€800 Gaming Laptop Ideas Please?

Generic Dreadhead

Firstly, yes, yes I know, gaming laptop is a contradiction in terms. I get it

This is a thread for my Sister who does not want a PC as they have nowhere to store it, and also wants to use a laptop as she has a kid and that way she can make sure the kid uses said laptop in the main living areas, so she can monitor her use of it. You know yourself.

So they have €800 to spend including postage (maybe a tiny stretch if it expresses real value for money).
Doesn't matter if it has to be a custom built one or a generic Asus/Acer etc.

The games they will primarily use it for are older, previous generation games (think Sims 3, LOTR RTS games etc).
But in an ideal, future proof world it would run Skyrim and the other Elder Scrolls games, maybe it would be nice if they could turn some mods on? Maybe this is an impossible ask for a €800 Laptop? I don't know.

Oh, ideally, the bigger the screen the better.
Sorry for being vague.

I guess if you just look at the title it's about as clean as I can be

Thanks in advance all for your help

Generic Dreadhead

Noone?

mayordenis

saw a thread earlier in the bargain alerts forum that may be of some use

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057097228

Jaafa

PC specialist would be a good bet.

smileyj1987

For a pre built system it's a little bit over bugdet but this would be a good laptop .

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/Lenovo_Y580_I5-3210M_8GB_750GB_15.6_INCH_DVDRW_W8_Dawn_Grey_M778BUK/version.asp

EoinHef

Overclockers are doing a few this week only offers on laptops, might be worth a look there also

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=959&catid=1828&sortby=manual_sort&catid=1828&mfrid=450&newsletter=consumer_general/2013_cw49/topteaser

Shoutcast Ireland

Cormac... wrote: »

Firstly, yes, yes I know, gaming laptop is a contradiction in terms. I get it

This is a thread for my Sister who does not want a PC as they have nowhere to store it, and also wants to use a laptop as she has a kid and that way she can make sure the kid uses said laptop in the main living areas, so she can monitor her use of it. You know yourself.

So they have €800 to spend including postage (maybe a tiny stretch if it expresses real value for money).
Doesn't matter if it has to be a custom built one or a generic Asus/Acer etc.

The games they will primarily use it for are older, previous generation games (think Sims 3, LOTR RTS games etc).
But in an ideal, future proof world it would run Skyrim and the other Elder Scrolls games, maybe it would be nice if they could turn some mods on? Maybe this is an impossible ask for a €800 Laptop? I don't know.

Oh, ideally, the bigger the screen the better.
Sorry for being vague.

I guess if you just look at the title it's about as clean as I can be

Thanks in advance all for your help

This one is pretty hot for the money http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-019-OE&groupid=959&catid=1828

Ri_Nollaig

I bought a gaming laptop from PC specialist over two years ago as at the time I needed something mobile. To be fair it is a great machine and can still play games like BF4 on high settings at 1080p but calling it "laptop" is a bit of a stretch really more of a "desktop replacement" as you would not be gaming on your lap for any extended period of time.
It gets very hot and very loud when at full wack so not exactly ideal to be used in a living room with someone else trying to watch TV...

All the mobile graphics cards are more or less the same thing as their desktop cousins but are squeezed into a much smaller space and are most likely underclocked to try and keep the heat down. For example in my machine it has an AMD 6990m, which is really a desktop 6970, underclocked ...and 200eur dearer.

For, what is now considered older games like Skyrim and Sims 3 (new sims on the way though!) I would imagine any of the machines listed would do the job, just be aware they do not last very long on battery when gaming (as in less then a hour top) and will still probably get loud/hot. Thats any laptop with one of those mid-range AMD or Nvidia GPUs the like 760m, critical that it has a dedicated GPU! don't even bother with anything saying integrated no matter what kinda lights/design it has on the case.

This laptop http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-028-OE&groupid=959&catid=1828 (linked by Shoutcast Ireland) has a 765m which could fit the bill. 13" so nice (could actually put on your lap for awhile) size.

I found http://www.notebookcheck.net/ a good site, it benchmarks the laptops; ...as laptops, saying what games they are capable of playing, battery life, heat and noise levels.