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Laptop Upgrade

  • 22-04-2011 8:07pm
    #1
    carlcon
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,844 ✭✭✭


    Hi folks,

    Basically, I want a more powerful laptop. I have a very basic knowledge of how these things work, and tend to get confused with "power" and "speed" when I read about laptops on here. I understand that a whole crap-load of GB wont matter with a bad processor, but don't know where to draw the line. For example, I don't know when 3gb of ram needs to be upgraded to 4gb in order to suit and keep up with a powerful processor, and vice versa.

    ANYWAY... now that my flaws have been highlighted, here's the awful laptop I have:

    Fujitsu Siemens - Esprimo Mobile

    MS Windows Vista
    Intel Celeron CPU 530 @ 1.73 GHz
    0.7GB RAM
    SiS Mirage 3 Graphics

    It now has 1.7GB RAM since I bought an installed an extra 1GB.
    --

    Firstly, Vista has to go. My new laptop cannot put me through this Vista nonsense again. Windows 7 is probably my best option, but also open to getting a mac, presuming I don't end up paying double the price for the same spec (which is my ignorant view of what a mac is.... more $$$, not that much more quality).

    The second issue I have with my laptop is its ability run games. A very basic game like Diablo, which is designed in mind of running on most computers about a decade ago still struggles to run on it. I got over the issue by playing the game in windowed mode, but you can forget about playing anything more graphics intensive. Then you have Football Manager, which just isn't able to run live 3d games, and is fairly slow to process through data and load through a season.

    So I *THINK* what I need is a laptop with a better graphics card, along with some more power to run things like Football Manager. This is where I get confused... do I need a top notch processor for top load speed, or high GB? Or both?

    Thirdly, the sound quality is shocking. You cannot watch a DVD without headphones. If you do, it's a terrible analogue-y sound, muffled, echoed, and just not right. So any decent speakers would be a huge improvement for me.

    In terms of memory, I'm not too fussy. I'll take anything above 100GB. I see most laptops these days have 320GB, 500GB, or even more... that would be nice, and I'm sure I'd find ways to use it (I download a lot of movies and tv shows), but those high numbers aren't necessary.

    Then I have no clue about graphics cards, so will just say I need one to run games smoothly and allow DVDs to look at least "pretty good".

    Oh and as for "Mobility", I don't really care about weight/size. I use my laptop on my desk at home, or at desks in other places. I wont need super-long battery life, or a small little thing to use on buses, or anything like that.
    --

    Now that you know what I'm looking for, my first question is about the type of processor I need, along with whether I need 4gb ram instead of just 2 or 3. I want Football Manager (and my downloads, and any other games) to run at optimum speed, so I'd like to focus on that.

    Just knowing what processor and GB I need will help me a LOT. I don't need you to do my shopping for me, I can do that and find laptops, but I would really appreciate you helping me with the specs.

    If you do have any laptop suggestions, however, I would totally love to hear them too.

    As for price, I would rather keep it down below €500, but understand that may be asking a lot, so up to €750 would be OK too. I'm also open to buying refurbished laptops, as long as I have some level of assurance that it's not going to blow up after a week.

    Thanks in advance,

    Carl.


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