My 9 year old wants a gaming laptop and my laptop spec knowledge is minimal. He wants to play Fortnite and Minecraft and the like, nothing fancy. Any ideas re good laptops to buy, or good places to look? I’m in the UK and my budget is 300 quid tops, ideally less.
In would look into old workstations with decent grapchis cards.
They are super sturdy, so toddler proof, reliable, usually have good repairability and upgradability and can be found cheap. I’ll let someone else fill you in on what specs you want since that’s a long note.
The specs required for these games is low, fortunately. Cheaper gaming laptops typically go for twice your max budget. Looking for a used laptop is the way I would go with the budget. I have the specs for fortnite below, but keep in mind, these are the minimum expectations not what you should get. I would search for something with 1.5-2x these specs if you expect your kid to have the laptop for more the 3-4 years and the demands of future games.
https://www.chillblast.com/blog/fortnite-pc-specs-requirements-2024
CPU - Core i3-3225 3.3 GHz. GPU - Intel HD 4000 or AMD Radeon Vega 8. Memory - 8 GB RAM. Storage - 30GB available space
Minecraft can be pretty RAM/CPU hungry, especially if you want it to be playable. I can’t speak to fortnite, but usually a games “minimum” requirements are not going to result in a enjoyable experience.
It might be better to save money for a better laptop than to buy a min spec laptop that cant really play the games
Minecraft can be quite demanding, the minimum specs are a bit misleading.
If portability is not a real requirement, a desktop may be cheaper, but once you add monitor/keyboard etc that can defeat the savings somewhat. But you can also keep/upgrade the parts independently, which will be cheaper in the longer term.
At your budget, you want to be looking at second hand. New gaming laptops at staples are starting around $800. There are probably second hand bargains to be had, just look for anything with an Nvidia or AMD graphics card, and as much RAM as possible (minimum 8gb, ideally 16gb or more). Upgradable RAM might be good, but its very rare on laptops now.
I cant help on the second hand market, but perhaps its worth tasking your son with doing the research?
You’re definitely going to want a second hand laptop if you’re spending 300 quid. Best bet is to look on eBay. Pick a GPU (off the top of my head, maybe a 970 or 1050) and search for those. Then check each result and start comparing. It’s a nightmare trying to see if the CPU is any good. I usually check it on passmark every time
Only Fortnite and Minecraft? Rather than a gaming laptop, you can buy him the ROG Ally handheld instead and save some money. Even the Steam Deck will do the job (make sure you get the 512 GB or 1 TB version, 64 and 256 GB are limited)
