. I believe that you need somewhere around 10-15 watt for passive cooling that doesn't get to hot. I recall reading that when looking for an x86 tablet that wouldn't get to hot. Usually laptops have fans, but they spew out hot air all over the place. That is pretty neat if you can run most games on medium settings. I wouldn't have thought that even with the most powerful APU available.
15 W is way, way too much for passive cooling unless you've got space for a big heatsink--which you certainly don't in a laptop, let alone a tablet. If passive cooling without frying anything is the priority, you should be looking at an AMD Temash or Intel Bay Trail chip, which is a different class of hardware entirely.
The Microsoft Surface Pro and Pro 2 do use 15-17 W chips, but they rely on the chip being nearly idle nearly all of the time so that it will virtually never actually use more than a few watts for thermally significant periods of time. It's not an accident that Microsoft advertises them as being for Office (which lets the hardware be nearly idle), not for games. Try to play games on those and they'd get very, very hot and I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if the result was dead hardware.
But throw a fan in and you can easily dissipate a lot more heat. 35 W is no big deal in a laptop if they do a decent job of cooling it. Intel seems to have settled on 45-47 W as what the CPU alone ought to be allowed put out in a laptop.
Comments
ummmmmmmmmmm, first things first, you get what you pay for.
I got my son a $600.00 laptop for college, he put GW2 on it and plays it on medium settings. That was on Amazon. Had to also buy a cooling lap fan for it.
Walmart has crap laptops, some of them with dedicated video cards... but seriously they are poop.
Seriously, if your getting a laptop for gaming, i assume you are since your asking this question on a gaming website, spending over 1100.00 is really where you need to hit to get something decent.
You are better off getting a desktop for gaming if your on a budget, there are tons of budget builds on the internets, just google it.
Lolipops !
Best Regards, ...
Firstly...don't let "sale" prices and special offers lull you into thinking your getting a deal. Your checkout price will be the same with or without their offers and rebates and all those other lies. Unless they are going out of business (for real) or it's black friday...that's all a load.
Secondly, don't count out small businesses. Like some local computer repair shop. They often do non-warrantied budget builds, partially off parts from stuff that would other wise go to recycle. You can save a lot of money having a local build it to spec. They often can't sell what they would use other wise. And so, you end up paying for time in more then parts.
For a sub-$600 laptop, you don't want a discrete card. Any discrete card you could get in that price range would probably be slower than integrated graphics. You want AMD integrated graphics. Here's a laptop with their best laptop integrated graphics:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312829
If you're going to play games on it, you can improve gaming performance substantially by properly matching the memory channels. The laptop comes with a 2 GB module and a 4 GB module; pull out the 2 GB module and replace it with this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231702
Laptop plus memory is $565.
While I agree in principle that you shouldn't get caught up in chasing sales, that's awfully cheap for the best integrated graphics on the market.
how cheap is it after factoring in making the trail software permanent, upgrading the OS, and a 1-2 year warranty?...they will find a place to fill the cost. Either that or if you see this deal everywhere... that means something superior for a comparable price is about to hit.
The warranties are listed as additional costs on the side. also:
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-G505s-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Black/dp/B00CRXZUD0/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1398564718&sr=1-4&keywords=lenovo+ideapad+g505s
I believe that is the same machine for a few dollars more. Why? Maybe because when you click add to cart on amazon there is not an in-between ad page trying to push 3 peripherals on you like there is on newegg (peripherals that having 'saved money' buying it on newegg, your assumed to be much more likely to purchase). Of course amazon has it's own trick having something that is on the surface very similar for 1 cent less then newegg (processor is better but you don't get that radeon).
...point being (as I had said unless they are truly going out of business or it is black friday and they want to offload last go around remaining stock) there is no such thing as a sale. only sales tactics. You shouldn't pay any attention to how much your are supposedly saving. Because, that doesn't matter. And, you are more likely to get better overall experience going through a small business. Not only is there room to work out a better deal that you won't get for the most part online or with a big box store. But, you will be working with a person and not an automated sales program.
Just before buying online. See who is in your area. And, if you find a local 'computer guy'. go to the local coffee shop and ask about him before even setting first foot inside his shop. Ask him if he will work for part trade even (you might have something he wants that you don't).
Who uses bundled trial software? Companies like McAffee have to bundle their virus protection with new laptops because their product is junk and they get most of their money from people who don't know any better. Everything else is bloatware and should be removed immediately.
If you need virus protection, use any of the free products out there. Microsoft Security Essentials (Windows Defender in Windows 8) is adequate and keeps the system resource usage low, which is what you want for gaming. You can get by without virus protection if your computer doesn't store any important data and you don't visit shady sites or download torrents.
Extended warranties are overrated too. Computers last 1-2 years, if you don't physically abuse them. By that time, you will probably want to upgrade again.
I don't know where your pulling the irrational fear from. I illustrated the still valid point that sales in the form of discounts -and this applies to nearly every venue- are generally a myth (and especially so online). And, that this should be a factor in the decision to buy from one online vendor/distributor or another. And I didn't say you can't save a bit of money buying online. Just that it isn't likely that between two online choices that you will really walk away actually saving any amount that was worth saving for the time spent figuring out where best to save.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
If you want to do anything that involves development and especially if you will be doing renders (textures, 3d scenes etc.). make sure you get a board that supports (and that you also have with your build) dual graphics cards. And, that either of the cards supports dual displays (which you also would want to run). And, get a draw tablet.
First I would like to say......Why a laptop ?
Why does everyone insist on having a laptop ?......I travel a lot, I have one, a cheap $400 one. I played many new games and mmos on it with the settings turned down to nothing. But people seem to insist on running a game on max settings or not at all !
When I'm not traveling, my laptop goes into the closet and stays there....The thing is less than half of what my desktop is. My desktop is FULLY CUSTIMIZABLE. Ram is cheap, Graphics cards are cheap, everything is cheap. As long as you buy parts off the internet AND BUY LAST YEARS MODEL OF PARTS they sell for almost nothing !!!!! .......Do yourself a favor and buy a desktop, hook it up to your flat screen with a hdmi cable and your stereo.......I'm 99% sure you don't travel like me, and even if you do a little traveling, try going without a computer at all, because most likely your on vacation anyway !
Asbo
agreed, its much easier to get a good gaming desktop computer for $600 or $700 than a good laptop for the same price.
==========================
The game is dead not, this game is good we make it and Romania Tv give it 5 goat heads, this is good rating for game.
So when Sapphire was selling Radeon HD 5850s for $140 in April 2011, you're telling me that wasn't a sale? That would have still been a decent value for the money on a pure price/performance basis two years later.
Or how about the Antec Neo Eco 400C that New Egg briefly sold for $11 after rebate? That's not a sale?
Most "sales" are just marketing hype. But occasionally you do find things unusually cheap. The Lenovo laptop with an A10-5750M isn't quite the steal of the two things mentioned above, but it is an awfully good deal if you're looking to buy something today. Of course, it might not seem so great once Kaveri comes to laptops shortly, depending on how those are priced.
Heat is one of the reasons that I push integrated graphics for budget gaming laptops. If you have a 45 W CPU and a 75 W GPU, that's an awful lot of heat for a laptop. But the A10-5750M has a TDP of 35 W, meaning that for the CPU and GPU together, it will cap the heat output at a laptop-friendly 35 W. If heat output exceeds that, the chip will detect it within a fraction of a second and clock itself down as far as necessary to bring power consumption back to 35 W.
Good point, but most 3D games that are made in the last 10 years will struggle on an integrated GPU. The AMDs have decent integrated GPUs, but they are probably only a slight step above an Intel one? It's possible that one day we will see both power, efficiency, and heat combined in a laptop, but I don't think we are there yet. It is pretty amazing that I can run a full version of Windows 8 smoothly on a 200 dollar Lenovo tablet and it has a 32 gig hard drive. It also runs as cool as other tablets out there. I think it has an atom 15 watt processor and an integrated Intel GPU. It will never play serious games though. Even on low settings. I'd imagine the AMD APU would struggle a lot even on low settings for most games.
look into Lenovo Y models
I have a Lenovo Y500 that I bought for about 950 and it runs everything on highest settings. It has a dual SLI nvidia, so yeah, but you could get a single card version for 500-600.
look for weekly sales on Lenovo site too for
lenovo y400
y500
y410p
y510p
they're all really good
I review lots of indie games and MMORPGs
For the last five years, I've used gaming laptops as opposed to gaming desktops. It was a nice experiment. Laptops are great for low-intensive gaming with real life friends.
But here's my recommendation: get a cheap, no frills laptop for work. Then, spend the rest of your money in a gaming desktop. Desktops are just so much more superior for gaming in every aspect. I know I will no longer be buying gaming laptops.
Unless you count the $600+ Intel Iris Pro--and that price is for just the CPU, not an entire computer--AMD integrated graphics are far superior to Intel's. And the tablet version that you got is a severely cut down version of Intel graphics, at that.
The GPU in the A10-5750 would have been the highest end card on the market 8 years ago in any form factor. 6 years ago, it would have been considered a capable gaming card. 4 years ago, it would still have been a decent budget gaming card by desktop standards. Today, yeah, it's low end, at least as far as desktops go. But it's still capable enough that you should typically be thinking medium settings, not low--and in older games, you may be able to pull off high or even max settings.
So far I haven't seen a laptop that runs cool under load. Even just browsing the web they seem to get hot after about 20 to 30 minutes of use. 35 watts does seem quite low. I believe that you need somewhere around 10-15 watt for passive cooling that doesn't get to hot. I recall reading that when looking for an x86 tablet that wouldn't get to hot. Usually laptops have fans, but they spew out hot air all over the place. That is pretty neat if you can run most games on medium settings. I wouldn't have thought that even with the most powerful APU available.
15 W is way, way too much for passive cooling unless you've got space for a big heatsink--which you certainly don't in a laptop, let alone a tablet. If passive cooling without frying anything is the priority, you should be looking at an AMD Temash or Intel Bay Trail chip, which is a different class of hardware entirely.
The Microsoft Surface Pro and Pro 2 do use 15-17 W chips, but they rely on the chip being nearly idle nearly all of the time so that it will virtually never actually use more than a few watts for thermally significant periods of time. It's not an accident that Microsoft advertises them as being for Office (which lets the hardware be nearly idle), not for games. Try to play games on those and they'd get very, very hot and I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if the result was dead hardware.
But throw a fan in and you can easily dissipate a lot more heat. 35 W is no big deal in a laptop if they do a decent job of cooling it. Intel seems to have settled on 45-47 W as what the CPU alone ought to be allowed put out in a laptop.