Purchsing a new laptop - would love some advice!

savergal

Hello,

I am looking to purchase a laptop for a relative (21st birthday present - lots of people chipping in!!).

He has sent me two "possibles" and I wondered whether any of you would be able to advise me which one would be a better buy.

He mainly wants to use it for surfing the web - and also he loves playing action games (not sure if he links up with people over the web for these games...)

The first one is:

HP 530 Core 2 Duo T5200
1.6Ghz
2GB RAM
160GB HDD
GMA 950 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 3.0
£330

This sounds like a nice one - but I am a little worried that the integrated graphics may not be up to the kind of games he plays ...

The second one is:

HP 6735s Laptop
AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core QL-60 1.9Ghz
4GB memory
250GB HDD
Graphics:
Graphic card 01 Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Graphic subsystem video card memory 01 Up to 384 MB DDR2 shared system memory
£399

The second one sounds like quite a lot for the money, although I am not sure how the AMD 1.9Ghz processor compares with the Core 2 Duo 1.6Ghz ... and also not sure I entirely understand the Graphics options on the second one - is that a dedicated graphics card or integrated?

If anyone is able to shed any light - or has any pearls of wisdom to share, then I would be most grateful!!

Many thanks in advance!

Crazy_Jamie

Certainly go for the second one if he intends to play games. The X3100 is integrated, but it is a decent integrated graphics card. It will struggle with the most recent PC games, such as Bioshock and the like, but will put in a decent performance with older action games. Providing he downloads the latest drivers for it he should get some good performance out of it. In all honesty if you want a laptop with a dedicated graphics card that can play the most recent games to a high standard you are simply going to have to spend more money. For the price the second option is decent enough, and certainly the superior option from the criteria you've listed.

totalsolutions

Re-think what a laptop can do for you/him. It sounds like he plays games on a desktop/main PC. A laptop is portable to take out and about and provides connectivity first, not a direct faster gaming experience. What screen size?? a 17" is good but not portable plus its heavy at 3.5-4kg. A smaller screen 10"-14" might be better as a device for working away from home.

chunter

i agree with total solutions.
Laptops are just not the thing for game playing unless you want to spend some serious money or buy some serious insurance.
Not built for it - keys will fall off
graphics card is fixed so if it goes - the whole thing goes.