Narrowing down new Laptop choice

witchypoo

I have been looking for a laptop for about a month now and I have been looking at Dell, Toshiba, Samsung and Sony. I have one main requirement and that is that it will run Sims 3 even if only on medium settings. I also want to get the best I can afford as I want to be able to future-proof a little. I have a budget of £450 but am willing to extend that to £500-£550 if necessary, will take a few more weeks to save though and VAT is likely going to rise by then!

I've been shopping with the requirements:
4GB DDR3 RAM as this seems more than adequate right now
Hard Disk size - just about anything OK 160+Gb
Windows 7 64-bit (some samsungs seem to be 32-bit which confuses me?)
DVD ReWritable drive as I have no need for Blu-Ray
decent graphics card to play Sims 3 and expansions perhaps
Numeric Keypad on the Keyboard is a must
webcam a bonus but seems standard
Finally I have to like the look of the thing! Glossy is good (Black, Grey, White red or green), but has to be sturdily built and have smooth lines. Not a fan of metallic interiors but might have to 'suck it up' if the rest of the machine is sleek and attractive and contains the components I need at a good price. I know, it's a girl thing probably but I have to enjoy using the laptop, specially as I have been saving for this! I'm excluding Acer and Asus from this, and HP and Compaq as I find them just ugly...

So this is one of the final candidates although at the top end of my budget (extended), it's a Sony Vaio VPC EB1M0E and here are the specs:

Intel® Core™ i3-330M Processor - 2.13 GHz - 3 MB L3 cache
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
4GB - DDR3 RAM
Intel® HD Graphics
Widescreen LCD/TFT screen, resolution1366 x 768
Screen size 15.5" LED backlight
Hard drive 500 GB
Dual Layer DVD Rewriter
USB3

I'm wondering is this 'good' for my requirements? would I be better off going for an i5 or something else? Generally I have been considering Core 2 Duo models and checking their passmark ratings (you've taught me well LOL) but at the end of the day I am a newbie to Laptops and keep coming back to excluding it if RAM is DDR2 or only 3Gb.

n1ck75

So far i've brought 2 of these for friends and family, installed windows 7 on both. Great laptops for the price.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/185894

gonzo127

ok just a couple of things if its mainly for the sims 3 the core i processors are a bit overkill and a core 2 will be fine,

same as the RAM DDR2 is fine and so would 3GB, 'having' to have 4GB of DDR3 will be adding unnessesary expense to the system which would probably be better spent on a little beefier graphics chip (ok the intel 4500 is able to play the sims but it really isnt very good)
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-4500MHD-GMA-X4500MHD.9883.0.html is the details on the intel 4500 and as you can see it can generally play sims 3 on low settings but struggles on medium

also remember 'future proofing' is usually just a sales gimmic especailly in Laptops where you can only upgrade the HDD and the RAM

witchypoo

n1ck75 wrote: »

So far i've brought 2 of these for friends and family, installed windows 7 on both. Great laptops for the price.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/185894

Great price, looks nice too - thanks for the link. I am unsure about the issues people describe in the comments with driver updates - as well as having to put my own OS on there! Also the graphics card SiS M672 sounds like an integrated one and I cannot find out it's rating unless you can point me in the right direction?

gonzo127 wrote: »

ok just a couple of things if its mainly for the sims 3 the core i processors are a bit overkill and a core 2 will be fine,

same as the RAM DDR2 is fine and so would 3GB, 'having' to have 4GB of DDR3 will be adding unnessesary expense to the system which would probably be better spent on a little beefier graphics chip[URL="http://"][/URL]

Ah so faster processor and faster Memory will not add anything to game play, it's all about the card? You mention the GMA 4500MHD - however I was under the impression the card on the spec I mentioned was this one:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-HD.23065.0.html

OK so looks like back to the drawing board!
Thanks both of you.

gonzo127

witchypoo wrote: »

Great price, looks nice too - thanks for the link. I am unsure about the issues people describe in the comments with driver updates - as well as having to put my own OS on there! Also the graphics card SiS M672 sounds like an integrated one and I cannot find out it's rating unless you can point me in the right direction?


Ah so faster processor and faster Memory will not add anything to game play, it's all about the card? You mention the GMA 4500MHD - however I was under the impression the card on the spec I mentioned was this one:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-HD.23065.0.html

OK so looks like back to the drawing board!
Thanks both of you.

hi well the SiS one is a intergrated one as far as i know and i believe (although not 100% sure) its actually worse than the intell 4500 http://www.notebookcheck.net/SIS-Mirage-3-672MX.20160.0.html is the SiS chip details

well the faster CPU and RAM will help however when it comes to graphics in games the graphics chip/card is generally more important however having a old single core celeron CPU with the best graphics card on the market would be a waste of time because the CPU would become the bottleneck

as to the Sony laptop i have had a look around and cant seem to spot which version of the intel graphics chip it has i was just going on the fact a lot of the laptops around the £400-500 range seem to come with the 4500 chip not the 5700 one

JasX

popped a few comments in below in blue

witchypoo wrote: »

decent graphics card to play Sims 3 and expansions perhaps
yup, I'd definitely recommend getting one with a dedicated graphics card, the machine you have linked to below however only has integrated graphics.

Numeric Keypad on the Keyboard is a must
you can get a compact external USB keypad quite cheaply, I wouldn;t necessarily insist on this on the laptop as you may unduly limit your options.

I'm excluding Acer and Asus from this, and HP and Compaq as I find them just ugly...
ASUS do make ok machines, Acer's generally have very very basic build quality and are worth avoiding, HP/Compaq's somewhere inbetween and I usually regard em as usually are 'just about passable'


Intel® Core™ i3-330M Processor - 2.13 GHz - 3 MB L3 cache
i3 will be fine, no need to up it to an i5,
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
good
4GB - DDR3 RAM
good again, i wouldn;t worry if it were only 3GB tho
Intel® HD Graphics
ewww integrated graphics, look for better if you can
Widescreen LCD/TFT screen, resolution1366 x 768
Screen size 15.5" LED backlight
fine
Hard drive 500 GB
fine again, easy to upgrade/use external if you get a smaller one too
Dual Layer DVD Rewriter
pretty standard these days

I'm wondering is this 'good' for my requirements?
all looks good except lack of graphics card, processor RAM etc all look good to last a good few years, i'd be cautions of dropping to core2duo/DDR2 unless the machine was nice and cheap, would work for SIMS3 but being a generation behind you'd probably get frustrated with its slowness sooner

would I be better off going for an i5 or something else?
not necessary, the i3s are quite powerful

Generally I have been considering Core 2 Duo models and checking their passmark ratings (you've taught me well LOL) but at the end of the day I am a newbie to
as per comment above, they're older and markedly behind the i3 / i5s performance wise, I think tend to use more power/run hotter too

Laptops and keep coming back to excluding it if RAM is DDR2 or only 3Gb.
3GB ram would be fine, get DDR3 if you can tho

Just hopped onto the dell site and you can get an inspirion 15 with an i3 processor, 3GB DDr3 RAM and a 1GB HD5470 graphics card for £550, i'd look around for something similar to that for running games.

Its on your benchmark site here:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5470.23698.0.html

basically twice the graphics benchmarks of your integrated thing and 20x the benchmarks of the dodgy SIS thingy

gonzo127

now i know this is over budget and i know its a Acer however it is very impressive specs (spotted this for a gaming laptop for another poster) (this can also be gotten from Ebuyer for £600 aswell however less pictures)

http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5740G_Laptop_LX.PMB02.001/version.asp

graphics details
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5650.23697.0.html

JasX

gonzo127 wrote: »

now i know this is over budget and i know its a Acer however it is very impressive specs (spotted this for a gaming laptop for another poster) (this can also be gotten from Ebuyer for £600 aswell however less pictures)

http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5740G_Laptop_LX.PMB02.001/version.asp

graphics details
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5650.23697.0.html

yup thats certainly a marked step up on performance graphics card wise, would breeze Sims3 and a fair few other things.... can't fault the specs, just comes down to how you feel about taking your chances with Acer build quality

gonzo127

JasX wrote: »

yup thats certainly a marked step up on performance graphics card wise, would breeze Sims3 and a fair few other things.... can't fault the specs, just comes down to how you feel about taking your chances with Acer build quality

yep isnt that always the case with these things

i am just wondering at the moment if we could widen the search by including the AMD CPU's in this search

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

could help with finding the AMD CPU's which are close in performance to the intel ones

n1ck75

I agree with what the other posters have said about the SIS graphics cards - not the best, but for the price definitely worth it, It'll run Sims ok. However if you're looking at cost and game play then i'd suggest getting a desktop

JasX

gonzo127 wrote: »

i am just wondering at the moment if we could widen the search by including the AMD CPU's in this search

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

could help with finding the AMD CPU's which are close in performance to the intel ones

Was helping a friend look at desktop CPUs and reading a few reviews became cautions of benchmarked AMDs,

was looking at an i5-750 and Phenom II x6 1055T

on the headline benchmark the 1055T is 25% ahead of the Intel.... but AMD have cut a few corners particularly on memory bandwidth which seems to hurt gaming/3D type applications to the extent although the benchmark was 25% ahead on actual gaming performance it was actually marginally worse for gaming than the Intel.... if you do go AMD for sims3 check some benchmarking/testing related specifically to gaming for AMDs vs Intel i3s as you don't always get the full story with the headline benchmarks

This is what I was reading
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3674/amds-sixcore-phenom-ii-x6-1090t-1055t-reviewed/9

based on AMDs current desktop range

n1ck75 wrote: »

However if you're looking at cost and game play then i'd suggest getting a desktop

very true, especially if you count 'future proofing' amongst your criteria as you can actually upgrade stuff on a desktop