confused in new laptop purchase

magoogy

ive been researching for a laptop for my daughter for christmas, she will now and then play the sims on it with the expansion packs and do uni work on it. I was advised to buy this on my last thread;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00Y0LWQAW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3REFQC60UL8LJ&coliid=I51FA9XKGHACK&psc=1

and buy extra 4gb ram to upgrade it to 8gb, but, i dont like the idea of taking the back off the laptop and doing this so im wondering if i could just buy a memory stick to boost it or if 4gb would be sufficient?

the recommended for sims is;

CPU: Intel Core i5-750 or AMD Athlon X4
CPU Speed: Info
RAM: 4 GB
OS: 64 Bit Windows 7,8, or 8.1
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 or better
Sound Card: Yes
Free Disk Space: 10 GB

i only have £300 to spend, but may just stretch to £350 if i can find a cheap ipod touch for the old man

I need to buy from amazon as i have the money in vouchers.....

also, im waiting to see if anything comes up on black friday deals too if anyone sees anything could they please link it for me

thanks

Fightsback

If £300 is your budget for a laptop you aren't going to do much better, especially if you are tied to amazon. Those specs are the recommended specs with all the bells and whistles for SIMS 4 but it will run with a lot lower spec:

• REQUIRED: Internet connection required for product activation.
• OS: Windows XP (SP3), Windows Vista (SP2), Windows 7 (SP1), Windows 8, or Windows 8.1
• PROCESSOR: 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD Athlon 64 Dual-Core 4000+ or equivalent (For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.0 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-62 or equivalent)
• MEMORY: At least 2 GB RAM
• HARD DRIVE: At least 9 GB of free space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games
• DVD-ROM: DVD ROM drive required for installation only
• VIDEO CARD: 128 MB of Video RAM and support for Pixel Shader 3.0. Supported Graphics cards: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better, ATI Radeon X1300 or better, Intel GMA X4500 or better
• SOUND CARD: DirectX 9.0c Compatible
• DIRECTX: DirectX 9.0c compatible
• INPUT: Keyboard and Mouse

I would recommend getting the extra 4gb as this allows the RAM to run in dual channel mode which increases the integrated graphics performance by about 25%. Do note this laptop has 4gb ram soldered to the board (an increasingly common thing with lower spec laptops) and only has one slot available.

Perhaps someone else on the forum could find something on Amazon for you that might be a slightly better spec for the budget.

magoogy

thank you so much for your help, if i was to get the extra ram is it really as easy as im told to put in?

if anyone else can help i would be very appreciative... thanks

Roland_Sausage

magoogy wrote: »

thank you so much for your help, if i was to get the extra ram is it really as easy as im told to put in?

if anyone else can help i would be very appreciative... thanks

It's usually a piece of cake to upgrade laptop RAM. There's usually a panel on the bottom, often held on with one screw. You remove this panel, push the RAM in (it only fits one way) and screw the panel back on.

Takes 2 minutes and you can't really mess it up.

magoogy

thank you - ive found it on amazon but noted its only 1.7ghz? think this will be a problem? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-E5-571-15-6-Inch-Notebook/dp/B00S1A67S0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448049808&sr=8-1&keywords=acer+aspire+571

magoogy

thanks roland, i have a feeling i could do it but in the part where it tells you what to do it says be careful of the two wires, im worried im going to spoil them?

Trillionaire

Hi. According to Which? magazine, here are some highly rated best-buys:

ACER C720 - £204.07 (I think the 7p means it will be discontinued? You can check this on this site as there was an article about pricing tatics on MSE the other day).

DELL CHROMEBOOK 11 - £210.13

ASUS FLIP C100PA - £250.87

ACER CB5-311 CHROMEBOOK - £179.00

I hope the above helps. I would suggest you read the Amazon reviews for each one & also google them for common faults/problems.

Fightsback

Trillionaire wrote: »

Hi. According to Which? magazine, here are some highly rated best-buys:

ACER C720 - £204.07 (I think the 7p means it will be discontinued? You can check this on this site as there was an article about pricing tatics on MSE the other day).

DELL CHROMEBOOK 11 - £210.13

ASUS FLIP C100PA - £250.87

ACER CB5-311 CHROMEBOOK - £179.00

I hope the above helps. I would suggest you read the Amazon reviews for each one & also google them for common faults/problems.

Avoid all of those, two of them are chromebooks and will not play sims 4 at all and the other two are seriously underpowered.

Your original pick is probably about the best you'll get new on amazon for the price.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00Y0LWQAW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3REF QC60UL8LJ&coliid=I51FA9XKGHACK&psc=1

I've actually upgraded one of these (the i3-4xxx version) to 8gb and put W10 on it for a family friend, they are not bad at all and so far they haven't had any issues.

magoogy

thanks for all your help everyone, if nothing else comes up on black friday deals i will go for the original and take a chance with the extra ram - im confused because on amazon it says you need to take the back off but on the link here it says i dont have to so will take a chance and see what happens....... thanks.......

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/review/budget-laptops/asus-x555la-xx290h-review-3621086/

magoogy

but now ive put them side by side to compare and im confused again

this one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00Y0LWQAW?colid=3REFQC60UL8LJ&coliid=I51FA9XKGHACK&psc=1&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl with this http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00D74FQP0?colid=3REFQC60UL8LJ&coliid=I27OJYUGCXFEPP&psc=1&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl

or this one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00S1A67S0?colid=3REFQC60UL8LJ&coliid=I29FTSICYY98P9&psc=1&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl

aaaaaaarghghg i think too much

Fightsback

magoogy wrote: »

thanks for all your help everyone, if nothing else comes up on black friday deals i will go for the original and take a chance with the extra ram - im confused because on amazon it says you need to take the back off but on the link here it says i dont have to so will take a chance and see what happens....... thanks.......

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/review/budget-laptops/asus-x555la-xx290h-review-3621086/

You do have to unscrew a panel on the bottom and slot the new ram module in there, it's not hard. Note that the amazon laptop is a newer processor than the one in the review, an i3-5xxx series as opposed to an i3-4xxx series, it has slighter better graphics and cpu perfomance.