For my 12 year old son, wants to go on XBox Live ect, thinking somewhere pricewise between £200 - £300.(or is that wishful thinking).

Thanks.

Scott.

For my 12 year old son, wants to go on XBox Live ect, thinking somewhere pricewise between £200 - £300.(or is that wishful thinking). Understatement of the century I'm afraid! Double that amount and you get a "maybe" for a gaming laptop!

 

Thanks.

 

Scott.

A few things to take into consideration.

1st Are you going to monitor him online. As I'm sure you are well aware, online chat can get very mature in nature!

2nd Xbox live doesn't need a PC at all. You can just link your broadband router to the Xbox 360 via ethenet cable. (You do have to pay Microsoft a subscription fee to play the Xbox online)

3rd is a powerful laptop necessary?

Games PC's take a lot more power, so battery run time is low on a powerful laptop.

A gaming PC is upgradeable, swap the graphics card, motherboard, processor etc..etc.. A laptop you can just about upgrade the memory. In short this time next year a top of the range laptop is just mediocre.

A "budget" laptop will be able to surf, chat, facebook, twitter, youtube etc... it's just the powerful games it won't handle, and he has his Xbox for that

Thanks for that, locutus.

To answer your questions.

1. Yep, already do, when he's on XBox live, we can hear almost everything he's saying. He's knows the score regarding do's and don't when on-line.

2. I am paying a subscription.

3. Would getting a cheapish PC, for games and school work ect solve the problem.

Thanks again,

Scott.

I think cost wise you'll get more bang to the buck with a PC.

You are not going to get a decent 'gaming' laptop for £200 - £300, if you look at gaming desktops PC's you will see some of them are huge and pricey with massive fans, cooling, etc. This is coz they contain very fast powerfull CPU's and specifically mega graphics cards.

Do a search for nVIDIA cards and you will see that range from about £30 to many thousands for real powerful ones, there are laptops that contain similar spec but true gaming ones will prob be in the range of high hundreds if not thousands.

Of course there are lots of great netbooks/laptops available starting at £200 they are perfect for day to day internet use, etc and they will no doubt play some games and videos fine but they wouldnt be considered 'gaming' PC's, a good bench mark would be if the laptop can play blu ray films, the spec needed for blu ray is very high and if it can play them then its a good start as a gaming latop.

Cyberlink/PowerDVd provide a good free program called BD Advisor which has lots of info about the minum spec needed.

Andy

For £200- £300 you could get a nice gaming pc, with dual core processors possibly quad core as the price of the components is quite cheap now there is a place I use to get components from which is microdirect.co.uk but I dont think there pc's are all that cheap better to build yourself

better to build yourself

You've obviously never met me

check those out (Edit)

Hi,

Thanks for the 'link' but had to remove it.

Regards.

Scott.

In that case google alienware laptop... (if you looking for a powerful laptop). regards

Hi,

I did have a look at the link you provided, maybe just on the pricey side for me, pretty skint at the moment

Thanks again.

Scott.

I Know! it's at least from 2003 that I'm trying to buy one!!! never had that much to spare!!! but the high performance has a price!!!

If you want a decent gaming PC that will play latest games on medium settings, you are probably looking at £4-500 at the very least.

If you want a laptop, double that cost roughly.

Go for a desktop unless you NEED the portability.

If you look on (Edit) there are PC deals posted relatively often - theres a good one on at Misco currently for about the £400 mark.

MrShed,

Thanks for the link, are you trying to get me in bother had to remove it.

I'll have a good scetch later

Regards.

Scott.

Guys...can I ask why a public forum site selling no products of its own is a commercial link?

Lol you posted as I was

I dont think its commercial but not my decision

In any event maroon - keep the link, its a GREAT site.

Guys...can I ask why a public forum site selling no products of its own is a commercial link?

I'll go check that out.

Please do maroon.

No worries either way, but it may be a very beneficial site for other forum members

Hi, MrShed.

Think your right about that site, you have to register but that's free so can't see there being any probs with posting it.................

HotUKDeals - Deals - All

I'll find out later from those in higher places

Thanks again.

Scott.

No worries

BTW - you dont have to register to view deals, only to post on or about them.

Hi, MrShed.

 

Think your right about that site, you have to register but that's free so can't see there being any probs with posting it.................

 

HotUKDeals - Deals - All

 

I'll find out later from those in higher places

 

Thanks again.

 

Scott.

I'm not registered there but I'm a huge fun of that site!!! use it all the time when you looking for something or simply for spending some money on good deals...