Recent content by Bacterius

The GPU's are mostly identical in terms of performance, but the GT540M has a slight edge. Don't expect to play Crysis at high settings on 1080p though - the card is not powerful enough - see here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html (and that's at...

Well almost all laptops can be upgraded for RAM and HDD. But for a GPU upgrade, you'll have to look at more expensive gaming laptops (such as the Sager laptops). If you just choose a cheap laptop with integrated graphics, you will not be able to upgrade the GPU and you'll have to buy a whole...

Sorry I don't have the time to make any suggestion right now (gotta go) but I'm just reacting to this: This is not really true - bad brands are still in the market for a reason, everyone knows what HP is yet it's a crappy brand, and not quite so many people know about Sager for example which is...

That Acer is good enough for you (sorry but you get what you pay for). For $400 you may be able to get a similar laptop but you'll most likely have to drop the graphics card or some memory for that price. Did you try looking at refurbs or is it not an option?

I don't know it's up to you - do you mind having a smaller screen but a faster graphics card? Personally, I would swap it because I just can't stand having a small screen, but it's really up to you and what you're expecting from your laptop. IMO there isn't much difference between the two GPU's...

I don't think it's possible - your motherboard can only handle one GPU at a time, it's a design limitation. But your single HD5650 should easily be able to handle a threeway display provided you're not playing too demanding games on it (if at all), and the OS should allow this to happen...

Well you missed out on a larger display (and possibly resolution) as well as a slightly more powerful processor. The GPU's are roughly equivalent with the GT540M being a little bit superior to the HD6550M (but not by much).

I think no-one would even consider seriously gaming on a Macbook :) Erm.. no typo? The OS alone takes 12-15GB, and considering that you can get 1TB (1000GB) hard drives for less than a hundred dollars ... I think you meant RAM (memory), and most laptops that are in the list shown below (keep...

In terms of power by core, it's a step up in terms of performance and power efficiency. But as it's lacking two cores, it cannot really compete with the 740qm when applications take full advantage of all four cores - it's comparing apples and oranges: it's meaningless. By the way, don't be...

Did you check your fans were not clogged by dust/dysfunctional? Even under heavy load a laptop processor should never hit 86°, so it's either a failing cooling system or a bad CPU.

You mean upgrade the existing 5400RPM drives to 7200RPM? It is normally possible to do so on a laptop but it requires: - 7200RPM drives of the same dimensions as the old ones (exactly, so it pretty much implies that they must be the same since the original ones are identical) - opening up your...

A 2nd gen i5 should be able to power your games just fine as well.

Wow let's get to work: with this massive budget (I assume you mean AUD dollars - if you mean USD then there's not much difference anyway according to current rates). I suggest the Sager NP8170, customization page at this link...

What about sending it in for repairs if the issue is visible enough? The warranty is there for a reason :p

Use this chart: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html Note that in real life the performance would be slightly lower, since these benchmarks use medium resolutions (but they do use the correct level of detail settings). As for your question, note the...