Ok I am finally tired of not having a proper Windows machine to play the retro games. The older laptop I have dies randomly. There are cheapo laptops like this Asus which has celeron CPU for $300. What do you think? Could it possibly play games up until say 2010 at least?
I am not too convinced of the purchase since for $400 you can get a modern powerhouse which is the PS4. My other option is to run Windows in a VM which I feel is going to be too much for my 2015 macbook with 2.9Ghz i5, Intel Iris Graphics 6100? A lot of the games I want to play are like 2002 or earlier.
EDIT: Sorry I bothered you with this, I totally skipped the obvious. I can dual boot my macbook into Windows so now I don't have to buy an extra Windows machine, I just have to deal with the very annoying process of: Quit all apps-> reboot->play->reboot->Login-> launch apps.
Cheap laptop or VM for retro games?
Re: Cheap laptop or VM for retro games?
The other downside to doing Boot Camp is that you'd need to partition up your SSD, which may not be all that attractive if you didn't get a larger drive in it (or since upgrade it - the NVMe adapters do seem to work). There may be some other caveats, such as how well Windows scales on the Retina display.
That said, personally, I wouldn't go quite that route for a more dedicated machine. It has low RAM and SSD space (and a tiny, low performance SSD), the CPU/IGP are very low end, and it's running Windows S which is locked to the Windows store. It can be upgraded to full Windows, but that's not free (I think $99 to change it to Pro). That's even before the quality of the keyboard/trackpad, screen, case, etc come into play.
If you want to keep things to that budget, then you're better off buying a refurbished business class laptop for around the same or even less money. While going older may seem bad, keep in mind that the Intel graphics in that ASUS actually come in behind the 2013 era i-series graphics, and a 2013/2014 era machine with a discrete GPU would do even better. Most will likely have 8GB or more, an easily swapped HDD, possibly an optical drive module if you'd want it (2013 anyway), and a full Windows license.
The main downsides to those - usually heavier, not great for battery life, etc, are likely a moot point for your use.
Similarly, a typical route to a cheap gaming desktop is buying a refurb office machine and dropping in a budget GPU. Main issue with that right now is the state of the GPU market, but it's still a viable way to go, especially if you're largely looking at things that a 1030 is perfectly fine for anyway.
For what you want, finding a Ryzen APU machine should also be solid.
The focus on office machines for the secondary market tends to stem from the vast amount of off-lease hardware that's out there that gets refurbished and offered on eBay if not on a number of online retailers. Local options may be different.
Or just consider spending a bit more. $600-700 would get you into range of buying a low end gaming PC - Acer Nitro maybe ASUS TUF laptops, HP Pavilion Gaming laptops or desktops, that sort of thing. While it is a jump over the ASUS you linked, there's also a vast difference in the hardware, and if you can find something with a 1600/1660 type card in it you'd likely be able to play most anything on the market at 1080p.
That said, personally, I wouldn't go quite that route for a more dedicated machine. It has low RAM and SSD space (and a tiny, low performance SSD), the CPU/IGP are very low end, and it's running Windows S which is locked to the Windows store. It can be upgraded to full Windows, but that's not free (I think $99 to change it to Pro). That's even before the quality of the keyboard/trackpad, screen, case, etc come into play.
If you want to keep things to that budget, then you're better off buying a refurbished business class laptop for around the same or even less money. While going older may seem bad, keep in mind that the Intel graphics in that ASUS actually come in behind the 2013 era i-series graphics, and a 2013/2014 era machine with a discrete GPU would do even better. Most will likely have 8GB or more, an easily swapped HDD, possibly an optical drive module if you'd want it (2013 anyway), and a full Windows license.
The main downsides to those - usually heavier, not great for battery life, etc, are likely a moot point for your use.
Similarly, a typical route to a cheap gaming desktop is buying a refurb office machine and dropping in a budget GPU. Main issue with that right now is the state of the GPU market, but it's still a viable way to go, especially if you're largely looking at things that a 1030 is perfectly fine for anyway.
For what you want, finding a Ryzen APU machine should also be solid.
The focus on office machines for the secondary market tends to stem from the vast amount of off-lease hardware that's out there that gets refurbished and offered on eBay if not on a number of online retailers. Local options may be different.
Or just consider spending a bit more. $600-700 would get you into range of buying a low end gaming PC - Acer Nitro maybe ASUS TUF laptops, HP Pavilion Gaming laptops or desktops, that sort of thing. While it is a jump over the ASUS you linked, there's also a vast difference in the hardware, and if you can find something with a 1600/1660 type card in it you'd likely be able to play most anything on the market at 1080p.
Re: Cheap laptop or VM for retro games?
Everything you say is correct. I just can't justify paying $100-200 to play Age of Empires II, Psyconaughts, and Rayman. From my understanding current smartphones and iPads are multi times more powerful in hardware to run such games and I own those, its just the software is not available.. I am not sure how an iPhone 12 compare to oXbox. I could go with a used gaming PC, but its just too much to have a dedicated machine with a monitor on a desk to play Quake. This is the price I pay for going the MacOS route, and I knew it. I was just hoping to inherit a working laptop from a family member but that never happened.
I also find it interesting that buying a used laptop will actually give you multiple times better performance and hardware quality than a new one for near same price or less. What a weird tech times we are living in.
I also find it interesting that buying a used laptop will actually give you multiple times better performance and hardware quality than a new one for near same price or less. What a weird tech times we are living in.
Re: Cheap laptop or VM for retro games?
RCBH928 wrote:Everything you say is correct. I just can't justify paying $100-200 to play Age of Empires II, Psyconaughts, and Rayman. From my understanding current smartphones and iPads are multi times more powerful in hardware to run such games and I own those, its just the software is not available.. I am not sure how an iPhone 12 compare to oXbox. I could go with a used gaming PC, but its just too much to have a dedicated machine with a monitor on a desk to play Quake. This is the price I pay for going the MacOS route, and I knew it. I was just hoping to inherit a working laptop from a family member but that never happened.
To a point, that's why I'd suggest setting your sights a little higher. Finding a use for a computer you already have or were given is one thing, but you can get into PC gaming at console prices, if having more comprehensive access to that library would be nice.