Best Gaming Laptop Under $600

All too often people believe that gaming can only be done on consoles or high-end systems. At AlwaysReview we love gaming. And we know our fair share of good gaming laptops under 600 that will not disappoint. On the contrary, there is a ton of fun to be had below 600. Yes, you might not be rocking the latest Crysis on NASA settings. But then, the fun is not dependent on the settings!

Number one in our review is the Acer Aspire V5-552P-X617. Packing a Quad Core 2.5 GHz CPU, the fantastic AMD Radeon HD 8650G GPU, and coming in at a price far lower than 600, this system has all the tech you need while still saving you a 100 bucks to spend on games! Oh and did we mention it has a touch screen as well? 

What is the best gaming laptop under $600?

The Acer Aspire V5-552P-X617 is our favourite amongst the cheap gaming laptops under 600. Arguably, it’s not because of its sexy name. It is however due to the mother load of tech aboard. Coming in a very sleek and tailored cool steel suite, boasting a 2.5 GHz Quad Core AMD CPU, 6GB of RAM, 750 GB of hard drive space and the AMD Radeon HD 8650G Graphics Card, this guy packs both the punch and the competitive price. 

Interesting to note is the difference with our number two, the Acer Aspire V5-552G-X852. This machine, being 100 USD more expensive, carries both a dual graphics card and 2GB of RAM more. Yet in our independent tests of both was not able to consistently outperform our winner on frames per second (fps). In some occasions, the single GPU of the winner of your test actually outperformed its bigger brother. Thus we would advice: Save yourself the 100 dollars on the hardware and spend it on some cool games like Assassins Creed, Crysis or Battlefield. All games your new gaming laptop will be able to run.

Want to play the latest and greatest on Ultra settings and have some extra money to spend; then check out our comparison of the best gaming laptops under 1500 dollars as well.

How to choose a good gaming laptop under $600?

As you can imagine, there is no perfect answer here. Gaming laptops under 600 dollars will always be a compromise in some form or fashion. The trick therefor is, to make sure you compromise on the right factors. To help you do this, consider the following questions: 

• What type of CPU and GPU do you need?
• Would you prefer a 15 or 17 inch screen?
• What kind of hard disk capacity do you require?

It is very normal to not have a direct answer to these questions. So to help you select the best gaming laptop for 600 dollars, allow us to run you through each separate question in a little more detail. 

What type of CPU and GPU?

A CPU (or central processing unit) is the processor aboard your laptop. It is the calculating brain. These days, all of the best gaming laptops for under 600 dollars come equipped with either two or four processors. As you know, these are called dual or quad core processors. As most experts will tell you, the dual core processors are sufficient for most gaming purposes. However, as more and more quad cores come into the market and games become consistently more complex, we would argue to opt for a quad core system to make your gaming station future proof. 

A GPU (or graphics processing unit) is responsible for the creation of images in a very rapid manner. Whether it be to watch a DVD or in our case: play games. The GPU is one of the most important factors to consider when selecting your cheap gaming laptop under 600 dollars. And this is not an easy point. Many of the laptops in our test have what you call integrated GPUs. These are GPUs that use a portion of the internal memory (the RAM) instead of their own dedicated memory to create images. In contrast with the this, the #2 of our test has a separate, dedicated GPU. Meaning this GPU has its own internal memory used to create the graphical images.

Very often, a separate dedicated GPU will outperform an integrated GPU. Interestingly though, in our independent test between our number 1 (the Acer Aspire V5-552P-X617 review, now called  Acer #1), and our number 2 (the Acer Aspire V5-552G-X852 review, now called Acer #2), this was not the case. Even though Acer #2 has a separate dedicated GPU (AMD Radeon HD 8750M) next to the integrated GPU (AMD Radeon HD 8650G) it didn’t out perform Acer #1 in achieving higher frame rates. Meaning the single integrated GPU will do the trick just fine. The guys at netbookcheck, one of the more thorough analysers of GPUs and CPUs, came to the same results. As such, we can only advise you to save yourself the 100 bucks and go for Acer #1, the Acer Aspire V5-552P-X617. 

15 Inches of 17 Inches?

Screen size is a complex choice to make. For obvious reasons, many gamers would prefer a 17 inch screen over a 15 inch. But allow us to make three arguments for the opposite:

• A 17 inch screen costs a manufacturer more than a 15 inch screen. This means that the money spent on the screen can not be spent where it truly matters: The parts, especially the graphics card. 
• A 17 inch screen, having a 1600 x 900 resolution, requires more from a GPU as it requires more pixels to be filled. A 15 inch, having 1366 x 768 resolution, has significantly less pixels. This can make a great deal of difference when speaking of medium-level GPUs.
• A 17 inch screen, is significantly less portable. If you think those 2 inches make only a small amount of difference, try to find yourself a back that fits a 17 inch laptop comfortably. 

Hard Disk Capacity?

There is no perfect answer here. Neither is it very important if you consider the constantly decreasing price of external hard drives and the availability of USB 3.0 on all laptops in our test. We would advice to keep 500GB as the minimum, 750GB as the optimum and 1TB to be the maximum required.

Categories

Want less compromise in your favorit gaming station? Head over to the comparison of the best gaming platforms under 800 dollars or 1000 dollars for less compromise. And if you want to go all out, make sure to visit our comparison of the best machines under 1500 dollars. 

To Conclude

In short: In our review of the Acer Aspire V5-552P-X617 we found that the machine's integrated graphics card work just as great as its bigger brothers' dedicated graphics cards. On top of this, it carries 6GB of RAM, 750GB of hard disk space and has the optimal 15.6 inch screen size. Combine this glorious package with a 100 bucks lower price tag than its brother, and its easy to see why it is the best gaming laptop under 600 dollars.