Firstly, hello everyone, I'm new to the forums and this is my first post =)
I have a small dilemma. It has been some time since I bought either a PC or a laptop and it is coming to that time when bits are starting to go wrong and the hardware can no longer keep up with what I want it to do. I have toyed for weeks about whether to upgrade my PC or my Laptop first, as I can only afford to upgrade one. I have settled on getting a new laptop soon as the mobile aspect won out over getting the most bang for my buck.
The laptop I use at present is an Acer Aspire 5630. It sports an Intel Centrino Duo T5500 processor @ 1.66GHz with a 667MHz FSB and 2MB L2 Cache, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM and a GeForce GO 7300 128mb card (With the shared 256mb option). In other words it's not very spectacular though it was a steal when I bought it 3 years ago for £450 and was the only laptop I could find at the time with a dedicated graphics card still packaged with Windows XP (I hated Vista and W7 wasn't an option yet).
I would like my laptop to be able to run games as that will fill a fair bulk of its usage especially since a new one will probably outperform my PC now as well, relegating my desktop to the role of internet browser. I know I won't be able to get blistering 60fps performance out of games like Crysis on my budget (I really don't want to go much over £700 if I can help it).
I have looked at various laptops already and after seeing a tech demo of the Alienware M11X running Left4Dead 2 flawlessly at high settings and also doing a good job of Modern Warfare 2 at moderate settings I figured I had found my benchmark. Here is where I need help as I have no way of knowing whether other laptops I have looked at for less money than the M11X will perform even nearly as well. One model I have considered is a refurbished
ADVENT 8555 GX for about £700 or if I was to buy new a 15.6" Enigma from ************. As I have rambled now for ages I suppose what I really want to know is what my options are in my budget range to try and get the best value for what I am needing my laptop to do.
The Specs for the Enigma machine would be:
Intel Core2Duo Mobile T9600 (2.80GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache)
4GB Corsair DDR3 @ 1066MHz SODIMM RAM
512MB DDR3 ATi Radeon HD 4650
160GB ATA 2.5" 7200RPM HDD 16MB Cache
This is shipping without an OS, though that is fine for me, even preferred.
I'm looking at £723 for this.
If anyone knows of anything better for less then I am eager to hear about it and maybe learn some more about the current mobile hardware market.
Thank you for your patience.
I have a small dilemma. It has been some time since I bought either a PC or a laptop and it is coming to that time when bits are starting to go wrong and the hardware can no longer keep up with what I want it to do. I have toyed for weeks about whether to upgrade my PC or my Laptop first, as I can only afford to upgrade one. I have settled on getting a new laptop soon as the mobile aspect won out over getting the most bang for my buck.
The laptop I use at present is an Acer Aspire 5630. It sports an Intel Centrino Duo T5500 processor @ 1.66GHz with a 667MHz FSB and 2MB L2 Cache, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM and a GeForce GO 7300 128mb card (With the shared 256mb option). In other words it's not very spectacular though it was a steal when I bought it 3 years ago for £450 and was the only laptop I could find at the time with a dedicated graphics card still packaged with Windows XP (I hated Vista and W7 wasn't an option yet).
I would like my laptop to be able to run games as that will fill a fair bulk of its usage especially since a new one will probably outperform my PC now as well, relegating my desktop to the role of internet browser. I know I won't be able to get blistering 60fps performance out of games like Crysis on my budget (I really don't want to go much over £700 if I can help it).
I have looked at various laptops already and after seeing a tech demo of the Alienware M11X running Left4Dead 2 flawlessly at high settings and also doing a good job of Modern Warfare 2 at moderate settings I figured I had found my benchmark. Here is where I need help as I have no way of knowing whether other laptops I have looked at for less money than the M11X will perform even nearly as well. One model I have considered is a refurbished
ADVENT 8555 GX for about £700 or if I was to buy new a 15.6" Enigma from ************. As I have rambled now for ages I suppose what I really want to know is what my options are in my budget range to try and get the best value for what I am needing my laptop to do.
The Specs for the Enigma machine would be:
Intel Core2Duo Mobile T9600 (2.80GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache)
4GB Corsair DDR3 @ 1066MHz SODIMM RAM
512MB DDR3 ATi Radeon HD 4650
160GB ATA 2.5" 7200RPM HDD 16MB Cache
This is shipping without an OS, though that is fine for me, even preferred.
I'm looking at £723 for this.
If anyone knows of anything better for less then I am eager to hear about it and maybe learn some more about the current mobile hardware market.
Thank you for your patience.
