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In a previous thread I was first looking at buying a System76 laptop, but later discovered problems with importing it to my home in Sweden. Also, my budget ambition shrank somewhat. That thread became clogged. Thus my issue morphed, and now I present to you a different set of questions.
My budget shrank, I am now looking at trying to stay under ca. 800 dollars if possible. My main goal is slightly increasing my gaming potential compared to my current Acer Aspire e15 (AMD A8-6410 quadcore "up to 2.4ghz", 8gb RAM, Radeon Mullins with "1gb dedicated VRAM").
With my new laptop, I would like to play Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Pillars of Eternity, XCOM2, Superhot, Signal from Tölva and the like on low/medium settings, but smooth.
I would prefer a computer with linux pre-installed, but I cannot find any cheap ones. The best I've found is this:
[GGS-Data Style-Note N240WU-8250 (Intel® Core™ i5-8250U 1,6 GHz, 6 MB Cache, "Kaby Lake-R" + Intel® UHD Graphics 620](http://www.ggsdata.se/index.php?page=laptops/n240wu8250.php)
But it is probably too expensive at around a 1000 dollars.
The questions is, should I go for a semi-new but budget laptop like:
1. the [Acer Aspire 5 15,6" HD](https://www.komplett.se/product/952796/datorer/datorer-barbara-laptop/alla-barbara-datorer/acer-aspire-5-156-hd-matt#) (Radeon RX540,AMD A10-9620P Quad Core,8GB RAM,128GB SSD) and just nuke the windows out of it and call it a day? Is that one good enough? I'ts like my current one but new. Nice to have open source drivers, they seem to support the RX540 well. Also, on a related note, for a 100 dollars more you get fullhd instead of hd, but that does not matter does it? I do not care about eyecandy.
2. Or should I go for an cheap Intel one with integrated graphics?
Or should I look at the second hand market? I found [this one](https://www.blocket.se/lund/Asus_ROG_G771JW_77322261.htm?ca=23_10&w=0) on "blocket", a swedish second hand site, it's a Asus ROG G771JW (Intel core i7, 2,6 ghz 4:th generation, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M) for 800 dollars. Good value, or is the old cpu much worse than a newer generation?
Where do I get the best value?
Perhaps I should just wait a couple of years and get a fancy new one later. My current one does play many games already... At what time during the year is it best to buy new laptops?
What do you think about buying used laptops in general, is a 2 year old CPU crappy today or how long do they last?
I think I will stay away from NVIDIA, the radeon driver has always impressed me.
http://www.billigteknik.se/samtliga-modeller/16751-hp-elitebook-8470p-beg.html
And other semi-old used company computers. I guess I could go there with a USB-key with a live linux and try some, and find a really good deal. Seems to be mostly Intel there, if I want to play Shadow Tactics smoothly, what is the earliest model intel cpu+gpu I could get? Signal from Tölva? (if at all?)
suspecthope there will be budget Ryzen ones. Time will tell.Depends. A powerful 2 years old CPU should still do fine I guess, RAM can be upgraded usually. An old GPU might be an issue, they seem to age faster than CPUs xD My first laptop was an used IBM R40 and it served me well until it died (the second time).
I don't know, sorry :/