Cheapest gaming laptop?

[blaza]

Does anyone know a place I could order a fairly cheap gaming laptop? By 'gaming' I really mean able to run all the World of Warcraft expansions, The Witcher, and The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. I would prefere somwhere around $500-$800 if posible.Thanks in advance

 

[Guy32]

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptop-reviews/?filter=1101502_13087974_&tag=topPanelArea.1
check cnet if you haven't already

Anything you find will be able to play Morrowind. A decent 4-year-old-ish graphics card should be able to play WoW at it's best as far as I know. The only one I wouldn't be sure about is the Witcher, which would probably play at medium with a 4 year old card.

 

[blaza]

So pretty much, most of the laptops there will run what I want them to run?

 

[Master Kuja]

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptop-reviews/?filter=1101502_13087974_&tag=topPanelArea.1
check cnet if you haven't already

Anything you find will be able to play Morrowind. A decent 4-year-old-ish graphics card should be able to play WoW at it's best as far as I know. The only one I wouldn't be sure about is the Witcher, which would probably play at medium with a 4 year old card.

I'll second that link, everything listed there will be able to do everything you're looking for and more.

 

[spartan1077]

The one I was originally thinking of is outside of your price range ($1000) but it could play all games. For WoW my six year old laptop can play it and you shouldn't have any problems with that, but for the other games try searching through some laptop reviews or find the system requirements for the games and cross reference them to a laptop that is in your price range. Or you can visit your local wal-mart and ask the people there if they have any good laptops for gaming.

 

[Naheal]

"Cheep" and "gaming laptop" don't go in the same sentence. This is one of the few industries where you actually do get what you pay for. Unless you're looking at actually constructing your own laptop, you're not going to be able to find something.

500-800 will generally run what you're looking to pick up (I'm running a Dell Studio 17 right now, but that's mostly for school, but I have some serious problems when running anything beyond a couple years ago. Dragon Age tends to choke on low settings.), but it won't last you very long at all. If you want a gaming laptop to last you more than about a year, look to spend upwards of about $1000.

 

[El.Cojone.Grande]

I recently got me an Acer 5470g for about $800 NZD ex lease (That's about $600 earth dollars), and it will run mostly everything. Just Cause 2, Dragon Age, Assassins creed 2 all run silky smooth at high-very high detail. It even handles GTA IV pretty respectably on medium. i5 cpu and radeon 5650 really is about the best in the way of mobile gaming hardware for that price range. Only real issue I can think of is that the battery lasts about two hours tops, other than that it's the best purchase I've made all year.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-5740G-Notebook.27466.0.html

 

[Pielikey]

Spoiler: snip

Everything in that picture can be counter-argued by everything in this picture:

Spoiler

 

[tahrey]

Lol @ nobgoblin ... thanks for getting all the stupid arguments out of the way already.

I'm with Naheal, laptops have trouble playing games unless the games are old (I suppose WoW counts, but I wouldn't want to try it on mine after seeing the framerate on my bro's previous desktop) or the laptop is expensive. The mobile graphics chipset is the problem. Though if you get something like the radeon in ^that Acer^ (from that or a different brand) you'll be alright - actual gaming gfx hardware, there.

Cheapest gaming laptop, though? That'll be the one I picked up for £40 (say, $60) a few years back that would play GTA (...one) and all of iD and Apogee's finest VGA ModeX hits quite happily. Once you've exhausted what GTA 1, Descent, Doom, ROTT, Quake and all their respective expansions have to offer, send it for recycling, you've had your money's worth
(Can probably update that to the initial GTA3, Driver, AvP and their contemporaries now)

Heck, how much would you give us for a 5 year old, 12" ultraportable that'll make a decent fist of Live For Speed?