I currently have a five-year-old Dell Inspiron that I’ve been pretty happy with, but it’s time for an upgrade. I need a computer for multimedia, work stuff, and light gaming (Sims 2, the new Monkey Island).
I’ve been looking mainly at Dell and Toshiba and possibly purchasing through CostCo. My main problem is that I’m not quite sure what kind of processor and graphics card I need to run games satisfactorily. My current computer can barely run the Sims 2 at all.
Can you folks help me with specs and suggest models that you’ve been happy with?
I have gotten several HP laptops through Costco, the latest being 2 at Christmas 2008. They’ve been fine for all games we’ve played, which have been Sims 2, Harry Potter Quidditch, and FIFA Soccer 2008. Get one with at least Core 2 Duo, not Dual-Core. Make sure it has a separate graphics card, 4G ram, big hard drive. And of course, Windows 7. I’ve been relatively happy with HP, but I don’t have any current experience with Dells or Toshibas. My last Dell Inspiron laptop was a lemon, but I hear they’ve improved.
I heartily recommend buying it at Costco. Their laptops are generally configured with more than adequate specs. I’ve not seen one at the warehouse that wasn’t enough for what you want. But their warranty is what it’s all about. The HPs I got were refurbs and had some issues. Costco adds a year to the warranty for no additional cost, and if you need any service, you call the Costco Concierge Service (now on my speed dial) and they contact the manufacturer for you, stay on the line until the problem is resolved, and follow up with a phone call to make sure all is well. HP has responded immediately to every problem, which I just don’t believe they would do if I didn’t have the big gun on the phone with me. In March, I needed a replacement power cord, called it in at 10 am, and it arrived the same day at 4 pm. I had to ship one laptop back twice because of a faulty hard drive and it was the most painless repair/return/ I’ve ever been through. They shipped me a prepaid box, styrofoam, tape, everything, and all I had to do was drop it off at a Kinko’s/FedEx. I got it back in less than a week. Maybe HP’s customer service is superb with everybody nowadays, who knows.
You didn’t ask, but if you buy through some other store, I recommend extending the warranty through Square Trade http://www.squaretrade.com . They are extremely cheap and highly regarded. Laptops often will eventually fry because of heating over time, so you have little to lose and a lot to gain. You can even buy coverage for accidental damage.
One thing I hate about the HPs is that I can’t open them up to either replace the keyboard (dog accident; fortunately it’s the only key that has no use to me on the keyboard, the scroll/lock key) or to clear out the dust. I do volunteer work refurbishing computers, and I can open almost anything, except for these. The keys seem to be made for getting fingernails caught under the edges.
For the gaming part, you really only need to pay attention to the graphics card. This link is for notebook cards, but will still help you determine what card can run what. This link will let you see the difference from the notebook cards.
I couldn’t find a link that just listed the frames per second for every game on every desktop card, like the notebook link attempts to do.
As for everything else, needscoffee’s got you covered.
ETA: Just realized you’re probably getting a notebook, so the second link is superfluous.
To avoid confusion, Core 2 Duos are dual-core processors. You should get one of these, but not a dual-core processor from a different model line. (Probably a moot point, I’m having difficulty finding dual-cores that aren’t Core 2s. (Well, Core i7s, but I doubt that’s in your price range.))