PC upgrade tips wanted

[opij]

I currently have a really crappy laptop but hopefully will upgrade to another laptop with better specs and i was wondering if these specs were good:

Processor:Intel i5

Video card:Intel 4000 hd

RAM:8 gb

Hard drive:500 gb

 

If they are good for gaming please tell me or if not do the same.

[Rennn]

It's tolerable for gaming use, but not very good. You'd be putting a lot of newer games at medium or low settings, and some, like Battlefield 3, wouldn't even really be playable at the lowest settings.

Try finding some benchmarks online if you want to see the exact performance.

 

Depending on what kind of performance you're looking for and how much you want to spend, it'd be better to get a laptop with an AMD or Nvidia mobility card.

[davycrockett]

yeah build a desltop rig a laptop for gaming is a real bad idea simply because they are nothing near as upgradable as a desktop is and on the subject of a gaming rig you wanna build one thats future proof ie one that has all the latest features like sata 3 6gbs ports usb3 and a board that uses little power intel based machines run leaner than amds .

 

AMD is great value Intel is pricey and a little finicky steer clear of i7's hyper threading causes problems with games like these an i5 is the better choice in my opinion dont bother with big named brands on other products Asrock are an off shoot of Asus their boards feature all the same goodies as Asus for a lot less (dont apply this rule to psu's ,modular is best with active pfc and check it is suitable for your cpu )

 

gpu's are the same your paying for the brand not the tech its whats inside that matters not some shiney badge if you look around you will see a lot of cards of various prices that all have the same engine VTX is worth looking at . make sure its a dx11 native ddr5 vram on it too (the rigs i build at work always get better gaming bench marks ) make sure its 3d gaming compliant too

 

(Nvidia is the better choice id say no AMD micro stutter that way )

 

SSD's are the way to go prices are down at the moment look to spend about 50 pence per gig ,an ssd can improve a machine no end

 

memory , kingston do a value range same tech just not as pretty but good value for a named brand ,but then i just got 2x4gb 1033 ddr3 sticks for £8.00 no pnp ...bargain ! its plain unbranded stuff .

 

chassis fans .... hmmm now with these id say you only get what you pay for ,my company has had no luck so far with budget fans and when it comes to cooling you shouldnt mess about same goes for psu

 

cpu stacks check its dimensions no taller than 160mm or it wont fit a standard ATX also ram and other components have a tendency to get in the way of the the stack so check first if its gonna fit a little research will be needed here you will need one on a big rig otherwise you'll go deaf listening to a stock cooler running at full tilt during gaming .

 

cases purely for ease of use get a full ATX tower much easier to work with and with at least 3 full size (120mm) fan mounts base mounted psus work best as heat rises , given that it vents warm air into the case having the rear fan at the very top makes air flow more efficient .remember the more you seal up the case the hotter it gets so a well vented case like a sharkoon value T9 is best good air flow means quite fans .

 

im running an i5 rog in a sharkoon and it idles at 25 degrees C iv not yet seen a lap top run that cool , cooler means less power less power means cheaper to run in the long term

 

i can tell you now that laptops are seriously overpriced due to their popularity and in my opinion overrated the only really good ones are the ultra high end machines big bucks though

[hoofhearted4]

it depends on what youll be playing and what you are comfortable playing it.

 

a laptop wont be as good at playing FPSs like BF3 or Metro 2033 or Crysis. on the other hand, they are just fine at playing RPGs and MMOs and RTSs. i play Fallout NV and Witcher and StarCraft 2 and Diablo and Torchlight and League of Legends and so on on my laptop with absolutely no issues what so ever. and my laptop is a couple years old now (though with a better GPU)

 

newer games like Witcher 2 and Skyrim will put more of a strain on your laptop but this is where your comfortableness with settings comes in. if you dont mind playing at medium settings or dont plan on modding Skyrim up the wazoo, esp graphic mods, then youll still probably be fine with those specs.

 

the only thing that would worry me is the GPU. those are integrated graphics and integrated graphics suck. you want to find a laptop with a dedicated card. mine has a 260M and is still running what i play at mostly medium and high settings. i can still mod FONV and Dragon Age Origins and stuff without issue (though i dont do graphics mods)

 

for a gaming laptop, i would recommend Asus laptops. and you should be looking to spend between $1000-$1200 for a worth while laptop. ofc a desktop will be better in almost every respect, but im assuming you want a laptop over a desktop for a reason.

[Rennn]

Asus and Acer both make good gaming laptops. Asus is generally higher quality, and although their prices are still very fair, they also tend to be a little more expensive. Given a choice I'd pick an Asus laptop, but most of the budget models that I've seen on Newegg seem to come from Acer.

 

I don't recommend an Alienware laptop. Absolutely no laptops from Alienware are below $1000 new, and they have some really strange design decisions. Idk if you know graphics cards, but putting two 290 OCs in SLI in a laptop generally doesn't end without a fire.

 

I also don't recommend Dell, as they generally overprice, and everything I've had from Dell has broken within a year. Could be a coincidence, but that seems doubtful...

Edited October 13, 2012 by Rennn

[ginnyfizz]

My laptop is an Acer Aspire 8943G and I would not call it cheap to purchase, it can however play Skyrim on Ultra and Metro 2033 on high. Did me proud while my desktop was being rebuilt. It does have a core i7 and a dedicated video card (ATI 5850 Mobility) and a whopper of a screen. I can highly recommend Acer but they are not a budget buy!

[Rennn]

I don't think any gaming laptop would really qualify as a budget buy, but I did see a lot of Acer laptops on Newegg with lower-end cards for lower prices. (eg, 650m, 630m for about $700)

But yeah, generally a laptop with a good card isn't going to be cheap. I didn't mean that Acer doesn't have expensive gaming models, only that Asus has very few cheap laptops that include dedicated video cards.

[ginnyfizz]

There's only one problemo with that laptop of mine. With an 18.4 inch screen I have to have a rucksack rather than a laptop bag to cart it and the power brick around!

[Beriallord]

Stay away from laptops with integrated graphics cards. Don't expect to do much serious gaming with those. A laptop with a decent video card is going to run at least $800-$1100. And even then you would be lucky to play some of the more demanding PC games on low to medium settings. Also gaming laptops are designed to fry. Heat management has always been a problem with laptops. Don't ever get a laptop with dual graphics cards, unless you are just made of money because those are the ones that burn up the fastest. Edited October 17, 2012 by Beriallord

[opij]

Thanks for the opinions and suggestions. I am cool with playing games on a low res like below 1280x600, but why can't i run the games on high texture settings because of a high ram(at least I think thats what affects that aspect of the games). Also right Note:most of the games i play right now the texture settings DO NOT affect performance(* games texture settings don't affect performance)

 

*Oblivion: Very playable 1024x768 medium settings some tweaked multiple optimization mods

*COD4: very,very playable 600x400 extra texture settings slightly tweaked no optimization mods

CS:S: mostly very playable 600x400 medium settings vanilla

*BF2: very,very playable 800x600 verying settings some low some high no mods

*Arma 2: mostly very playable 512x(i forgot but youget it's really low) Texture very high motion blur medium vanilla

*MOH(2010):Mostly unplayable 600x400-512x(i forgot) high texture settings vanilla

*Skyrim:draw sometimes playable sometimes not 800x600 high texture settings few optimizzation mods

Fallout 3:mostly very playable 1024x768 medium texture settings some optimization mods (don't help)

Doom 3: very,very playable 800x600 high texture settings vanilla

*Borderlands: mostly playable 512x(i forget) high texture settings vanilla

*Transformers:Fall of cybertron: draw 512x(i forget) extra texture settings vanilla

Minecraft: mostly playable (super playable on super flat) options mostly for performance Optifine

Halo:CE(Belive it): lowest settings 1 mod not optimization mod

 

Ok so I have listed them if on the new computer I can run them at these settings (or mabe a little higher) i'll be fine.

Also I'm on a buget.