Good cheap gaming computer?

Christian

My current computer, which is an 6-7 year old mac that crashes when I boot up a game as simple as minecraft, is terrible. I need new computer, preferably a PC as they are better for games. Are there any cheap but good computers that are good for gaming?
@Don Well. You could at least TRY to answer my question.

Answer
Gaming systems do not need the latest bleeding edge technology to give hours of fun and satisfaction. There will be people who are going to claim that you need the highest resolution screen (1920 x 1080) and the fastest CPU and GPU with obscene amounts of ram. They think that by picking all the latest bleeding edge parts and slapping them together makes it all work. Choose what works for you in your budget. A 1366 x 768 screen with a middle of the road CPU, GPU will work just fine. You're not going to be playing the bleeding edge games with bleeding edge technology in the highest settings, but you will be having fun.

This will depend on what you call cheap but here is my suggestions.

ASUS laptop.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230987
Core i5 3230M(2.60GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 1600 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce Dedicated 2GB GT 610M 1 Year Accidental Damage/30-Day Zero Bright Dot

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230416
Core i5 3210M(2.50GHz) 14.1" 8GB Memory 750GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce Dedicated 1GB GT 620M

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230597
Core i7 3630QM(2.40GHz) 15.6" 8GB Memory 1TB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce Dedicated 2GB GT 635M 1 Year Accidental Damage/30-Day Zero Bright Dot

Two HP that can be customized to what you need, Bump the APU and ram for better performance.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C9W57AV;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000fb8mNv9y;sid=NID2W1inOb6JXwkRbh2qz4GoAJwzDmy78dUe8LW2AJwzDtPc7Kuhl6jI?HP-ENVY-15z-j000-Notebook-PC Starting at $530

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/D1H55AV;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000fb8mNv9y;sid=NID2W1inOb6JXwkRbh2qz4GoAJwzDmy78dUe8LW2AJwzDtPc7Kuhl6jI?HP-Pavilion-17z-e000-Notebook-PC Starting at $450 Your choice of 4 colors

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-2000/D3X05AV;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000fb8mNv9y;sid=NID2W1inOb6JXwkRbh2qz4GoAJwzDmy78dUe8LW2AJwzDtPc7Kuhl6jI?HP-2000z-2d00-Notebook-PC Starting at $350 Your choise 2 colors

These are not customizable

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C2K91UA;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000ptFcn-Ce;sid=UfkUk5vYup7bi8p-xu5OB0LXZeXRxq_ElKxaT319WyKZOCFLk0_Q5UIX?HP-ENVY-Sleekbook-6-1110us
HP SleekBook AMD Quad-Core A8-4555M APU AMD Radeon HD 7600G 4 GB DDR3 500 GB SATA (5400 rpm) $700

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C2N66UA;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000ptFcn-Ce;sid=UfkUk5vYup7bi8p-xu5OB0LXZeXRxq_ElKxaT319WyKZOCFLk0_Q5UIX?HP-ENVY-dv7-7230us-Notebook-PC
17" DV7-7230US laptop AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M APU AMD Radeon HD 7640G 6 GB DDR3 750 GB SATA (5400 rpm) $750

Brand buying advice

You get what you pay for. Systems with high end parts with low prices are to be viewed with suspicion. They have to cut corners somewhere to get the price down.

Apple makes a good quality laptop. The problem comes when it requires service or minor upgrades. It is near impossible to do anything with them. They even glue the battery and hard drive down so you can not change it. They solder the ram to the logic board so you can not increase it. They lock up most of the software so your stuck with what they approve.

Lenovo has serious stand behind their product problems. They bought IBM PC division and proceeded to drive the quality of the system into the ground. Their customer service is well below par. They even makes Dell customer service look good. The last and final thing to remember about them is they are a Chinese Government own company. It is up to you if you want to trust them.

Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony should be avoided because of their heavy modification of Windows and the drivers. If you remove some of the bloat they install, you can cripple the system.

Acer, Gateway, and eMachines should be avoided period. Low end system that are driving the race to the bottom.

Dell once made a good system and fell from grace. They are now struggling to regain their place in the market. Customer service is one of many problems with this company.

Alienware are glorified Dells and are more name then product. Priced extremely high for what you get. They do perform but you can get the same for less by looking around, just not packaged to be eye candy to the gamers.

Samsung has a history of using cheap parts in critical areas. Capacitors has been one area Samsung has a known history of going cheap, causing units to fail early. For that reason I would avoid them.

ASUS and HP do not modify Windows as bad as the other manufacturers. They have excellent build quality. They might add a lot of bloat but they also makes it easy to get rid of it.

Choose Wisely

Gaming computer help?

James

I know I asked this before but I need help with choosing the right desktop or laptop for everyday use and gaming. I play a lot of simulation games such as the new simcity game and 18 wheels of steel. I don't need something outrageous.

Answer
If you need a laptop, don't go over an entry level gaming machine for what you describe. You won't need it. I don't believe the sim games will need the graphics power of something more powerful.
Personally, for the cost of a mid level gaming laptop, I would spend $600 for a really hot desktop and then pick up a $300-$350 laptop for mobility - something light with good battery - I have lugged heavy laptops on travel, and I would get choose something lighter anymore.

Take a look at these rankings:
http://blog.laptopmag.com/best-worst-notebook-brands-2013/3

You can look at some gaming machines here:
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/landing_pages/ideapad/gaming-pcs
http://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/Gaming_Products/

Lenovo, Asus, HP, and Samsung are the top 4 laptop brands. I wouldn't consider any other brands.

Dell makes Alienware and they are not worth the money charged.
Acer makes Gateway. You'd have to pay me to use one of their machines.
Sony hardware has generally been good, but they are notorious for putting huge amounts of crapware/bloatware on machines and gathering information on their consumers without their knowledge or permission.
Toshiba has bottomed the rankings. Personally, I have used them and never had a problem, but that does not appear to be the case any more.

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