Cheap laptop ideas?

[JosephEK]

So here's my scenario:
I got my first part time job a few weeks ago. I get home and I don't feel like sitting at my computer desk over the comfy sofa. It's weird, like I never imagined getting a job would be so draining, but anyways I want something cheap that can do light gaming such as Minecraft, Stardew Valley, Rocket Leage and maybe some Planetside 2 at bare minimum settings.

Either one of the better integrated graphics or cheapest discrete GPUs.
1080p display
atleast 8GB RAM, must be upgradeable to atleast 12GB.
Any drive will do (aslong as it's replaceable), I have a spare Samsung 850 EVO. SD card slot is wanted.

IDK if it's worth waiting for Ryzen mobile APUs to arrive, but there appear to be some cheap laptops like under 5-600 USD like this Lenovo 310 that use AMD A10- 9600p quad core CPUs that use some kind of R5 graphics that have 2GB of graphics memory.

 

[Soul_Est]

What about a SFF light gaming machine connected to a TV?

 

[JosephEK]

What about a SFF light gaming machine connected to a TV?

Maybe, One consideration I've been having is that since I'm only working part time minimum wage I might want to look into more "off the grid" lifestyle investments for my money while I'm still being supported by my Mom and able to save my money. This includes a system that could easily be powered off solar panels. A laptop has a battery of its own which seems to fit in with that sort of lifestyle. Is it plausible/practical to run a basic system using an upcoming 65W TDP Ryzen APU with my 1080p display off a battery charged up by a few solar panels?

 

[Soul_Est]

Maybe, One consideration I've been having is that since I'm only working part time minimum wage I might want to look into more "off the grid" lifestyle investments for my money while I'm still being supported by my Mom and able to save my money. This includes a system that could easily be powered off solar panels. A laptop has a battery of its own which seems to fit in with that sort of lifestyle. Is it plausible/practical to run a basic system using an upcoming 65W TDP Ryzen APU with my 1080p display off a battery charged up by a few solar panels?

Not sure but you would end up at about 150-180W with this setup: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/Ytyp6X

 

[Neil_Hines]

It's very difficult to choose which laptop is the best for gaming in low budget price. Gaming laptop its very heavy laptops when I check then I found many laptop expenses price. After searching finally someone suggest me about Lenovo 320-15ABR is the best gaming laptop under $500: https://www.reviewsdir.com/best-gaming-laptops-under-500/

 

[zovc]

It's probably outside of what you're looking for, but any time I hear someone shopping for a laptop with this budget I feel compelled to suggest Chromebooks. $500 is going to get you a "cheap" new laptop, using mostly plastic, probably having a weak cooling solution, low-end storage drives, and possibly other weird compromises. $500 is entering the "premium" realm of Chromebooks--some even have aluminum construction. Now, ChromeOS offers a lot less than Windows does to most general users (especially, like, gamers), but a lot of Chromebooks can be flashed to run Linux, which starts moving you closer to a "proper computer experience."

From there... even if the laptop itself can't run games you like (which, IDK, it probably is strong enough for something like Minecraft), you do have the option of setting up something crazy like Cloud Gaming. Either DIY or through one of the services, I think some of them have monthly fees versus the sometimes confusing cost-per-computation a lot of cloud computing hosts do.

Mostly putting it out as food for thought, I've never pursued using a Chromebook, personally. But it genuinely seems like a respectable option to me if you're on a budget.

 

[rcodi]

Are you in the US? If so I'd keep a look out on ebay for laptops with 1050's, especially the Inspiron 15 5000 they can be had at that price point and will likely do better than any of the APU options. That barebones MSI for $600 looks pretty good too has a proper cooling setup with an 7300HQ and 1050Ti just bring your own OS, drive, and RAM.