Buy new desktop or am I able to use new laptop?

[furzball]

Ok as it describes above, I have a vgn-nw235f Vaio laptop, intel chipset, and non of the start game fixes have worked. I'm going to see with geeksquad sometime this week if they can hack in and change my graphics card cause it seems that may be the main problem. If someone can fill me in on more of it that would be cool. I'm thinking of buying a new gaming desktop if I cant fix this. Just more money down the drain.

[bben46]

One of the problems with laptops is the inability to upgrade anything except ram and possibly the hard drive. They do not make good high end gaming machines because of this. They are made small and compact for a reason, to make them convenient for businessmen to carry on trips. I carry a laptop when I work. I don't use it for games like Oblivion or FO3.

 

If you are going to get a new desktop, be sure NOT to get one of those cute popular small ones, as they are also impossible to upgrade due to things like non standard power supply size, not enough expansion slots, built in video and sound that will have to be disabled to use separate boards. They are great for word processing, watching youtube videos and web surfing, but not so hot for high end gaming.

 

Go with a standard size, or even oversize case (Mid tower or full tower case) NOT mini or compact size. Note that a miniATX board will fit in a full size case, but a full size atx board will not fit in a mini case unless you use a hammer or crowbar to install it. And it will probably not work after that.

 

Get as powerful a power supply as you can afford. Minimum 450 Watts. 550 Watts or more preferred if you plan to update video cards or use more than one video card. Most big name (Dell, HP etc) non gaming computers use the lowest power they can get away with - meaning that if you upgrade your Video card, or add another hard drive, you will have to replace the power supply to support it.

Don't believe the sales people in a store. most of them have no clue and will say whatever they have to to get a sale.