hi everyone

im new so sorry if this isnt the best place to post. i bought skyrim a last year and havent been able to play it on my laptop as the specs arent good enough. im now thinking of buying a new one but gonna spend time doing some research before diving into anything.my budgets around ￡450 and from what i've seen these two have caught my eye:

From what I've looked at of the spes they should be able to run the game on high, does that sound right? anyone got any experience of using either of these or have any other suggestions i could look into? cant wait until i buy a new shiny thing and i can play skyrim again (i was playing it on the pc so have played it a wee bit )

I'm gonna tell you this from personal experience, stay away from Acer. Their products always end up with lists of problems after a year or so even if you take good care of it. I don't have any experience with Lenovo so i have nothing to say in regards to it. The best thing to do would be to build your own but if you must go with Store bought try and get an Asus. Also if I'm not mistaken it's better to run Skyrim on Nvidia cards than AMD cards.

It does not take much to run Skyrim on high. I have a 3 year old Asus UL80JT and it can run Skyrim on High Textures. Either of those should easily get the job done.

It runs Skyrim on high smoothly or is it laggy/choppy? Also do you use mods?

as an professional IT Consultant I will tell you, Acer is a terrible manufacturer....

now, onto my advice..


if you really want a gaming Computer, you Don't want a laptop, you want a Desktop..
Sure you can carry a laptop around with you, but they just aren't designed as a legitimate gaming machines.. you can't (in most cases) swap out components as requirements go up.. meaning you will have to buy an entirely new machine as requirements increase, while with a Desktop you can swap out Components to increase its performance... so a laptop is gonna cost you alot more money in the long run..


for gaming you are gonna want a Desktop, I suggest a higher grade AMD Processor personally, but higher grade Intel I7 Processor will do fine just as fine... your gonna want no less then 8GB of RAM, but since the new consoles are comin out soon, PC requirements will likely see a small jump, so double that to 16GB of DDR3 RAM... as for Video Cards, i am currently running on a GeForce GTX 690 which is running great atm, i suggest something in that product line...


but yeah, you are Not gonna want a Laptop, and you Definitely DO NOT want an Acer... Acer is one of the worst manufacturers in all honesty.

Acer = bad machines


but if you do start gaming on laptops rather then desktops, its gonna cost you ALOT more money as you cant upgrade most Components, so you will have to buy a new laptop every time gaming requirements take a jump... with a Desktop you can just upgrade a component, which is ALOT Cheaper...


So, thats my Advice..


just FYI, I have A+, and Cisco Cisco Network Certifications, and just got my Microsoft certification yesterday.. so I am familiar with the IT Field


EDIT: Ohh, and Lenovo's have an issue in my experience where the Capacitors blow really easily... and replacing bad Capacitors can be a real pain..

EDIT 2: if you want to go with pre-manufactured, I agree with an above poster ASUS is a decent brand.. and Certain HP product lines can make good machines...

EDIT 3: problem with buying a machine pre-made though is now I believe they all come with Windows 8.. I Have personally had alot of issues getting certain games to run with Windows 8... so if you build one yourself, and you can install windows 7 onto it... which does not have as many issues with some games in my experience...

It runs smoothly. There was a bit of mouse input lag but i figured out how to resolve it. Yes i have about 61 mods active.

What the heck, I'll throw in my opinion of Acer being crap as well.

Acer literally made their way into the industry selling desktops and laptops that were on the ultra-low-end and extremely cheap and breaking-prone. Heck, it was only recently that Acer has even attempted to enter the SMB market (and still no Enterprise sector) because their QoS is pretty much zero as far as I'm concerned and Acer + business PC = fail is held as pretty much an IT Law.

Follow the advice of Funnybunny and buy a desktop, not least because you can save-up and buy a better graphics card in the future to improve it's gaming performance. You will not get a laptop capable of doing a good job of running Skyrim at high settings for just ￡450. Ignore anyone who tells you their cheap laptop can do that.

thanks for all the quick answers! well totally respect your opinions and my uncle in law is an IT professional and he hates Acers too but from my own personal experience is I've had mine for nearly 5 years and never really had any problems with it. maybe ive just been lucky and based one the advice here i dont think i'll be in too much of a hurry to get another one.

i know that i'd probably get more bang for my buck if i went for a desktop as opposed to a laptop but i just find a laptop so much more convenient for storage and i dont really have anywhere in my living room i could put a tower where its not in view and more imporantly where it wont be getting tripped over every 5 seconds. i usually sit on the sofa and store my laptop behind it, which is handy as its narrow but towers are so big and bulky that i'd be at a loss where to put that plus i dont think it'd be a good idea being right beside a radiator in the winter. a desktop would be better upgrading wise too, although i dont have any plans to buy the latest games at least i'd have the option. hmm. not sure what the solution is really.......

i seem to be talking myself round in circles in the above post! probably because i am lol. i know realistically what the best solution is (desktop) but practically its a laptop.....

you may want to consider checking out what boutique computer makers like Cyberpower or Ibuypower have available their laptops may be a bit more up to snuff as gaming systems

thanks, hadnt heard of either of them, worth a look

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting a laptop over a desktop. If you want a laptop, go for it. You can find some decent gaming laptops, although they will be more expensive than their desktop equivalent.

As for Acer, I would also advise to stay away (coming from a person typing this on an Acer laptop). I've had 2 problems with Acer. My first laptop was an Acer one. Charger stopped working, keyboard keys fell out. I had to replace both. Now, I'm on my second Acer laptop. Charger stopped working (same exact problem I had with my first one), I had to get a new one. Keyboard is yet to fall apart, although the marks on some keys are starting to fade out.

actually interestingly enough im on my second charger and i also have to use a plug in keyboard with my laptop....on an acer.

being on a fairly tight budget probably isnt gonna get me a decent gaming latop as i have seen ones that are pretty pricey. gonna look into the two i mentioned in my original post and see what else i can find. id prefer a desktop for future proofing but dont think its totally practical.........more thoughts needed....im so bad at decisions!

There is nothing wrong with it, just expect to pay a load of cash if you want something decent. You could easily build a computer with the same specs for quite a bit less money.

yeah i know i could, its mainly the issue of space, and then id have to find somewhere to store my speakers when im not using them......never tried to build a computer would be a challenge but dont think im quite ready for it! i know id have a lot more choice with a desktop and itd cost less money too.....

Not to mention a latop has vertually zero upgrade options, so is made with planned obsolecense in mind. Laptops in general don't have nearly the longevity of desktops without even considering their planned obsolecense.

Plus, you can often get a desktop + general-purpose laptop (or even better: a tablet) for cheaper than gaming laptops.

aree with you on both counts defron. just lacking any real place to put a tower.......

what about your bedroom? I have a corner of my room dedicated to my various PCs..

good idea but ive always had my computer in the livingroom, means i can watch tv and annoy my husband by talkin nonsense at him at the same time!hehe

That's what I do... at least for the first part.