PC Master Race

The specs sound good but be aware that there's always a caveat for gaming laptops under $1000. Look for that specific model and see what people are saying about cooling and build quality. It doesn't matter how powerful the laptop is if it's going to overheat and throttle performance 5 minutes into playing (this happens a lot in cheap laptops)

In general avoid Dell and MSI. They've got a bad reputation. I've never seen a gigabyte laptop so be careful with that.

In terms of budget laptops I've heard the asus tuf is pretty alright.

Spend $350 on a steam deck and $120 to upgrade it to 1 TB storage.

Only negative is if you're into multi-player fps games like fortnite and such. Anti cheat software a lot of them use aren't Linux compatible. You can install windows, but that's a pretty meh experience.

Specs are tricky with laptops. I have two laptops with very similar specs. Same CPU, same RAM, etc. The Dell... sucks. It just runs like a slug who is drunk and disinterested. The MSI goes like a cheetah on speed.

Does your use case lock you to a laptop? If not, You can probably get better performance for the same cost (edit) from a desktop.

Do you have a not-box-store computer store nearby? Have a chat with them about what you are looking for, they often have refurbished laptops. If you can wait, they may have refurbs in the pipeline too.

Truthfully I wouldn't put budget and gaming laptop together.

Go for a desktop (especially if you're making it yourself). Go for a refurbished or used premium laptop. Go for a steam deck. Go for a Chromebook and use the money on GeForce NOW. Go for an Xbox or a PlayStation.

Or save your money...

Laptops on the budget end are filled with poorly designed chassis that never seem to be able to cool the hardware leading to premature hardware failure and thermal throttling. It's also super common to run into other cheap components that fail like the keyboard switches.

This can be true even in "expensive" computers like Alienware. You either want a beefy thick workstation-like gaming laptop or you want something like a Dell XPS where the chassis and cooling are getting a lot of extra attention, and the hardware isn't put in cheap plastic and overspeced to "wow" you with an impossible combination of "thin" and "powerful."

Lenovo legion is worth a consideration.

Do some research on what you can or cannot upgrade e.g. RAM and m2 drives. Look at notebookcheck website. Consider if you want a screen without PWM.

you don't have to go top of the line to get a good system. Also considering finding what you want and waiting for black Friday or a similar sale. The discounts can be worth it! X1 carbon extreme can get deep discounts for example.

Treat laptops like phones.

They last a few years but quickly become outdated.

My gaming PC I built in 2018 was a $1500 investment that is still playing every single triple-AAA game without a issue. The only update I made was a new SSD drive for more space.

If your budget is locked, I made a suggestion here for a SteamDeck and a cheap Linux laptop like a Thinkpad. https://lemmy.world/comment/3752617

Honestly if you're looking to go budget get second hand parts and build a desktop. I bought a desktop with a 2700x and 1050 ti for $400 AUD. I sold the 1050 ti bought a 5700xt and a 650w psu. Cost me about $700 AUD total. This can play all the latest games at 1080p medium to high settings no problem. That's about $450 USD.

If you're in the US, Walmart regularly puts older gaming laptops on clearance. I remember a year ago they had a 3060 laptop for $600

When I bought a Dell G7 around 5 years ago (1060, i7) I got it open box at Best Buy, which saved a good bit of money as opposed to buying it completely new. Haven't kept up with gaming laptops in a bit, as I upgraded to a desktop recently, but if you go down the laptop route, looking into open box offers at retailers is worth it imo.

You can save yourself $120 by buying a laptop without a windows license and just install Linux on it.