Top Five Gaming Laptops Under 500

[32 GB] I believe Acer is one of the best values in laptops. But with value comes some compromises. For this purchase, I was just looking at raw specifications and wanted top-of-the-line or near-top for a 16 gaming laptop. (I was fine with a 13th gen Intel CPU b/c there really isn't any meaningful improvement to the 14th gen, so buying a laptop that has been out for a year is an even better way to save money). This laptop has fantastic performance - I use it to game and for video/audio editing via Premiere. I can run any game I care to play at max settings. The screen is surprisingly vibrant, even though it's not the mini-led. Be aware that battery life for this laptop (and most upper-end gaming laptops in general) is pretty atrocious (2, MAYBE 3 hours under light usage). If you plan to do anything processor/GPU intensive on battery alone..., it's not going to happen. This laptop is happiest being plugged in and acting as a desktop replacement more than a true laptop that you're going to carry around all the time. I love it because I can take it with me when I travel and have an awesome machine with a small(er) footprint. This laptop isn't the most quiet (the fans can get pretty raucous), it isn't the best-looking, and doesn't have the best thermals, but it is, in my opinion, a great buy at a very reasonable price if you understand what these types of machines are like.

[External PSU] THIS IS A GREAT BUY!!!!BEST MIC YOU CAN GET FOR UNDER 500!!!...WILL BE BUYING FROM THEM AGAIN VERY SOON!!@@!!!! JW

[1 E Key M.2] In the past I used to buy $500 top-of-the-line motherboard's with all the bells and whistles to tell you the truth I can barely tell the difference between a highly overpriced motherboard in this one I actually had zero installation errors I actually had zero registry problems it was very easy to set up no issues finding any hardware no hardware issues like I have had in the past with Jesus and gigabyte on their gaming platform motherboards. This has anything a gamer will need tons of USB 3.0, plenty of room for a killer 3080 ti , Bluetooth , wi-Fi six this stuff is super fast I'm getting gigabit transfers wirelessly, all in a very compact board allowed me to for the first time build a gaming machine in a mid tower case that can compete against a $7000 gaming machine I have in another room

[2 TB] I've had 3 Asus gaming laptops, and this is all I'll buy.

Nice free gaming bundle to go to RTX-capable laptops!

[LED] Nice free gaming bundle to go to RTX-capable laptops!

[7.2 oz / 204 g] This premium, super-hi-quality case has: 1. SIX latches and FIVE steel-reinforced lock-hole-pairs; 2. Four layers of foam--one, corrugated, in the lid and three in the bottom.. The bottom 1/2er is glued in and the next two 2ers are loose.. Even if you custom-cut a channel for your stuff in the top 2 layer, there's still 2-1/2 under all of it.. 3. Heavy-duty latches 2 wide and including an easy-to-use release trigger. 4. Each of the four hinges is FIVE inches wide, and they hold the top open instead of allowing the top top flop flat. This is certainly going to last my lifetime.

[USB Bus Power] A little pricey on top of the $500 dongle or $1,000 consoles.

A little pricey on top of the $500 dongle or $1,000 consoles.

[1.2 V] Five stars.