[ash0308]

I'm planning on getting a new laptop, however..i wanted to make sure it would run The Sims 3 and future expansion packs for the game pretty smoothly.

This is the laptop I am looking at:

http://configure.us....wleadtime=False

Processor:
New 2010 Intel® Core™ i3-350M 2.26Gh (4 Threads, 3M Cache)
Operating System:
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
LCD Panel:
15.6" High Definition (720p) LED Display with TrueLife™
CD ROM/DVD ROM:
8X CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive) - w/ Roxio Burn 1.0
Memory:
4GB1 Shared Dual Channel DDR3
Hard Drive:
500GB3 5400rpm
Video Card:
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5470, 64-Bit, 1GB, DDR3 128Mx16x4pcs
Sound:
HD Audio 2.0 Support SRS™ Premium Sound
Battery:
Lithium Ion Battery (6-Cell) – Up to 4 hours, 2 minutes of battery life*
Hardware Support Services:
1 Year Basic Service Plan

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Hello.

It will play Sims 3, but not on the highest settings. Here are the minimum system requirements for Sims 3, which the laptop you have picked out meets.

You would be able to play Sims 3 and future expansions on low to possibly as high as medium settings with acceptable frame rates according to the review on the ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5470 at Notebookcheck.net.

You can also read reviews on the Dell Inspiron 15R here at Notebookcheck and Tech Radar. The Tech Radar link is from the Notebookcheck.net site, and Notebookcheck has links to other reviews. I picked the Tech Radar link because it was a good review.

Hope that helps.

[MedStudent.003Hz]

Hello.

It will play Sims 3, but not on the highest settings. Here are the minimum system requirements for Sims 3, which the laptop you have picked out meets.

You would be able to play Sims 3 and future expansions on low to possibly as high as medium settings with acceptable frame rates according to the review on the ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5470 at Notebookcheck.net.

You can also read reviews on the Dell Inspiron 15R here at Notebookcheck and Tech Radar. The Tech Radar link is from the Notebookcheck.net site, and Notebookcheck has links to other reviews. I picked the Tech Radar link because it was a good review.

Hope that helps.

[ash0308]

Okay. Thanks. If the laptop has the Intel Core i5-450M 2.4Gh processor instead would it help? Or is it just the graphics card that would need to be better?

[MedStudent.003Hz]

Getting a faster processor or one with more cores, or both, will help the laptop's overall performance, but for gaming, the biggest way to make an improvement would be to get a better graphics card. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 will perform much better than that HD5470. Dell makes a good laptop, and I do recommend them to family and friends, but if you are not afraid to go outside of Dell, you might want to take a look at either one of these which will enable you to play Sims 3 at high settings as well as give you the option of playing other games that you might not be able to if you went with the HD5470 card:

Acer Aspire AS7741G-5877 NoteBook for $719.99 + $15.37 shipping

Gateway NV79C47u NoteBook for $749.99 +16.51 shipping

You can check around and see if there is a better price or free shipping from other vendors other than Newegg.com, but I just recommend them because of they usually have the most competative prices, good customer service, and handle returns quickly and satisfactory the majority of the time.

Keep in mind that most any laptop with a dedicated graphics card is not going to be long in the tooth when operating on the battery; so you will usually get a couple of hours on the battery before you have to find a wall outlet to plug into. The one exceptiong to this are laptops like the Asus UL80 series, but these sacrifice performance to some degree for battery life. Just thought I would throw that out there for food for thought.

[ash0308]

Thank you very much. In your opinion, does Gateway make good reliable laptops?

[MedStudent.003Hz]

Last November, there was a study done on 2 year and 3 year hardware failure rate for laptops by manufacturer. Gateway came in next to last with a hardware failure rate of almost 1 in 4 over a 3 year period or approximately 23.4 %; however, keep this data in perspective because even 1st place Asus had a hardware failure rate of 15.6% at 3 years, and the study was done by a company called Square Trade which sells extended warranties (edgadget.com). Here is the study if you would like to take a look at it.