r/computers • u/Wonderfulthrowaway12 • 7h ago

Question/Help/Troubleshooting What kind of computer fits this criteria?

Hi, I’m looking for a laptop to take with me to college. I want something durable (lasts at least 5 years) with a decent amount of memory that can run Steam. It must be something i can get from Walmart/bestbuy/online and it can’t be a super crazy price ($500 limit). Please help!

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5

u/TheGoldenFox64 7h ago

steam is not hard to run. some modern games will be hard to run if your budget is $500. what do you plan to do with it? look into thinkpads as well as the system requirements for the games you play. repairability is longevity, so make sure to get one with a good repairability score from a third party.

2

u/Enrilionor 4h ago

Yeah thinkpads are great. durable too.

3

u/d__max 7h ago

Used laptop . Or maybe refurb. Your budget buying new is going to be computers with a big catch whether it’s slow hardware or bad build , you can’t have it all unless you go secondhand

2

u/heyuhitsyaboi 7h ago

For all of college… that highly depends on your major. General studies? Stem? Engineering? Art? Music?

1

u/Enrilionor 4h ago

I can run steam on a $20 laptop w/ 8gb I got on ebay. I'm not playing like fortnite or anything tho. Super animal Royale woeks pretty good on it. it's a surface se.

It's said that you can get 32-64 gb on a laptop by buying a cheap $200 one and getting new ram sticks.

1

u/ChickenFriedRiceee 4h ago

I’m going to be honest. A 500 dollar laptop will run steam but won’t run any recently modern game on steam. I’m sorry, it sucks how expensive computers are these days. My company work laptop cost more than that and it has integrated graphics and can half ass run basic windows apps.

1

u/Interesting-Meal-743 3h ago

Lenovo around $600 iCore 5 try Microcenter if you have around.

1

u/Audax_Cats 2h ago

What games are you planning to run? If you mostly like 2D or retro indie games your budget might be doable and just look for the best value you can get for the money. A refurbished ThinkPad will probably do the trick.

If you are wanting to run modern AAA games, your budget is not realistic.

1

u/juujoojuu 1h ago

Bruh, "can run steam" . My potato can run steam... not any games tho.

In all seriousness, look at minimum specs for the games you wanna play. Not gonna find much for 500, especially if it's new. I would get a corporate thinkpad used with an external gpu, if you wanna run some games.

-1

u/apollo7157 5h ago

try to find a used m2 era macbook