Just looking for a good all-around laptop for under $400! If it could play some games, awesome! If you guys have any recommendations, please let me know!
This is the one I am currently considering: Acer Laptop Aspire AMD A10-7300 8GB Memory 1TB HDD AMD Radeon R6 Series 15.6" Windows 8.1 E5-551-T374 - Newegg.com
Not realy anless you just what to play minecraft.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Kaveri-A10-7300-Notebook-Processor.117333.0.html
Well being able to play games isn't a necessity. I was just saying it would be a plus if it could.
That might do something.
So might that.
If you can hold on a little longer and save, that will get you through anything. And do wait a while, and think hard... there are sometimes sacrifices/compromises that you can make without regret.
Anything 2nd hand & quad core - then chuck in a ssd as most laptops come with shitty 5400rpm clunkers. Buying new for that price will yield a throw away laptop.
Hunt around on ebay or the like, but buy the ssd new if you get one.
Intel graphics or AMD's apu lineup provide some ok low end gaming.
Don't be worried about buying second hand, especially if you see a thinkpad. Those things last and everything on them is replaceble.
You could just wait a bit to see how the carrizo laptops perform.
I had a similar dilemma last month, A10 vs i3. Your best choice would be an a10 r7 260m vs i3 gf 840m both 4gb ram(expandable) but seems to be difficult to find in US (I got the i3 840m, better gpu, in EU for like 450$, runs GTAV on med lol, both were similarly priced). Just dont get Intel HD graphics and it WILL play games.
Make sure it only does 1366 x 768 resolution and not 1920 x 1080 because the lower res makes games run smoother and it gets real annoying to lower it every time you install a game. I've seen those same 2 specs from Acer, Asus, HP and Lenovo brands.
Wouldnt buy a 2nd hand laptop, battery is probably ruined and those puppies are expensive, like a 100$.
TLDR
Try finding something like this
I think it all depends on what you plan to do with a laptop. In many instances you do not need the latest motherboard specs to run everyday applications and even if you do need to do more I would also take in consideration a used laptop from a enterprise lineage like HP Elitebook, Lenovo T'series. The latter two at least are easier to maintain than many consumer laptops and have a water spill proof keyboard.
PS I a do not do games on my laptop so... I cannot advice on that at all only if you video editing etc . Personally I stay away from any consumer grade laptop for reasons like:
- build quality
- no water spill proof keyboard
- very hard to maintain or upgrade the hardware
- upgradability, no docking stations available should you ever want to do more with a laptop.
At any rate I hope it helps you deciding what to choose. This NewEgg deal might sound sweet but... this laptop is propably out of date already.
if it can run games who cares if its not the latest model
Another machine you could consider is the Acer Aspire ES1-512-P84G 15.6-Inch Laptop. Saw a review of it here: http://laptopsboard.com/reviews/acer-aspire-es1-512-p84g-15-6-inch-laptop/ -- it seems this article links to some sellers where you can buy it for $279.
vrtnipatuljak said that if it has Intel HD graphics, it won't play games, and this machine does have intel HD graphics. Not sure if this matters....
it does, Intel HD graphics might play Hearthstone but it wont play GTA V