Gaming-Laptop Update. Worth it?

Polly

wants a cracker
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Dec 9, 2006
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My sister bought a 15" HP Pavilion Laptop back in 2008, mainly for playing Sims 3 w/ Expansion Packs, the thing is running a bit iffy now, she's about to finish college and the parents thinking about getting her a new one. I'm wondering if the upgrade will make a noticeable difference.

Her Pavilion got a 2,0GHz P7350 C2D, 3GB DDR2 and a 9600M GT.

The folks want to spend around 800?, I think that'll buy something in the lines of a 2,4GHz i5, 4GB DDR3 and a GT 330M.



For the Germans, we are buying mostly at the local Alternate store. If anybody would like to take a look at their offerings and make a suggestion, that would be much appreciated.
 
"Gaming" and "laptop" are not two words that should go together unless you like spending lots and lots of money.
 
The Sims can hardly be called gaming, that's more like a job away from job :p
 
The current laptop is perfectly adequate for playing the Sims, a new laptop would be noticeably better but probably not worth the money.
 
Yeah, alright.. gaming-ish laptop then. Light gaming, whatever.
 
"Gaming" and "laptop" are not two words that should go together unless you like spending lots and lots of money.

You'll be surpriced of what cheap'ish notebooks can play today, I just found out that my little Asus UL30VT can play even a massive game like bad Company 2, not with all settings on high or even medium, but still.
 
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Hardware-wise, it should run Sims smoothly. I find that alot of people experience "slow" computers due to lots of un-needed programs/software rather than hardware (which does contribute). Especially if its a pre-built system it will have tons of bloatware and over time it will start to feel slow.

There is definitely no need to upgrade to i5/GT300M, your sister will not notice a big difference.
 
The current laptop is perfectly adequate for playing the Sims, a new laptop would be noticeably better but probably not worth the money.

Hardware-wise, it should run Sims smoothly. I find that alot of people experience "slow" computers due to lots of un-needed programs/software rather than hardware (which does contribute). Especially if its a pre-built system it will have tons of bloatware and over time it will start to feel slow.

There is definitely no need to upgrade to i5/GT300M, your sister will not notice a big difference.




Yeah, she's mostly complaining about load times and kinda tends to fill her hard disk to the brim with Sims-related DLC. I guess a faster, bigger HDD, a sweep and perhaps a Windows 7 upgrade should do the trick then?
 
Yeah, she's mostly complaining about load times and kinda tends to fill her hard disk to the brim with Sims-related DLC. I guess a faster, bigger HDD, a sweep and perhaps a Windows 7 upgrade should do the trick then?

Should be good, but do consider heat produced by faster HDs. Is the RAM maxed out?
 
I guess RAM is maxed out with 3GB (it's a 32bit Vista). A Scorpio Black shouldn't be a problem, heat wise?
 
Lots of downloaded content will slow down load times as well... especially if it's enough to fill a hard drive!

Sounds like you have a good plan of action.
 
Guess I'll propose it to the folks, if they still want to splash out on a new notebook, good for her.



Thanks dawgs.
 
Why not just slot an SSD into the drive bay and plug a portable external using the old hdd if extra space is needed :/

Less heat, shorter load times for sure...
 
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Well, looks like the parents insist on getting her a new toy. Looks like it'll be an Acer TravelMate 5740G with a 2,4Ghz Core i5 and a HD5650.

I kinda object the Acer part, but at least it's not an Aspire. Perhaps I can push her into spending the moniez she'll get for the old one on a SSD.
 
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I know the looks are kinda hard to sell to a girl, but FFS, get her a Lenovo. The built quality is so much better.
 
"Gaming" and "laptop" are not two words that should go together unless you like spending lots and lots of money.

Erm...depends. My laptop for $699 does 8500 points in 3DMark2006, I wouldn't say that's too shabby. Would you?
 
I just got a hp dv-7 4060us that has an amd tripple core processor(about the same power as the middle i3) 4 gigs ddr3, 500GB hard drive, 1600x900 17 inch display with a radeon 5650. Its surprisingly capable, plays dirt 2 smooth on low(but dx11 low) with the full res. Plays dragon age maxed, oblivion maxed(except aa), bad company 2 with mid settings(dx11).
Got it for about $780. Its not a dedicated gaming laptop but it plays every game Ive tried(not even going to bother trying gta4, that mames computers) and it gets 4.5 hours of batter life due to a radeon 4200 you can switch to for low power.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Erm...depends. My laptop for $699 does 8500 points in 3DMark2006, I wouldn't say that's too shabby. Would you?

My old computer which was 3 years old before I replaced it earlier this year got 11.3k. I replaced it because it was starting to have trouble playing games on medium/high settings.

So yes, I'd say that it was shabby. :p
 
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