Gaming laptop for around 1000?

[272BHP]

Panic buying for our son who needs a laptop for school but no doubt he will want to game on it as well.

The choice is bewildering. Initially fancied a Microsoft Surface laptop as it seems to be the best built but I guess it is not too great for gaming.

Any thoughts?

[Munter]

My main thought is. Anything good for gaming is likely to be too heavy to lug around school. However, it's not me carrying it

I got a "budget gaming" G7 laptop from the dell outlet store last year. Lot's of G5s up there at the moment in your price range if you can accept the "scratch and dent" condition.

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/dfh/shop/refurbished-co...

[272BHP]

I don't think he will have to lug it to school at the moment as he is only 14, he is quite tech savvy though and knows the difference between a crappy GPU and a decent one.

I was just looking at the Dell G5s and they seem a solid choice. They seem a much better spec from Dell themselves than the ones on offer at Curry's - as it's a Christmas present i would rather buy new.

Interestingly on the Dell site the Ryzen/5600M G5s are much cheaper than the Intel/1660ti ones are the latter ones really worth 150 pound more?

[272BHP]

Munter said:

My main thought is. Anything good for gaming is likely to be too heavy to lug around school. However, it's not me carrying it

I got a "budget gaming" G7 laptop from the dell outlet store last year. Lot's of G5s up there at the moment in your price range if you can accept the "scratch and dent" condition.

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/dfh/shop/refurbished-co...

Do the refurbished ones come boxed? some good deals there

[satans worm]

14? just make sure its got a very good anti virus

[320d is all you need]

I'd buy a used Laptop for School for a couple hundred quid (or a Chrome book type thing) and spend £800 on a nice gaming PC.

Then you can have a clear divide between School and Play

And it's less likely to get damaged / broken at School being taken around in bags etc.

[Munter]

272BHP said:

Do the refurbished ones come boxed? some good deals there

Mine came in a replacement box with foam lining. Plus charger etc boxed up. I wasn't upset with how it came.

[redneckLT]

I was in a very similar situation - laptop needed for school work but also gaming. Xmas present for my 10y son (expensive).

Also decided for DELL G5 refurbished after many good words from PH about DELL Outlet. Looked into it and I was waiting for Black Friday.

Please note, that DELL outlet prices do not include VAT. So add 20% unless you have a way around.

On Black Friday it was 15% off for new laptops but not refurbished, but I found a code 16% from some employee benefit pack. There was a little price reduction as well. Also LLoyds bank should give me £80 cashback - I have not received it yet.

So it only made sense to buy new. So Intel 10th gen, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, NVIDIA 2060 RTX, 144Hz screen, full keyboard (I think this is important). RRP - £1369. I paid £1060 and I hope for £80 cashback. For comparison previous model with older Intel and Nvidia models - scratch and dent - £980 incl VAT.

Delivery supper quick, ordered Black Friday afternoon, delivered Saturday morning.

I opened and turned on to make the basic set up - Xmas morning will be busy anyway. I have not used any Windows laptop for the last 15 years. (I use 7 year old MacBook Pro for browsing and other basic stuff). Windows is still awful - it is like using time machine. Crashed once while starting up - I think once it got wifi - updated keyboard drivers and I cold not enter a password. After that it was all OK, downloaded all updates and drivers in a few hours and now ready to be used. It is bulky thing and the fans are noisy. Screen is not nice even by old retina standards - especially the blacks. Awful thing but it better be good for gaming. I packed it back and now waiting for Xmas morning.

If not urgent I would wait for Boxing Day sale.