@Spiz9792 £400 laptops, yes, usually; £200, not so much. Even for £300, you'd be getting something that probably couldn't run all the expansions together, or at least would run them very poorly. The base game and a few packs might be fine on low settings. And to be clear, this is for Sims 4; Sims 3 actually runs worse on lower-end computers, and I'd only even try to install all packs on the highest-end integrated graphics chips. Even then, you'd still be taking a chance, but it might work out fine.
For Sims 4, these are the lowest I'd go, at £300 and £320, respectively:
Their 4 GB RAM would still likely be an issue when running larger households or playing in some worlds, and they don't have room for much more than the game itself, but performance should be okay as long as you're careful.
Much better is this £400 option:
It has the kind of hardware I've been recommending for people on a budget: a processor and graphics chip that should run all packs together on medium-high or high settings, enough storage for Sims 4 and plenty of custom content, and 8 GB RAM, which is enough for the game itself. If you installed all Sims 3 packs, you'd probably notice some slowdowns, and there wouldn't be a whole lot of room other data if both games were installed together, but it could work if you were careful and your cc collection was a couple dozen gigabytes or less.
If you're looking for a laptop like this right now, I can do some more comparison shopping, but my experience is that laptops in this class usually cost £450 or more. It's always possible an equivalent laptop shows up on sale for £400; it's just that at this price point, you kind of take what you can get.
@puzzlezaddict Thanks again for the response and all the info!
I think for the moment I would probably want to go on the cheaper side and limit the amount of packs, cc and mods I install. What laptops would you recommend that are in the £450 to £650 price range?
🙂
@Spiz9792 You could stay within budget and still get a gaming laptop, at least right now when this one is on sale for £580:
https://www.box.co.uk/82K100HDUK-Lenovo-ideaPad-Gaming-3-Intel-Core-i5-8G_3778691.html
The graphics card could run all Sims 4 content together on ultra graphics settings with some room to spare. Custom content can (but doesn't always) increase the demands on the card, but you should always be able to play on at least a mix of high and ultra settings.
An alternative is this one, which is the same model except with only 256 GB storage, but that shouldn't be a problem as long as you're careful with space overall. As an example, you could fit the entire game plus about 100 GB of cc, or the same amount of other data, on the laptop and still be okay. I'd personally go with the first over the second, but some people prefer to buy from a store like Currys or Argos, so I figured I'd mention both.
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9599646?clickPR=plp:13:94
This laptop is £630 and has 512 GB storage, plus an equivalent processor and the same graphics card and RAM:
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9375482?clickPR=plp:24:94
It does run a little hot and loud, but not so much that it would be a problem if you were wearing headphones.
This one is also £650 and has a much faster graphics card and 512 GB storage. Plus, it's the best build quality of the group: Legions are excellent computers. If you're comfortable spending the full £650, I'd say this is the best overall choice by far.
https://www.box.co.uk/81Y6005SUK-Lenovo-Legion-5i-Intel-Core-i5-8GB-RAM-5_2938435.html
I checked half a dozen sites, and these were the cheapest options I saw for gaming laptops. If you'd prefer to stay below £500, that's doable as well; you'd be looking at a non-gaming laptop in the same flavor as the £400 model I linked before: capable of running all packs together on medium-high or high settings but not ultra. I didn't look too closely at that category because of all the gaming laptops within your budget, but let me know if you'd prefer one of the non-gaming options instead.
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