Looking for an affordable laptop recommendation

[MzHartz]

I need to get a new laptop, but my primary concern is price. While I know more about computers than I used to, I'm still not very well versed in hardware and could use some recommendations.

It'll mainly be used for surfing the internet and playing games like Medieval Total War, FTL, Stardew Valley, etc. It wouldn't be used on something as graphics intensive as Star Citizen, first person shooters, or anything like that. I'd like to be able to run the Adobe Creative Suite on it in an emergency, but it's okay if it's not optimal for that.

I'm not sure what specs I should be looking at for this sort of thing. Can anyone guide me in the right direction?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Grimm_Reaper]

Could you include your price range, budget so as to make it easier to narrow down

 

[Nightrider]

Anything but HP

Core i3 or i5 should be enough

Some deal sites I frequent
http://bensbargains.com/categories/notebooks-83/
http://dealnews.com/c49/Computers/Laptops/
http://www.spoofee.com/
http://computers.woot.com/?ref=w_gh_cp_4

 

[Grimbli]

http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=7948&game=Stardew Valley

Those requirements are crazy low for even the newest game you mentioned. You could probably run it with integrated gfx. Almost any laptop with a dedicated gfx that was release in the last year would work for you.

 

[EpilepticCricket]

What's your price range? What screen size are you looking for? Will you be mobile so often that battery life is a high concern for you?

My first thought will be to avoid AMD chips for both CPU and GPU. They use more power and generally run hotter than Intel. They're lower cost so most "budget" laptops use AMD to reduce the price, but I don't like recommending them for mobile systems. Especially when you'll want to do gaming and some light creative work.

Lenovo crams a ton of tech in their systems for a good price, but they have some of the worst support around and the build quality used to be fairly inconsistent.
I can't speak from direct experience with Dell or HP, but I wouldn't guess the support from them is lackluster, but not terrible (they're just going to be picky about any claims).
Acer has good systems, but their support is a total waste of time so be ready to replace a dead system before getting a warranty honored.
I've heard good things about ASUS systems, but I don't know them personally so I could only base a recommendation on what the rest of the internet says about them.

Any of those guys will have good laptops/notebooks in the $400-800 range.

MSI will be one of the best overall options for support/features/quality/etc, but their systems start at $1k so you're making a real investment.

 

[JeffCraig]

I recommend waiting until the new nVidia and AMD mobility GPUs come out this year. Both companies have shown off large improvements for their laptop GPUs and they should be releasing them soon.

 

[thanatos73]

I paid $600 for my Acer AMD touchscreen 2 years ago. A-10 based laptops are inexpensive, and pretty decent. Hell, I could play AC on it when it first dropped. And up until the last couple of patches(either 2.0 or 2.1) I could still run around my hangar at least.
2.5 GHz AMD A10-5757M Processor
8GB DDR3
1TB HDD

 

[Snakey]

something with an i3, decent amount of memory and 8 gb ram should suffice. example likned
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-pavilion-15-ab271sa-15-6-laptop-blue-10137888-pdt.html

 

[MzHartz]

Thanks to @Nightrider , I grabbed this: http://www.woot.com/offers/asus-transformer-10-32gb-laptop-tablet-27

For personal reasons, I wanted to get a laptop as soon as possible for as low of a price as possible, even though I don't have a timeline or budget. I know that one isn't the biggest performer, but for that price, it's worth the risk.

 

[Nightrider]

It might not be the fastest thing in the world, but yes the price is right

 

[thanatos73]

Yup, can't beat the price.

 

[Snakey]

It might not be the fastest thing in the world, but yes the price is right

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSAnf2Z3XW4