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Looking for a laptop for school/light gaming under 600$.

CurlyCucumber

Hey everyone.

With school approaching, I decided I'm going to invest in a better laptop. My old Asus laptop just isn't doing the job anymore.

I need this laptop to boot up fast so I can do my school work and type up notes, but I'd also like it to be able to run games like TF2 or CS:GO occasionally too.

Now, before you say "you're not going to get anything good for that budget." I know that. I don't expect the games to run on max settings with max AA. Just enough to have the game playable at around 60 fps with low settings or so.

Also, a side note. I'm ALL for buying a refurbished laptop. If I can get a way better laptop with having to risk having to send it back, I'm totally for it.

Thank you for any help provided. I really do appreciate it.

My baby| CPU: Core i5-4690K  |  Motherboard: Asus Maximus Vii Hero  |  CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 Plus |   Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe | GPU: MSI R9 390  |  RAM: 16 GB - G.Skill Ripjaws X |

We brawlers are sustained by willpower, even if mocked as reckless and crazy! - Kamina

 

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Are you going to be bringing this laptop with you to school? if not you can build a small rig for under 600.

CPU: I7 4790k  CPU Cooler: NH-D15 GPUMSI 970 4gb   Motherboard: z97 Gaming 5 PSU: Corsair hx850   Ram: Corsair Vengeance 8 gb  SSD: Samsung 850 Evo  Case: Air 540

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Anything with an A6 or i5 and a gt630m/830m or R7 m270 or better will do the trick for you

Gaming PC: CPU: i7 4770k@4.2GHz w/ CM Nepton 140xl, GPU: Gigabyte 1070 @2050, RAM: ADATA XPG V1 16GB@2133MHz, Mobo: MSI Z97 Gaming 7, Case: Corsair NZXT S340.

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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232376

 

this one seems decent should fit all your criteria

CPU: i5 6600k @ 4.6 ghz  Motherboard: Asus z170-a  Cooling: Corsair h80i GT GPU: EVGA GTX 970  Ram: G.Skill 2x8 gb ddr4 2400  PSU: EVGA G2 Supernova 550w  Case: Corsair 200r Storage: 250GB 850 EVO + 2x wd 1 tb drives

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Are you going to be bringing this laptop with you to school? if not you can build a small rig for under 600.

I would be bringing it to school, yes.

My baby| CPU: Core i5-4690K  |  Motherboard: Asus Maximus Vii Hero  |  CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 Plus |   Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe | GPU: MSI R9 390  |  RAM: 16 GB - G.Skill Ripjaws X |

We brawlers are sustained by willpower, even if mocked as reckless and crazy! - Kamina

 

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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232376

 

this one seems decent should fit all your criteria

That doesn't look bad, actually. I kinda want something with a hybrid drive or SSD, though.. That might be pushing it.

My baby| CPU: Core i5-4690K  |  Motherboard: Asus Maximus Vii Hero  |  CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 Plus |   Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe | GPU: MSI R9 390  |  RAM: 16 GB - G.Skill Ripjaws X |

We brawlers are sustained by willpower, even if mocked as reckless and crazy! - Kamina

 

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That doesn't look bad, actually. I kinda want something with a hybrid drive or SSD, though.. That might be pushing it.

i saw one but you would need to bump up your budget about 100 bucks

CPU: i5 6600k @ 4.6 ghz  Motherboard: Asus z170-a  Cooling: Corsair h80i GT GPU: EVGA GTX 970  Ram: G.Skill 2x8 gb ddr4 2400  PSU: EVGA G2 Supernova 550w  Case: Corsair 200r Storage: 250GB 850 EVO + 2x wd 1 tb drives

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That doesn't look bad, actually. I kinda want something with a hybrid drive or SSD, though.. That might be pushing it.

Yeah that laptop looks pretty damn good actually, just chuck an SSD in for $100 when you have the spare money, you're not going to game on a laptop for $600 with a SSD or hybrid drive by default, they usually swap the gpu for the faster drive.

Gaming PC: CPU: i7 4770k@4.2GHz w/ CM Nepton 140xl, GPU: Gigabyte 1070 @2050, RAM: ADATA XPG V1 16GB@2133MHz, Mobo: MSI Z97 Gaming 7, Case: Corsair NZXT S340.

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Yeah that laptop looks pretty damn good actually, just chuck an SSD in for $100 when you have the spare money, you're not going to game on a laptop for $600 with a SSD or hybrid drive by default, they usually swap the gpu for the faster drive.

How would I put an SSD in there? I'm not too familiar with upgrading laptops.

My baby| CPU: Core i5-4690K  |  Motherboard: Asus Maximus Vii Hero  |  CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 Plus |   Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe | GPU: MSI R9 390  |  RAM: 16 GB - G.Skill Ripjaws X |

We brawlers are sustained by willpower, even if mocked as reckless and crazy! - Kamina

 

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How would I put an SSD in there? I'm not too familiar with upgrading laptops.

Generally you just unscrew the back, unplug the hard disk, plug both the hard disk and ssd into your pc, get a cloning software (I used EaseUS for my dell) and clone the mechanical drive to the SSD, then plug the ssd back in the laptop and screw it back together.

 

Or you can get a SSD for laptops kit which gives you a USB to sata adapter so you can clone the laptops hard disk on the laptop and without an extra pc.

Gaming PC: CPU: i7 4770k@4.2GHz w/ CM Nepton 140xl, GPU: Gigabyte 1070 @2050, RAM: ADATA XPG V1 16GB@2133MHz, Mobo: MSI Z97 Gaming 7, Case: Corsair NZXT S340.

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laptops use 2.5 inch hdds which... happens to be what ssds are

CPU: i5 6600k @ 4.6 ghz  Motherboard: Asus z170-a  Cooling: Corsair h80i GT GPU: EVGA GTX 970  Ram: G.Skill 2x8 gb ddr4 2400  PSU: EVGA G2 Supernova 550w  Case: Corsair 200r Storage: 250GB 850 EVO + 2x wd 1 tb drives

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Generally you just unscrew the back, unplug the hard disk, plug both the hard disk and ssd into your pc, get a cloning software (I used EaseUS for my dell) and clone the mechanical drive to the SSD, then plug the ssd back in the laptop and screw it back together.

 

Or you can get a SSD for laptops kit which gives you a USB to sata adapter so you can clone the laptops hard disk on the laptop and without an extra pc.

Oh nice! I just might do that then. So this could run CS:GO and TF2 at 1080p with low settings I assume? The 940m in that cheap of a laptop is actually really nice, wow..

My baby| CPU: Core i5-4690K  |  Motherboard: Asus Maximus Vii Hero  |  CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 Plus |   Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe | GPU: MSI R9 390  |  RAM: 16 GB - G.Skill Ripjaws X |

We brawlers are sustained by willpower, even if mocked as reckless and crazy! - Kamina

 

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it can run gta at medium settings about 50-60 fps so it should have no problem running csgo and tf2

CPU: i5 6600k @ 4.6 ghz  Motherboard: Asus z170-a  Cooling: Corsair h80i GT GPU: EVGA GTX 970  Ram: G.Skill 2x8 gb ddr4 2400  PSU: EVGA G2 Supernova 550w  Case: Corsair 200r Storage: 250GB 850 EVO + 2x wd 1 tb drives

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it can run gta at medium settings about 50-60 fps so it should have no problem running csgo and tf2

Oh wow, nice! This just might be the one then!

My baby| CPU: Core i5-4690K  |  Motherboard: Asus Maximus Vii Hero  |  CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 Plus |   Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe | GPU: MSI R9 390  |  RAM: 16 GB - G.Skill Ripjaws X |

We brawlers are sustained by willpower, even if mocked as reckless and crazy! - Kamina

 

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Oh nice! I just might do that then. So this could run CS:GO and TF2 at 1080p with low settings I assume? The 940m in that cheap of a laptop is actually really nice, wow..

looking at the specs of the 940 probably even high and still have >100fps

Gaming PC: CPU: i7 4770k@4.2GHz w/ CM Nepton 140xl, GPU: Gigabyte 1070 @2050, RAM: ADATA XPG V1 16GB@2133MHz, Mobo: MSI Z97 Gaming 7, Case: Corsair NZXT S340.

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Would it bring dual core cause any issues? Or would it be fine?

My baby| CPU: Core i5-4690K  |  Motherboard: Asus Maximus Vii Hero  |  CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 Plus |   Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe | GPU: MSI R9 390  |  RAM: 16 GB - G.Skill Ripjaws X |

We brawlers are sustained by willpower, even if mocked as reckless and crazy! - Kamina

 

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Would it bring dual core cause any issues? Or would it be fine?

Not for light gaming. CSGO runs fine on my 8 year old laptop with a Core 2 Duo, so I imagine a much newer processor will do just as well if not better.

If you're concerned this one is a i7 but the screen is worse, battery will be much worse and its probably got a bit worse build quality http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315062

Gaming PC: CPU: i7 4770k@4.2GHz w/ CM Nepton 140xl, GPU: Gigabyte 1070 @2050, RAM: ADATA XPG V1 16GB@2133MHz, Mobo: MSI Z97 Gaming 7, Case: Corsair NZXT S340.

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I currently have a Lenovo Ideapad U430 Touch and it is NICE. You can get one refurb'ed for about $500 now and the batter life has always been great for me. Played league and cs go on it. It has Intel HD 4400 Graphics so you will be running stuff on low however, it is a Ultrabook and meant for productivity and light entertainment. 

Desktop: CPU: intel Core i7 6700K; Memory: 2x8GB Corsair LPX; Graphics: GIGABYTE 1080 ; Storage: 256 GB Samsung EVO SSD & 2x1TB WD Blue; 650W PSU; Mobo: GIGABYTE GAMING 7

Laptop: HP Spectre x360 15" w/ 16GB, 512GB SSD, & Radeon Vega M GL Discrete Graphics

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  • 3 weeks later...

i have a HP m4-1001 tx (i5 3230m, gt 730m, 4 gb ram, 500 hdd) able to play cs:go no problem, able to run gta 5 but needs more ram to play smooth.

Rig: CPU: Intel I7 4790k @ 4.5 ghz | MOBO: MSI Z97 Gaming 3 | RAM: 4x4 gigs Kingston Fury 1600 ddr3 | GPU: MSI Geforce GTX 1070 Gaming X PSU: Seasonic M12ii-620 Evo Edition | HDD: 1 TB WD, 500 GB WD | SSD: Kingston SSD now 240 and 120 GB CASE: In Win 303 RGB edition | Mouse: Corsair m65 pro | Keyboard: Roccat Ryos MK | Headset: Hyper X Cloud Pro  | Monitor: LG 29um58-P Ultrawide monitor.

 

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