Time To Take Control!

watermelon88

I have been moaning for a while now about wanting either a new laptop or a home built pc. The reason I want one is because my current laptop is rubbish for playing The Sims 3 (and most other games, videos etc). It's fine for everything else, just not playing higher spec games.

It might sound silly wanting to spend hundreds of £ on a laptop to play one game... BUT being agoraphobic, I am stuck inside 24/7 so need something to keep me occupied.

This laptop is fine for someone who doesn't want it for major gaming. So hopefully I will be able to sell it for a little bit of cash.

I found a laptop that should do the trick for £600, so now my challenge is to save £600!

I've come up with £64 today already by selling a load of dvd's to music magpie. Admittedly some of them are ones I reaaallly don't want to sell. . . but, I didn't pay for them originally, they were gifts, and the main one's I don't want to sell are my TV box sets (charmed, bones, lie to me, the tudors, desperate housewives)... I have a solution though. I want to rebuy them all, but not as individual seasons, I want to wait and get a box set of ALL the seasons (like all 8 of charmed in one box)... which I was wanting to do anyway, I just didn't because I already had them... so my theory is, to flog them now while I need the cash, then re-buy the ones I want when I have paid off my debts and have the money spare to treat myself :-D

I'm going through everything I own to see what I can sell now :-D as well as saving every penny I can from our money, and any money I can make online!

Target = £600

Pending = £64!

m0neysaver_2

watermelon88 wrote: »

I have been moaning for a while now about wanting either a new laptop or a home built pc. The reason I want one is because my current laptop is rubbish for playing The Sims 3 (and most other games, videos etc). It's fine for everything else, just not playing higher spec games.

It might sound silly wanting to spend hundreds of £ on a laptop to play one game... BUT being agoraphobic, I am stuck inside 24/7 so need something to keep me occupied.

This laptop is fine for someone who doesn't want it for major gaming. So hopefully I will be able to sell it for a little bit of cash.

I found a laptop that should do the trick for £600, so now my challenge is to save £600!

I've come up with £64 today already by selling a load of dvd's to music magpie. Admittedly some of them are ones I reaaallly don't want to sell. . . but, I didn't pay for them originally, they were gifts, and the main one's I don't want to sell are my TV box sets (charmed, bones, lie to me, the tudors, desperate housewives)... I have a solution though. I want to rebuy them all, but not as individual seasons, I want to wait and get a box set of ALL the seasons (like all 8 of charmed in one box)... which I was wanting to do anyway, I just didn't because I already had them... so my theory is, to flog them now while I need the cash, then re-buy the ones I want when I have paid off my debts and have the money spare to treat myself :-D

I'm going through everything I own to see what I can sell now :-D as well as saving every penny I can from our money, and any money I can make online!

Target = £600

Pending = £64!

Hi good luck with the saving, I find music magpie really under value music/dvds I think you will have more success with ebay It will get you that much closer to your target.

watermelon88

True, but with eBay you pay fee's and have to mess about with posting etc.

I don't mind getting a bit less for the easier way of selling them lol.

I don't think i'd get much more for them there any way. Music Magpie offered me around £1-£3 for each of my charmed box sets and they are only £12 each brand new, considering mine are a few years old now and very well used, I'd possibly get about £5 each if I was lucky.

May have a buyer for one of my camcorders too, that's another £60 in the pot if I have :-D

InsertWittyName

Do you have a link to the laptop you're looking to buy?

The only reason I ask is that I got my girlfriend a laptop about two months ago (she plays a lot of Sims 3 too ) and only paid £420 for it.

Dual GPU, 6GB RAM, quad core etc. http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-g6-1331ea-15-6-laptop-silver-11884802-pdt.html

watermelon88

Yes it's http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/toshiba-satellite-p850-138-15-6-laptop-silver-12520768-pdt.html

The one I have now is a HP and it doesn't run Sims 3 very good even though it should lol.

Does she have all the expansion packs etc on it?? Does it run ok??? The main thing for me in a laptop is will it run Sims 3 (with all expansions) lol

InsertWittyName

The laptop you linked to is nice.

She has all the expansions yes (makes it easy for me when it comes to birthday/christmas present time ) and primarily uses it for gaming... not very modern games however, those of a similar vein to Sims 3.

To give a comparison, the graphics chip in the laptop you linked to is benchmarked here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-630M.63761.0.html

If you scroll down, you will see it gives FPS for Sims 3 (med 68fps, high 35fps).

The laptop I bought my girlfriend has this graphics chip (actually it's got two graphics chips) http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6520G-HD-7450M-Dual-Graphics.69713.0.html (low 223fps, med 71fps).

The game runs really well on her laptop.

Hope this helps!

watermelon88

I don't understand all that fps stuff lol. Which ones better specs wise? The one I linked too or the one you did?? Lol

I'm wary of HP now but there's a huge price drop which is more affordable! Lol

watermelon88

This is the laptop I have now that won't run sims 3. Even though it should

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=uk&dlc=en&docname=c02550718&lc=en

InsertWittyName

The graphics chip (GPU) in your current laptop is what's letting you down.

I would say that either laptop is very doable to play Sims 3 on.

What I would personally suggest is to continue saving and bear these two laptops in mind - when you get to around ~£400 then you can reassess and see what the current prices are like and make your decision from there.

(Personally, I'd go for the one you linked to, but there is a £180 price difference to take into consideration!)

watermelon88

I want to go for the Toshiba. I'm thinking it may be worth the extra as it needs to play what there is now but also future games.

I want a pc really as they can be upgraded easily. But my back is too bad to sit up at a desk lol

watermelon88

Very good day today. I made £40 this morning and should be making another £20 this evening from selling an old tv of mine. Assuming she doesn't change her mind that is.

That's £60 in one day! At this rate I'll have the new laptop in no time at all! Still got loads of things to sort out to sell, plus our savings money when we get paid each time :-D