Buying a new laptop

[bobsalot]

Right guys, iv know iv posted something similar before, but this time its for real. I know what i want now, and i should be getting the laptop tomorrow.

I need,.......at least 1gb of ram,, 2gb preffered
1.7+ghz
and a grahpics card good enough to run simple games like gta san andreas, halo, halo2, hl2...ish

the price is anywhere from £0-500
and the shop is currys.
i have looked but i dont really know what im doing when it says what the grahpics card is.
iv tried looking on the internet but i just dont know what im doing.

the page is http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/sto...e#(any):(any):375:525:PageNo_0:SortOrder_DOWN

^^^
this is the options.

many thanks..

bobsalot

 

[Admiral Michael]

Re: Laptops

Personally from those choices I'd go for:

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/sto...oduct&fm=1&sm=0&tm=0&sku=893043&category_oid=

ACER 5633WLMI Laptop

 

[LeeJend]

Re: Laptops

You can't get a laptop suitable for gaming for the price you want to pay.

You need Nvidia or ATI graphics and preferably Windows XP installed and at least a 2 gig processor. Also 2MB will be necessary if you are going to try gaming on a VISTA laptop. All that takes extra power so the battery has to be upscale also. Put in those requirements and your looking ta a lot more than 500.

A laptop that ships with 1 gig ram will be using both slots which means you will have to buy 2 -1 gig sticks to upgrade, another added expense.

Also, avoid Toshiba if you want to change to XP from Vista. Toshiba does not support the change and graphics performance has been the one area I have not been able to get performing at Max in XP.

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/sto...roduct&fm=1&sm=0&tm=2&sku=786219&category_oid=

This is probably your best bet at Curry's.

 

[bobsalot]

Re: Laptops

Thanks, but the laptop should be in the price bracket. With regards to gaming however,, im not looking to play the latest hardcore games,,just some old ones like halo1 and gta san andreas, like i said. So yea,which is the best one on that website within the price bracket,, the toshiba is £50 off now down to £500. But as i said,, i dont really know what im doing.

Thanks,.

 

[madmatt]

Thread moved/re-titled.

 

[bobsalot]

I'v now sort of decided on the Toshiba A200-15I. It seems to be the best one on there as far as I can see.

 

[sean.ferguson]

Ei Systems is a no no, we bought one about 2 weeks ago and it was returned to Curry's the very next day. Very poor WiFi reception, slow and bogged down with rubbish software. We ended up choosing the Advent 8115 Curry's Link.

It has a 100Gb HD, decent WiFi reception, 2Gb of RAM, Vista Home Premium and its cheaper than your Toshiba. I can tell you its a good quality laptop from experience.

I haven't had however, any experience with Toshiba. 🙂

 

[bobsalot]

Thanks for that,, but the thing is, i have exactly 500pounds to spend on a laptop. And just the laptop, so i wont be able to get the advent plus extras. Just one product worth up to £500. So i want to take full advantage of it if you know what i mean.

Thank you!

 

[bobsalot]

Right, The toshiba a200-15i comes with a 256MB Intel 900 Media Accelerator graphics card.
Is this any good?
Will it run the games i specified.
And can you upgrade it?

Many thanks.

 

[onimkron]

Half Life 2 scales down pretty well, so it sort of works for most graphics cards (it runs fine on my old 5600 XT. However, I have a feeling it won't do too well on an onboard graphics card.

If you're really serious about gaming on a laptop, I would probably try and go for a dedicated graphics card, something from Nvidia that is not integrated? That does push the price up though.

 

[sean.ferguson]

Bobsalot, if you wan't to play games on a laptop - you need to shell out more than 500 quid sorry mate. Onboard graphics just aint built for games at all :/

 

[bobsalot]

firstly, its not Bman, its me. secondly im not on about serious games as iv said before. i just want to know if the ones iv said will run, and if they dont will i be able to upgrade the card after iv bought the laptop.

thanks.

 

[onimkron]

You won't be able to upgrade the onboard one, no, there's very few laptops which let you upgrade the graphics card at all (and they're pretty costly).

Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with the intel graphics card thing, no idea how well HL2 would run on it (just know that it won't be too good).

 

[Geffy]

Intel 900 Media Accelerator graphics card.
Is this any good?

No, its rubbish

For what its worth though Intel do provide a list of compatible games

 

[X-Istence]

Go with an integrated ATI or NVIDIA card if you want to play any games what so ever.

 

[bobsalot]

What about this then, the Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Li1718

It comes with an ATI Radion Xpress 200 M Graphics Card

 

[X-Istence]

This is what Cnet had to say about it: http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39030093,49292060,00.htm

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

What about this then, the Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Li1718

It comes with an ATI Radion Xpress 200 M Graphics Card

Better than no laptop thats for sure 🙂

For the price your not going to get much better and I have heard good things about Fujitsu laptop's if that helps.

 

[bobsalot]

This is what Cnet had to say about it: http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39030093,49292060,00.htm

Not good then eh.

Right, fine. All i want to know is what is the best laptop from the currys store £500 or under http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/stor...SortOrder_DOWN

Thats all i need to know,, which is the best.

 

[sean.ferguson]

bobsalot, out of those under £500. Either the Toshiba or the Advent I mentioned earlier. You can't really expect much for that price bracket. I have heard that Toshiba arn't too bad... Advent is a good laptop from personal experience.