12 year old saved his pennys and ready to buy a laptop <$1300

Forums › Laptops and mobile computers › 12 year old saved his pennys and ready to buy a laptop <$1300

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#1236859 12-Feb-2015 21:57

gehenna: Dell has some great laptops these days.

e.g. http://www.dell.com/nz/p/inspiron-15-3543-laptop/pd?oc=y510134nz&model_id=inspiron-15-3543-laptop

Not a quad but I don't much see the point in a quad unless you're running some virtual guests too... Better off putting the extra money into an SSD.

Agree there is no need for quad core with the requirements of some gaming and schoolwork.

15.6" is heavy to take to school, but you get the best value in that size range if gaming is a requirement. Battery life on the more powerful ones becomes an issue if needed to be on for more than 4 hours at a time.

This Dell at $1300 meets all your criteria, the R7 m270 (a Dell exlcusive slightly improved variant of R7 m265) graphics are equivalent to gt840.

http://www.dell.com/nz/p/inspiron-15-5548-laptop/pd?oc=y510150nz&model_id=inspiron-15-5548-laptop

I agree with macuser though, get a cheaper, lighter one for school - an Asus T100 or similar, and use the money saved for something else for gaming on - either a desktop or a console.

Look at the graphics card benchmarks at notebookcheck for each laptop you research..

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#1236860 12-Feb-2015 22:07

I'd also recommend getting something portable and tough plus a console (longevity) or tower (flexibility, expandability) for gaming. However, is there a particular LAN game they're wanting to be able to travel with?

Xeon

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#1236862 12-Feb-2015 22:11

Here's the three scenarios I see personally:
1) He wants to play new (mostly hardware-heavy) games at a reasonable quality - He's going to have a bad time and you basically wasted your money on an expensive laptop, either buy a higher spec one or buy a cheaper one + console/desktop as others have said.
2) He wants to play older games/less performance heavy games - Sure buy one of the two laptops you've mentioned or even one with a little lower specs.
3) He doesn't really want to play games - Wasting money, buy a cheaper/lower spec laptop.

The Toshiba Satellite P50-B you linked has a Radeon R9 M265X which is still pretty weak for gaming especially considering this laptop has a full 1080p screen if you are wanting to play modern games.

gehenna

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#1236872 12-Feb-2015 22:30

Not a lot of faith in kids going on here is there? I'm pretty sure kids who are careless or disrespectful to their devices are the exception not the rule. My wife is a teacher and of the dozens of kids she's taught over the last 5 years all their gear has been in far better nick than her own iPad/MacBook. Just sayin'.

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#1236882 12-Feb-2015 22:43

gehenna: Not a lot of faith in kids going on here is there? I'm pretty sure kids who are careless or disrespectful to their devices are the exception not the rule. My wife is a teacher and of the dozens of kids she's taught over the last 5 years all their gear has been in far better nick than her own iPad/MacBook. Just sayin'.

My young cousins have gone through countless Nintendo's, cellphones, game consoles and broken plenty of laptops/charging cables so just making sure the tech is fit for the purpose

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#1236883 12-Feb-2015 22:46

gehenna: Not a lot of faith in kids going on here is there? I'm pretty sure kids who are careless or disrespectful to their devices are the exception not the rule. My wife is a teacher and of the dozens of kids she's taught over the last 5 years all their gear has been in far better nick than her own iPad/MacBook. Just sayin'.

It is more the feeling that an expensive laptop, but still lower range in gaming terms, won't be good for gaming in a couple of years. Already when you look at the gaming benchmarks at notebookcheck there is a lot of red for recent games on anything less than an 850M.
Unless it is covered on house contents insurance and you won't get angry at them, it's not fair for 12yr old to have the guilt and loss when it gets broken.

My daughter cracked the screen on her Windows tablet/laptop last year, and is normally careful with her stuff. After first claiming her bag was stepped on at school, eventually owned up to dropping it in the bathroom whilst watching stuff and cleaning teeth at the same time. No more stupid than what I do when dropping a phone, just greater consequences.

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#1236965 13-Feb-2015 08:41

blakamin:
sonyxperiageek: From my experience, a lot of HP laptops tend to overheat quite easily.

I can argue the opposite... I have a 3.5 year old HP DV6 (core I5, radeon gfx) that's only been restarted for updates or turned off when we're on holiday for the last 2.5 years.
And I live somewhere that can hit 45°+ during the day inside, while I'm at work. Never had an issue.

But do you game?

My experience is that the cheaper laptops with decent graphics cards don't have the cooling power required for gaming. My son has had a HP and a Dell with this same issue, requires a cooling pad whenever gaming and even then you will shorten the life of the laptop.

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#1236975 13-Feb-2015 08:54

I would also vote for a basic laptop for school use, lots around sub $700 that would do the trick nicely, and get an Xbox or PS4 for gaming. My now 13 year spent his 2 years at intermediate in a laptop class, he is fairly careful but even then I would cringe at a 12 year old running around with a $1000+ laptop in a backpack.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

sdavisnz

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#1236977 13-Feb-2015 08:55

I disagree. Get a nice one and cherish it.

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#1236996 13-Feb-2015 09:09

Check out

http://www.warehousestationery.co.nz/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/WSL-B2C-Site/en_NZ/-/NZD/ViewOfferDetail-Product?ProductRef=216768@WSL-B2C&utm_source=Gear+Up+B2B&utm_medium=webtile&utm_campaign=Gear+Up+B2B&utm_content=Hp+Envy

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#1237061 13-Feb-2015 09:51

TBH, I'd lean towards getting a really cheap laptop (I got my daughter a cheap second hand one for school work) for use at school, it's not like they need much grunt at all to run google docs, etc. Then "something else" - either a console or a desktop - for gaming. Personally I'd probably go desktop, since it will be more up-gradable, perform better and possibly teach him more about computers.

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#1237189 13-Feb-2015 12:30

Firstly good on you (and your son) for saving up for something nice, and from that point of view I can see why he wants the best laptop for the money, but as said for higher end gaming it isn't going to cut the mustard.

As far as looking after the device, I'd like to think if he is conscientious enough to save up he will look after what ever he gets.

As above cheap laptop then gaming PC could be the way to go, then he is going to get a better all round experience.

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#1237235 13-Feb-2015 12:54

@rungai, it is very hard for other people to be specific without knowing exactly what games are going to be played. If you list the games that your son wants to play then you will get a precise answer with better assessment of the options.

$1,300 is not high-end for consumer laptops and it's hardly even mid-range for gaming laptops. That is why people are telling you to look at desktops because you get a lot more performance and a lot more options. I know this from past and present experience. At the moment, one of my kids has a laptop for gaming and another has a desktop. Same price but the desktop has twice the gaming performance primarily because of the high wattage graphic cards. It can play the new games, the laptop cannot.

The drivers for your son's decision are important and it might be that this outweighs any price-performance issue. In my example, the son with the laptop wanted portability for travelling/working overseas and the ability to play in bed. He also likes to go out to play with his friends who play League of Legends and older games. The other prefers to stay at home and is happy to play games at his desk, chat with his friends online, and use his smartphone to watch videos in bed.

rungai

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#1237237 13-Feb-2015 12:54

Thanks for all the advice. I can see the sense in getting a cheaper laptop and a desktop, the only problem is that his mum and i live seperate so having just one good device that he takes with him seems like the only practical way.

rungai

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#1237290 13-Feb-2015 13:44

pbtech have a hp pro for $1378 with a 240g SSD but its only got a i5 processor and a radeon r5 m255 graphics card. For what we want would the sad make up or lower other specs?

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