In this year’s annual blogpost (hahah) I am meeting the challenge of creating the most budget (putting it nicely), laptop-centered gaming setup possible. I’m not doing benchmarks. You’re lucky any of this cheap crap actually works at all. All products to be sourced on Amazon.
I am approaching this with a rule to only use legit, new products, no refurbs and no listings that have errors (there’s one listing in particular that’s for either a laptop, or it’s a really high-spec AC adapter). Also the company still has to be in business, some make such cheap crap that they folded. An interesting side note, it turns out Hyundai makes computers…. Who knew?
COMPUTER
This is the cheapest thing I could find that met requirements and it has a 128GB hard drive also and is supposed to have a touchscreen and is a quad-core ( I had to look up the N4200 processor), which is better than I would have expected. By reading the reviews it becomes apparent that it is popular in Mexico.
PERIPHERALS
Wireless Mouse/Keyboard combo $32.99 (I think it might give of toxic fumes) Nothing special, except that the mouse and keyboard use the same wireless dongle, which is a thing that some A-list manufacturers can’t seem to produce.
MONITOR
Monitor $74.99 (shield your eyes though) I can’t believe I found a 24-inch monitor—or any monitor, really—for under a hundred dollars. I wonder if the picture is any good, and also if it has mounting points for an swivel-arm?
AUDIO
Speakers $3.99 (don’t lick this or you will be poisoned, maybe). I’m not sure they are actually bluetooth but that’s not a requirement for speakers in this project. I fudged the rules a bit on account that this set is only $4.
SYSTEM TOTAL
System total:
$231.96
So, is all of this worth it? Maybe? I’d hoped to keep it under $200, but must realize at the same time the ravages of the inflation have taken their toll. I couldn’t see the capabilities of the system being good for much more than retro gaming, like stuff you’d find on GOG.com, but I’d totally use it for a dedicated retro gaming station.
If you are serious about gaming, maybe it’s better to make some payments on something with a little more oomph. Also, this assumes you have all of your own cables already, maybe another ten bucks would need to go out for an HDMI cable.
Okay, lemme hurry up and get that next book written (halfway done!).