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
£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 , 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 , 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.