Best laptop for $450

[hyperlite]

It must be from a major site (HP, ASUS, ACER, GATEWAY), or Amazon. whatever, and it must be 15.6 or above. I want it to run some older games, doesn't need to run Skyrim or Battlefield 3, or anything like that. Maybe Sins of a Solar Empire and Starcraft 2. If it goes to about 475 no HUGE deal, but try to keep it low. Don't ask me why I am doing this, just try.

[hyperlite]

I like HP though it is a ripoff This thread isn't for comments trashing on the big companies, I want you guys to avoid that.


$450
Components
• sparkling black
• Windows 8 64
• AMD Dual-Core A4-4300M Accelerated Processor (2.5GHz up to 3.0GHze)
• 1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7670M Discrete-Class Graphics
• 4GB DDR3 - 1 DIMM
• 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
• Microsoft Office Trial
• No additional security software
• 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery
• 15.6-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1366x768)
• SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam with integrated digital microphone
• 802.11b/g/n WLAN
• Standard Keyboard Black

[Apokalypse]

the only problem i have with that is windows 8

[hyperlite]

Eh, Windows 8 is fine.

[ACH0225]

Heresy! All Windows 8 heretics are to be executed, along with the Mac infidels! Anyways, the true OS is Windows 7.

[Archduke Daynel, PhD]

Windows 8 isn't that bad, really. It's just that it's clearly made for phones and tablets.
And I agree Windows 7 is much better.

[hyperlite]

Shut up about operating systems.

[ACH0225]

Ok. But why do you want a laptop? Why not a desktop?

[hyperlite]

Stop arguing over laptop vs. desktop, you know what? Lock this topic.

[ACH0225]

Whuh! There was only ONE thing posted about potpal sv potksed!

[Chairman_Tiel]

Your initial choice seems A-OK anyway :p

[hyperlite]

I don't know enough about it, is that card good-enough, or does it need a 2 gig one. I only have a little bit of an idea, I think the processor is fine going by gigahertz and looking at the can you run it thing. My computer only lacks a graphics card which cannot be put in. I just want to know how that one is, mostly, the graphics card.\

My current processor seems fine for the games I want to play and it is only 2.2 GHZ. That one is 2.8-3.0.

[Chairman_Tiel]

it's very, very rare that you'll be using more than 512mb of VRAM at any given time. The bigger amounts are just a marketing gag, don't fret about them, 1gb will more than suffice for everything. The question is more, "is the 7670m chipset up to the task?", as in a best case scenario it'd be equivalent in performance to a desktop 5670 Radeon HD...which is an entry-level card, at best. And laptop GPUs tend to be at least half the man their desktop counterparts are, so....

But for the pricepoint, it can't be beat. Just three months back I was looking at a laptop with the same specs for 800. I'd say go for it.

[Professor Fenway]

If you're going for laptop, it seems fine. But if you're going for desktop, I would build your own system. You have to do your homework on parts and prices and compatibility, but if you know where to look, you can make a very decent one for only 300-400. High end, even.

Also, multiple cores. If a game does not support multiple processor cores, it's behind the times. 2 Is fine, 4 even better.

And RAM. 4 GB is sufficient for just about everything.

[hyperlite]

Yeah, I extensively researched this, and found this laptop and similar ones on many top lists of real cheap laptops. I could not believe the 7670 card was as good as it seems. It will run just about anything except BF3 or Skyrim on max settings, which is fine. I would get older valve games with it, like half life, then garry's mod, then portal 2, then I would get SOASE, then I would get the fallout games.

edit: Wait, would any of these even work with windows 8?????!??!?!?!??