Buying a lap top

[Ja'chyra]

I am looking to buy a laptop and have seen this one in PC World, can you give me an idea of how good it is e.g. will it play MTW, RTW, STW? I know it wont go near MTW2 but I can always play that on my desktop.

The specs are:

US Robotics Phone

Intel Core Duo T2300E Processor 1.66GHz

667 MHz FSB, 2 MB Cache

1 GB RAM

80 GB Hard Drive

Double Layer DVD ReWriter Drive

14" Widescreen BrightView Display

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

128MB Intel Grpahics Accelerator Shared

Includes 1 year warranty

And the link is http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/887219

Thx much guys.

[Sigurd]

Those specs are better than my last laptop and a little lower than my new one…
[edit]: I am a little unsure about how shared memory for graphics will play out as I have not any experience with it. I always had dedicated memory with my grapic cards.

My old laptop could run RTW with no problems, all though not on full settings.
I have not installed RTW on my new laptop but I have Battlefield 2 on it, and it runs smoothly without any lag on full graphical settings (1280 x 1024).

One question though does your HDD come with 7200 or 5400 rpms?

doing a check on DELL it seems they have a near identical machine for the same price here (http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/notebooks_Q2_W11_inspn_9400_n07945?c=no&cs=nodhs1&l=no&s=dhs)
£799 is about 9300 NOK..
on the dell you get 17" and 3 year warranty.

[Cebei]

I will buy a gaming laptop too.

Though I am considering 2gb of ram, 2.4Ghz dualcore and 512mb or graphics card. I am confused if I should get 2x256 or a single 512 though.

[Cebei]

More questions:

1- Is it more cheaper to buy a laptop in the US or in the UK?
2- If it is cheaper in the US, roughly how much do you think the shipping will cost?
3- Can I get support and warranty in the UK for a laptop that is bought in the US?

[Ja'chyra]

Well, bought the laptop and it plays RTW fine on medium settings, I also got a freeview USB card for £25, what a great invention, it's just perfect for those hotel stays when they only have 5 channels.

[Ja'chyra]

Now that I've got the laptop it seems that the shared graphics aren't that good, at least not for MTW2 :laugh4: , does anyone know if I can upgrade the card and how to do it? I've done it with my pc before but would it be better to get the laptop done by a pro?

[MSB]

Now that I've got the laptop it seems that the shared graphics aren't that good, at least not for MTW2 :laugh4: , does anyone know if I can upgrade the card and how to do it? I've done it with my pc before but would it be better to get the laptop done by a pro?
You can't upgrade laptops. You'll have to take it back or re-sell it.

The simple truth about shared graphic memory is this:

It steals from your RAM (e.g. with a 32MB shared graphics card with 128 MB of RAM you have only 96MB RAM.)
It very often lacks the energy to 3D process anything at a decent quality.
It will not be able to cope with Vista or future Video Games.
It is practically useless in gaming as some games do not support Intel Shared Graphics.

So simply stay away from shared. Get a nice 128MB/256MB Nvidia/Ati card instead! And don't buy any processers under 1.88Ghz if you want to game with them.