New machine - advice, please.

[stevejp]

Ok, I’ll start with the confession - I’m not a gamer, and don’t really have much interest. However, my lad is, and wants a laptop for his birthday. Can anyone advise on spec, please? It’s for fairly basic stuff like minecraft, Fortnite, Roblocks etc - he’s only eleven, so we’re not talking about the more complicated games, yet. It has to be a laptop, so that he can take it between my house and his mother’s. Budget is fairly tight, so I need to know what’s important, and where I can compromise. He’ll be using a mouse and/or game controller.

 

Thanks, in advance!

[3s-gtech]

Tight budget, but what sort of ballpark? The difference between £400 and £600 is significant.

 

Cheap - something like https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/lenovo-v15-amd-3150u-4gb-256gb-ssd-15.6-inch-windows-10-laptop-82c7000buk/version.asp ?

 

Full HD screen, lower end Ryzen with an SSD but needs more RAM. Cheap though.

[stevejp]

Tight budget, but what sort of ballpark? The difference between £400 and £600 is significant.

 

Cheap - something like https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/lenovo-v15-amd-3150u-4gb-256gb-ssd-15.6-inch-windows-10-laptop-82c7000buk/version.asp ?

 

Full HD screen, lower end Ryzen with an SSD but needs more RAM. Cheap though.

 

Sorry, should have made it clear - probably going to have to be a refurb - budget round about £300, if possible.

[3s-gtech]

Okay, very tight budget. I would go for something with a 1920x1080 screen, and SSD, and a reasonable CPU. The graphics portion of the chip is always going to be heavily compromised at this budget, so concentrate on getting the best of the other bits you can. Roblox will run on an old iPad so not too demanding. Fortnite needs a bit more power.

[Steve21]

Honestly think you're struggle with anything half-decent running fortnite at that price, with covid/business buying them all up currently. Minecraft/roblox shouldn't be a problem. (How close to £300 did you want?)

 

You considered a tablet instead, or did it have to be laptop? Just thinking as it'll be more specced for the lower device (obviously Apple's out the question with fortnite as it's blocked though)

 

Steve

[Ditto]

I agree with @Steve21 it's Fortnite that's going to need the extra oomph. Unfortunately market prices and a bit bonkers right now. This is probably a crazy idea, but would a desktop in each location work - I appreciate there might be additional challenges with this!

 

If second hand is an option, sometimes you can get a good local deal on ebay. e.g. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Optiplex-790-SFF-i5-2500-16GB-of-RAM-GT1030-GPU/393131795209?hash=item5b887b2309:g:VS8AAOSwYoxgKDFg might just about work. A desktop equivalent would be better to support a 1050 Ti, but they are expensive right now. Two monitors would be a pain, but in the local collect second hand market, it's surprising how little you need to spend. Just a curve ball for you to consider, but you still get so much less for your money when tied to a laptop and expandability just doesn't exist in a meaningful way.

[stevejp]

I agree with @Steve21 it's Fortnite that's going to need the extra oomph. Unfortunately market prices and a bit bonkers right now. This is probably a crazy idea, but would a desktop in each location work - I appreciate there might be additional challenges with this!

 

If second hand is an option, sometimes you can get a good local deal on ebay. e.g. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Optiplex-790-SFF-i5-2500-16GB-of-RAM-GT1030-GPU/393131795209?hash=item5b887b2309:g:VS8AAOSwYoxgKDFg might just about work. A desktop equivalent would be better to support a 1050 Ti, but they are expensive right now. Two monitors would be a pain, but in the local collect second hand market, it's surprising how little you need to spend. Just a curve ball for you to consider, but you still get so much less for your money when tied to a laptop and expandability just doesn't exist in a meaningful way.

 

I’d have much preferred him to have a desktop, but his mother won’t let him have one. Thank you for your help.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Best bet might be to look at ebay listings and see if there's a second hand one you could snipe.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASUS-K501UQ-15-6-FHD-8GB-1TB-i5-6th-GEN-Nvidia-GTX/353381551991

 

No bids on this one yet so you could offer up to your budget and see if they bite?

 

There's really not going ot be a lot of laptop options in-budget right now, prices are nearly double where they would normally be.

[stevejp]

Sorted, now - thanks everyone for your help and advice, particularly @ICTDirect_Dave.