Learning on the go has become the norm in recent years. While studying is important, it’s also important to take frequent breaks and have some fun playing your favorite games. With that, let’s take a look at some of the best gaming laptops which you can get as a student.

1. Acer Aspire E15

The Acer Aspire E15 line provides a comfortable balance of power and utility for both K-12 and academic students. It features 12-hour battery life, a dedicated MX150 graphics card, 8GB DDR4 RAM, and a 256GB SSD coupled with a 4-core processor. It is a great laptop line designed for students on a tighter budget.

1. Asus VivoBook

If you’re looking for a lightweight laptop with good gaming performance, Asus VivoBook has you covered. It comes with an AMD 4-core processor, Radeon Vega 8 graphics, 128GB SSD, and 8GB DDR4 RAM. This laptop will allow you to comfortably work on your student projects and games without issues.

1. Dell G5 15

Students with a little more money to spend should consider Dell’s G5 15 as a gaming/studying laptop. This laptop comes with Intel’s i7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070, 512GB SSD, and 16GB DDR4 RAM. It’s a good option for students who use 3D modeling or graphic design software.

Buying a gaming desktop or laptop is a big commitment. However, if you get a machine powerful enough, it can provide years of entertainment. Desktops are cheaper and easier to upgrade so if you don’t need portability, you can get more machine for your money that way. No matter which route you go, the advice in this article is applicable for both systems.

Generally speaking, with gaming laptops, you have the classic 'pick two' rule: Power/Specs, Size/build quality, Affordability - pick two. The slimmer and lighter something is, the less powerful - unless you are willing to pay more for it. There are relatively affordable gaming laptops that are significantly less expensive than the thin and powerful variety, but they are usually an inch thicker or more. It's only on the very high end where no matter how much you spend it won't be thin (like SLI video cards and such).

All system types discussed herein are assumed to be Windows computers. Macs can play some games, as can Linux, but they are sadly limited. And while Linux can actually use much of the same hardware as Windows, so most of this guide still applies (with the caveat that OS and hardware support is all on your own), you are still limited on game selection (though you may learn other useful technology skills!). On Mac, you are limited to the maximum of a midrange gaming GPU - for their top of the line Macbook Pro prices. Typically, I would say that people who purchase Mac computers do not or should not choose them with primarily gaming in mind. This is something that Apple Corp. has simply chosen to ignore; they do have the power to fix it if they so choose. Instead, Apple has pre-chosen size and build quality as their sole focus, which is dandy, but they do not make gaming capable laptops, and what they do offer is extremely expensive.

The first step in purchasing a gaming machine is to determine your budget. Faster machines are more expensive and there is no way around that. Most laptops come with Intel graphics but if you want to do some serious gaming, you’ll have to pay a premium for AMD or Nvidia graphics. If you plan on doing VR with your system, you’re going to want a GeForce GTX 1060 at least. Anything faster is, you guessed it, more money.