My new laptop - Lounge - Forums : Best Ever Albums

HigherThanTheSun

Gender: Male

Age: 34

Location: UK

If it's not too selfish to start a thread about this I need help choosing a new laptop. Mainly just for internet and stuff but also want to run games like Total War and Unreal Tournament and similar.

I'm thinking 1tb hard drive should be enough but what's a decent amount of ram? Four, six, eight?

Also, I'm assuming it's definitely worth getting i5 over i3 right?

Windows 8 is obv but I don't have a clue about video cards which is my main question. What's the best/most futureproof video card I can get that will run any game?

If anyone can answer these ^ plus anything else that's useful will be much appreciated, ta.
_________________
Shut up mate you're boring!

Cymro2011

The Beatles were objectively average

Gender: Male

Age: 29

Location: In a deep, dark bubblegum graveyard

HigherThanTheSun wrote:

I'm thinking 1tb hard drive should be enough but what's a decent amount of ram? Four, six, eight?

1tb is hell of a lot of memory, It would definitely be enough and seeing as your a gamer i'd say that 6 ram would be good enough.

HigherThanTheSun wrote:

Also, I'm assuming it's definitely worth getting i5 over i3 right?

Yeah, i5 is good.

I don't know much about video cards.

Puncture Repair

I don't know a huge amount about computers, but I've bought enough laptops to know a few ins and outs.
The Total War Games(the new ones) are a very processor heavy game, so I would definitely consider focusing on getting a good processor over anything else.

HigherThanTheSun wrote:

I'm thinking 1tb hard drive should be enough but what's a decent amount of ram? Four, six, eight?

Four is the minimum you'll need, anything above that and you're futureproofing a little more.
I'm guessing you're using Steam, which only utilizes 3gb of RAM max for any game, as it's 32bit software.
I'd consider getting 6gb, if you're keeping to a budget.

HigherThanTheSun wrote:

Also, I'm assuming it's definitely worth getting i5 over i3 right?

There are i3s that are more powerful than i5s, but without going into too much detail - yes, I'd definitely consider it.

HigherThanTheSun wrote:

Windows 8 is obv but I don't have a clue about video cards which is my main question. What's the best/most futureproof video card I can get that will run any game?

I don't know any specific cards, but make sure the card is NOT integrated. Some integrated cards might trick you into thinking they're standalone, just make sure to read up on the details.

A game card with 1gb Memory will set you right - you shouldn't have any problems with that.
512mb Memory will probably run most games on low-medium, if you want to keep the costs down.

Defago

Your Most Favorite User

Gender: Male

Age: 32

Location: Lima

HigherThanTheSun wrote:

If it's not too selfish to start a thread about this I need help choosing a new laptop. Mainly just for internet and stuff but also want to run games like Total War and Unreal Tournament and similar.

I'm thinking 1tb hard drive should be enough but what's a decent amount of ram? Four, six, eight?

Also, I'm assuming it's definitely worth getting i5 over i3 right?

Windows 8 is obv but I don't have a clue about video cards which is my main question. What's the best/most futureproof video card I can get that will run any game?

If anyone can answer these ^ plus anything else that's useful will be much appreciated, ta.

I don't really know about what specs are necessary for what, but I'll give you my specs and tell you what I can do, maybe that helps.

I have 700GB, which is enough for me. Have a bunch of series, games, software and all my music and I still have about 200GB free. 1TB should be more than enough.

I have an i7 processor which runs everything smoothly. I have never felt that the PC was "running slow" at all, and I use the PC for gaming and as an audio workstation.

I have 8GB of RAM, which is also more than enough for what I do. Also, I have an integrated video card and a 1GB standalone video card, and they switch automatically when the system needs more power. The latest games I've run were, apart from Gamecube and PS2 emulators, Bioshock Infinite, Mass Effect 3 and Dead Space 2.

I also use it for financial and math programs, but those run easily.

The whole thing cost me about 700-800$ about a year ago, so it's probably gonna be less now for the same thing.

Oh yeah also Windows 7 > Windows 8 IMO.

19loveless91

mag. druž. inf

Don't buy an HP.

That's all advice I have.

undefined

Defago wrote:

I don't really know about what specs are necessary for what, but I'll give you my specs and tell you what I can do, maybe that helps.

I have 700GB, which is enough for me. Have a bunch of series, games, software and all my music and I still have about 200GB free. 1TB should be more than enough.

I have an i7 processor which runs everything smoothly. I have never felt that the PC was "running slow" at all, and I use the PC for gaming and as an audio workstation.

I have 8GB of RAM, which is also more than enough for what I do. Also, I have an integrated video card and a 1GB standalone video card, and they switch automatically when the system needs more power. The latest games I've run were, apart from Gamecube and PS2 emulators, Bioshock Infinite, Mass Effect 3 and Dead Space 2.

I also use it for financial and math programs, but those run easily.

The whole thing cost me about 700-800$ about a year ago, so it's probably gonna be less now for the same thing.

Oh yeah also Windows 7 > Windows 8 IMO.

Pretty much this. Though I would avoid having any kind of integrated GPU, as they are the opposite of future proof. My graphics card advice: Nvidia >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> AMD. Go with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI

Guest

19loveless91 wrote:

Don't buy an HP.

That's all advice I have.

Yes they all have very weak fans, get very hot. For graphic cards NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M or anything higher and if you buy a core i5 or i7 your RAM will probably be a DDR5 which isn't necessarily good but since DDR3 is becoming out-dated it's better. You should have a 6GB RAM or higher and a CPU speed of 2.3 GHz or higher.

HigherThanTheSun

Gender: Male

Age: 34

Location: UK

Thanks for the advice folks, thinking about this: http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-15r-s...5r-se-7520 #overrides=

Processor
3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-3230M processor (3M Cache, up to 3.20 GHz)
Memory
6GB2 DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
Hard Drive
1TB Serial ATA (5400RPM)
Video Card
2GB AMD Radeon HD 7730M

Pretty decent for £500 I reckon?
_________________
Shut up mate you're boring!

nutso42

Get the best video card you can manage. It's far more important for running games than slightly above-average RAM.

MrFrogger

Where am I

Gender: Male

Age: 29

Location: Oakland

I've had bad experience will Dell support in the past, so if you end up going that route just hope things don't turn south.