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Sister needs new Laptop

MxPhenom 216

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So my sisters dell inspiron laptop is just falling apart so she is looking at getting new ones but not a dell. She plays Zoo Tycoon and Sims 3. those are the only two things. She is in college right now so its also going to be for college. Price needs to be under $750-800

I have showed her a bunch of msi, acer, and asus laptops with core i3 and a couple AMD's. A few with nvidia graphics like a GT550m or whatever. Will a Core i3 intergrated intel graphcis accelerator run sims 3 and zoo tycoon alright?? On her current laptop she cant play either game when they are both installed. so she has to have one or the other on to be able to do anything. She also doesnt like Windows 7 but im forcing her to like it and accept it.
 
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She plays Zoo Tycoon and Sims 3

demanding games:rolleyes:, she will need this at the minimum http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/vortex-ultimate/

but in all seriousness an i series built in gpu should play it on minimum graphics settings

benchmarks of the built in i3/i5/i7 gpu's here>http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-HD.23065.0.html

the i series gpu's are just under a 9400m in gfx power

if you want to play sims 3 and zoo tycoon on good gfx setting you'll need something like this http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-420M.35837.0.html
 

MxPhenom 216

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BinaryMage

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A Sandy Bridge i3, i5, or i7 will run those games just fine. The integrated graphics in the Sandy Bridge chips can run The Sims 3 on medium at a bit above 30 FPS, according to http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-3000.37948.0.html, and it shouldn't have an issue with Zoo Tycoon. But AMD graphics would be my reccomendation, like the 6650M on this notebook. That is way more powerful than Intel's integrated, and rather cheap. (That laptop, with a quad-core, will run you $600)
 

MxPhenom 216

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A Sandy Bridge i3, i5, or i7 will run those games just fine. The integrated graphics in the Sandy Bridge chips can run The Sims 3 on medium at a bit above 30 FPS, according to http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-3000.37948.0.html, and it shouldn't have an issue with Zoo Tycoon. But AMD graphics would be my reccomendation, like the 6650M on this notebook. That is way more powerful than Intel's integrated, and rather cheap. (That laptop, with a quad-core, will run you $600)

I was looking at that exact one too. i already sent an email to her saying thats the one she should get
 
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Thats very nice choice of laptop,although i'm not saying ACER is bad but i believe there cheapest laptops break easy,but i am hoping it isn't quality issue with that laptop.
I was going reconmend either of these 2 laptop:
Both come with much powerful GPU,but do note. With all respect for AMD,there notebook CPU aren't as good as intel notebook CPU. Although the Acer and the toshiba i linked below has AMD Phenom II triple/quad it wouldn't be as fast as intel cpu.
HP Pavilion dv6-3143us NoteBook Intel Core i3 370M...
TOSHIBA Satellite A665D-S6083 NoteBook AMD Phenom ...
 

MxPhenom 216

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Thats very nice choice of laptop,although i'm not saying ACER is bad but i believe there cheapest laptops break easy,but i am hoping it isn't quality issue with that laptop.
I was going reconmend either of these 2 laptop:
Both come with much powerful GPU,but do note. With all respect for AMD,there notebook CPU aren't as good as intel notebook CPU. Although the Acer and the toshiba i linked below has AMD Phenom II triple/quad it wouldn't be as fast as intel cpu.
HP Pavilion dv6-3143us NoteBook Intel Core i3 370M...
TOSHIBA Satellite A665D-S6083 NoteBook AMD Phenom ...

those are kind of expensive

MSI FX603-064US Notebook Intel Core i5 480M(2.66GH...
 
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BinaryMage

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Thats very nice choice of laptop,although i'm not saying ACER is bad but i believe there cheapest laptops break easy,but i am hoping it isn't quality issue with that laptop.
I was going reconmend either of these 2 laptop:
Both come with much powerful GPU,but do note. With all respect for AMD,there notebook CPU aren't as good as intel notebook CPU. Although the Acer and the toshiba i linked below has AMD Phenom II triple/quad it wouldn't be as fast as intel cpu.
HP Pavilion dv6-3143us NoteBook Intel Core i3 370M...
TOSHIBA Satellite A665D-S6083 NoteBook AMD Phenom ...

Erm, the HD6650M is better than the HD5650M, it's the same number but a later generation; I don't know why you think the 5650M is better. I agree, Intel's top of the line chips are better, generally, but the Phenom II X4 N970 is actually better than the i3 380M, according to http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i3-370M-Notebook-Processor.32767.0.html and http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Phenom-II-X4-N970-Notebook-Processor.42725.0.html. Paying more for a worse-performing laptop doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me, no offense meant. :)
 
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Erm, the HD6650M is better than the HD5650M, it's the same number but a later generation; I don't know why you think the 5650M is better. I agree, Intel's top of the line chips are better, generally, but the Phenom II X4 N970 is actually better than the i3 380M, according to http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i3-370M-Notebook-Processor.32767.0.html and http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Phenom-II-X4-N970-Notebook-Processor.42725.0.html. Paying more for a worse-performing laptop doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me, no offense meant. :)

Well i guess i stand corrected lol,i didn't notice the 6650m on the list,i'm kinda tired atm. I guess get whichever is cheaper. And as for CPU,from my experience with my own laptop,dunno if it applies to other AMD platform. They get hot a lot faster than intel. And since thats a quad aswell its bound to get much higher temp than the i3. But of course if its for pure performance power i would go for the amd quad.
 

BinaryMage

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Well i guess i stand corrected lol,i didn't notice the 6650m on the list,i'm kinda tired atm. I guess get whichever is cheaper. And as for CPU,from my experience with my own laptop,dunno if it applies to other AMD platform. They get hot a lot faster than intel. And since thats a quad aswell its bound to get much higher temp than the i3. But of course if its for pure performance power i would go for the amd quad.

Intel's chip may be cooler, I don't know. Intel chips can get quite hot under Turbo Boost, though. There isn't a huge performance gap between the two chips; if the i3 laptop was cheaper, I would probably recommended it, but it's significantly more expensive, so I would definitely go with the AMD.
 
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