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Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 26th Nov 2007 at 10:48 AM
Default Advice about buying new laptop
Hey!

I'm looking to buy a new laptop, which will basically allow me to play The Sims 2 (mostly all the expansion packs), use Office and browse the internet. I'm willing to pay upto £750 and I'm still deciding whether to go for Vista or XP; I've looked at a few laptops on Dell and it cost £23 extra to have XP instead of Vista - nice incentive to go for Vista

This is one I've looked at and customised on Dell, and all together it costs £640 (can take off £23 for XP and £40 for the colour)- would it be alright for what I'm looking for?

---

Base:
Intel® Pentium Dual Core Processor T2330 (1.60GHz, 1 MB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB) 125641 [210-19207]

Microsoft Operating System:
Genuine Windows® XP Professional (take £23 off for Vista)

LCD:
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display with TrueLife™ 108375 [230-10097]

Memory:
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024] 91400 [370-12184]

Hard Drive:
160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive 74709 [400-12961]

Video Card:
nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT with 256MB DDR2 dedicated graphic memory 108472 [490-10653]

Optical Devices :
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software 109791 [429-12697]

Primary Battery:
Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr) 107256 [451-10443]

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Any other advice for laptops would be appreciated :D

EDIT: Here are some desktops I've looked at; any good?

Acer Aspire AST671
First two desktops (from the left)
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Forum Resident
#2 Old 26th Nov 2007 at 11:22 AM
edit i dont have the go card series so i agree with ting thats not a good card !!! i have NVIDIA GeForce 512mb 8600 GT

i take my sims photos using fraps!!!!
Forum Resident
#3 Old 26th Nov 2007 at 11:38 AM
Nvidia GO cards are Very bad for the sims 2! Just another thing...laptops ARN'T for gaming!
Forum Resident
#4 Old 26th Nov 2007 at 11:51 AM
can you not get a desktop? desktops are way more relible then laptops and as ting said they are not for gaming do you really need a laptop?

i take my sims photos using fraps!!!!
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#5 Old 26th Nov 2007 at 12:27 PM
I'll look into a desktop, seeing as I'm not moving back and forth between home and university, and get back with any I might want to purchase
shiny!
retired moderator
#6 Old 27th Nov 2007 at 3:01 AM
I wouldn't touch Dell for gaming if someone paid me to do it. You've got a very nice buget there, no need to waste it. Asus makes some amazing platforms. I'm not sure what's available where you are, but with that budget you should look into their G series.
Test Subject
#7 Old 27th Nov 2007 at 3:21 AM
Laptops aren't real good for gaming because they tend to get too hot, which can really mess up the computer quick (I know because I killed more than one laptop this way). The laptop you put the specs up sounds like a good machine.

I STRONGLY suggest you stick with XP. I'm not going to get on my soapbox but really.. It's worth the money to get XP. Really. I'm guessing Dell thinks so too or they wouldn't be giving you a discount to pick up Vista.

Anyway. A desktop would be a better bet. Wouldn't do an Acer though... I run Sims 2 with EPs up to Seasons on a Dell Dimension 3000: P4 processor (2.80Ghz, 512Mb RAM) with a Radeon 9250 graphics card and it runs great. It would run even better if I could make myself get rid of the 1.5 Gigs of custom content I've installed. But yeah. Desktop is more reliable for gaming than a laptop.

Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
Lab Assistant
#8 Old 27th Nov 2007 at 5:01 AM
I play the sims on a laptop and mine gives me little problems but nothing major...lol. I've heard that so many people say that laptops aren't for gaming but a lot of people here play sims on a laptop.

It does depend on how many ep's and sp's you have installed, hard drive space, graphics card, and processor as well as how much cc you install into your game. Most of the times laptops aren't good because the fans get clogged up with dirt which makes it shut off and act crazy and also make it run hot. If you keep your fan clean and take care of it, then you should be fine. I've h ad mine for 3 years going strong and I just started to have problems with mine but it's fixable to play the sims again.....



That's my 2 cents.....lol!

LaTasha

I have tried, but have failed. What else is there for me do do?
Mad Poster
#9 Old 27th Nov 2007 at 5:05 AM
One comment I had directly from EA is that they DO NOT SUPPORT laptops for the Sims2. I bought two and had many problems which they could not and would not help me resolve. Also I now play on XP platform with no problems on my tower. My laptops had Vista and directX10 and they wouldn't play the sims. Also I agree they run hot and I burned out the motherboard on one of my laptops because of this.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#10 Old 27th Nov 2007 at 10:38 AM
I'm more than likely going to get a desktop as I'm not needing to move from Uni to home anymore. I just have to get my head round all the techno babble!

callistra: I had a look at the Asus website for the UK, and the only G series they have are laptops which are in the £1,000 region - too costly for me!

Oh I'll be sticking with XP - I just can't understand why you would need 1GB of memory just to run the operating system! o_O
shiny!
retired moderator
#11 Old 27th Nov 2007 at 1:01 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Anyerfillag

callistra: I had a look at the Asus website for the UK, and the only G series they have are laptops which are in the £1,000 region - too costly for me!


Oh I hate it when companies do that to you guys! My best friend lives in England and I'm always buying for her and shipping because it's so much less expensive. It's like almost the same in pounds as it is in dollars, and they don't take into factor the conversion.. look at newegg.com to see what I mean. Do you have a friend in the USA that can buy and ship to you? Otherwise I agree with others, stick to a desktop.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#12 Old 27th Nov 2007 at 1:27 PM
Nope, don't know someone in the US. I'll just stick with the desktop for the moment, and keep a note about the Asus site :D
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#13 Old 15th Dec 2007 at 6:51 PM
Well my budget has gone up to £1,000. I've had a look again at the Asus website and found this desktop:

Processor: Intel P45 540J 3.20GHz 800FSB 1MB SHT775
Memory: ADATA 1GB DDR400 CL3.0
Hard Drive: 120GB
Optical driver/writer: ASUS CDRW/DVD-ROM 52x32x52-16x Combo
Video Card: ASUS 128MB GeF 6200GE TV/DVI 8x
Monitor: 17" LCD BenQ

There is also a keyboard and mouse included, and has Windows XP Home rather then Vista. All together is costs £803, including VAT and delivering costs. Is it any good and worth it for the price?
#14 Old 15th Dec 2007 at 6:53 PM
Yeah. I have a Dell and in the sims...it's kind of mediocre.
shiny!
retired moderator
#15 Old 15th Dec 2007 at 7:11 PM
Well.. I don't really know about price in the UK. With the conversion to $$ it's.. well really astonishingly awful price for those specs. And actually even if it were $800 it would be awful.. bad Asus!

I did some research since you posted and found that this company ships to the uk:

http://www.xicomputer.com/ Their AMD base gamer's machine starts at £550.62. Intel starts at £573.58. Both base machines at the lower price have better specs.

Generally speaking they're an awesome company anyway.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#16 Old 15th Dec 2007 at 7:15 PM
I'm shocked by it all, seeing as the $ is so much lower then the £ at the moment. I guess they put up the prices over here due to the low $. Cheeky gits! I'm guessing the Asus US stores doesn't ship to the UK then?

I'll have a look at that site, thanks :D
shiny!
retired moderator
#17 Old 15th Dec 2007 at 7:18 PM
If ASUS has a UK store then I can't imagine the US store would ship to the UK

If you want some advice on a specific build, I'll be happy to. But you can't hardly go wrong with that company. They're my second favorite company for pre-built gamers desktops, but my first favorite only ships to the US.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#18 Old 15th Dec 2007 at 8:05 PM
Shame, they seemed so good

Attached are two desktop specs, one is Intel and the other AMD.
shiny!
retired moderator
#19 Old 15th Dec 2007 at 8:22 PM
I noticed that all of that was listed in US$. f you go to that website on the very first page at the very top left corner you can select UK as your location. I would prob price it up that way.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#20 Old 15th Dec 2007 at 8:24 PM
I converted all the total prices and put the UK prices at the bottom, or would it be better to check out the UK prices through the actual site?
shiny!
retired moderator
#21 Old 15th Dec 2007 at 8:27 PM
Check out the UK prices through the site. You would think your converter would be the same as how they price things up, but as ASUS so nicely illustrated, that's not always the case.

eta: but those specs are fine for your proposed usage. Just know that if you get into any real serious gaming like Crysis you're going to want more for your graphics card.. then again that system allows for this upgrade later on. I also dont know anything about that X7G-Naga Sceptre LCD you chose. But i can tell you Viewsonic makes an attractive display.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#22 Old 15th Dec 2007 at 8:42 PM
The Xi® MTower™ 64 SLI Workstation is £704 (including £175 shipping costs) and the Xi® MTower™ PCIe Workstation is £768 (including £175 shipping costs), both with same specs. With those specs, would I be able to use the internet wirelessly? Sorry is that sounds like such a n00b question, but I just thought I'd ask.
shiny!
retired moderator
#23 Old 15th Dec 2007 at 8:47 PM
Under 'Network Card' choose a card which has "wireless". I don't beleive that mobo has wireless on it.. But I'd have to double check. Linksys WMP54GS is good though so long as your network isn't an N network. N networks are newer though so most aren't. Linksys WMP300N is more expensive, but allows connection to the N.

Give me a minute to look up your mobos..

eta: Neither of those mobos you selected have wireless on them. So if you keep those mobos you would have to buy some kind of wireless adapter or chose one of those wireless network cards for them to install for you. Your other option is to choose the Asus P5E3 Deluxe or Asus M2N32-SLI DLX mobos (depending on if you choose Intel or AMD for your processor). Both of them have wifi onboard. I've heard mixed reviews about how well the wifi works on the P5E3 though, and it's quite a lot more expensive. Not heard anything bad about The Asus M2N32, which is my personal favorite choice for that chipset, and is a true gamer's board, though prob more than you really need if TS2 is the only game you play.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#24 Old 15th Dec 2007 at 9:01 PM
The Sims 2 will be the only game I'll be playing, so I don't think I'll need to go for the M2N32; although if it seems to be the better one out of the two I'd go for it as I have about £300 to spare. I only asked as my bedroom doesn't have a phone line and the internet router is downstairs, so having the desktop wireless would be essential.
shiny!
retired moderator
#25 Old 15th Dec 2007 at 9:07 PM
Well, all other things created equal and money aside I like that Intel config best. The E6750 is faster than the AMD 5200. However the AMD isn't that much slower and for what you're doing I doubt you will feel it.. will also be cheaper... I would reccomend either getting the Intel config with a linksys network card or go ahead and get the M2n32 with the AMD set.

eta: you know what router you have? my only conern is to make sure your router and the adapter are running on the same network type.
 
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