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[DonJorginho]

In the search of sparking my old love for games, I thought I'd get a laptop to play old PC Games I loved, emulate old titles that are too expensive to buy as well as work on some light music production away from my usual Mac setup.

I was wanting to spend around the £500 mark just because I won't be playing too demanding titles, I was wondering whether this was a good deal? And if not, what recommendations could you make?

I know PCs are better value but this is primarily gonna be used for on the go gaming and music work, hence wanting a laptop.

This is what I was leaning towards but I'm sure it's a probable rip off you'll all say I should steer clear of.

Spoiler: LINK

https://www.hp.com/gb-en/shop/product.aspx?id=65T59EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB&source=google&channel=cpc&adcampaign=HP-GSC-Gen-Smart-PLA-Laptops-Goo-UK&addisttype=u&kw=&adid=506691300669&gclid=CjwKCAjw7IeUBhBbEiwADhiEMVhPtW3COeLms_Cd1pq-hoQJjWT-4cXv-dXEP7gtUpNO52s6sjAB9BoC4LAQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I could also use my Series X via RetroArch for emulating, but that won't let me play old PC titles I'd wanna play so any help would be appreciated!

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[DonJorginho]

Jokes aside I've always wanted to try one of those out, seem really cool!

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

Steam Deck!

 

[Borowski_1]

That's a very good deal

take it



but if you want something different, have a look at this one:

ASUS Vivobook Pro 14 K3400PH 14-inch 2.8K OLED Laptop (Intel Core i5-11300H, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, 8 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Backlit Keyboard, Windows 10 with free Windows 11 Upgrade) : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Huge range of Laptops with free delivery and returns on eligible orders. Buy ASUS Vivobook Pro 14 K3400PH 14-inch 2.8K OLED Laptop (Intel Core i5-11300H, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, 8 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Backlit Keyboard, Windows 10 with free Windows 11 Upgrade) at Amazon UK.

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[Kuranghi]

Did you buy it?

 

[PaintTinJr]

In the search of sparking my old love for games, I thought I'd get a laptop to play old PC Games I loved, emulate old titles that are too expensive to buy as well as work on some light music production away from my usual Mac setup.

I was wanting to spend around the £500 mark just because I won't be playing too demanding titles, I was wondering whether this was a good deal? And if not, what recommendations could you make?

I know PCs are better value but this is primarily gonna be used for on the go gaming and music work, hence wanting a laptop.

This is what I was leaning towards but I'm sure it's a probable rip off you'll all say I should steer clear of.

Spoiler: LINK

https://www.hp.com/gb-en/shop/product.aspx?id=65T59EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB&source=google&channel=cpc&adcampaign=HP-GSC-Gen-Smart-PLA-Laptops-Goo-UK&addisttype=u&kw=&adid=506691300669&gclid=CjwKCAjw7IeUBhBbEiwADhiEMVhPtW3COeLms_Cd1pq-hoQJjWT-4cXv-dXEP7gtUpNO52s6sjAB9BoC4LAQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I could also use my Series X via RetroArch for emulating, but that won't let me play old PC titles I'd wanna play so any help would be appreciated!

I tried to check the specs for maximum installable RAM, which is a gotcha on the cheap moulded-plug-esq win-home laptops from all mfrs and couldn't find the official spec - probably available at kingston memory - and couldn't find a service manual for it in support, to get the spec either.

If it will take upto 32GBs of ram like Win 10/11 Pro Hp ProBooks and Thinkpads and Dell Vostros around the £650 mark take, then it should be fine for your needs - other than crappy driver support as time goes on which is typically a byproduct of the laptop tier you are buying from.

 

[Fbh]

I'm not sure about the prices in the UK but after a quick amazon search it seems like a pretty good deal.
I'm also not familiar with this specific model but be aware that with cheap gaming laptops you should expect stuff like bulky-ish build, bad battery life, an average and rather dim screen and a power brick the size of a small apartment. Doesn't mean they are bad or anything, just be aware that the lower price has to come from somewhere.

 

[DonJorginho]

Did you buy it?

Scarier than the new Silent Hill that

 

[I_D]

That hinge looks like a disaster waiting to happen.
Otherwise, the specs are solid for the price.

It won't run any modern games even remotely well, but it should handle PS2/Gamecube games and older without any problems. Standard email-checking and doc-using and whatnot will not be an issue at all.

The display's response time is a bit slow, though, which might warrant some shopping-around.
Considering your plan is to run games that were designed with CRTs and cartridges (mostly) in mind, the combination of input-lag and display-lag might make a noticeable difference on the gameplay.
If it's just for light gaming, go for it.
If you plan to use this thing pretty constantly for emulation-gaming, I would bump up the price a bit and go for something else.

 

[PaintTinJr]

I'm not sure about the prices in the UK but after a quick amazon search it seems like a pretty good deal.
I'm also not familiar with this specific model but be aware that with cheap gaming laptops you should expect stuff like bulky-ish build, bad battery life, an average and rather dim screen and a power brick the size of a small apartment. Doesn't mean they are bad or anything, just be aware that the lower price has to come from somewhere.

Given the base price £1,100 before discount, the build quality and features should be really good - other than it is a Win Home edition OS and part of a range that doesn't get the business/pro level driver support and service manuals, and given that SteamOS might be important for his use case later down the line having to use a mobile Nvidia proprietary source GPU driver is another risk of things not working and being left to die without support, especially the SoC stuff with probably nvidia audio acceleration built-in too, meaning you can't even just use a hacked desktop driver as the audio needs initialized too for the GPU to work in Windows or Linux.

Despite being unofficial hp info, it also appears to support a full 32GBs of RAM which is very good looking forward.

Memory for a HP/HPE - Pavilion Gaming Laptop 15-dk2xxx - Kingston Technology

Kingston has compatible memory for HP/HPE - Pavilion Gaming Laptop 15-dk2xxx

www.kingston.com

 

[Fbh]

Given the base price £1,100 before discount, the build quality and features should be really good - other than it is a Win Home edition OS and part of a range that doesn't get the business/pro level driver support and service manuals, and given that SteamOS might be important for his use case later down the line having to use a mobile Nvidia proprietary source GPU driver is another risk of things not working and being left to die without support, especially the SoC stuff with probably nvidia audio acceleration built-in too, meaning you can't even just use a hacked desktop driver as the audio needs initialized too for the GPU to work in Windows or Linux.

Despite being unofficial hp info, it also appears to support a full 32GBs of RAM which is very good looking forward.

Memory for a HP/HPE - Pavilion Gaming Laptop 15-dk2xxx - Kingston Technology

Kingston has compatible memory for HP/HPE - Pavilion Gaming Laptop 15-dk2xxx

www.kingston.com

The base price on these things is usually bullshit though. For £1,100 on Amazon UK you can get an ASUS or MSI of comparable build quality, with 16gb of ram and an rtx3070.
The Pavilion name at HP is usually used for their budget friendly devices, no the premium stuff.

Again, doesn't mean it's bad, just that when you put decently strong hardware in a budget friendly device there are going to be cutbacks.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

Did you buy it?

This is what y'all have to deal with across the pond? Shit, and I thought we were starting to have it pretty bad here in the good ol' US of A

 

[DonJorginho]

This is what y'all have to deal with across the pond? Shit, and I thought we were starting to have it pretty bad here in the good ol' US of A

That's what a diet of English breakfasts and Carling beer does to the face

 

[Mshoaibi789]

I think its the best time to build the PC for gaming since the GPU price is very near to their MSRP.

 

[STARSBarry]

Normally for gaming in a laptop I would recommend the 1660 Ti, but your not going to get that for £500 as with all things.

I think in that price range if that's all you can afford then yeah just go for it. The 1600 range seems to be phasing out and replaced with the lower end 3000 series these days so there getting pretty rare.

My suggestion

ASUS TUF Gaming FX506HCB 15.6" 144Hz Gaming Laptop (Intel i5-11400H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Windows 11) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09QFRKTRZ/

Yeah it's £100 premium but your getting a RTX 3050 which while low end has significantly more kick than a 1650, your looking at around 60-70% gains and the model up for processor alongside the TUF "gaming" build quality of the laptop itself.