Forum Discussion

Alexandrabunny2's avatar
4 years ago

Laptop recs-- Legion by Lenovo?

Wow, I posted here about 5 years ago searching for a laptop... how time flies! That laptop has served me well but is over 6.5 years old now, and I really need to upgrade. I know desktops offer better performance for the price, but I'm a student and need a laptop.

My budget is roughly $900 to $1000 USD. I want something that can run all Sims 3 EPs, some stuff packs, and a few GB of cc and mods. Having an SSD is quite important to me, and I'd preferably like a laptop that doesn't look like a gaming laptop-- think those Acer predator laptops... I think they're quite ugly.

Currently I'm thinking of this laptop: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/legion-laptops/legion-laptops-series/legion-y540-(15-inch)-gaming-laptop/81sx015hus

Any other suggestions would be appreciated!

2 Replies

  • Given your preferences, I think that's about as good a laptop as you're going to find. While there are plenty of equivalent gaming laptops that look like gaming laptops, and a few more subtle models with weaker hardware or lower ratings, the Legion line is really the only one in your price range that has quality components and is built well. The one thing I would say about this model is that its battery life won't be great: its processor doesn't have an integrated graphics chip, meaning the dedicated card would be carrying the workload the whole time, and draining the battery faster than an integrated chip would.

    This may not matter to you, but if it does, this model is an alternative:

    https://www.newegg.com/phantom-black-lenovo-legion-5-15imh05h-81y600p3cf-gaming-entertainment/p/N82E16834645826

    Its graphics card is a few percentage points slower but still overkill for Sims 3; it has only 8 GB RAM instead of 12, but that could be upgraded easily enough. It's also a little newer, which matters in the sense that Lenovo is likely to support it (as in, new drivers and other support software) for a bit longer, although that's not guaranteed.

    Other than that, I didn't see anything worth mentioning on the half dozen sites I checked. That's not surprising: laptop manufacturers are switching over to 30-series GPUs and cleaning out old inventory. But you don't need a 3060 to play Sims 3, and a 3050 is actually slower than a 2060 or even a 1660 ti, not to mention it's currently the same price or higher.
  • Thanks! I ended up going with this laptop: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08YKG5K7F/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    Similar to your suggestion!

About The Sims 3 General Discussion

Connect with fellow Simmers and share your experiences in The Sims 3 official community.6,548 PostsLatest Activity: 6 hours ago