Gaming Laptop under 300

[RevPokemon]

Hey my mom got 300 dollars to buy us a new laptop and I was wondering if you guys have any suggestions with my requirements

Must run Windows os (doesn't matter if its 8 or 8.1)
Must have a DVD drive (need it for programs with school)
Under 300 USD (can be over if there is a sale making it under)
At least 300gb storage

Mainly will be using it for documents, web browsing and school.

Thanks for the help

 

[GameSystem]

There are several thousand laptops that meet those broad specifications. Just go to your favorite computer selling site and press most popular or highest rated and then filter it for under $300. Since it's April and the end of the fiscal year, most retailers are trying to clear old stock and give pretty decent prices.

 

[Adeka]

Pawn shops

Found an hp desktop last week with 8gb ram, 1tb hard drive, quad core, and has factory installed office for $150. Monitor was included too.

 

[Foxi4]

$300 isn't much for a quality piece of hardware unless it's pre-owned, can you tell us what are your intentions for the computer? Are you going to do some gaming or is this supposed to be an internet browsing machine or an office tasks machine?

 

[RevPokemon]

$300 isn't much for a quality piece of hardware unless it's pre-owned, can you tell us what are your intentions for the computer? Are you going to do some gaming or is this supposed to be an internet browsing machine or an office tasks machine?

Like I said all it needs is to be able to is browse the net and do documents (on ms word) and there will be no gaming on it. The DVD drive is because I need it to use a few school programs I use that aren't CPU intensive as it works on a 7 year old Toshiba laptop.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Like I said all it needs is to be able to is browse the net and do documents (on ms word) and there will be no gaming on it. The DVD drive is because I need it to use a few school programs I use that aren't CPU intensive as it works on a 7 year old Toshiba laptop.

Almost any notebook would be up to the task, and a lot of them under $300.
If you are going to write on the notebook, I suggest you to look for one with a comfortable keyboard.
I think you may get something ASUS made, with nice overall hardware for office applications and a good keyboard under $300.

 

[Foxi4]

Like I said all it needs is to be able to is browse the net and do documents (on ms word) and there will be no gaming on it. The DVD drive is because I need it to use a few school programs I use that aren't CPU intensive as it works on a 7 year old Toshiba laptop.

In that case go for anything with an Intel i-series CPU, the integrated GPU should be enough and you'll be overpaying for anything with a discrete card, sacrificing CPU power and memory which is more important for your tasks. You shouldn't have a problem finding a good brand i5-powered laptop with at least 8GB DDR3 for $300 or even under, you don't need a fancy NVidia or a Radeon in there, you need performance. Don't go for Acers - they pack good specs but the hardware is low-quality. Low-end HP laptops tend to overheat, so avoid those as well. I can recommend Toshibas, ASUS and Lenovo. If battery life is important to you, you might consider something powered by an AMD APU, the A-series tends to be pretty good all-around, but Intel is still in the lead as far as raw performance is concerned.

 

[Arecaidian Fox]

I see decent to good open item laptops for that price or lower when I walk into my local Best Buy, as an example.

 

[4ur0r]

I can leave a good word about my 259€ laptop: Lenovo B590, it's pretty cheap and windows 8 should be included (altough with Ubuntu is even faster).
It has a 2.7ghz (shitty) intel cpu and 4gb or ram.

 

[Joe88]

there's so many different laptops out so I really cant recommend one
just check your local adverts and such for some decent deals, avoid hp
I did the same thing when I bought a laptop, spent $300 for it back in 2009 and still using it today

 

[driverdis]

get something like this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thin...337?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item463577d471

I have used one of these in the past for a while and it is a nice machine that is more than capable of what you are looking for.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Does it absolutely need to be Windows? I always recomend Chromebooks to people who need computers at that price.

While it's completely possible to buy a $300 Windows laptop, it's almost guaranteed to suck. By contrast, you can get a Chromebook for that amount that will actually do what you tell it it to and won't make you want to bang your head against the wall. Sure, it can't do as much overall, but it'll be a more pleasant experience.

 

[GreatCrippler]

I refurbish and resell PCs for a living. Getting a nice refurbished i5 class Dell or Lenovo in the the 200-250 range is not hard.

 

[RevPokemon]

Does it absolutely need to be Windows? I always recomend Chromebooks to people who need computers at that price.

While it's completely possible to buy a $300 Windows laptop, it's almost guaranteed to suck. By contrast, you can get a Chromebook for that amount that will actually do what you tell it it to and won't make you want to bang your head against the wall. Sure, it can't do as much overall, but it'll be a more pleasant experience.

Yeah it need to be windows for a school program I run.

 

[RevPokemon]

Also my mom found this one in a paper and likes it because it is a Toshiba (her previous laptop)

http://www.officedepot.com/mb/skupage.do?skuid=202754

Looking over it and seems nice

 

[GreatCrippler]

Also my mom found this one in a paper and likes it because it is a Toshiba (her previous laptop)

http://www.officedepot.com/mb/skupage.do?skuid=202754

Looking over it and seems nice

I work on a lot of those type of Toshibas. As a rule, I don't recommend them. They aren't terrible or anything, but those AMD duals are cheap, and seem to perform less well than Core 2 Duo Units a few years older. I would hop on Ebay, and hunt down a Dell D630 before I would use that Toshiba. The D630s are dirt cheap, solid dual core business class laptops, and as long as you don't get one with an Nvidia video card, they last forever.

 

[Joe88]

I have a toshiba right now and it works fine, I bought that brand because of this http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf

 

[GreatCrippler]

I have a toshiba right now and it works fine, I bought that brand because of this http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf

I am not trying to say Toshiba is a bad brand by any stretch. The larger point I was going for was if you're looking at refurbished anyways, go with business class. They just tend to be a lot sturdier units all around.

 

[RevPokemon]

I work on a lot of those type of Toshibas. As a rule, I don't recommend them. They aren't terrible or anything, but those AMD duals are cheap, and seem to perform less well than Core 2 Duo Units a few years older. I would hop on Ebay, and hunt down a Dell D630 before I would use that Toshiba. The D630s are dirt cheap, solid dual core business class laptops, and as long as you don't get one with an Nvidia video card, they last forever.

I know of love to buy a decent laptop that's used from new egg or Amazon but my mom doesn't like it and its her choice

 

[GreatCrippler]

I know of love to buy a decent laptop that's used from new egg or Amazon but my mom doesn't like it and its her choice

Fair, then maybe try to steer her towards something like a Dell Latitude E6510. If you can find one with a blue cover, they look really slick, and they have a decent i5 under the hood.