help on external hard drive ?

lastmel

hi all
I'm hoping someone can help me.I brought my daughter a Advent A13IV01 Laptop off ebay,but when it arrived it,turned out to be a netbook not a laptop,so now I need to get her an external hard drive,to play her sims games on.Can anyone tell me is there a certain spec that I will need to buy that will support the sims?
I have no idea what I talking about lol hope some can help??
many thanks
dawn

Elle7

I don't think an external hard drive will help the laptop to play The Sims.

You'll need to check the netbooks specification against the requirements of the Sims.

Which version is she wanting to play? The Sims 1 or 2 might play on a good netbook, although the Sims 3 requires quite a lot of graphical ability so probably wouldn't play well.

An external hard-drive just allows you to save more files, or to transfer them between computers.

lastmel

oh ok thanks ,I thought as much (

RussJK

What do you mean it turned out to be a netbook?

It should have a 13" screen, with relatively low-powered CPU that is still faster than the processor on netbooks. It would be best described as an 'ultraportable laptop'.

It should have adequate space to install a game, so an external hard drive won't do anything.

Still, if you're unhappy you can ask to send it back under the Distance Selling Regulations. I would sent it back purely because of Advent's poor quality when it comes to laptops, despite the specs being decent for £150ish.

lastmel

hi
these are the specs for it,i didnt realised there was no hard drive (my fault for not reading all the info) so I assumed it was a net book not a laptop? Is that not how it works??
I just know that she wont be able to play her sims games, i thought maybe i could buy an external hard drive for them(she want the sims medieval game for xmas) to run on,but then i wasnt sure if the laptop/netbook had to have something? I have no idea ? not sure about anything techie I'm more a plug and play person lol

PC operating system: Genuine Windows (R) 7 Home Premium
Processor Type: Intel SU2300
Processor speed: 1.2GHz mhz
Memory Size: 2GB mb
Memory Type: DDR3
Hard Drive Capacity: 250 Gb
Disk Drive: No
Screen Size/Type: WXGA 13"
Graphics Card Type: Integrated
Graphics Memory: UP TO 256 mb
TV-out: No
Wireless Enabled: Yes
No. of USB Connections: 3
Infrared Port Included: No
Other Interfaces: 4 in 1 card reader
Battery Type: Li-ion
Battery life (up to): 3 hours
Weight: 1.71 kg
Height: 333.6 mm
Width: 237.5 mm
Depth: 33.47 mm
Colour: Red

lastmel

There isnt anywhere to load disks in....ooh just realised its a disk drive that it hasnt got ,does that mean it will play the sims if i get a disk drive (where and how??)
its all very confusing ????:eek:

RussJK

Hard Drive Capacity: 250 Gb
Disk Drive: No

Well that says that it does in fact have a hard drive (250gb) - the disk drive refers to an Optical drive e.g. DVD/CD drive, that you stick a disc into.

Are you asking how to install The Sims (which version?) onto a computer that you can't stick the DVD into?

Naming for netbooks/ultraportables/desktop replacements can be a bit arbitrary. Generally the netbooks are 10-12" without DVD drives; ultraportables are a bit bigger 13-14" +/- drives, and the desktop replacements are big clunkers 15"+ that generally don't move much.

Elle7

Minimum System Requirements
OS Windows XP(SP2)/Vista(SP1)/7r> Processor 2GHz Pentium 4 processor
Memory 1GB(XP) 2GB(Vista,7)
Hard drive 5.3GB + 1Gb for saved games and content
ViVideo Card 256MB Memory card for pixel shader 2.0

They are the requirements for Sims Medieval.

I think it would just about play, but it would be very slow. It's a heavy game, and the system would only just manage - your graphics card might not cope, as it requires 256mb and your graphics card can go up to 256, which means it'll be working at max power to keep the game at its minimum spec.

The Sims will play much better on a desktop, if you have access to one? The Sims did bring out laptop versions which required slightly lower specs, but they didn't realize Medieval like this, and I think your netbook would struggle with them anyway.

As for installing a game without a CD drive, EA allow you to download the game onto the netbook through the internet, so you don't need to buy a hard copy.

lastmel

hi
thanks so much for your help,i didn't realise that you could download games from the internet :T

McKneff

I bought a cheapo net book, I only need it to take away on holiday with me for emails or surfing, nothing else.

Is there anything I can do with it to make it a bit faster, like a card or something. It does have a camera card slot.

RussJK

McKneff wrote: »

I bought a cheapo net book, I only need it to take away on holiday with me for emails or surfing, nothing else. Is there anything I can do with it to make it a bit faster, like a card or something. It does have a camera card slot.

Faster at what?

Visit the stickied thread on 'slow' computers as a first step, and reduce what is running on it. Stick a very light antivirus on like Avira, Avast, or Panda. Personally I found Avira and Panda were better on a netbook than Avast.

You could replace the hard drive with an SSD, which would make applications load a lot faster - but you'd still have a slow processor and likely a slow video card. Also it's still relatively expensive to do this, but the Kingston V100+ series are the best value.

Even cheapo netbooks should be able to play 720p content when you use Media Player Classic: Home Cinema and follow a guide on the net (search for "netbook 720p media player classic").