Best gaming laptop under £500

I know this may sound like an impossible task, but my stepson is desperate for a laptop and - thanks to his great grandma - now has a strict upper limit of £500 with which to buy one.

He is very keen on gaming and recording the games he plays, so if there is anything we should be looking for, especially at this (restrictive) price point, I'm all ears.

And before anyone asks, no, he doesn't want woofers, tweeters a Dolby or a bag on his head!

Any views on the "Extreme Gaming" models shown here ?

What would you lose to shave £60 off the price?

Under £500 will be nigh on impossible in a laptop unless you go second hand.

My work colleague had a similar request from his son. Bare minimum was an i5 processor and 8gb ram with decent screen and graphics card. That takes you to £700 as a minimum.

he went for a variation on this.

Trouble is with a laptop you have top start out with the right kit in terms of cpu and graphics and that for good gaming takes you will into the £600 bracket.

Thanks for the advice, bockers. Thing is, he cannot go over the budget, as we have nothing to contribute, so he is stuck with what he's got. I'd prefer not to go second hand just because I wouldn't be surprised if a warranty was required, even just a standard, free one.
Personally, as my stepson is 12, I think any £500 laptop should be bloody brilliant.

Do you not rate the ones on my link above as a starting point?

12, Blimey then the £560 one will be fine. You need at least 4gb of ram to run windows 8.1 with any speed.

Has he considered an xbox one instead?

He has an Xbox - there are 2 reasons he has specified for getting a laptop: 1) It's better for Minecraft and 2) he can record his gaming on it (we have external HDD capacity to store this). He does play a reasonable range of other games as well.
From a parental point of view, we just want him to be able to use it for general purposes as he gets a bit older (homework research, writing school projects, etc), but as he has said he wants a "gaming" laptop, we are seeing what we can do.

As usual, I prefer to do a bit of research, whereas his Mum is likely to use the "Go into PC World and buy whatever they recommend as the best gaming laptop for £500" approach.

I thought if there was anything particular to look for/avoid I might at least be able to steer MrsC in the most suitable direction!

On the subject of W8.1, I'd far rather have 7, but this seems to be less easy to find/more expensive.

Is it a necessity to have a laptop? he can a far more capable machine if he opts for a desktop especially due to the limited budget. A desktop will be far more likely to run the latest games and will be infinitely more upgradable. It still wont run the latest games with all the shiney stuff on but it would be better.

If hes set on a laptop he needs to be realistic on what he will able to play and with what detail.

I think the reason a laptop is the chosen option is that he will want to take it with him on fairly frequent trips to the UK. I did moot a PC, but was given short shrift.

Essentially, he'll get what he's given and be grateful, but we thought we'd see if we could find something that at least pays lip service to gaming. I'm fully aware that he's 12 and - regardless of what he may say or think - he's neither the world's ultimate gamer, nor working with a realistic budget!

Can you tell I'm not very enthusiastic about this project?!

It is a difficult balance between CPU power and graphics. An i5 would be good basis and some form of passable dedicated graphics card would also be beneficial. At £500, there is very little choice. Take a look at this though:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GO0NIFE?m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=iduk-21

Seems a good middle ground between something very usable for school for many years to come and having some gaming ability.

Thanks Neil, I think compromise is definitely the watchword!

What would people say were the priorities I should look for when searching. 4GB RAM? (Any particular type?), Processor type? (Cores, brand, etc?). I don't think HD storage is an issue, is it? (We have lots of capacity externally and if necessary, a HDD can always be replaced).

Jim, I might be able to help with the Win 7 issue

You can't change the screen, cpu or the graphics, well not easily anyway, so make sure they meet your needs. 4GB RAM is the minimum you should settle for but can be expanded later. With that budget, I would not settle for less than an Intel i5 or an AMD with similar performance. The more pixels on the screen the better, as you have more real estate to distribute your windows over. A dedicated graphics card (not part of the CPU and also not upgradable) does make a difference. Apparently, my old Sony Vaio (Intel P9800 plus AMD HD 4670 M) plays Minecraft more smoothly than my son's newer HP with an i5 and a slower graphics card (7470). That budget is quite a challenge

All good advice, I'll keep looking. Thanks Begbie - I'll bear that in mind...!

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Lenovo_G5...360/version.asp

Dont seem too bad. I would go for intel ideally but in budget and Lenovo

Do you know anyone with a Costco card?

If so, this looks decent:

http://www.costco.co.uk/view/product/uk_catalog/cos_1,cos_1.2,cos_1.2.2/159433

£30 over budget but the next model down (at £500) has integrated graphics, whereas this one has a separate Nvidia chip which would be better.

It's £46 cheaper at Costco than Amazon so looks like a good price, although they have a refurbished one (with 1 year warranty) at Amazon for £445, here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing...ion=refurbished

Pretty much what Neil said above, look for an i5 and dedicated graphics. We just bought a 15" i5 laptop earlier this year for around that budget with Windows 7. We could have got a better spec for cheaper but I'd rather poke my eyes out with a blunt instrument than use Win8. FWIW it plays MineCraft fine, not as good as my main machine with 16Gb RAM, a decent graphics card and 22" monitors but
a) That wouldn't be anywhere near budget
b) No way it fit in hand baggage.

Alternatively, if the main purpose is Minecraft then some form of Linux.........

Thanks everyone. I've passed the information and advice on to MrsC, so I'll wait and see what she comes back with on Tuesday...

If anyone sees a fab deal in the meantime, please give me a holler!

Coop were doing a buy 1 get 2 free on cheese but I am not sure that will help.

Cheers, Hyperlink. Can you play MineCraft on it?

Well I guess you could cut it in to cubes........

A little above your budget (but Christmas is just around the corner):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KQJV4L4?m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=iduk-21#productDetails

Need to confirm processor and screen res though.

Seems to be i5-4200 and full HD:

http://www.inputpc.com/gaming/9853-portatil-msi-ge60-2plapache-264xes-4719072351335.html

It seems to be a lot of laptop for the price and fits your technical requirements. Definitely worth a deeper dig if that extra 70 Pounds is somehow manageable. It delays how soon it will need to be replaced

Thanks for the info, Neil. I'm afraid the budget is already at breaking point...

Shame

In a way, but frankly, spending £500 on a gaming laptop for a grumpy 12-year-old already feels like madness!

How graphically intensive is MineCraft? I can't imagine you need a specific "gaming" laptop for that kind of game.

My work laptop (a Probook 650 G1) handles various FPS games fairly well (or so I'm told ) and that's only packing integrated Intel HD 4600 graphics.

Absolutely right. You can play Minecraft on just about any laptop made in the last 5 years. Even a 10 year old one we have plays it. Playing it and recording it at the same time will tax the computer a bit more but you certainly don't need to spend more than £500.

Kids and teenagers are the main cause of Laptop faults.

Not very, you don't need that much power compared to FPS games etc.

Back off holiday now so I've checked on what we have. We bought one of these. Only 4Gb RAM and the dreaded integrated as oppose to dedicated graphics but Minecraft is absolutely fine on it.

Ignore the price as we paid £489 delivered from DABS in February so you should be able to either find something similar cheaper or get something with one of the newer i5 chipsets or possibly more memory.

PlayClaw

I'm only saying MineCraft, because that is today's flavour.

He also plays a lot of GTA (I know, not my decision) and wants to record this, so I'd rather try to get a gaming-biased machine if possible as it will undoubtedly be able to handle his other homework-related demands!

Who would buy an Xbox for their under 18 kids and let them play GTA??

;-)

Twice?

Just cos it says it won't doesn't mean it won't ...It will still tax the computer a bit more.
Depends on the spec of the computer how much

I've been using this for years >FRAPS<.

Well, the deed is done. MrsC went to PCWorld in Cirencester. She looked around for a bit, then decided to call me. I was on a Skype call with my parents and didn't hear my mobile. 30 minutes later she called back after having found exactly nobody in the store to help her. I passed on the knowledge from the FCCUK brains trust and then a youth appeared in a PCWorld costume, so off she went.
About an hour later, a seething MrsC called again to say that she had managed to buy a laptop, but only after a lengthy and frustrating battle with the "assistant" who ignored everything she said, spoke in techno-bollocks and tried to sell her extended warranties rather than the computer she wanted...
Anyway, I don't have the full spec, but she bought an HP laptop with an i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, a separate Radeon graphics card and a 1TB hard drive. It was reduced from £700+ to £499, so seems to fit the bill.
Thanks to everyone for their help... Except PCWorld.

CEDIT: this one out at under £500 but comes without an OS, so you would need to factor in getting a Windows license key:

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/SkyFireIII-14/bOk_7m4GRs/

Some discussion here:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/skyfire-...page=2#comments

EDIT: Sorry, didn't read your last post. Hope he's happy with the one he has.

FRAPS is great, Lego, but PlayClaw is infinitely better.

Sounds like a good deal Jim - HP laptops are hard to beat, so much better than the other consumer grade crap that Asus (Acer...) and Dell pump out.

Thanks for your suggestions, Aleem!

I'll introduce my stepson to FRAPS/PlayClaw. He bought a Hauppage recorder a while ago, (without consulting me!) to record his XBox play, but it's useless without a laptop (which he didn't have). If his new toy will do the same thing without additional hardware, all the better.
Although as the Hauppage was negotiated instead of a parrot (the real, feathered variety - long story), I think I'd prefer the recorder.

Right - the next thing is how to set the blasted thing up...

For better or (more likely) worse, it runs W8, which I won't be allowed to change until or unless my stepson realises he hates it.

What I want to do is A) set up an administrator profile with full access so that if necessary I can get into it and change stuff that shouldn't be there...
And B) to install a decent antivirus programme that will prevent too much nonsense being installed (at 12 he isn't very discerning at what is a dodgy website or link).

I'd be grateful for any tips you can offer...

B) Windows 8 comes with this which is the updated (free) version of what I use on my Windows 7 systems.

A) Watch this, I don't use that POS Windows 8 much myself but this seems to answer your question.

FWIW I didn't pick the YouTube account source to be cheeky, it's just that the video looks like exactly what you you're after.

B) Avast , I've been using it for a couple of years. There is a free version too.

I've running the free version of Avast on my desktop and 2 Laptops for a couple of years. It works perfectly and appears to keep the machines virus free.

And another plus for Avast is it's a lot less CPU hungry than the free version of AVG.

Avast duly installed!

Now swear and realise you accidentally added all the extra browser bars... Avast is very good at telling you it's time to upgrade/update to the FIFTY POUNDS CLICK HERE version while hiding the tiny free button ARE YOU SURE YOU WOULDN'T RATHER PAY FIFTY POUNDS. And it likes to add browser bars.

Did I mention it likes to add browser bars? And install Chrome?

(That said, it's still one of the best AV products, if you use an OS that needs one...)

Never had any problems with the above.

Nor me.

Well, as luck would have it, I recently fell heavily out of love with Firefox and began using Chrome, so I took it up on its kind offer (for once) to replace IE.

I'd like to add my voice to those complaining about the W8.1 interface. It is pure bobbins.

The laptop model is an HP Pavilion TS15, which means it has a touchscreen. It's actually a really rather lovely bit of kit. Apart from the BS OS and the HP bloatware.

It's a faff I know, but doing a fresh Windows install makes any PC run better than whne you firts bought it.

For my stepson's gaming laptop, when I have no access to the discs? A faff too far for me, I'm afraid!

*ahem*

Well, indeed!