About Lauren Bennett Expertise I am a computer science major and my dad is an Electric Engineering, so my life has revolved around computers. For as long as I can remember, I have been buying and selling computers. I tend to travel a lot, so I have always had a laptop. I have bought 5 of them for myself, and bought around 30-40 for friends and family. I have dealt with the good and the bad of various version and brand names. If you are in need of buying a laptop, feel free to contact me and I'm sure I will be able to guide you into purchasing the laptop that will be the best fit for you. I will custom build you computers for you to choose from so you can get an exact idea of what to go and buy when you do it yourself and so that you have an exact price. However, I am in the USA and am only knowledgeable about computers here in the US. I do not know about foreign currency or the quality of computer brand names outside the US.
Experience B.S. in Computer Science. Buying and selling for years. Assisting friends/family.
Question QUESTION: I have a laptop that I want to possibly be able to play a new video game on, mostly during breaks between classes. The recommeded specs call for a graphic card with at least 64 MB graphic card with Transform and Lightning, such as NVIDIA. My specs are as followed:
Dell XPS m140
Mobile Intel(R) 915G/GMS 910GML Express Chipset
Adapter RAM: 128 mb
Thats the only information on the graphics I can get. Will this support my game? I was looking to upgrade to a newer graphic card, however, I was told with notebooks it is a pain to find the right one. Thanks.
ANSWER: It is a hard call to make. Some games that required 64 MB wouldn't run on my old laptop with a 64 MB video card. On the other hand, some 64MB games would run on my sister's crappy integrated video card with no real video RAM.
Luckily for you, if you buy the game and it doesn't work you can return it. On the downfall, you cannot replace your video card because it is integrated - you don't have a separate video card. I believe they saved that fancy stuff for the XPS M170.
Here is what your video card means. It is fully integrated which means it has no video memory of its own. However, it borrows 128 MB from the rest of your computer. So a game would probably run fine at 64 MB, just make sure you are running nothing else that would be using that memory that it borrows from the main RAM.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
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QUESTION: How about processors? Are they easy to upgrade, or am I better off buying new notebook?
Answer You shouldn't have a problem with the processor. Most processor requirements on games are really low. Even a Pentium IV would be fine - but I am going to assume that you have a Pentium M? As long as you have a Pentium M, you are more than fine for gaming purposes that go along with your graphics card.
In terms of buying a new one, that depends on what your goals are. If you'd like to upgrade to a Core 2 Duo, 2 GB of RAM, a 256 MB graphics card, and a 120 GB hard drive then yes, you should probably upgrade. Otherwise, you should be okay. It also depends on how much money you really have to spend. Keep in mind that you will probably be able to sell yours - try ebay and craigslist.
