Cheap(ish) laptops to run Elite Dangerous

Jarval

J
I'm in the (UK) market for a new laptop, and while it won't be mainly used for gaming, I would be keen to be able to play Elite: Dangerous on it. However, I'm looking at £600 (or just over) for my budget, which I'm aware doesn't get you much in terms of gaming capabilities.

Do any other CMDRs have experience of playing E:D on a laptop around that kind of price point, and is there anything you'd particularly recommend or avoid? I'm rather out of touch with laptops in general, as the last one I bought was about eight years ago...
 

tiger61378

tiger61378
I'm playing on a nearly 4 year old Acer Aspire...it does okish, but don't expect much for graphics or framerate (10fps is where you're going to live...although other than stations its not that bad, and dosn't seem that slow).
 

Hurricane Moon

Banned
H
for 600 notes you could get a proper gaming rig...but if its a room issue you could find a lappy for that that could handle ED...but if you can look into building your own.
for 600 you would easily get a ps4 killer

try laptopsdirect.co.uk

google them...i looked,and its far cheaper to build a desktop mate
 
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Forlorn

Forlorn
I've got an HP Pavillion x360 that cost about that much after I upgraded the RAM (8GB) and a new SSD, but while it will play E : D, it gets horrible framerates (in the teens) at 640X480 resolution. I don't recommend it at all.

It works to get my fix when I'm not able to sit at my desktop, though.
 

Jarval

J
Hurricane Moon said:
google them...i looked,and its far cheaper to build a desktop mate
Click to expand...
Oh, absolutely. :) I've got a desktop for playing Elite on most of the time, but I need to replace my now rather elderly laptop and it would be good to have access to Elite when I'm away from home. I'm trying to figure out how feasible it is within my budget.
 

Hurricane Moon

Banned
H
Lysander lysan said:
You can play ED on a potato, it's not really a GPU nor CPU demanding game.
Click to expand...

lol...go on mate go into pcworld or some awful place that knows nothing about pc at all...and ask for the latest potato computer..
do not be suprised to be taken to the console zone by a young lad who clearly doesnt want to work there,and whos shirt looks creased like a ball bag
 

andyraptor

A
I would take option 2.... avoid.

I tried for a while when on the road... but it performs badly except for routine trading A -> B stuff.

Next time I get into working away during the week I'm looking to a micro build with big GPU to carry easily from car to hotel room and connect to room TV.

Lappy for "work" stuff only
 

Hurricane Moon

Banned
H
andyraptor said:
I would take option 2.... avoid.

I tried for a while when on the road... but it performs badly except for routine trading A -> B stuff.

Next time I get into working away during the week I'm looking to a micro build with big GPU to carry easily from car to hotel room and connect to room TV.

Lappy for "work" stuff only
Click to expand...

Corsair make some cracking little micro cases
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Robert Maynard
I run the game quite successfully (when I don't have access to my desktop) on a Lenovo Z50 - AMD FX-7500; 2 GB Radeon R7 M260DX Graphics; 8GB; 1TB/8GB SSHD; Full HD 15.6" screen.

Not at 1920x1080 though - it achieves c.30 FPS at 1600x900 without straining itself too much at moderate graphics settings.
 
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Iain L

Iain L
Gaming laptops are rarely a good idea. But if you must have one, then look for something with a dedicated GPU.
 

noldunar

N
I live in Germany so I don't know about the UK prices but I run Elite D on a budget laptop from Lenovo.

It cost me only 310 € which is way less than 600 pounds. It has an Intel i3 processor, 4 GB RAM and a dedicated GeForce 820M. I play on low details but with a decent resolution and it looks fine to me and runs smooth, even in Res sites with all the asteroids. Of course it burns through battery capacity fast and runs hot but I have played for hours without a problem.

I think for 600 pounds you should do fine. The key is a dedicated graphics card.
 

andyraptor

A
Hurricane Moon said:
Corsair make some cracking little micro cases
Click to expand...

Yup... most of the major online computer companies can supply very well specced mini systems for the same or less than a so called gaming laptop. I fell into that trap about 7 years ago. .. never again. .. graphics are terrible... overheating and cooling not worth talking about... just generally over priced rubbish

Check out Overclockers.co.uk and Scan for just 2 such examples of good places to look
 

MottiKhan

MottiKhan
I'm hoping to find something that can run it while I'm on the road too. There's a place the sells used gaming laptops for pretty cheap, but the best specs so far are i5, 8GB and dedicated graphics at 1GB. Not sure about the graphics. The price is right at $300.00 US.
 

Steve50

Steve50
I bought a laptop recently and although I didn't buy it for gaming, it runs Elite fine. I get 25fps in stations and close to 40fps most other places. Its a Lenovo U31-70 and only has an crappy intel 5500 gpu but it plays ok.
 

lysan

lysan
Hurricane Moon said:
lol...go on mate go into pcworld or some awful place that knows nothing about pc at all...and ask for the latest potato computer..
do not be suprised to be taken to the console zone by a young lad who clearly doesnt want to work there,and whos shirt looks creased like a ball bag
Click to expand...

Christ no! I don't go into these places, they give me the creeps!

However, ED do not really need a special gaming PC, my dedicated gaming rig almost fall asleep when I play ED on it.

My PSU fan is not even starting LOL, so a decent bamboo PC from Yololand PC market will do just fine.
 

BadassPreacher

BadassPreacher
Jarval said:
A couple of friends pointed this laptop out to me. Does it look like it would do the job reasonably well?

http://www.ebuyer.com/719676-zoostorm-gaming-media-notebook-7260-9020
Click to expand...


I'm not familiar with the brand, but parts wise for Elite, I think yes. However I do think with other new games it may struggle a bit. I have a similar performing laptop myself and it is starting to show it's age, though I still play all my games with it (with lowered settings). I expect to get maybe another year out of mine, before it really starts to struggle with new games. Contrary to what it says on the product page, that CPU is actually a dual core with hyper threading, and the GPU's DDR3 memory makes it a bit on the slow side. But as I said, if you're just looking to play Elite, then it should do fine for now.


As I mentioned previously, I have no idea of the brands you have available (or where to hunt for best deals). But I think something like these would give you a bit more longevity in gaming:


http://www.amazon.co.uk/YunSen-GeFo...12?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1446231931&sr=1-12

http://www.amazon.co.uk/YunSen-i7-4...18?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1446231931&sr=1-18

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zoostorm-72...18?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1446230479&sr=1-18


Though the 2 gigs of video memory found on most laptops is starting to be a limiting factor in terms of performance.
 
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