How well can I expect this Laptop to run?

[grady]

I'm buying a new laptop as my old one is packing up (Im pretty sure when I sent it into a somewhat budget repair shop they nicked some parts, sadly I realised too late.)
I know there may be more to consider, but here are the key specs:

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 635M - 1GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-3230M (2.60GHz) 3MB

As I'm going budget here, I'm thinking of removing the operating system option to save me £80 (Provided I still have the disk for windows 7 somewhere) And maybe upgrade the processor a tad. OR, I might deduct the RAM from 8GB to 4BG, What effect would this have if I were to do this and instead up the processor from i5 2.6GHz to 2.7?

 

[leo2kp]

What I've always done is purchased it with more expensive stuff that I can't add on later (CPU, GPU, screen type/resolution, sometimes wireless NIC), and went cheap on the HDD, RAM, and OS because I can get something better later on.

In this case I would pick the best CPU and GPU you can afford, keep RAM and HDD as cheap as possible, and when you get some spare cash, purchase a 8GB kit and SSD and install it yourself.

 

[atomicWAR]

decreasing ram will slow you down if you like to run alot of windows or do memory intensive work like games or 3d modeling...etc
as for the OS...yeah if you have a disk around and its a legal retail license your not using on another system anymore...go for it. speeding up the cpu always helps with workload finish times....its really a question of where you want to allocate your resources to best fit your work load. You use cpu heavy software and light on ram. then dropping to 4 is a no brainer to get more GHZ. or if its the other way around...you get the idea 😉

generally i get the best cpu i can....cause you can upgrade ram and what not later 😉

what software you plan to run most?

 

[grady]

I'm a retard, I forgot to mention what I'll be using the laptop for: As for everyday software it will be just browsers, word, etc. Though mostly I use my PC for gaming. I'm not looking for anything really intensive, like Bioshock/Skyrim/Whatever on full graphics. I just would like it to run at the basic settings with a decent framerate.
(My current laptop used to be able to handle the RTS Starcraft II on high-ish, and WoW and Dragon Age, now It often spazzes out on the lowest settings possible. And then you get those short-tempered players who dislike waiting for more than a few seconds.)

Here's my final question: I should be able to drop it to 4GB RAM, and then get the 2.7, OR even a quad core i7 at 2.4Ghz each. I'm guessing you recommend dropping the RAM to do so? (For £550, which I think is a decent price.)

Thanks a lot for the replies by the way

 

[atomicWAR]

yeah skimp on the ram and if possible get the quad core...

 

[jaguarskx]

For a gaming laptop I would actually prefer going with a graphics chip that is faster than the GT 635m rather than a quad core CPU. Most games are limited by the GPU rather than the CPU.

Therefore, I would drop the RAM down to 4GB (because it is easily upgradeable in the future) and shop around for a laptop that has something more powerful than a GT 635m.