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$500-$600 laptop that can run older games?
HiredGun
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've had this trusty Dell Inspiron since my freshman year of college, and it has served me with distinction for almost five years, traveling around the country and the world in my backpack. But now the WiFi is on the fritz, the click-click-clickety hard drive is surely on its last legs, the machine builds up heat very quickly, and it is time to move on to a new notebook computer.
But my computing needs are fairly minimal, I now realize. I don't need a big hard drive because I have a large external one. I don't play many games anymore, particularly recent games. I mainly surf the web, VPN into work, manage an iTunes library (stored on my external), and watch the occasional dvd. I also dabble in World of Warcraft (which, let me tell you, is a feat on 256mb RAM, a 32mb video card, and a HD that goes positively insane during moderate or heavy use).
So what I am looking for is a used or refurbished laptop that can handle all of my productivity tasks, plus comfortably run a couple of the games I've missed out on over the years... Half-Life 2 and Portal, for example, and WoW without dropping to 2 frame per second when I'm in a capital city.) If it's able to almost-playably run newer titles (GTA4 with the resolution and all effects dropped to the minimum), then that's a bonus, but not necessary.
Questions:
1) What is a good place, online or in 3D, to find a good deal on a refurb laptop? I've poked around online but the selection seems pretty limited.
2) What kind of spec should I be looking for based on the needs I outlined? The machine will be mainly used for productivity-oriented tasks, but I would like to run WoW, HL2, and comparable titles with a comfortable margin (but I don't care about video resolution).
But my computing needs are fairly minimal, I now realize. I don't need a big hard drive because I have a large external one. I don't play many games anymore, particularly recent games. I mainly surf the web, VPN into work, manage an iTunes library (stored on my external), and watch the occasional dvd. I also dabble in World of Warcraft (which, let me tell you, is a feat on 256mb RAM, a 32mb video card, and a HD that goes positively insane during moderate or heavy use).
So what I am looking for is a used or refurbished laptop that can handle all of my productivity tasks, plus comfortably run a couple of the games I've missed out on over the years... Half-Life 2 and Portal, for example, and WoW without dropping to 2 frame per second when I'm in a capital city.) If it's able to almost-playably run newer titles (GTA4 with the resolution and all effects dropped to the minimum), then that's a bonus, but not necessary.
Questions:
1) What is a good place, online or in 3D, to find a good deal on a refurb laptop? I've poked around online but the selection seems pretty limited.
2) What kind of spec should I be looking for based on the needs I outlined? The machine will be mainly used for productivity-oriented tasks, but I would like to run WoW, HL2, and comparable titles with a comfortable margin (but I don't care about video resolution).
HiredGun on
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I just bought a refurb Inspiron from Dell at outlet.dell.com
17 inch
Intel Core 2 Duo T7250
2GB RAM
120GB HD
GeForce 8400 GS
It ran me 709 excluding tax and shipping but there are plenty of comparable ones on the outlet in your price range with the only significant difference being less CPU power (same video, RAM, and in many cases, larger HD's).
From all I have read the specs I just listed out above can handle HL2 at high detail but with no AA and medium resolution, it's by no means a gaming machine but it can do the job especially for games in the 2 years or older department.
Just make sure you go with a GeForce model and not the Radeon or Intel equivalent. The intel for obvious reasons, the Radeon because it uses shared memory instead of its own.
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
terrible