Is it possible to get a gaming laptop for around £500

[mumwantingtogetittogether]

Or any laptop capable of playing sims 4 on?

I'm posting on behalf of my sister as she doesn't have an account but she could really do with some advice. (She's almost as computer illiterate as me 🤣)

She is looking to get a laptop for my lovely niece who would like to play sims, and also maybe Minecraft. But having looked online is feeling like it might not be in her budget?

She normally doesn't go for big purchases but has saved specially for this and considering she will probably have to buy a cd drive too, can't really go over the £500 mark (I will be buying the game itself).

I don't want anyone to think my niece is spoilt or demanding. She lost her dad around her last birthday and has had a really tough year but through it all has been so loving and supportive of her mum. I really am super proud of her. So her mum was hoping to surprise her with something she'd really love to have (hence saving as much as she could) but can obviously only do that within her means 😅 so any help would be so much appreciated!!

She really doesn't have a clue about all the technical jargon on computer websites so doesn't understand the requirements needed for playing sims so if you play sims yourself that would be really helpful! I am definitely no help to her 😅

Yes ours was 600 I think. Check out Currys.

Not a good one, no

Sims 4 and Minecraft don't need fancy machines, they are fairly light on resources.

Does it need to be a laptop? You can often get more spec for your money with a desktop.

Most important thing will be graphics card and CPU and decent fans. But even there you don't need top of the range.

Why would she want a CD drive? You don't generally need one these days.

Ahh it was me who assumed (and told her) that she'd need a cd drive as I thought the game was a cd

Do you have any recommendations for a laptop?
I found this laptop on curry's but wasn't sure if I should bother sending her the link as I don't know whether it'll be any good!

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/hp-pavilion-14dv0607na-14-laptop-intel-pentium-gold-128-gb-ssd-white-and-rose-gold-10218530.html?gbraid=0AAAAAD7JKSKe6Ph0obWqUTO60Z-Pn8Vmw&istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istFeedId=4d7eb93e-055f-499d-8ee5-1cdcc50d67d1&istItemId=ptiriraaw&istBid=tztx&srcid=198&cmpid=ppc~gg~1011%20(Shopping%20Ads)%20Laptops%20-%20HP%20Excess%20lines~1011%20(Shopping%20Ads)%20Laptops%20-%20HP%20Excess%20lines%20ad%20group~Exact~71700000093887092~&mctag=gggoogg7904&kwid=GOOGLE&device=m&dskids=92700070909177846&tgtid=1011%20(Shopping%20Ads)%20Laptops%20-%20HP%20Excess%20lines&&gbraid=0AAAAAD7JKSKe6Ph0obWqUTO60Z-Pn8Vmw&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzPXn0D-AIVomLmCh0KUQMSEAQYBSABEgIySvDDBwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I also meant to say that a laptop would be preferable as they live in a fairly small flat with not a lot of space.

I understand that a top spec laptop is out of her price range. I was hoping for some advice in finding the best within her budget.

Maybe a refurbished one? I have a gaming PC as I do extremely large picture/artist files and had extra SSD cards and all sorts added. Not sure how things can be added to a laptop?

I wasn't being snippy, sorry. My DS got a £500 computer and tried to upgrade the graphics card etc to be able to game and it never worked. It was a waste of energy and money trying.

Ah sorry @CloseYourEyesAndSee I took your post the wrong way 💐 thank you for your reply

You won’t need a CD drive as The Sims 4 is only available as a digital download, so hopefully that saves her a bit!

Spec-wise, it depends on how many of the expansions she wants to buy. The base game is designed to run on non-gaming machines, but there are shit loads of expansions now which slow things down a lot and you do need something with a bit of oomph.

Double post, sorry! I’d recommend this one over the other one you were looking at:

www.currys.co.uk/products/asus-vivobook-m515ua-15.6-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-256-gb-ssd-silver-10230027.html

I dont know much but quite sure you should go for PC not laptop. Secondhand is an idea.

You really do want a PC and not a laptop. You get more for your money and they're usually easier to alter if you want to upgrade parts, and they're just better at lower price points.

However, even for £500, you're going to struggle. My son's gaming PC was £850 and is still "low spec". It has a decent Intel i5 and a 6GB graphics card with 1TB HDD and only a 250GB SSD.
His PC is basically around minimum processor and slightly over recommended graphics spec for the newer games. Going much below that and she wont be able to play much without encountering issues.

I know you're saying it's just for sims and minecraft but if you buy just for that then you'll have a PC she cant really use as she gets older and wants more game choices so it will become unusable quite quickly.

Games arent in disc now either. Gaming PCs dont have disc drives. You buy games on sites like Steam or from the publisher's website and download them. Steam and Epic games have loads of free play games and Epic games makes a usually paid game free every Thursday for that week only. Usually adult games but sometimes a good game for kids comes up and you "buy" it for £0 and it's yours forever.

Get a Steam deck. They go for around £500 but you have to join the waitlist for one. Very, very powerful linux based gaming machine and an absolute bargain. You'll need to download Steam to order one.

Oh, and his is 16GB RAM. You really don't want to go below that but can get by with 8GB.

I've got a dell G3 which isn't a gaming computer as such which plays the sims 3 & 4 with no issues, and all other games that I play. You'd be able to get a refurbished one for that amount or less.

My total gaming-geek OH says you'll easily find something with that capability second hand but might struggle brand new. He says it's all possible to upgrade parts on a laptop although not as easily as a PC. We have 2 gaming PCs as apparently 1 isn't enough 🙄😂

Thank you all for the replies, I really appreciate it. And for the link @LivingOnTheVeg I will pass that on top my sister!
Getting a refurbished laptop is a really good idea too! What do you guys think about this one?

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/refurbished-acer-nitro-5-core-i5-10300h-8gb-256gb-gtx-1650-15.6-inch-window-a1-nh.q7mek.007/version.asp

I genuinely mean it, I'm so grateful for your help

It is not always possible to upgrade laptop components. Laptops often use integrated graphics and CPU so they cant be upgraded.

You would need to check the laptop before buying to see if it is a laptop which can be upgraded but often you can only really change the memory.

Can you thank your OH for his input on my behalf! That's really reassuring to hear 😊
I have started looking at refurbished laptops..still feel out of my depth though haha I need a nice gaming geek OH of my own 😅

The Sims 4 is £4.49 in the Steam sale.

OP, create a steam account for your niece and buy the game while it is under a fiver.
It's like buying a movie on Amazon. It's in your account and you can sign in on any device and watch your movie.
The game will sit in her steam account and then when she has her laptop, she can download it onto the machine and play.

OP isn't going to alter it when she's not techie, and she's explained why they need something small (flat space limits).

The kid just wants to play SIMS4, does she really need a top spec machine for that ?? Last I checked, SIMS was not famous for requiring very high resolution or fast refresh rate.

Go somewhere like Curry's and ask what is the best laptop they can sell in your budget that suits both SIMS4 & light school work.

Top gamers really spend the £££ on the monitor btw, not the machine.

I'm absolutely not an expert, but do have some gaming PC knowledge, specifically for the sims, not so much for minecraft. The laptop you linked will definitely not run sims 4, and I don't think the one linked by LivingOnTheVeg will run it either (this is because it does not mention a graphics card, so it probably won't have a decent enough one).

Unfortunately, sims 4 used to run on many laptops, but after they brought out the pets expansion pack they changed the requirements of the base game, so it now does require a gaming laptop or desktop (I know from experience as it stopped working on my laptop!).

www.ea.com/en-gb/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/pc/system-requirements#:~:text=MINIMUM%20SPECS%3A,-OS%3A%20Metal%20required&text=CPU%3A%20Intel%20Core%202%20Duo,HD%202600%20Pro%20or%20better.
This is the link the system requirements for the sims 4 base game, and it states the minimum requirements and the recommended. If she would want expansion packs then the minimum requirements are likely not enough to run it properly. The important requirements are the processor (the CPU) and the graphics card (also known as video cards). Most ordinary laptops do not have good enough graphics cards to run games, especially for sims 4 and minecraft - this is why she would need a gaming laptop/desktop.

The cheapest gaming laptop on Currys is £599 and would definitely run sims 4 and minecraft. I'm not sure you will get a laptop that runs these games for £500 unless possibly second hand/refurbished. As others have mentioned gaming desktops are generally better value than laptops, but I'm not sure how much they would cost. You can use this website to check if a PC will run the games: www.pcgamebenchmark.com/