Performance notebook suggestions.

[casey 17]

Hey guys.

Apologies if this is in the wrong section but I'd like some suggestions on a new laptop for my girlfriend for Christmas. I've been out of the loop a while so not sure what's changed over the last year with laptops performance wise.

with a budget of around £400 I would like one that's able to run games like The Sims 3 medieval on good settings.

Not really concerned about custom builds for this one just something ready made and reliable, and she said she'd like a smaller screen for portability so I'm thinking 14"-15"

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

 

[AntiZig]

Hello, and I have to say sorry from the start since I don't know any uk websites

in that price range if you're looking for a entry level laptop the best solution would be to find a AMD llano series APU (VISION series A-4 or A-6)
the integrated GPU has a much better game performance than integrated intel HD GPU that comes on intel CPUs.

however, if you do not expect that she will benefit from increased GPU performance you could settle for an i3 processor laptop with integrated intel HD gpu. It's "good enough" to run windows and watch movies and play some browser or very low requirement games.

 

[ram1009]

Your headline says "performance laptop" but your budget doesn't. In either case, the term "performance laptop" is an oxymoron, IMHO.

 

[jaguarskx]

£400 will get you a budget laptop that is not really known for performance. I am not familiar with UK sites. The only one I know off the top of my head is www.dabs.com.

The link below will give you examples of two laptops (HP and Lenovo) that should be enough to play the Sims 3. They are based on the AMD A6-3400 APU which combines both CPU and GPU core into a single chip. They are above your budget though at around £450.

http/www.dabs.com/category/computing,laptops-and-netbooks,laptops/11105-15-477950000

I would get the Lenovo since there have been issues with HP laptops in the US; enough that there have been some class-action lawsuit cases that have been settled and still pending.

Do some research on AMD's Llano APUs just so that you know what you are buying. Basically, it is an Athlon II CPU core combined with an entry level Radeon HD graphics core which generally ranges between the performance of a Radeon HD 5550 and HD 5570 depending on the Llano APU model.