New Laptop Advice

[Guest]

Hey Guys,

I'm looking to buy my girlfriend a new laptop for when she returns to Uni this autumn. The laptop is primarily to be used for Uni work obviously but it would also be awesome if it would be able to run "The Sims 3", good for browsing (facebook etc), have good storage for iTunes and support watching DVDs/Blu-Rays.

I've had a look around on a few different website and Dell seem to stand out the most to me but I thought I would be best getting a second opinion before I make my mind up about it. So what would you guys recommend to meet my needs?

Thanks

 

[vipers992]

You may want to fill this FAQ form out so people have a better understanding of your circumstance, or state your budget at the least:
http/www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/50797-20-read-buying-laptop

 

[Guest]

Its hard to answer some of these questions because the laptop is not for me but I will try my best.

1_What is your budget? - Around £700 tops.

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? - 15" or 17"

3_What screen resolution do you want? - Doesn't matter, my Girlfriend cant tell the difference between standard and HD TV.

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? - I'm unsure what this question means...

5_How much battery life do you need? - The laptop will be used while plugged in around 70% of the time.

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? - She really enjoys playing "The Sims 3" so something that will run it with no problems and fast loading would be awesome.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.) - The laptop will be used mainly for Uni work but she also like to browse the web, iTunes, e-mail, movies etc etc just the average stuff really no photo editing or anything like that.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need? - Well it must have space for her iTunes library and some for games and movies so I'm thinking around 60-100GB

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. - I've been looking at the Sony Vaio site and also the Dell one.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop? - Well the longer the better lol, a minimum of 2-3 years at least.

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? - Would prefer Blu-Ray because we have a lot of movies on Blu-ray but can make do with a DVD drive if need be.

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons. - Not a fan of HP, Compaq, Acer and prefer to shop from Samsung, Philips, Sony and Apple for other electronics

13_What country do you live in? - UK

14_Please tell us any additional information if needed. - She loves the colour Purple so a laptop with a purple enclosure would be awesome.

Hope that helps,

 

[toolinthemist]

the FAQ will definitely help
it sounds like you'll need to spend somewhere around $500-600, although i don't know how much graphics power the sims needs (although i can't imagine much)

 

[toolinthemist]

here's a dell comp at around $800 US which i'm pretty sure is well within budget. Its even got a purple lid, lol

http/configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/print_summary_details_popup.aspx?~lt=print&c=us&cs=19&fb=1&kc=laptop-inspiron-1545&l=en&oc=dncwzs2&s=dhs&vw=icon&leadtime=8/3/2010&showleadtime=True

 

[vipers992]

I've also been looking for laptops of a similar price mark, to make one thing clear, you generally want to roll with an i3 minimum these days for the sake of future proofing and with any recent games in concideration
These are my personal two choices, and trust me they are more than capable of handling the Sims 3:

i5 & 5165
http/www.medion.com/gb/electronics/prod/MEDION%C2%AE+AKOYA%C2%AE+P6625+15.6%22+Laptop+%28MD97409%29/30010926A1?category=notebook_9&view=pictures&source=webgains&siteid=54264

i3 & 5650
http/www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_L650-165_Core_i3_Laptop_PSK1KE-00N014EN/version.asp?refsource=LDfroogle&refsource=ldawin

If you're looking to get a Laptop from the high street, funnily, Argos may be worth taking a look at, since they are the first to release the new MSI Fx600, the 225m Gforce isn't as good as the above two GPUs but is still capable of handling The Sims 3:
http/www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5083864/Trail/searchtext%3EFX600.htm

However none of these are equip with a Blu Ray drive, the ATI 5470 is what is mostly found in Laptops these days, anything without a dedicated GPU wont be able to handle the Sims 3 atall, or Blu Ray for that matter, however the 5470 struggles with it and you will be playing it with fairly low graphics, if you don't mind that, here is the benchmark comparisons:
http/www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5165.24579.0.html
http/www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5650.23697.0.html
http/www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5470.23698.0.html.

If you're looking for Blu Ray and something which will ace The Sims, you will be looking to spend on max budget or maybe over.

5470 with Blu Ray (Cheapest i could find):
http/www.ebuyer.com/product/199191?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products

5650 with Blu Ray:
Sony Vaio's may be your best bet, what i could find-
http/www.elitesavings.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=23
Though look around a bit more, not too sure about the website.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the replies guys, I will take a look through the different ones you have listed and see what I think

 

[Guest]

here's a dell comp at around $800 US which i'm pretty sure is well within budget. Its even got a purple lid, lol

http/configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/print_summary_details_popup.aspx?~lt=print&c=us&cs=19&fb=1&kc=laptop-inspiron-1545&l=en&oc=dncwzs2&s=dhs&vw=icon&leadtime=8/3/2010&showleadtime=True

The system looks nice but unfortunately I am resident in the UK so will not be able to get it

I've also been looking for laptops of a similar price mark, to make one thing clear, you generally want to roll with an i3 minimum these days for the sake of future proofing and with any recent games in concideration
These are my personal two choices, and trust me they are more than capable of handling the Sims 3:

i5 & 5165
http/www.medion.com/gb/electronics/prod/MEDION%C2%AE+AKOYA%C2%AE+P6625+15.6%22+Laptop+%28MD97409%29/30010926A1?category=notebook_9&view=pictures&source=webgains&siteid=54264

i3 & 5650
http/www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_L650-165_Core_i3_Laptop_PSK1KE-00N014EN/version.asp?refsource=LDfroogle&refsource=ldawin

If you're looking to get a Laptop from the high street, funnily, Argos may be worth taking a look at, since they are the first to release the new MSI Fx600, the 225m Gforce isn't as good as the above two GPUs but is still capable of handling The Sims 3:
http/www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5083864/Trail/searchtext%3EFX600.htm

However none of these are equip with a Blu Ray drive, the ATI 5470 is what is mostly found in Laptops these days, anything without a dedicated GPU wont be able to handle the Sims 3 atall, or Blu Ray for that matter, however the 5470 struggles with it and you will be playing it with fairly low graphics, if you don't mind that, here is the benchmark comparisons:
http/www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5165.24579.0.html
http/www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5650.23697.0.html
http/www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5470.23698.0.html.

If you're looking for Blu Ray and something which will ace The Sims, you will be looking to spend on max budget or maybe over.

5470 with Blu Ray (Cheapest i could find):
http/www.ebuyer.com/product/199191?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products

5650 with Blu Ray:
Sony Vaio's may be your best bet, what i could find-
http/www.elitesavings.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=23
Though look around a bit more, not too sure about the website.

You have listed some nice system there and its going to take me some time to go through them all and compare them to each other and to the Dells that I have also been looking at.