Hi,

I know next to nothing about computers & was wondering what people's opinion was on this spec. on an XPS Dell laptop. I've been looking around & this one seems the best for the price. (My budget is around about £750-800 and ideally a laptop as opposed to a desktop)

Base:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 4 MB L2-cache)

Colour Choice:
2.0 mega pixel Camera & Tuxedo Black for CCFL Display

LCD:
15.4" Widescreen™ WXGA (1280x800) TFT Display (220nits) with TrueLife™

Hard Drive 250GB Serial ATA (5400RPM)

NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT with 256MB dedicated graphic memory

OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed 8x DVD+/-RW Slim Slot Load drive, including SW


This comes to in total £809 (but with march discount £739)

There is an option to upgrade the processor to 2.40ghz, but as this costs £150 extra I thought the 2.2ghz would be sufficient?

thanks for any help!

Those specs should run TS2 well. But not a large fan of Dell personally..and that XPS has reported A LOT of problems, from really crappy screens, to uneven bases and even adapters which are shocking people. check out this website:

http://pcspecialist.co.uk/index.php...t=intel_laptop2

T8300 (far superior processor.. run faster, cooler, and better battery life)
2gb ram
Windows XP Home
250gb hard drive
£643.40 ex VAT/£756 inc VAT and Delivery

Thanks alot - do you think it would be worth going for an even faster processor and hard drive, in anticipation for sims 3? (I say this knowing the min specs are a long time from being released)

Also, the XPS there has a GO card - notorious for issues with TS2. Not supported and tend to have issues (though some are able to use them without problems, many are not and if you -do- have problems and try to contact EA and tell them you have a laptop they won't even talk to you about it). The one Callistra linked to is not a GO card and has more video RAM. The Stories series games do specifically have GO cards supported (as they're made for laptops) so generally they're better to go with than TS2 and expansions if you're wanting to play on a laptop with a GO card.

You also didn't mention the amount of RAM, or operating system, so those would be factors as well.

you really get minimum performance increase from a faster hard drive, imho. And the sacrifice is less battery life and more heat. I think unless you're planning on doing really heavy gaming the 5400rpm drive should be fine. The T9500 adds a lot to the price.. brings it up to £967 inc VAT and Delivery eesh so for the price.. I think the T8300 would be the way to go. And you can always upgrade the processor on your own later if you need it. But the T8300 runs crysis and the like well should be peachy for ts3.

Thanks ever so much.

I was a bit dubious about Dell & was considering a Rock Laptop, but from looking at some reviews it wasn't all that appealing. I am a bit clueless most of the time so I appreciate your help!
Will that graphics card still be pretty good in the next year or so? Just wondering how quickly I would have to upgrade it.

Well the graphics card on that laptop is not user upgradeable. I don't know of one that is in your price range.. But the gpu is pretty good. It's a midrange card but it will handle any game on the market currently, though some of the heavier games will require settings to be turned down. Again though for your price.. it's a really good deal.

Far as I've heard, Rock Direct is a good company. I know a lot of people in the UK who buy from that. That computer from pcspecialist is made by Compal and has many different names depending on where you buy from.. Sager NP2092.. Force something from xoticpc.. Rock Direct prob has its own name as well. I think Rock is more expesive though and last I saw they haven't done the update with the new processors either. PCspecialist seems to have good tech support too.

Cool. Cheers again :valentine