Best light-gaming laptop under $500 dollars

[Octiflux]

I'm looking for a light-gaming laptop, with decent battery life, and at the very least a 320-gig hard drive. (preferably 500-gig) I need at least 4gig RAM, and it would be great if it wasn't an HP or an Acer, as I've had laptops from those two companies, and they never really worked out that great. Thanks!

 

[Ishant Dahiya]

The best laptop known to me is
Toshiba Satellite C855D-S5320 (http/www.amazon.com/dp/B00B3PLPEQ/?tag=gaminglaptops0-20)
specs are :
1.7GHz AMD Dual-Core E2-1800
4GB of installed DDR3 RAM
500GB (5400RPM) hard drive
AMD Radeon HD 7340 graphics
15.6-inch display (1366 x 768)
Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit operating system

 

[jaguarskx]

That is a crap laptop. The Radeon HD 7430 is slower than an Intel HD 2000 from Sandy Bridge CPUs and that isn't even offered in a laptop. Laptop with any Sandy Bridge Core i3/i5/i7 CPU comes with the faster Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics core. Laptops with the Intel Ivy Bridge core i3/i5/i7 comes with the even faster (35% faster than the Intel HD 3000) Intel HD 4000 graphic core.

Let's start with some AMD based laptops from low price going up to $500...

14" Lenovo IdeaPad S405 (59351953) Ultra-thin Notebook AMD A-Series A6-4455M(2.10GHz) - $330

Light weight, but one person complained about stuttering when watching 1080p movies. Short battery life. The Radeon HD 7500g is slower than the Intel HD 4000.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312242

15.6" Acer Aspire V3-551G-8454 Notebook AMD A-Series A8-4500M(1.90GHz) - $449
It has a quad core CPU compared to the dual core CPU in the laptop above. But it is clocked slightly lower. You get the Radeon HD 7670m which is a decent graphics card and it dual graphics with (XFire) the integrated Radeon HD 7660g. The Radeon HD 7660g alone is more powerful than the Intel HD 4000. Decent number of feedback.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215663

Sorry, nothing really good at $500 from Newegg. Basically refurbished laptops or lower specs laptops than the Acer.


Okay... slim pickings on the Intel side. For under $500 you are only going to get a laptop with Intel's integrated graphics, the HD 4000. Therefore, no real reason to max out your budget.

15.6" Lenovo G580 (59359688) Notebook Intel Core i3 3120M(2.50GHz) - $349
Intel CPU's are more powerful than AMD's Trinity APUs like in the above two laptops. How much more powerful? I would say 20%. That means the Core i3 in this laptop is about the equivalent to an AMD A6 running at 3.0GHz. It would also be more powerful than the quad core A8 running at 1.9GHz in the Acer laptop. The Intel HD 4000 is faster than the Radeon HD 7500g, but it is slower than the Radeon HD 7660g. Tossing in the Radeon 7670m that's in the Acer laptop and the performance gap is even larger.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312429

15.6" Acer Aspire E1-571-6680 Notebook Intel Core i3 3110M(2.40GHz) - $380
Basically similar to the Lenovo above, but the with a 500GB hard drive instead of a 320GB hard drive. The CPU is 100MHz slower though.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314007


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If you want to spend the minimal amount of money then the 15.6" Lenovo G580 is the best bet for $350. The $20 difference vs the 14" Lenovo IdeaPad S405 gets you larger screen (but same resolution), more powerful CPU and integrated graphics.

If you want the best laptop for games that's less than your max budget, then buy the 15.6" Acer Aspire V3-551G-8454. The AMD A8 APU may only be clocked at 1.9GHz, but it has a potent graphics card (well at least compared to the Intel HD 4000) that it is worth spending $100 more than the Lenovo G580.

 

[jaguarskx]

^^^

Here's a direct link to the G6T-2000 with a base price of $430.

http/www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/A4G32AV?HP-Pavilion-g6t-2000-Notebook-PC&adid=10428184&affpid=7102866&aoid=35252

Simply upgrade to the i3-2370m for $0 (free) and choose the 1GB Radeon HD 7670M for $50. That brings the total to $480 before taxes and shipping. Don't waste the extra $25 for the 2GB Radeon HD 7670m, you do not need unless you play games at above 1920x1200 resolution for which the Radeon is much too weak to even attempt it. There is also has a free upgrade to 6GB of RAM which was selected by default when I went to the page, but you wanna check it.

Optional: I would pay the extra $10 for a 7200RPM 500GB hard drive rather than 5400RPM. That brings the price up to $490.

There is a coupon code SAVE20HP, but it has already expired.

 

[jaguarskx]

^^^

That wasn't your mistake, the site that you linked stated SAVE20HP.


However, SAVEHP20 does work and that knocks off $20 from the total price.

 

[Octiflux]

Thanks guys! I think I'll go with the Lenovo g580 that jaguarskx recommended.

 

[Octiflux]

Thanks guys! I think I'll go with the Lenovo g580 that jaguarskx recommended.

 

[Michael Etheridge]

I have a Samsung NP305 that has the AMD A6-3420M Quad-Core and Radeon HD6520g. The Radeon HD 6520G is, without any doubt, better than the Intel HD 3000 graphics. I got the laptop for $500 but they are around $350 now.

The Radeon HD6520g runs really well with "RAGE" and "Call of Duty" games. Its considered a medium to high-end graphics card.

 

[Surya Mylvahanan]

Two Choices

I would take a look at a refurbished HP Envy which has an a10 4600m APU which can power through most games + it has 6gb ram and a 750gb hdd. http/www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Geek+Squad+Certified+Refurbished+ENVY+15.6%26%2334%3B+Laptop+-+6GB+Memory+-+Natural+Silver/7810107.p?id=1218860881688&skuId=7810107

or

a Dell Inspiron 15 i15RV with i5 3337u processor which has intel hd 4000 which is ok (not the best) for light gaming. its on sale at amazon- http/www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-i15RV-10000BLK-15-6-Inch-Textured/dp/B00AM7MM84/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1373652604&sr=1-2

 

[Michael Etheridge]

Two Choices

I would take a look at a refurbished HP Envy which has an a10 4600m APU which can power through most games + it has 6gb ram and a 750gb hdd. http/www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Geek+Squad+Certified+Refurbished+ENVY+15.6%26%2334%3B+Laptop+-+6GB+Memory+-+Natural+Silver/7810107.p?id=1218860881688&skuId=7810107

or

a Dell Inspiron 15 i15RV with i5 3337u processor which has intel hd 4000 which is ok (not the best) for light gaming. its on sale at amazon- http/www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-i15RV-10000BLK-15-6-Inch-Textured/dp/B00AM7MM84/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1373652604&sr=1-2

Or...wait for the Intel HD5000 to release on a cheaper budget.