To buy or not to buy

Ok for awhile now I have wanted a laptop that could play older games and especially play various baseball simulation games I like which require next to nothing to play. Now the laptop I am looking at shows some decent performance in the following vids ...

COD MW2

Left 4 Dead

GRID

Now here is the laptop specs ....

Now this is the package being offered by Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada this week. It is the best of the laptops they are offering in the flyer. Out of pocket I'd be paying $320. It costs $520 overall but my SDM points will turn into $200 as it is a Spend Your Points SDM Weekend. Also I will get back 4590 SDM Points which is over $5 in points.

So why am I considering this laptop?

I am so sick of not having something to play my sports sims (Dave Koch Action PC Baseball, APBA Baseball, etc.) on from my couch or bed which require next to nothing to run but this here laptop will also play some other real games at minimal settings so I really was considering getting this.

Now while I have played some games at my pc for long periods of time recently they are action based games and so the time goes by pretty quick. When I play baseball sims I want to just enjoy what I am doing slowly and comfortably.

So .....

Is $320 out of pocket too much for this laptop package?

Do. not. ever. buy. acer. laptops. period. double-period.

Seriously, I've seen more of them break then actually work. The feel and manufacturing is goodamn cheap and the support is aweful at best.

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I agree, my sister had one of the first netbooks ever by Acer and while it worked okay, a few months ago the mobo fried.

My GF had an Acer laptop for like 2 years, the MB layout was just aweful (and a lot of them are).

The CPU and Heatsink was where typically our left hand is, the fan exhaust was just above that. One of the USB ports was just left of that so at some point the USB just broke because... you know, hands exist. The exhaust wasn't even enough (it was marketed as a "gaming" laptop, I think Phenom X4 and a GTX 400 whatever M, so it did get hot), external fans under the Laptop somewhat resolved that for the short term.

We sent it in for repair, apparently they at least exchanged the USB Ports. But we also thought the speakers were broken, turns out there is a single mono-speaker on the left side of an 800€ Laptop .. ??

After ~2 years it started randomly crashing and bluescreening out of thin air. I took the Laptop apart, looked at the MB, there didn't seem to be any issues on the board. Re-Installed windows multiple times. Best part was a 3hour prime95 + FurMark torture marathon... it didn't crash until after the test (like literally turned it off and 30 seconds later it bluescreened on me), so it wasn't load related.

I took out what could be reused (like... RAM, HDD... I think I actually forgot the DVD-drive...).

And as I said, it wasn't the first bad experience with acer laptops.

I don't know about any other products of them, but since I never had any good experiences I generally just stay away from them.

/edit
Back to the topic. As I read it you only want to use it at home on the TV? What about a NUC-type thing maybe? They shoud be able to play cheap old games on integrated praphics, no? You could even go a cheap motherboard and APU with a bit of RAM for maybe the same price (not sure, never really followed the APUs).

@mihawk90 I liked the idea of taking gaming outside the house. Sorry I didn't mention that. Still though yes the main idea was to get a laptop so I could play my baseball sims while laying on my bed in my room or while sitting on the couch. As for playing games on the tvs I have both in the family room and my bedroom well that might work if I can find a wireless keyboard and mouse and create something to rest them on. I think it would be the cheaper option than the laptop but I do not know if this store where I have $200 in points to spend will have what I need. I will look though. As for creating something to rest the wireless keyboard and mouse on well it probably isn't hard to create but you are talking to someone who is not creative in that way or well has been creative long ago but is afraid to fail and thus won't start on a project that could fail. As for buying a lap rest well there is the Couchmaster which is $215 US including shipping. Our dollar is pretty weak right now so that isn't an option and honestly I have trouble stomaching paying for something like that which probably can be made for much less. I guess maybe I could look to someone locally to make it.

Also ... thanks to @geisterfaust too for chiming in on things.

Unfortunately with all that has been said I don't know if I ever will own a laptop which I'd much prefer over a Couchmaster + wireless keyboard and mouse type situation. Now if I could ever buy a laptop what brands are currently the best?

I'd look for Asus (my now defunct Asus laptop was 7 years old before it died), MSI or Lenovo. Stay away from HP and Acer and you'll be golden.

If you want to play stuff in your couch and those games are not very demanding I'd build a small HTPC instead of buying a laptop to be honest, and now with Ryzen 5 i'm sure you'll be able to build a nice little PC for the money.

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I have 3 pcs but the problem is using a kb and mouse from the couch. Like I said in a previous post the only answer is using a Couchmaster or similar or getting a laptop. As for looking at other laptop brands I have been looking at some with the AMD AM12-9700P ....

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/lenovo-15-6-laptop-black-amd-a12-9700p-1tb-hdd-12gb-ram-windows-10-english-open-box/10656344.aspx?

It seems like something that would suit what I want to do and even lets me game at 30 to 50 FPS on low or medium with some games that are kind of new.

As for the laptop I originally listed it is now a 20x SDM Points Day and with it priced at $459 I would get $100+ in points back and on top of that I would use the current points I have for SDM to knock the price down on this. I think I have $20+ worth right now. Still though it seems like it would be a bad buy from what all of you have said.

So ... how do you feel about the laptop I linked in this post?

stay away from lenovo. their hinges are known to fail

When talking about cheap laptops I think there are always going to be drawbacks but with this thing being at $499.99 Canadian I think you would be hard pressed to find something at this price or around it that would have better specs. Am I right in saying this? I have looked at what the AMD A12 9700P can do and it is pretty impressive. Yeah you game in 720p but what I'd be using it for most of the time could be run on a potato. I just like the idea of getting more out of a laptop and this allows for that.

Seriously ... if you can find me a laptop in Canada at this price or within $50 of it that is better then please do show me it. I would appreciate any help.

Ryzen based APU laptops are due soon,

I'd wait.

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