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Getting new laptop. Tell me how it does, please.
UberBrandt
Member Posts: 6
in Hardware
Okay, so I'm buying a new laptop for personal and business use, something I can write on and do pretty much everything I need on. But I'm curious how it will do with gaming.
Specs:
CPU: A-Series Dual-Core A4-4355M 2.4 GHz
RAM: 4 GB DDR3
Hard Drive: 500 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7400 G
OS: WIndows 8
So, let me know MMO-verse, how will it fare? MMO's, RPG's, FPS's, etc. PC games in general, how will it do?
Thanks. 
Comments
Also that HDD is slow even by mechanical drive standards. You may want to get at least something with 7200rpm. You are going to be waiting staring at "Loading... Please Wait" a lot with that drive.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
Hmm... Okay. I haven't recieved it yet, so I don't know what I'll be able to change. We'll see. It's a HP Sleekbook, so I don't know how much customability it will have. Maybe I should give games that I'm interested in so I can get some definitives.
Batman: Arkham City
The Assassin's Creed series
Star Trek Online
Star Wars: The Old Republic
DC Universe Online
GTA IV
Dragon Age: Origins
The Elder Scrolls series
Guild Wars II
These are all games that I have or that I know that I want. I'm not the biggest gamer, but I do enjoy having a computer that will run the games that I want to play. Also, I'm not a man that addictively needs to have his games on high. I can easily run games on their lower settings and enjoy them.
So, another question is perhaps posed by Brenelael. Is there a way to transfer the data on one harddrive to another harddrive, should I choose to upgrade them?
There is drive imaging software that you can use to make an image of one drive to an external drive and then burn the image to a new drive but it's a needless expense. You'd be better off in my opinion just using the HP Recovery Media Creator that comes preinstalled on your new computer to make a recovery image to a 16GB+ flash drive and then use it to recover your system files onto a new drive when you install it. You will have to reinstall all of your other software as well but it's a lot cheaper than buying an expensive piece of software you will most probably only use once.
Just remember to also back up all of your data to another flash drive or ext. HD before you swap drives as well so you don't lose your save games!
Edit: Those games will definitely run on that laptop but at medium settings at best. Also heat could be an issue so I'd suggest using a good quality cooling pad under the laptop while gaming on it. One with a full airflow grid and at least 2 fans.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
I'm more into nV and have only shallow knowledge of the Ati line, but I guess the 7400g will be the weakest link (maybe someone with Radeons could correct me if I'm wrong)
But since you wrote "I can easily run games on their lower settings and enjoy them" I think you won't have problems with the games you've mentioned, they can be downscaled pretty good. Except maybe GW2, AC3 and Skyrim.
Sleekbooks are ultraportables, and prioritize being thin and light over high performance. If that's your main priority and it doesn't bother you if many games run poorly and some are even unplayable, then have at it. But don't expect it to be a great performer.
On the bright side, it should at least give you much better graphical performance than an Ultrabook, which is the Intel equivalent. It will cost a lot less than an Ultrabook, too.
If you'd like a higher performance ultraportable, and are willing to take some extra thickness and weight to get it, then you might want to look into something based on an A10-4655M, and with both memory channels filled. That will roughly double the performance of what you're looking at.