Actual recommended laptop specs, not just minimal specs?

I'm in the middle of a total nightmare. Two years ago, I got the perfect computer:

Acer Aspire V Nitro VN7-572TG-775T 15.6" FHD Touchscreen Intel Core i7-6500U (2.50 GHz) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 16 GB Memory 256 GB SSD 1 TB HDD Windows 10 Home 64-Bit Gaming Laptop

Recently, it met a tragic and untimely end. I'm shattered.   I need to replace it without going over what that one cost ($900) because I don't have as much money as I used to. It's okay if it's not as good as long as it's good enough. It certainly does not need to have a touchscreen. (I've tried to find that exact computer again, but it doesn't exist anymore! My one result for a refurbished model is all sold out.)


Those of you who enjoy smooth gameplay, what are your laptop's specs? What kind of processor do you have, and what is its speed? How much RAM do you have? Is 8 GB enough? What about your graphics card?

If you have *all* of Sims 4 (and Sims 3) installed, how much space does it all take up? If I can't get away from "smaller C drive larger D drive", will a 128 GB C drive be big enough for Sims plus other stuff? Or is there a trick to installing this stuff on the D drive?

Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me.
Sincerely, a very sad and stressed out

I have all sims 4 (not sims 3 tho) on a D drive and it takes about 66 gb. my laptop is a bare minimum but all my games go flawlessly. i have i5 processor, 8 gb ram, geforce 940mx graphic card. i buyed this laptop on amazon warehouse, where u can find good deals, it has 4 gb ram and 1 500 gb hdd, I added 4 gb more of ram and replace the dvd reader with a second hard drive, that I use for data. spent in total like 400 euro.

8GB of RAM are enough for The Sims games. Filespace after installing for The Sims 4 with all updates/DLC is on my end 32.3 GB, The Sims 3 is 34.5 GB, again with all expansions/stuffpacks.

My own desktop PC's specs are basically described in this thread, if you want to have a look at it. An AMD FX-8350 with a base clock speed of 4.0 GHz (it's an older CPU, but still does its duty). 16GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti. No SSD drive, only a plain HDD. It's a system that is OK for me, at the moment. 

I would advise you to consider going for a desktop PC, rather than "gaming laptops". Not only are desktops PC more durable and far stronger, but they are also cheaper than these laptops.

Regarding pre-built PC systems and custom-built systems, I found (against widespread belief) that if you compare two identical PCs and their specs, with one of them being a pre-built and the other one a custom-built version, there is not much difference in terms of price. Most people think that custom-builds are "a lot cheaper", but in my opinion that is not (normally) the case, in reality. There are some other advantages to custom-built PCs though, for example individual warranties for the PC components, which tend to be better than the all-in-one warranty on stock computers. But unless you know what you're doing, it might be better for the average person to go for the pre-built system.

Also, you indicated you got the computer two years ago. Why did it break down? Is there still warranty on it (I don't suppose there is, otherwise you probably wouldn't have posted here); but still I'm curious, where I live in Europe, you get at least three years of warranty on these things.

The_gh0stm4n wrote:Also, you indicated you got the computer two years ago. Why did it break down? Is there still warranty on it (I don't suppose there is, otherwise you probably wouldn't have posted here); but still I'm curious, where I live in Europe, you get at least three years of warranty on these things.

It didn't break down so much as it suffered traumatic physical damage.

I've switched from desktop to laptop because I need something smaller and more portable.

Thank you for the info. That will help with my search.

The_gh0stm4n wrote:Filespace after installing for The Sims 4 with all updates/DLC is on my end 32.3 GB

how is it possible that my game takes the double of the space? I have this site version of everything...

debb wrote:how is it possible that my game takes the double of the space? I have this site version of everything...

Hmm...do you still have the original archive files (.rar/.7z), maybe?