These are the best cheap gaming laptops you can buy in 2022
Finding a cheap laptop that does everything you want it to do is not an easy task. Buying something at an affordable price inherently means corners have to be cut, so you have to look hard for something that fits your needs. That’s all the more true for gaming laptops, which need to have certain expensive components inside, like dedicated GPUs. We’re here to help with that, and we’ve rounded up the best cheap gaming laptops you can buy today.
What constitutes a cheap laptop varies depending on the category we’re looking at. In general, the best cheap laptops we recommend cost $700 or less, but it would be very hard to find a good gaming laptop at that price. For this list, we’re considering the best cheap gaming laptops that cost under or around $1,000 (at writing time). That gives you a fair bit of choice and some great laptops already. Depending on discounts, you may be able to upgrade certain parts of these laptops and stay within that budget, but we’re focusing on the base configuration so you can explore possible from there.
Navigate this article:
- Best overall: Acer Nitro 5
- Most powerful GPU: Gigabyte G5
- Best 17-inch laptop: ASUS TUF Gaming F17
- Best AMD-powered laptop: HP Victus 16z
- Extra cheap: Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3
- Best do-it-all laptop: Asus Zenbook Flip 15
Best overall: Acer Nitro 5
The Acer Nitro 5 is one of the most popular cheap gaming laptops out there, and for good reason. These laptops often deliver a very capable gaming experience for an affordable price, and this is one of the latest models around, with some great specs to get you started with gaming.
First off, the Acer Nitro 5 is already packing Intel’s 12th-generation Core processors, specifically a Core i5-12500H. This CPU comes with 12 cores and 16 threads, and it can boost as high as 4.5GHz, resulting in very strong performance for day-to-day tasks as well as gaming. Of course, the GPU is especially important if you want to game, and this model of the Acer Nitro 5 also comes with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti with up to 95W of power, which should be able to run the majority of modern games, though you may need to tweak some settings in more demanding games. Plus, it comes with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, both of which can be upgraded later on if you need more. For just under $1,000, that’s a very compelling combination.
Even with its powerful specs and low price, the Acer Nitro 5 also manages to come with a pretty good display for gaming. It’s a 15.6-inch panel with a 16:9 aspect ratio, typical of gaming laptops, especially at this price. The resolution is Full HD (again, pretty typical for this price), but most importantly, it supports a 144Hz refresh rate. This ensures that games can run much more smoothly, particularly more lightweight titles where the built-in GPU can push more frames more easily.
A common sacrifice you’ll see across these affordable gaming laptops is the webcam, and that’s no different here. The Acer Nitro 5 has a 720p webcam, and there’s no Windows Hello support. Neither facial recognition nor a fingerprint reader are available, so you’ll have to type in your PIN whenever you want to log in.
Some gaming laptops can have pretty gaudy designs, and the Acer Nitro 5 definitely doesn’t hide its roots, but it’s still somewhat classy. The chassis is mostly made of sleek straight likes, but there are red accents on the corners near the rear exhaust fans. Four-zone RGB lighting also illuminates the keyboard, and the transparent edges on each key make the RGB lighting very apparent, so this can be a flashy laptop. Something else that’s common for cheap gaming laptops is a beefy design, and at nearly 27mm in thickness, the Acer Nitro 5 definitely keeps that up. It also weighs 5.51lbs, so portability isn’t a major focus, as you’d expect for a gaming laptop.
Rounding things out with ports, you get one Thunderbolt 4 port on the back (meaning you can eventually connect an external GPU if you want more power) along with HDMI. On the left side, a USB Type-A port along with RJ45 Ethernet and a headphone jack, and two more USB Type-A ports on the right. This gives you space for plenty of peripherals, and having some ports on the back helps keep some clutter off the sides of your laptop so you can use a mouse for gaming, for example.
This is frankly a fantastic laptop for the price, giving you lots of power, a great screen for gaming, and a solid selection of ports. As far as cheap gaming laptops go, this is certainly one of the best.
- The Acer Nitro 5 is an affordable, yet capable gaming laptop woth solid specs out of the box, plus some upgradeability.
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Also great: HP Victuz 15t
HP debuted the Victus line of laptops in 2021, offering a mix of a premium and sleek design with solid gaming specs. The latest Victus 15t is packing the latest Intel processors and Nvidia graphics, but it also comes with some customizability, so you can get a configuration that’s more suited to your needs.
First off, the HP Victus 15 is powered by Intel’s 12th-generation Core processors, starting with a Core i5-12500H. As we just mentioned above, that’s a 12-core, 16-thread CPU that can boost up to 4.5GHz, and it’s already a very fast processor to start with. It also starts with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU, which is enough for some entry-level gaming. But the great thing about this laptop is that it’s highly configurable, and because it’s on sale right now, you can go as high as a Core i7-12700H and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti and still be under $1,000. The base model comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and we recommend upgrading at least the RAM before getting into CPU upgrades, though you can also upgrade the RAM yourself later if you prefer going that route.
As the name suggests, the Victus 15 comes with a 15.6-inch display, and again, it’s a 16:9 aspect ratio and Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080). This display comes with a 60Hz refresh rate by the default, but there are upgrade options including a 144Hz panel and even the option for a brighter 300-nit display. You’ll want to consider these upgrades and balance them with the other configuration options available to stay under $1,000.
Predictably, the HP Victus 15 comes with a 720p webcam that does not include support for Windows Hello facial recognition. In fact, a fingerprint reader also isn’t available, so there’s no biometric authentication support, and you’ll have to use a PIN or password to sign into your PC.
A big advantage the Victus 15 has over the Acer Nitro 5 is the sleeker design that fits much better into any environment. It comes in either black, white, or “performance blue”, and all three colors look nice and subdued without being too boring. There’s no RGB flair on the laptop, and even the Victus branding is professional-looking, nothing that would necessarily indicate this is a gaming laptop. It’s a much thinner machine, too, at 23.6mm, and somewhat lighter with a starting weight of 5.06lbs.
As for ports, you get one USB Type-C (3.2 Gen 1) port, two USB Type-A (3.2 Gen 1) ports, HDMI 2.1, gigabit Ethernet, a headphone jack, and a full-size SD card reader. That’s a setup that covers all the basics, and it clearly focuses more on important gaming specs like HDMI 2.1 and fast Ethernet. However, the USB ports aren’t extremely fast, and there’s no Thunderbolt support, which may be a bummer to some users. Still, a solid setup all around.
The Victus 15t doesn’t necessarily offer the same performance for your money (outside of sales, at least) as the Acer Nitro 5, but it’s still a very capable gaming laptop, and the sleeker design makes it a very valid option for gamers who want to take their laptop to school or work, too.
- Packing the latest Intel processors, RTX graphics, and a 144Hz display, the Victus 16t is a great choice for an affordable gaming laptop.
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Most powerful GPU: Gigabyte G5
If you want the most power you can get in a cheap gaming laptop, the Gigabyte G5 is your best option right now. Officially, it costs over $1,000, but right now you can get a pretty significant discount on it, bringing it just under our threshold.
In terms of the processor, the Gigabyte is actually packing an older CPU than some other models on this list, but that doesn’t mean you should disregard it. This is an Intel Core i5-11400H, which has 6 cores, 12 threads, and boost speeds up to 4.5GHz, so it’s still a very capable processor that will serve you well for a long time. You’re not missing out on much, and the focus here is on the GPU, which is much more important for most games. That’s why you get an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 here, which is a big step up from both the RTX 3050 and 3050 Ti, with 6GB of video memory (instead of 4GB), and far more processing power in general – plus it can use up to 105W, so there’s plenty of power here. Rounding things out, you get 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, which you can upgrade later. This is a fantastic setup to start with, though.
The gigabyte G5 comes with a 15.6-inch panel and Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080), which is fairly standard at this point. It also has a 144Hz refresh rate for extra smooth gaming, making good use of the more powerful graphics card inside. You should be able to enjoy just about any modern game, and many of them at high frame rates, with this laptop. For very intensive games, you’ll still need to tweak some setting, but you’ll be seeing higher frame rates on many more titles compared to most other laptops here.
Not one to go against the current, the MSI GF65 sticks to the tried and true 720p camera we’ve seen in other laptops, and there’s no Windows Hello facial recognition, either. In fact, there’s no Windows Hello support of any kind, and that’s also par for the course at this point.
Looks-wise, the Gigabyte G5 is fairly sleek for a gaming laptop. There really isn’t a lot that gives this away as a gaming laptop other than the angular patterns around the air intake and exhaust vents, and the rest is very clean, with the Gigabyte logo also looking very professional. On the inside, the keyboard is backlit and designed to let the light shine around the edges of the keys, which may be a bit more flair than some like, but it’s still fairly clean. This is also one of the lighter laptops here, with 4.81lbs of weight, but it’s very thick, reaching 31.8mm at its thickest point.
Coming around to the ports, the selection you get here is very wide and varied. You get one USB Type-C port, three USB Type-A (3.2 Gen 1) ports, HDMI 2.0, mini-DisplayPort, gigabit Ethernet, a combo audio jack (plus a separate microphone jack if you prefer it that way) and a full-size SD card reader. This is the biggest selection of ports you’ll probably find here and it gives you a lot of options. It may not have Thunderbolt support, but the built-in ports are more than enough for any peripherals you may have.
The Gigabyte G5 is probably the most powerful laptop for gaming here, with the GeForce RTX 3060 GPU delivering more performance than most others on this list. It has an older CPU and a very thick design, but if you want GPU power, you can’t go wrong with this one.
- The Gigabyte G5 is the most powerful laptop on this list in terms of the GPU, and it still manages to be fairly light. It usually costs over $1,000, but with a sale, it just fits our budget.
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Best 17-inch gaming laptop: ASUS TUF Gaming F17
Gaming is all about immersion, and nothing can help you more with that than having a large screen to see your games on. The Asus TUF Gaming F17 gives you exactly that, along with quite a bit of power to run your games, too. Larger laptops are generally more expensive, so you sacrifice a bit of power in some ways, but this is still a great laptop.
In terms of performance, it’s not packing the latest hardware anymore, but it’s not a slow laptop by any means. It’s powered by an Intel Core i5-11400H processor, which has 6 cores, 12 threads, and boost speeds up to 4.5GHz, so it’s far from a slow processor. For graphics, you get an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 3050 Ti, which can use up to 75W of power with Dynamic Boost. It’s a pretty powerful GPU that should be able to handle most modern games without much of an issue, though you’ll need to change some settings in more demanding titles. Additionally, you get 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, giving you a decent amount of memory and storage for your games and other files. Both RAM and storage are upgradeable later on, too.
The ASUS TUF Gaming F17 also comes with a 17.3-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) display, meaning it has the typical 16:9 aspect ratio. It also has a 144Hz refresh rate, so your games can look that much smoother, as long as the GPU can keep up. It’s a great display for gaming, and even though Full HD starts to look a little less sharp with a 17.3-inch panel, you really won’t notice it during gameplay (plus a higher resolution wouldn’t make sense for these specs).
Keeping in line with what we’ve seen so far, the webcam above the display is another 720p camera, and once again, there’s no Windows Hello facial recognition support here. It should come as no surprise that there also isn’t a fingerprint reader, so Windows Hello support is out of the question entirely.
Unlike some other laptops on this list, the TUF Gaming F17 doesn’t do much to hide its gaming-oriented nature. The lid features large TUF branding and four dots in the corners that make it obvious this isn’t your everyday laptop, plus large exhaust vents make it apparent you’re carrying a gaming laptop. The keyboard deck also features some angular designs, and the keyboard is backlit with single-zone RGB lighting. The WASD keys are fully translucent, too, so it’s even clearer this is a gaming laptop. Being a large 17-inch laptop makes this one of the heaviest devices on this list, weighing 5.73lbs, but thankfully it’s not the thickest, at 23.9mm at its thickest point.
As for ports, there’s a solid supply overall. You get one USB Type-C (3.2 Gen 2) port, three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, HDMI 2.0b, RJ45 Ethernet, and a headphone jack. That covers most of the basics, even giving you wired internet if you absolutely need a lag-free experience. Thunderbolt support would be welcome, but considering the wide selection of ports you get out of the box, this is great already.
For those looking for a cheap 17-inch gaming laptop, the ASUS TUF Gaming F17 is still one of the best options out there, and it’s one of the more affordable options too.
- The ASUS TUF Gaming F17 is a great option if you want a larger screen at a lower price, while still getting the perks of a gaming laptop.
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Best AMD-powered gaming laptop: HP Victus 16z
AMD-powered laptops have become more and more prominent in recent years, and they’re often just as good if not better than Intel counterparts. The HP Vixtus 16z is a great example of a fantastic AMD laptop that’s also highly customizable to your tastes.
Starting with performance, the Victus 16z is powered by AMD’s Ryzen 6000 series processors starting with a Ryzen 5 6600H. That’s a 6-core, 12-thread processor and it can boost up to 4.5GHz. For graphics, the base configuration comes with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 3050 GPU, though you can upgrade to a GeForce RTX 3050 Ti and still be within the budget (at writing time, at least). Usually, the laptop starts just under $1,000, but an ongoing sale allows for some upgrades. Additionally, you get 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD in the base configuration, though you can get some upgrades, or upgrade the laptop yourself later if you want to save money now.
In the display department, the Vicrus 16z has a 16.1-inch panel and it comes in Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080) like most of the laptops on this list. In the base configuration, the display is a 60Hz panel and it has 250 nits of brightness, but you can upgrade to a brighter panel or opt for a 144Hz display, depending on where you choose to allocate your budget. Things like the display and GPU can’t really be upgraded later on, so it might make sense to invest in them now.
As per usual, the webcam on the Victus 16z is a 720p camera, and it also doesn’t support Windows Hello facial recognition. A fingerprint sensor is also not included, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise at this point. All of these cameras are serviceable. but they won’t stand out in any way.
Moving on to the design, this is pretty much the same we’ve seen in the Victus 15 model above, just slightly bigger. This model comes in either blue or black, so there’s no white variant, but otherwise, it looks just as clean and sleek. The larger size naturally makes for a heavier laptop, so it weighs 5.29lbs, and at 23.6mm, it’s also somewhat thick, though not thicker than most laptops on this list.
The larger size compared to the Victus 15 does get you one extra port, though. In total, you get one USB Type-C (3.2 Gen 2) three USB Type-A (3.2 Gen 1), HDMI 2.1, gigabit Ethernet, a headphone jack, and a full-size SD card reader. That’s a very solid setup with just about any port you could want for connecting peripherals, external displays, and so on.
If you’re looking for a laptop powered by the latest AMD processors that’s capable of delivering a great gaming experience without drawing too much attention, the Victus 16z is a fantastic choice. It’s easily one of the best gaming laptops you can get on the cheap, and with ongoing sales, it’s even more tempting.
- The HP Victus 16z is a premium-feeling gaming laptop with AMD processors and other powerful specs, plus plenty of ports.
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Also great: Dell G15
Dell is no stranger to making some of the best laptops out there, and the G15 gaming laptop is another great choice for AMD fans. It has similarly powerful specs and a design that’s arguably more unique than most gaming laptops on this list.
First off, the Dell G15 comes with the same AMD Ryzen 5 6600H processor as the Victus 16z, with 6 cores, 12 threads, and boost speeds up to 4.5GHz. This is part of AMD’s latest lineup, and it’s a powerful CPU at that. For graphics, you get an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, giving you baseline RTX support and solid performance so you can run just about any modern game on this laptop. Finally, you get 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD in this configuration, which is a pretty good setup, and you can always make some upgrades down the line as your budget allows.
The display on the Dell G15 is a 15.6-inch panel, and it comes in at — unsurprisingly — Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080). This model includes a 120Hz refresh rate by default, though, which is great if you want a smoother experience for gaming and in general. It’s just 250 nits of brightness, so you won’t want to use it outdoors, but it’s not like you’d want to carry this around everywhere anyway.
Just like every other laptop on this list, the Dell G15 has a typical 720p webcam, and it doesn’t support Windows Hello facial recognition. It also doesn’t include a fingerprint sensor, as is the case with most of the laptops we’ve looked at so far.
The Dell G15 definitely has a unique look compared to other laptops on this list. The chassis uses a combination of silver and black, but the grey portion has dark speckles sprinkled throughout, giving the laptop a bit more identity without being overly flashy. You’ll also see a red G logo on the right side of the laptop, and a textured pattern on the lid does make it obvious this isn’t a work laptop. The Dell G15 isn’t particularly portable, weighing 5.55lbs and measuring nearly 27mm in thickness at its thickest point.
You do get a good supply of ports with this laptop, though. It has one USB Type-C port (3.2 Gen 2), three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, HDMI 2.1, RJ45 Ethernet, and a headphone jack. As is the case with most gaming laptops, this is a very solid setup, and it covers all the basic needs you might have. Thunderbolt support would have been almost impossible with an AMD laptop, plus even Intel laptops at this price often skip out on it, particularly those focused on gaming.
The Dell G15 packs fairly powerful specs and it’s a great gaming laptop, with the added benefit of looking pretty unique compared to others on this list. If that’s what you’re looking for, then this is one of the best cheap laptops you can buy right now.
- The Dell G15 is great cheap gaming laptop with AMD Ryzen 6000 processors and RTX graphics, and it has a fairly unique design.
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Extra cheap gaming laptop: Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3
If your biggest priority is to buy something on the cheap, the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 is the best laptop to cover your basic gaming needs at a low price. It’s usually nearing $1,000, but a big sale over at Best Buy makes this an easy recommendation if you want something very cheap, since it costs just $580.
Starting with performance, the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 comes with an Intel Core i5-11400H processor, which isn’t the newest processor around anymore, but that’s part of what helps make it so cheap. It’s a 6-core, 12-tread CPU, and it can boost up to 4.5GHz, so you won’t be missing out on a ton of performance here. It also packs a solid GPU, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 with up to 90W of power, so you can feasibly play most games with this laptop, even if some of them require you to change some settings here and there. It rounds things out with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage in the base model, but you can upgrade both of those beforehand or later on.
The display on the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 is a 15.6-inch panel and it comes in Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080), so it stays in line with other laptops we’ve seen so far. This configuration also has a 120Hz refresh rate, so you can enjoy a smoother gaming experience, at least in titles your GPU can handle more easily.
It’s getting somewhat repetitive at this point, but yes, the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 also comes with a 720p webcam above the display, and as usual, there’s no facial recognition built-in. There’s also no fingerprint reader, so Windows Hello support isn’t a possibility out of the box.
The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 has a fairly sleek design, making this an easy laptop to take with you anywhere without drawing too much attention. It features a plain black chassis for the most part, without much to give it extra flair, aside from thick exhaust vents at the back and a slight angle toward the front corners of the laptop. While it’s still a heavy laptop, the 4.96lbs of weight actually make this one of the lighter devices on this list, plus the 24.2mm of thickness are also on the lower end compared to the others.
Finally, we have the ports, and the supply of them here is not too bad, but it is more limited than most other. We get one USB Type-C port, but it doesn’t support DisplayPort output, and aside from that there are two USB Type-A ports, HDMI 2.0, a headphone jack, and gigabit Ethernet. It doesn’t have as many ports as some others, and the lack of DisplayPort support via USB Type-C is also odd to see. Still, like most gaming laptops, you have at least a few ports to connect peripherals for gaming.
For those who want to save as much as possible while still getting a serviceable gaming experience, the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 is a great starting point. Thanks to the ongoing discount, it’s really affordable for what you get, and while it makes some sacrifices, it deserves to be considered one of the best gaming laptops on account of being so cheap.
- The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 is the cheapest laptop on this list, but it still packs a punch with modern specs and a relatively lightweight design.
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Best do-it-all laptop: Acer Aspire 7
As much as you like gaming, there’s a good chance you have a bit more going on in your life, and if you can’t afford to buy one laptop for gaming and one for work, it’s great when you can get a laptop that does both. The Acer Aspire 7 is a great example of exactly that, and it’s a very affordable machine, too.
Performance-wise, you’re not missing out on much, but the Acer Aspire 7 does come with an Intel Core i5-1240P processor. Instead of the 45W CPUs we’ve seen a lot of on this list, this is a 28W processor, so it’s a little less power-hungry, and it should allow for better battery life as well as a slightly more portable package. For graphics, the Aspire 7 packs an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050, which can use up to 50W of power. That should still be enough to handle a lot of modern games without issue, though as usual, you may need to change some settings here and there so everything runs smoothly. Additionally, you get 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD with this configuration, but you can always upgrade those later if you need more.
Because gaming isn’t the only focus of the Aspire 7, the display doesn’t have a high refresh rate. This is a 15.6-inch panel, and it comes in Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080), which is just sharp enough for a display of this size to not be overly pixelated. The standard 60Hz refresh rate is still just fine for gaming unless you’re into competitive e-sports, in which case you’d probably want one of the gaming-focused laptops above.
Unfortunately, while this is a more everyday-type laptop, it still comes with a 720p webcam, which is less than ideal if you want to participate in video calls or meetings frequently. There’s also no Windows Hello facial recognition, but this is the only laptop on this list to have a fingerprint reader, at least, so you have a more convenient way to unlock the laptop.
Being designed more towards everyday life, the Acer Aspire 7 does have a cleaner look, too, though to be fair, many of the laptops here also look fairly clean. Still, this plain black chassis is as clean as it gets, and it definitely looks like a laptop you can take anywhere without any sort of weird looks. It also emphasizes portability a bit more, so the laptop is just 19.8mm thick, easily the thinnest of any of the laptops on this list. At 4.61lbs, it’s also the lightest of the bunch, even if it’s still a bit heavy compared to a regular ultrabook. For a machine you can use for gaming, this is very portable.
As for ports, you get one Thunderbolt 4 connection that allows you to plug in all kinds of peripherals, including docks and external GPUs. Additionally, three USB Type-A ports, HDMI, RJ45 Ethernet, and a headphone jack make for a very well-rounded setup, on par with most typical gaming laptops. In fact, with Thunderbolt support, this setup is better than most laptops on this list.
It doesn’t have the most powerful GPU out there, but the Acer Aspire 7 still offers solid gaming performance and it comes in a much more portable package than any other laptop on this list. Cheap laptops have to make sacrifices, but this is one of the best ones at balancing everyday life and gaming capabilities.
- The Acer Aspire 7 is a great budget-friendly laptop that can handle some gaming while still being relatively thin and light.
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Those are, in our opinion, the best cheap gaming laptops you can buy today. We gave the overall pick to the Acer Nitro 5 because it offers the most overall performance you can get from a laptop at this price, including a 12th-gen Intel CPU and powerful Nvidia graphics, plus Thunderbolt support in case you want to use an external GPU later. If you want GPU power above all else, the Gigabyte G5 may be the better option for you.
If you have a bigger budget, consider checking out our list of the best gaming laptops in general. There are some fantastic options there. Or stop by our list of the best laptops if gaming isn’t a big focus for you.
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