Need New 'Puter; Any Suggestions

LNERlover5 said:

While we're at it, forget GTA IV as well. It's an unoptimised, buggy mess that runs poorly on my desktop.

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I'm aware, but if my old laptop could run it with steady frames then nearly anything can. (I had to put nearly everything on low and disable shadows but the game still looks decent and I cam maintain 30fps on my old laptop)

Kieran.

captainkman said:

I'm aware, but if my old laptop could run it with steady frames then nearly anything can. (I had to put nearly everything on low and disable shadows but the game still looks decent and I cam maintain 30fps on my old laptop)

Kieran.

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Your old laptop sounds like it was an i5 so a lot more powerful than the ones you're looking at at the moment, that's if I have the correct one. Laptop screens die. ebay has new ones, you may even be able to buy one locally. It's not the nicest job in the world but there are You-Tube videos around to guide you. You're looking at roughly $100-$300 for a new screen, you'll need to know the exact model number. Typically its the lamp that goes they cost about $7 but that's a job I wouldn't tackle myself. The screen if you have a local computer store ask how much a replacement screen would be. Remember that Christmas time they'll be rushed so put it off until January 1st.

That's the advantage of a desktop if the screen dies you just plug a new one in.

Cheerio John

My old laptop has a 2GHz Intel Centrino (says Centrino on the sticker, at least) dual-core processor so anything quad-core should be quite an upgrade.

Definitely not an i5 and anything I'm looking at should be a substantial upgrade.

Kieran.

Kieran.

AMD A6is an APU which is an integrated GPU and CPU basically it is one chip doing both tasks see this link: http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/processors/notebook-tablet/apus# not sure how well they run but the chart on APUs on the link says it uses 2 cores for CPU and 3 for GPU From the look of that chart you may need to look at an A8 or if you can find one in your price range the A10 but remember about the heat factor i find many of the new laptops run hot since they have less cooling capabilities if you are looking at the higher end ones i would say a laptop cooling rest a must they are only about $20.

Cheers
Becky

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4134/the-brazos-review-amds-e350-supplants-ion-for-miniitx/5 gives you some comparison. Basically i3 plus HD4000 is about the best value for money, i5 if you can afford it.

TS12 only uses 2 cores normally so a quad doesn't buy you much.

Cheerio John

beckster181 said:

Kieran.

AMD A6 is an APU which is an integrated GPU and CPU basically it is one chip doing both tasks see this link: http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/processors/notebook-tablet/apus# not sure how well they run but the chart on APUs on the link says it uses 2 cores for CPU and 3 for GPU From the look of that chart you may need to look at an A8 or if you can find one in your price range the A10 but remember about the heat factor i find many of the new laptops run hot since they have less cooling capabilities if you are looking at the higher end ones i would say a laptop cooling rest a must they are only about $20.

Cheers
Becky

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Becky,

I have gotten by with the processor indicated in the post above for quite some time so nearly anything is an upgrade and should perform better.

I already have and use a cooling pad with a fan. The only problem with it is that it takes up one USB port and I need to plug in an external keyboard as using the laptop's keyboard while it's on a cooling pad is not very comfortable.

I would like 4 USB ports on my new computer but I can only find computers with 3 so I will just buy a powered USB hub.

Kieran.

Well, I just wanted to thank everyone for their help. i bought the HP machine I gave a link many posts back.

LNERlover5 said:

While we're at it, forget GTA IV as well. It's an unoptimised, buggy mess that runs poorly on my desktop.

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I also wanted to respond to this. I've just run GTA IV and I can run it with the detail sliders on 30 and the rest of the settings on High, incuding shadows. And I can maintain 60FPS.

Again, thanks for everyone's help, it does seem that that HP was the way to go.

Kieran.