Best Laptop for Gaming & Dev Under $500?

[DREAM]

Looking for a laptop within $300-$500 for both gaming and development. Need decent performance for coding and light gaming. Any good recommendations? Thanks!

[BobMarley123]

Under 500 I doubt you'll find a decent gaming laptop

[hadesgfx]

$500 probably gets u an alright used laptop, assuming that you know how to check one for damage / performance, this forum's probably not the best place to ask the question though

[skeletrix]

guy above is right—either buy a relatively cheap one and upgrade the parts (ssd, ram) to maximize capacity— or buy a laptop off of facebook marketplace & lowball some mom who's selling their kids laptop

[topuser]

Hey i have 3 laptops which are about half the price of the market , brand new ones , not gaming but good performance , if you are up to it let me know , i accept Escrow / Paypal whatever makes you feel safe.

Here's the infos
Hp NoteBook 250 G9
Core i5-1230u Gen12
Ram 16GB DDR4 
Ssd 256GB Nvme
Windows 11 pro license

[iams0l]

Hey! For a budget between $300-$500, you're looking at some decent options. I'd recommend checking out refurbished models from brands like Dell or Lenovo — they often have good specs for the price. The Acer Aspire 5 is also a solid choice; it has a nice balance for both coding and casual gaming. Just make sure to get one with at least an i5 and 8GB of RAM if you can. Happy hunting!