Trevor

I haven’t seriously gamed or built a computer since the Pentium 3/4 days, but I’m jonesing to get back in. Don’t need top of the line for the latest greatest graphics heavy games, I’ll honestly mostly just play Heroes of Might and Magic. But my wife’s laptop is faulty and mine is ancient, so we need a general purpose PC anyway.

Looking to spend about $800 tops. Can probably live without an optical drive, guess an HDMI port will allow me to hook up a second display. 256gig SSD be enough? The Dell Inspiron touchscreen tablet/laptop combos on Black Friday sales are where I’m looking at the moment.

RichC2

If you want gaming you need something on par with a GTX 1050, preferably a 1050 Ti, dedicated gfx card.

I bought a slightly large Dell 7577 laptop early this year for about $850, it has two HDD slots (came with a 256gb SSD, I added an additional 2tb SSD). It wouldn't be my pick for portability but if it's mostly being used docked, it's pretty great. The 1060 GTX would be Overkill for what you're looking for, but being able to play some current games on it at near maxed specs has been neat. I also use it for my Oculus Rift.

The amount of space you need depends on how you use it, games are usually between 15gb and 100gb these days.

foxdvd

No ssd, but the black friday walmart deal is actually really good...also has the 1050TI

https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Pavili...lack/483750580

Noonan

I picked up this model back in August. No complaints although I've barely used it since more recently upgrading my desktop.

foxdvd

bestbuy has an acer laptop with a 1050TI and a SSD for 599 as well on black friday.

GoVegan

Just as a note, with a gaming laptop, you'll want to make sure to set it to only use the additional video card. I ended up with a work laptop which had great specs for gaming, but it defaulted to using the onboard video.

fumanstan

I wonder if that's just a driver/firmware issue, as laptops are supposed to auto-switch to the dedicated graphics card depending on the application. I've had no issues with my XPS 15 and Surface Book switching to the Nvidia GPU when playing a game.

GoVegan

Possibly. Mine was set to auto-select, but despite having power settings on maximum performance, games were still picking the onboard video over the Nvidia card.

RichC2

Yeah, that can be an issue on some titles. Especially ones that load in borderless window instead of full screen. There are specific settings for it both on individual programs and on the system overall to fix it.

Trevor

Thanks everyone. Researching mostly Costco since I love how they double the warranty and give me 90 days to wait for better sales or changing my mind.

On the video card, looks like I would probably be fine with a 1050, but hopefully can find a nice deal on a 1050ti or 1060. But definitely avoid the mx150?

Since older games are more processor dependent I should make sure to get an i7 and steer clear of i5, right?

256 SSD only should be fine, since I already have a USB terabyte portable.

Now do I go up to a 17” screen and hit the $950-1000 price....

RichC2

Older games should be fine on the i5, imho. i7 would be overkill unless you're dealing with crazy physics. Plus the modern i5 is about on par with last gen's i7.

17" is CRAZY to lug around. Just as a warning. If you're just using it in the house, I'd just invest in a nice monitor.

Edit: That comparison was between the 8th Gen Core i5 and the 7th Gen i7, not the 9th Gen i5 compared to 8th Gen i7 -- my bad. https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/k...gen-vs-7th-gen

K&AJones

Not a Laptop but the unit we ordered (parts specified) from Cyberpower has been worth every penny. They always have deals going on with systems, laptops and stuff you can add. Worth a look...

https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

Trevor

Thanks once again everyone for the advice. The local Costco ended up not having a configuration I really wanted in stock, but I took the plunge anyway. Spent slightly more than I wanted, $900, and not sure about this brand, but I think the specs are good and I have 90 days to change my mind.

Lenova Legion Y520
i7 2.8 GHz
16 GB ram
256 SSD
1 tb HD
6 GB GeForce 1060
15.6” non-touch screen

Free 4 year manufacturers warranty with Costco’s credit card, $100 for a 5th year and accidental coverage the whole 5 years thru SquareTrade.