@livingforwards When you factor in refurbished laptops, there are so many different configurations that it's difficult to give a good overview of what to look for. This is what you'd generally want though:
- Processor: Quad-core is better in a laptop, and until the last couple of generations, the CPU would do better if it had at least a 2.4 GHz base clock speed, and an i7 would be better than an i5 if you were buying Intel. But starting with the i5-8300H and i7-8750H, those details aren't critical. If you're getting at least 8th-gen Intel or any Ryzen, just avoid a CPU with a U or Y in its model number (e.g. i5-8250U, Ryzen 5 2500U), and you should be fine.
- Memory: 8 GB RAM is the minimum you'd want, and more would only help with multitasking, not with Sims 3 itself. You can almost always add more memory to a gaming laptop though.
- Storage: A 512 GB SSD is ideal, but a 256 GB model is manageable, especially if you have a second drive for everything else. Sims 3 will load much faster on an SSD than on a mechanical drive (HDD), but the game itself will run fine once it's loaded on any kind of drive.
- Graphics card: This is the most important component, and there are too many models to list. But this chart from MTS is a good insight into how any given card can be expected to handle the game:
https://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:TS3_System_Requirements
The thing to keep in mind is that a fully patched game will be more demanding even without all packs installed.
Cooling is its own issue, especially since older models don't necessarily have the same setup as their newer counterparts, even from the same line of laptop.
If you find something you like, feel free to link the product page for a second opinion.
