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@aubrieallen The Dell you listed is as good as you're going to find for $500, unless you get lucky with a purchase on Ebay. (And that's obviously a risk.) For a little more, you could do a little better, but maybe not enough better to justify the higher price.
I don't know how much of your schoolwork you'll need to keep locally on your hard drive, but if it's a lot (in terms of size), you might want more than 256 GB storage. Still, text-only papers and research should be fine, especially if you're going to keep not using mods or custom content. The Sims 4 program files currently take about 45 GB storage with all packs included, and that probably won't ever hit 60 GB. Saves and library items are much smaller, possibly under 1 GB in total for normal use.
For $550, you could get a somewhat stronger processor with a somewhat stronger integrated graphics chip, plus double the storage. The processor and its graphics chip are just the newer version of what's in the Dell, but there is a noticeable improvement. Given the lower resolution of the monitor (1266x768), this laptop might run the entire game on high settings, but definitely better than the Dell.
https://www.newegg.com/acer-aspire-5-a515-44-r4m5/p/N82E16834316900?Item=N82E16834316900
Another option with similar performance, but a higher-resolution screen, is this Acer. It does only have a 256 GB hard drive though. It's $650, but Acer offers a 10% student discount through Student Beans.
https://store.acer.com/en-us/laptops/spin-3-laptop-sp314-53gn-52gr
https://store.acer.com/en-us/student-discount
True gaming computers are more expensive, and heavier and bulkier, so you might not want one anyway. But in case you're interested, this HP has an open-box option for $577. Its hardware would run all current Sims 4 content on ultra settings, although only barely. Still, it's in a much higher class of performance—the graphics card is more than twice as fast in gaming than the others.
If you have more questions, please feel free to ask.
@puzzlezaddict wrote:@aubrieallen The Dell you listed is as good as you're going to find for $500, unless you get lucky with a purchase on Ebay. (And that's obviously a risk.) For a little more, you could do a little better, but maybe not enough better to justify the higher price.
I don't know how much of your schoolwork you'll need to keep locally on your hard drive, but if it's a lot (in terms of size), you might want more than 256 GB storage. Still, text-only papers and research should be fine, especially if you're going to keep not using mods or custom content. The Sims 4 program files currently take about 45 GB storage with all packs included, and that probably won't ever hit 60 GB. Saves and library items are much smaller, possibly under 1 GB in total for normal use.
For $550, you could get a somewhat stronger processor with a somewhat stronger integrated graphics chip, plus double the storage. The processor and its graphics chip are just the newer version of what's in the Dell, but there is a noticeable improvement. Given the lower resolution of the monitor (1266x768), this laptop might run the entire game on high settings, but definitely better than the Dell.
https://www.newegg.com/acer-aspire-5-a515-44-r4m5/p/N82E16834316900?Item=N82E16834316900
Another option with similar performance, but a higher-resolution screen, is this Acer. It does only have a 256 GB hard drive though. It's $650, but Acer offers a 10% student discount through Student Beans.
https://store.acer.com/en-us/laptops/spin-3-laptop-sp314-53gn-52gr
https://store.acer.com/en-us/student-discount
True gaming computers are more expensive, and heavier and bulkier, so you might not want one anyway. But in case you're interested, this HP has an open-box option for $577. Its hardware would run all current Sims 4 content on ultra settings, although only barely. Still, it's in a much higher class of performance—the graphics card is more than twice as fast in gaming than the others.
If you have more questions, please feel free to ask.
Thank you so much for all of your help! I currently have an Acer Aspire E5-575, but I hate it lol. Granted, it's not a gaming laptop and it's 4 years old though lol.
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