Just wondering, I’m thinking of getting a cheap laptop for on the go. It would basically run IntelliJ and Starcraft 2. I know it will run Intellij as I used to code on a a 2008 pentium laptop the banchmarks lower, but what about Starcraft?
Maybe a laptop like this:
http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/464588/acer-travelmate-b116-m-c1s3/specificaties/
Or this:
http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/429883/asus-transformer-book-t100tam-bing-dk013b/specificaties/
I personally don’t feel you should go for one of those transformer books. They seriously lack in performance, according to online reviews, and aren’t really suited for games. As for development, I’d go for a more durable and sturdy laptop. Try one of those small, business-type Lenovo laptops, they’re pretty sweet 
Got a link to what you mean? I’m specifically looking at anything under 400 euros and under 14 inches.
That territory seems to be almost exclusively inhabited by Atom, with a couple of Celerons.
I recall running Age of Mythology on a GMA 950 
The other alternative would be to forget the portable laptop and build a gaming box with a cheap Pentium (or even desktop Celeron). If I think I can get away with an Atom GPU a desktop Celeron GPU would “like totally” blow it away
And if the integrated GPU graphics are too laggy, I can just stick in my GT430 I have lying around. Or really go for broke and buy a GTX 750Ti…
I don’t think those are coming in under 400 euros, also 14 inches is a bit big. I’ve got nothing against Lenovo though, my current laptop is made by them - a cheap AMD A10 thing. I figure I can build my battle box for 250 euros including a Pentium processor and 120GB SSD, so that seems the best option now.
If you are really going for the cheapest computer you can get.
Look into a Intel Pentium g3258.
In USD, as euros are probably closer to USD then AUD.
Intel Pentium g3258 - $60
8gb ram - $40
case - $20-$50
motherboard - $80 (May need a bit more to get a good motherboard that you can overclock well with)
CPU cooler - $30-60 (Would probably be wise to get a good CPU cooler, so you can get a good overclock)
May as well put your GT430 in. The GT430 would probably be better then the hd graphics (HD 3000 I think the g3258 has).
If you decide for a gtx 750TI, it would probably be wise to pay the extra for a gtx 950 or a gtx960 for the little extra.
I remember hearing ages ago back when the g3258 was not long released, that when overclocked, it was comparable to a i5 2500 (I think 2500, maybe something else).
Found this running of the integrated GPU on the g3258 at max detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWXzm8OD8zA
How about the AMD Athlon 860K?
I have a laptop that I used to play sc2 on: 3ghz dual core processor 4GB RAM, still runs the game, but not comfortably. Late game stutters like madness. I have a mid 2013 macbook pro with 8GB RAM (I think it’s an i5, but I don’t remember) that plays the game reasonably well.
My recommendation is 4GB RAM and the best cpu you can afford.
Neither of those processors look great and I don’t know what burst frequency means, but out of the two you gave us the Celeron looks like it might be better. Only because it can support 8gb ram and the Atom’s lower base with higher burst probably means performance gets worse in the long run.
Something like this would be better: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232794 looks a little big though.
@Phased: laptop
@Phased is responding to my fanciful idea to build a desktop, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. Regarding the suggestions, I’m not interested in overclocking and the extra expense associated with the coolers and fancy motherboards, for a measly 10-20% performance boost. Nor do I want to go the AMD route as at least with a cheap pentium I have the option of swapping in an i5 next year.
I put together a little system to compare to the laptops and you get so much more in a desktop, pity it won’t fit in a shoulder bag:
I can’t decide whether to just use my current external drives or go for an SSD, which would add 60 to the cost.
Still want the little laptop though, coding on a 7" tablet is pain Another thing to think about is that gaming on the laptop would be more sociable; we could sit at a table together. But decent graphics under 14" costs a fortune.
Also, check to see if you can get a windows 7 or 8 key cheaper, you might be able to save a little, it should be able to upgrade to windows 10 if you get the computer before the 1 year free upgrade runs out.
Still working on this. I have started working from home more frequently so I’m thinking of getting something more potent. Also I’ve found a site that builds PCs for a €65 charge.
1 x Cooler Master G650M, Voeding TN6M41 € 79,90*
1 x ASUS DRW-24F1MT, DVD-brander CEBA67 € 19,99*
1 x ADATA Premier Pro SP900, 128 GB SSD IMHMVN € 56,90*
1 x ADATA 16 GB DDR3-1600 Kit, Werkgeheugen IEIFV7JA € 94,90*
1 x AMD FX-8350, 4,0 GHz (4,2 GHz Turbo Boost) socket AM3+ processor HA8A17 € 189,90*
1 x be quiet! Shadow Rock Slim, CPU-koeler HXLVBB € 44,99*
1 x GIGABYTE GV-R736OC-2GD, Grafische kaart JDXY0B02 € 124,90*
1 x Cooler Master Force 500, Behuizing TQXM5A € 44,90*
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1, Software YQBMMU00 € 89,-*
1 x Aerocool Dead Silence 12cm Black TL9R70 € 14,99*
1 x ASRock 970M Pro3, socket AM3+ moederbord GAIR14 € 71,90*
I know the AMD chip is pretty old but it performs well on multithreaded tasks… Anyway, this should play starcraft. But it’s for work, honest!
Consider buying a 2nd hand laptop. It will be much faster and much cheaper. Why buy new when you are basically aiming for old tech. The only thing left to do would be to replace the HDD with an SSD, and to buy a new battery.
I have the same CPU, I don’t think I’ve found myself being bottlenecked in any games so far, I hit 60FPS in most games. The only time it trips up is during CPU intensive tasks that aren’t optimized for multi-core.
[i]EDIT: The only thing I will say is that AMD are set to announce a whole new range of chips called “Zen” later this year, so it might be worth staving off until then in case there are some really well performing chips in that batch and/or its release causes discounts in the older lineup.
Unfortunately, no one has any idea about when they’re going to announce this lineup.
[/i]
I would recommend building it yourself and using that extra €65 on getting a better GPU. It’s not hard to build a PC, you’re paying some dude €65 for an hour’s work. There are a number of guides on the internet about building a PC.
At the €125 + € 65 price point, I think you’d be looking at either an AMD Radeon R9 380 or a Nvidia GTX 960.
In recent benchmarks, they seem to perform pretty much identically. I’d personally be inclined to recommend AMD, as the r9 380 is based an a relatively recent GPU architecture, meaning driver updates will improve its performance over time, while the 960’s architecture is a few years old now. Although ultimately, I have an AMD bias, so it may be best to ignore me 
The CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO seems to be the goto CPU air cooler right now, and its quite a bit cheaper than that cooler.
Anyway, have fun with your PC ^.^
NegativeZero, Thanks for the ideas. I have an AMD A10 laptop and I’m pretty happy with the level of performance (less happy with the cheap screen , case and keyboard that came with the CPU). I know that for well threaded applications like ahem Vangard the 8350 would perform superbly. Still it feels wrong to buy an old CPU like the 8350…
I’m not going to wait for Zen although everything I’ve read about it sounds interesting. I know the graphics card is pretty low-end, but if anything I will get an even cheaper one. The reason being that I need to save up for a proper card in the R9 290 class as I have some VR ideas I want to pursue.
I usually use the Hyper 212 EVO in my fantasy builds, however it is not available from this site.
I’m prepared to pay someone to put it together for me; I know I could do it myself but I would find it very stressful. There are two strong arguments against that - firstly I could source the parts from more shops and drive down the parts cost by ~80 (so i’m really paying them 140 for assembly), and secondly in Holland you have no right of return on custom-built merchandise.
Riven, good point about second hand laptops. In terms of small form-factor laptops, the technology is moving quite quickly in terms of power consumption and graphics, so I don’t know if a older second-hand laptop would have been a good solution to my original question.
But you have reminded me to look at second-hand desktops too… plenty of savings to be found there…
Parts ordered… I’m building it myself. i7-6700 and 8gb ram, no graphics yet. I’ll have to save a few months for that.
Why’d you buy Skylake?
I figure I won’t have to upgrade the CPU for 5 years. Also, it has integrated graphics (I’m only buying the GPU in March). It also uses half the power of the FX-8350 I was considering.
Ah, I see. Did you consider earlier flagships, like Haswell (the i5-4690 or the i7-4790 - (6700 vs 4790 is only about a 5-10% increase in performance))? They might have been a bit cheaper given that Skylake dropped, but the integrated graphics are a fair bit weaker. What graphics card do you plan to get? An i7-6700 will be more than enough for any card on the market right now, even two or more if you were adventurous.
I’m waiting to see what new cards come in in Q1/Q2 and I’m waiting for the prices on the GTX970 to drop.
I did look at earlier processors like Haswell and FX but there was very little price advantage.
It starts up too. Once I find the SATA cables I mislaid, I can install the OS.
I’ve only been thinking about building a PC since 1994.
EDIT: It’s all running now, Windows 10 is installed as well as some of my favorite apps like Headline Benchmark. Here is my new build benched against my laptop: