Would it be better to upgrade laptop or buy a new desktop?

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skitheeast36

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Oct 21, 2011
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I currently have a Dell Dimension E510 and cannot play any games at all. I want to start to get back into gaming and am planning on purchasing a desktop in the next month or two. Im looking at the Inspiron 570 with the ATI Radeon HD4200 Graphics Card , 3gb DDR3 RAM, and 500gb ATA Hard drive , but am reading that this isn't great for gaming...

I also recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 15r i5 Laptop , 4gb Ram 640G HD,Intel HD Graphics 3000, up to 1.6GB Video Memory. I know this isnt a gaming laptop by any means, but I would rather put some $ into this than get a whole knew desktop. That way the desktop can be used for homework and web browsing while the desktop can be the one for gaming/portable for college.


I would like to play games like Diablo ,Left4Dead and others, but can't with my current desktop. Would it be better to invest in a whole knew desktop or upgrade my laptop. Id much rather put in 1-200 in my laptop than get a whole new desktop. If so, what would I upgrade?

Any help is appreciated, thanks so much! Im pretty new to laptops/desktops, but would like to learn more!
 

Patrickoby1

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I would recommend in getting a whole new desktop. You can get yourself a great computer for the same amount as a gaming laptop, plus future upgrading a PC is alot easier and cheaper that upgrading a laptop, if it is even "upgradable".

alot of people go for the i5 2500k processor because it is great and cheap
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

For a motherboard the ASUS P8P67 is a great MOBO and it also has the ability to crossfire if you really want to, but it only supports Dual Channel RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131770

Also according to videocardbenchmark.net the ATI Radeon 6850 is the best overall value for the money graphics card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161384&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-Video%20Cards-_-Hightech%20Information%20System%20Ltd.-_-14161384&AID=10440897&PID=3962334&SID=

It basically all depends on your budget, if you know how much your willing to put down, then you can shop around and get exactly what you want.
 

rocky41

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First of all you cannot upgrade your laptop in terms of graphic card but you can add more RAM that will not make your games run properly so better and smart choice is to built you own desktop. HD 4200 is a IGP i.e chipset and not graphic card. So if you buy the desktop setup mentioned by you all you need to do is to buy a real graphic card that can make your return to gaming a pleasant one.
 

+1
 

rocky41

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Well i have not heard a card name HD 4470 till now, but if you are talking about HD 4670 then yes you can play Homefront 1 but homefront 2 is yet to come and i have heard that Crytek (Crysis Series developers) is going to develop the game so it will not easy to run that game.
It totally depends on the resolution you wan to play games at. At lower resolution you can play all games at highers setting expect a few.
 
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