UPDATE: Building a Computer! (New Laptop)

[mark]

Spoiler

Does anyone know a laptop that is decent when running games such as Minecraft and/or Sims 3(or 4). I wouldn't want to run the games in the fanciest/highest graphics but its decent and wont lag! Possibly under $400 o3o. I rather not have a Mac btw.

UPDATE: can you guys list what I need to have in order to build a computer, not laptop?

plus if you built one yourself can you say how long it took, was it worth it, and if you did use any tutorials that were helpful, show me?

UPDATE:
UPDATE: Since I will be using (thank you again savvy.max) his key for Windows 8 I saved myself a good amount of money ! Can you please look at this and see if anything is too much or too little, I need to lower the price x_x

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/iamMark/saved/#savedbuild_1310120
or
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/iamMark/saved/GTLwrH

 

[Mike]

Hi Mark,
I know this may be a little over your budget but I found a "Lenovo IdeaPad G505s 15.6-Inch Laptop" on Amazon for $460 with free shipping. It has a good APU (processor and integrated graphics) and you should be able to run both at excellent framerates. This is probably one of AMDs best APU and you should be able to run Minecraft at highest settings and Sims at a decent framerate. Here's the link to the laptop if you are interested.
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-15-6-Inch-Laptop-59406417/dp/B00HIYA4F2?tag=1000100-20

If you want a laptop that is cheaper and has good specifications, quote me and I'll look for a cheaper one.

 

[BuddyByte]

I have a Lenovo and I love it, so I agree with Mike.

 

[mark]

Hi Mark,
I know this may be a little over your budget but I found a "Lenovo IdeaPad G505s 15.6-Inch Laptop" on Amazon for $460 with free shipping. It has a good APU (processor and integrated graphics) and you should be able to run both at excellent framerates. This is probably one of AMDs best APU and you should be able to run Minecraft at highest settings and Sims at a decent framerate. Here's the link to the laptop if you are interested.
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-15-6-Inch-Laptop-59406417/dp/B00HIYA4F2?tag=1000100-20

If you want a laptop that is cheaper and has good specifications, quote me and I'll look for a cheaper one.

Ooo its not that bad I was actually looking for around 6GB of RAM. however, dont you think 1 terabyte is toooooo much for storage XD? Do you think theyd offer the same laptop but less gigabytes?

 

[Bird]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HEEB5Y0?tag=price195-20&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

This is what I suggest, Acer Aspire line laptops have the highest quality when it comes to build standards only next to apple and the old lenovo. Acer uses a lot of metals in it's chassis which makes it durible and rarely uses plastics. You will see in your journey with buying a laptop that many companies like Dell, HP, Toshiba, and others that they use a lot of plastic to keep the price down. Also, due to how building ram works. 6GB of ram is not easy to obtain and is very expensive in many laptops, mainly because when 6gb of ram was a lot, they were only in the super expensive high end laptops. 8GB is cheaper than 6gb due to the storage compression factorials ( I.E:. 2,4,8,16,32,64). When you see a 6gb its actually a 2048mb and a 4096mb sticks that have to be built to cooperate with each other.

TL;DR - You dont want 6gb, go for 8 if your pockets can.

 

[Mike]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HEEB5Y0?tag=price195-20&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Bird, that's actually a good deal for that laptop. Just one question though, do you know if you're able to upgrade the RAM on that laptop? I remember Mark saying that he was looking for around 6 GB of RAM; I was unable to find anything on upgrading it.

Edit: I found you can upgrade it to 8 GB.

 

[Bird]

Bird, that's actually a good deal for that laptop. Just one question though, do you know if you're able to upgrade the RAM on that laptop? I remember Mark saying that he was looking for around 6 GB of RAM; I was unable to find anything on upgrading it.

Edit: I found you can upgrade it to 8 GB.

Yeah all laptops are upgradable ( excluding the retina MBP line and a select few of ultraslims )

The mobo on this laptop supports up to 16gb ram. Mark can just get 2 4gb sticks from of ram from crucial for like 45$ and he'll be just fine.

 

[mark]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HEEB5Y0?tag=price195-20&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

This is what I suggest, Acer Aspire line laptops have the highest quality when it comes to build standards only next to apple and the old lenovo. Acer uses a lot of metals in it's chassis which makes it durible and rarely uses plastics. You will see in your journey with buying a laptop that many companies like Dell, HP, Toshiba, and others that they use a lot of plastic to keep the price down. Also, due to how building ram works. 6GB of ram is not easy to obtain and is very expensive in many laptops, mainly because when 6gb of ram was a lot, they were only in the super expensive high end laptops. 8GB is cheaper than 6gb due to the storage compression factorials ( I.E:. 2,4,8,16,32,64). When you see a 6gb its actually a 2048mb and a 4096mb sticks that have to be built to cooperate with each other.

TL;DR - You dont want 6gb, go for 8 if your pockets can.

Oh god no, I have the ******** Acer Aspire 5534 and was only good for the first 2 months I had it. My uncle had to fix it about 3 times! The inside where you charge broke, some keys weren't responding, and the trackpad stopped working. Complete ********,[DOUBLEPOST=1405288827][/DOUBLEPOST]I forgot to mention, The charger and trackpad conflict happened with my friend with her Acer laptop (different NEWER model) and the sound broke on her laptop.[DOUBLEPOST=1405288922][/DOUBLEPOST]I also forgot to mention I had to pay $100+ for a new screen for my laptop because it broke (in the first 6 months of owning it). Unlike my sister's Asus none of these ever happened and she's been owning this laptop for about a year and a half now. If you're going to say I can't take care of my laptop, I've had my iPad 2 since it was released and no damage has been done to it. If I took the case and screen protector out, I could put it in the apple box and it would look good as new. Same thing with my Android, I've had my Android for 2 years now and no damage has been done to it, not even a little scratch and I took out the screen protector months ago. Acer is ******** in my opinion.[DOUBLEPOST=1405289281][/DOUBLEPOST]oh i really dont want to sound like i'm attacking but I just hate Acer... but also >.<... my Acer and my friend's Acer (thankfully no longer owns) gets too heated and hot and turns off. The fans are crappy.

 

[Captain-Heather]

I have an Acer tower that's going on 4-5 years old today...pretty old in computer terms, and it's still awesome. You are going to have good experiences with some products mixed with the bad. I had a Dell tower before this that needed a new power source (can't remember the part now, but at the time I knew what it was...lol). The good/bad thing was that the computer was still under warranty with Dell, so they sent someone out and it got fixed for free. Good because it got fixed for free, bad because it wasn't even a year old and it needed a vital part replaced. But it lagged and slowed down significantly as it got older. So for me, I'd probably never buy a Dell again, which is sad. They used to be a pretty good brand in my opinion.

So just keep what people suggest in the back of your mind. If you come across an Acer with some awesome specs at a great price, don't be 100% against getting it. Also, consider buying an extended warranty on the device for peace of mind.

 

[Bird]

I have an Acer tower that's going on 4-5 years old today...pretty old in computer terms, and it's still awesome. You are going to have good experiences with some products mixed with the bad. I had a Dell tower before this that needed a new power source (can't remember the part now, but at the time I knew what it was...lol). The good/bad thing was that the computer was still under warranty with Dell, so they sent someone out and it got fixed for free. Good because it got fixed for free, bad because it wasn't even a year old and it needed a vital part replaced. But it lagged and slowed down significantly as it got older. So for me, I'd probably never buy a Dell again, which is sad. They used to be a pretty good brand in my opinion.

So just keep what people suggest in the back of your mind. If you come across an Acer with some awesome specs at a great price, don't be 100% against getting it. Also, consider buying an extended warranty on the device for peace of mind.

Same here, i had an Acer tower for the longest time, was like 300$ new and it lasted forever until I wanted to expand.

Oh god no, I have the ******** Acer Aspire 5534 and was only good for the first 2 months I had it. My uncle had to fix it about 3 times! The inside where you charge broke, some keys weren't responding, and the trackpad stopped working. Complete ********,[DOUBLEPOST=1405288827][/DOUBLEPOST]I forgot to mention, The charger and trackpad conflict happened with my friend with her Acer laptop (different NEWER model) and the sound broke on her laptop.[DOUBLEPOST=1405288922][/DOUBLEPOST]I also forgot to mention I had to pay $100+ for a new screen for my laptop because it broke (in the first 6 months of owning it). Unlike my sister's Asus none of these ever happened and she's been owning this laptop for about a year and a half now. If you're going to say I can't take care of my laptop, I've had my iPad 2 since it was released and no damage has been done to it. If I took the case and screen protector out, I could put it in the apple box and it would look good as new. Same thing with my Android, I've had my Android for 2 years now and no damage has been done to it, not even a little scratch and I took out the screen protector months ago. Acer is ******** in my opinion.[DOUBLEPOST=1405289281][/DOUBLEPOST]oh i really dont want to sound like i'm attacking but I just hate Acer... but also >.<... my Acer and my friend's Acer (thankfully no longer owns) gets too heated and hot and turns off. The fans are crappy.

I think you had a bad experience, my uncle has an acer from tiger direct and that thing has been going strong for over a year now.

 

[mark]

okay lol i kind of went overboard and decided to switch to a computer XD??? Can someone please tell me if this good for like Sims 2/3/4 Minecraft and running Steam games o_o?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227510
tagging recent commenters o3o
@Bird
@Mike
@Captain-Heather

 

[Mike]

That computer should be fine running those games since they aren't graphic intensive. I'm not sure which Steam games you would like to run, but you should be able to run a lot of games smoothly. I would recommend upgrading the RAM and if possible the graphics card. If you upgrade the graphics card you a higher one, you may need a larger power supply.

 

[mark]

That computer should be fine running those games since they aren't graphic intensive. I'm not sure which Steam games you would like to run, but you should be able to run a lot of games smoothly. I would recommend upgrading the RAM and if possible the graphics card. If you upgrade the graphics card you a higher one, you may need a larger power supply.

How hard exactly is upgrading a graphics card :/

 

[Solar]

That tower you linked should run most games flawlessly. Unless you're trying to run games like Crysis, Far Cry 3, or Skyrim on Ultra you should be completely fine with that build. My only criticism would be to look for an intel CPU. I have bad history with AMD processors so I do my best to avoid them. Also, if you have a bit more cash I would push for a 2 GB graphics card. If you are definitely going with ibuypower, you can find pricing details for that on their website by doing a custom build. I have a Radeon HD 6970 2 GB card and even that has light hiccups while playing GPU heavy games.

 

[Captain-Heather]

Ditto what Solar said. Most computer people I talk to tend to prefer Intel over AMD. And I'd definitely get a bit more ram in there.

 

[Mike]

How hard exactly is upgrading a graphics card :/

It's not that hard. All you have to do is take the current one out by undoing the clips that attach it to the motherboard and put the newer one in it. Like I said before you may also need to upgrade the power supply depending on the graphics card that you get.

That tower you linked should run most games flawlessly. Unless you're trying to run games like Crysis, Far Cry 3, or Skyrim on Ultra you should be completely fine with that build. My only criticism would be to look for an intel CPU. I have bad history with AMD processors so I do my best to avoid them. Also, if you have a bit more cash I would push for a 2 GB graphics card. If you are definitely going with ibuypower, you can find pricing details for that on their website by doing a custom build. I have a Radeon HD 6970 2 GB card and even that has light hiccups while playing GPU heavy games.

I have an AMD processor currently and I don't seem to find any hiccups with it. The only problem is that some APU's (processors and graphic cards together) in AMD computers may not always have the best performances compared to Intel ones. In this computer it has a dedicated graphics card so you shouldn't have to worry to much about that. I'm sure that processor will be fine for what you need to do though. I was also looking at videos and reviews of the computer/graphics card and people said that you should definitely upgrade it so you will be able to play games at higher settings.

 

[mark]

ram and graphics cards are so expensive

 

[Solar]

ram and graphics cards are so expensive

I know, right?

 

[mark]

UPDATE: I'm really indecisive! XD

I don't know how I'm going to do it, I dont know anyone in my family that is computer-smart other than my two uncles (they're twins that's funny) and my dad's going to inform them when he goes to work on Monday... my dad's in a family business

Has anyone built computer before?! If so... please, can you list every single thing I need?

e.g.
ram
gb
motherboard

not
250 gb
6gb ram
_____ mother board
that makes me scared because of how many words there are and makes me less confident in doing it by myself!

 

[Solar]

You'll need:

• Case
• Motherboard
• Hard Drive
• CPU
• RAM
• CD/DVD Drive
• Operating System
• CPU cooler (You can use the one that comes with your CPU, or buy a better one)
• Graphics Card (Or use the CPUs built in graphics for a cheaper build

I recommend trying this website: http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

It's great for planning out your build, and you can view some other builds that people have done too.