As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
Need help finding a Windows laptop for stupid cheap
Magic Pink
Tur-Boner-FedRegistered User regular
Tur-Boner-FedRegistered User regular
A handicapped friend of mine on social security has to get a new laptop. She'd like one that could possibly play the Sims 3 as well but that's the least of her needs. I don't want to try Ebay or Craigslist because they scare the hell out of me. She has about 300-700 to spend which isn't much, I know.
Any ideas where to go to find something that may work?
edit: Also, I'd actually like her to get a gaming quality laptop and am planning to give her the extra cash for it since she can never leave her house so anywhere that I can get something like that for 1000$ or so would be good too. I don't know laptops at all so advice on brands etc would help as well.
edit2: Something like this seems good, yes? http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Dell-Inspiron-17R-N7110-2.4GHz-640GB-17.3-inch-Laptop-Refurbished/6669153/product.html
Any ideas where to go to find something that may work?
edit: Also, I'd actually like her to get a gaming quality laptop and am planning to give her the extra cash for it since she can never leave her house so anywhere that I can get something like that for 1000$ or so would be good too. I don't know laptops at all so advice on brands etc would help as well.
edit2: Something like this seems good, yes? http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Dell-Inspiron-17R-N7110-2.4GHz-640GB-17.3-inch-Laptop-Refurbished/6669153/product.html
Magic Pink on
0
Posts
That's no help; I need it to be somewhere I can order from not something I have to order from right now. She has no idea when she'll have the money for this. Not to mention that site is horrible put together.
I think you'll need to determine if her gaming requirements can be fulfilled by onboard graphics, the Intel HD 4000 (found on mobile ivybridge i5/i7) and the AMD HD 6550D (found on AMD A8 APU machines) are good for light gaming, but the comparison sheet I've seen for Sims 3 w/r/to GPUs didn't have them listed (I think the list is out of date).
I think this guy has a fairly solid discrete GPU.
Based on the system requirements on the Sims 3 page this thing is probably way overkill, but you can look at some benchmarks for the card here. There are none for the Sims 3 but maybe you can get an idea comparing to other games. notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-660M.71859.0.html
2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
1.5 GB RAM
128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1
At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games
This represents an average computer circa 2004. While these are the bare minimum requirements, a laptop $400-$500 today will blow that out of the water, no problem.
AgentBryant is right, I should have been more specific in my post. If this laptop is only for Sims 3 playing then it is far beyond what you need. I only recommended it based on the edit about wanting a quality gaming laptop with up to a 1k budget limit.
No. It's a terrible website where terrible people rip off other terrible people. Fuck them.
I'm also going to make damn sure she gets it from someplace with a warranty and the ability to return it if something goes wrong. Craigslist and Ebay may be good for some things but only an idiot would get any kind of PC from those places.
Happily, no one in this thread is doing that.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=1367373&sku=H24-15239
Or maybe even this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230240
Just saying, your options are open, look around for a bit, and there are some great deals out there.
With open-box/factory refurbished laptops, this isn't usually the case at all in my experience. I've gotten both my laptops at pretty much half off (or a couple hundred dollars less at least) just because somebody opened them and returned them. And I've helped several people find similar deals. Granted, maybe this is the case on the low end of laptops, which is indeed what we're looking at for this thread, but as a general rule you really save a TON getting something that's either effectively new or literally new but was returned for some reason (one of my laptops did have a busted latch, but nowadays they don't even put latches on laptops; the other one was indistinguishable from new). If a similar laptop miraculously goes on sale, then yeah, there isn't much of a difference. That's not always happening though.
I'm a very happy idiot then, because my mom got a badass computer off Craigslist for $500 (definitely cheaper than the parts, and the guy bought it for twice that but needed to downsize to travel) like six months ago. Works beautifully. I'm wary of Craigslist too, so I was very careful to inspect the functionality of the computer before we forked over the cash, but seriously, there are lots of legitimate businesspeople on there. A friend of my mom's gets stuff off there all the time, which is why we were looking on Craigslist in the first place to find that deal. You've just got to use plenty of caution, and you can in fact get good things out of it. I mean, I'm probably not going to change your mind about it, and I can understand not wanting to risk it at any rate, but seriously, tons of people buy stuff, even computers, from Craigslist without being scammed.
My other URLS:
dealnews.com (check it a lot)
http://www.dealigg.com/
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!
They might offer older models for a cheaper price, you should definitely be able to get one for around 1000$.
The thing that really stands out for me with the Asus is how well the whole thing is designed and the quality of the individual parts.