Sims 4

[Backseat_Yeti]

Im so happy you wrote me back! I live in the US. Its hard to say if i want one now or black friday. If there was a deal out there like the original one you posted, i would be super happy with that. I just dont ever shop for laptops so i dont know what to expect on black friday, price or availability-wise. I guess what im trying to say is im open to what you recommend. Im ready to get one now but can wait if i need to. Again, thanks so much for the help.

[puzzlezaddict]

@Backseat_Yeti  If you're looking for a gaming laptop, even at the entry level, Black Friday is your best bet, but it's not guaranteed that there will be anything for $500.  I remember last year, I saw one gaming laptop sold by Best Buy drop to $450 for a day or two, but everything else was more like $550 and above.  And aside from one sold out model on Walmart, I'm not seeing any gaming laptops for $550 and under right now.  That doesn't mean there won't be any, just that you can't count on it.

Black Friday sales have already started, somehow, so it's worth keeping an eye out for deals now.  But I'd think that the deals would get more numerous, if not better, as we get closer to the actual Black Friday.

Anyway, aside from that, your other options are to get a refurbished gaming laptop from somewhere like Amazon, or to take your chances with Ebay.  For the former, this is a good example of what you can often, but not always, find:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MKLM2RJ

For $550, you'd get a recent model (maybe a year old, maybe less) that should run all current Sims 4 packs together on ultra graphics settings, and that's sold by the Acer Recertified Store.  However, I think it's unlikely that the price will drop much at any point soon.

As for Ebay, there are lots of cheap options, and there's lots of risk.  If you want to go in that direction, I'll try to find something, but it's such a mess and moves so quickly, there's not much point in shopping there until you know you're ready to buy and aren't waiting for something better.

[Backseat_Yeti]

Thanks. The laptop you linked seems like it should work out great. Also, i feel way more informed on what to look out for and how to find what i need. I really appreciate the help!

[puzzlezaddict]

@Backseat_Yeti  In case you want another option, I just saw this one, which was out of stock last night but is apparently back already:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/624266471

It's also $550 and has a slightly slower (but still more than fine) processor, and otherwise the same specs.  And it's new.

[Backseat_Yeti]

That one looks great too but the only problem would be i already took your first recommendation. 

Thanks

[Tigerlilly2332]

Hi, @puzzlezaddict I was wanting to get a laptop to play the sims 4 on with expansion packs added on. I live in Australia and can spend anywhere around $400-$900 AUD and was really hoping if you could help me.

[puzzlezaddict]

@Tigerlilly2332  I apologize for the late reply.  I didn't have time to respond to you when I originally saw your post, but I guess I just forgot to set it aside for later.  Anyway, yes, you  can get a very good laptop for Sims 4 for $900 AUD or a little less, depending on how good you want the computer to be.

These two laptops, both on sale for $900, are as good as you're going to see at that price (and considerably better than you'd normally find), and they'd both have no trouble running all Sims 4 content on ultra graphics settings.  The processor is  better in the first one than in the second, but that won't much of difference to Sims 4; the graphics card will be the limiting factor here.  I'm listing them both in case one isn't in stock.  They're otherwise the same laptop: their other hardware and chassis are the same, and you can expect equal performance out of their other components.

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-nitro-5-15-6-inch-i5-11400h-8gb-512gb-ssd-rtx3050-4gb-gaming-la...

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-nitro-5-15-6-inch-i5-11300h-8gb-512gb-ssd-rtx3050-4gb-gaming-la...

This is a slightly cheaper gaming laptop, also massively discounted at the moment.  Its graphics card is slower than the one in the laptops above but still capable of ultra settings.  All else being equal, I'd get the faster graphics card for an extra $50, but if you like this one better for other reasons, it's a perfectly legitimate option.  It does only have half the storage of the ones above, but that's still enough to fit Sims 4 and all your user content.

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/dell-gaming-g15-15-6-full-hd-120hz-gaming-laptop-intel-i5-gtx-165...

Below this price point, you're looking at laptops with only integrated graphics.  The ones below have the fastest iGPUs available, but they're still much slower than the dedicated cards above: the 1650 is more than twice as fast as the fastest integrated chip, and the 3050 is ~30% faster than that.  So if your primary concern is performance, you'll definitely want one of the options above or something like it.

However, if you're looking for something more lightweight and portable, or something that doesn't look like a gaming laptop, and you're okay with high or medium-high graphics settings, there are other good options as well.  This one has the fastest iGPU available in a laptop at the moment, as well as 500 GB of storage like the Acers:

https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/acer-15-6-aspire-5-notebook-core-i7-8-512gb-black-...

The integrated graphics chip in these three is a little slower than the one above, but medium-high settings should still be doable.  The first is $700; the others are $800 like the one above but are worth considering if you happen to like them for other reasons.  Their performance should be roughly equivalent, since they have the same hardware, other than the extra storage in the third one; the only other meaningful difference is the 14" screen in the third.

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/hp-15-6-inch-i5-1155g7-8gb-256gb-ssd-laptop.html

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/asus-15-6-inch-i5-1135g7-8gb-256gb-ssd-laptop.html

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-swift-3-14-inch-i5-1135g7-8gb-512gb-ssd-laptop-1.html

If you have more questions, or are looking for something a bit different, please feel free to ask.