I would recommend choosing the P9500. You can select from numerous cpus when you are configuring the laptop, at least in any place I've seen you can purchase from. If you aren't already go to xoticpc.com or powernotebooks.com and configure it there.

ETA: The Sager is a great notebook for gaming and you can configure it with a 3 year warranty. If you're really wanting the laptop to last a long time, perhaps getting a business class laptop with an extended warranty would be the best choice. It's more expensive but the Lenovo T500 with discrete card would be a great option in this case. The ATI 3650 performs just a little under the 9600gt found in the Sager and you can get up to a 5 year warranty with it. A desktop will likely last you longer though, costs less, and is a lot more upgradable. Another option for you would to be buy a cheap laptop that can't handle games but would solve the portability want, and also have a desktop for playing games. The choice is really yours.

The P9500 is only 2.53 GHz. I thought to play the game with the eps you needed at least 2.5 GHz. So wouldn't the 2.8 GHz be faster?

The P9500 meets our recommended requirements and will run things fine. If you want to spend the extra $200 on the other processor that's your choice, but I doubt you will notice a difference considering how strong the rest of the system is.

Hi I was looking at buying a new laptop and was wondering how either of these would fare coping with the sims 2 and most if not all the exps?

* Acer Laptop Aspire 7720G
* Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 Processor
* (2 GHz, 667 Mhz, 2MB Cache)
* Genuine Windows Vista (R) Home Premium
* 3GB Memory
* 250GB Hard disk drive
* nVidia GeForce 9300M GS 256Mb

and
* HP DV6853
* Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T8100
* (2.1 GHz, 800MHz, 3 MB)
* Genuine Windows Vista (R) Home Premium
* 3 GB Memory
* 320 GB Hard Drive
* nVidia GeForce 8400M GS 256Mb

Thanks :D

ChiefyChief - We ask that you at the very least first read through this thread before posting questions. Comparing the specs of those notebooks with what has already been discussed would tell you whether or not they meet what we would consider a strong laptop for running all the expansions. Would not recommend either of those notebooks due to the weak entry level graphics cards, especially the second one which is defective. Would also not recommend getting an Acer for the intention of gaming as they are notorious over heaters.

Thanks for the help! I can't wait to play again!

Edit

So, I'm probably going to be ordering my laptop in a few days. I just want to make absolutely positively sure that the graphics card will play the game in high detail with little lag? And is overheating going to be an issue? I'm sorry about reasking, but this is a lot of money and I can't get the wrong one this time. My last one was barely two years old. So, will this play the game in high texture and details, shadows, mid-high lighting, reflections on, neighbors/decorations on and all that jazz with VERY little to no lag or heat issues? I'm also planning to have all the eps (not stuff packs) including AL and of course cc.

I found a site that saids that The Sims 3 system requirements will not be much different from The Sims 2. They do say it is recommended that you should try to get a little higher then The Sims 2 system requirements to assure you will be able to run future expansion packs. In the message on this site he saids he has talked to some of the developers of The Sims 3 and they have told him this because the engine for the game is already done. I will post the link so everyone can see for themselves. Well being that this is my first post, and it is required to have at least 5 posts before I can post URL's I will not be able to post it yet. So I will tell you how to look it up. Go to any search site Google, Yahoo etc and type this in the search bar. sims3.info - The Sims 3 Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ. Go to what will be the system requirements it is all there. I hope this helps some of you thanks.

The minimum system requirements for Sims 2 are -wildly- irresponsible and under powered to run the game well. Definitely the requirements will be higher than TS2, thus a system that runs TS2 well will not run TS3 -as- well. This will only get worse for each EP. Until we have some actual printed system requirements from EA (and then have the game in-hand to compare real performance to the requirements), I think we'll stick with the recommendations we already have put up.

EternalxLove26 - It would be irresponsible for me to promise your laptop would last X years. Even when you have a really well built laptop, like the Sager is, any amount of extra heat takes time off the life of the hardware. Gaming is one thing that adds a lot of extra heat. A person who has a laptop with low end parts and doesn't do anything but surf the net, listen to music and watch the occasional DVD is a lot more likely to have their laptop last longer than someone who intends to do a lot more stressful actives on it. Gaming laptops don't tend to last more than a few years because of what's being asked of them. That said I know people still gaming on their 4 and 5 year old Sagers so you have one of the best chances with that laptop. You’re saving $200 on the cpu so I recommend getting a 3 year warranty. In fact go configure on the ‘FORCE 3310’ at Xoticpc.com, which is the exact same notebook as the Sager, just rebranded. It automatically comes with the 3 year warranty for less than it would take to upgrade the Sager to 3 years and the tech support through Xotic will be better than through Sager. I would also recommend picking up a notebook cooler. The laptop is well designed to accommodate heat, but the pad will keep it even cooler and likely prolong the life as well. That is the best notebook cooler around and it is well worth it for someone as concerned as you seem to be about longevity.

Minion- Agree with HP but just to add, if you take a look you’ll see our recommendations for running TS3 are very close to our recommendations for running TS2’s later expansions. They really do actually support your thought that TS3 won’t really be that much more demanding than what TS2 is now. It’s just that EA’s requirements for TS2 were not realistic so we take this into account with our recommendations for TS3 as well. My thought when I created those guidelines was that if you have a computer which can run all of TS2's expansions and some cc well it should likely be able to handle TS3's base game.

On my Simming computer, I have an Intel (R) 82945G Chipset Family graphics card. My computer runs Windows XP.

I'm really confused as how to figure out which card would be better than the one I've got now. I download objects, and I have a few expansion packs, with a few more (hopefully) on the way.

All I really want is to be able to run the game smoother, and so the graphics are alot better. Also, I'd like to go the more economical route.

Because SO many people are either choosing not to read or not understanding our rules, I am trying to make things more clear. From now on please post all questions reguarding upgrading, buying or building a computer in our sticky Help Upgrading or Building/Buying a New Computer.