Buying New vs. Upgrading

[Tasselcat]

I'm trying to decide between upgrading my current laptop to meet TS3 standards, or just purchasing a new, higher-powered laptop. :help:

Specs on the 3 1/2-year-old laptop -
OS: Windows Vista Home Basic (6.0)
CPU: Intel Celeron 540 1.86GHz
RAM: 1014MB
GPU: Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset Family*
MANUFACTURER/MODEL: Acer Aspire 5315

*I couldn't get it to cough up any more details than that.

As far as I can tell, I'd have to practically gut the poor thing to upgrade it enough. By all rights it shouldn't play TS3 now. The only thing holding me back from buying a new comp is sentimentality - this was my first laptop - and the fact that it still fine works for normal activities. (Also my inability to keep track of all the TS3 EP discs, so reinstalling would be an adventure.)

Here is the laptop I'd likely end up buying: Acer Aspire AS5742-6838 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215084)
The only thing I'm uncertain of with this is the graphics card. Intel HD Graphics aren't supported for TS3, right? Plus, I was really hoping to find a laptop with a dedicated graphics card so I could finally see what playing is like with medium-high graphics.

Thanks for any advice you can give!

[StarboardParoxysm]

Yeah, there's really no point in even attempting to upgrade what you have. And the one you're looking at is not suitable for TS3. Acer does do some very nice gaming laptops with dedicated graphics for not too much money though - we've had one for a couple years now that runs TS3 just fine and is still going strong despite having been subjected to a toddler repeatedly.

[Tasselcat]

Ooh, ok. Thanks! Could you point out which bits make it unsuitable? And is your sturdy laptop considered a 'Notebook'? Acer's laptop definitions seem to clash with mine, so navigating their products is getting challenging.

[ellacharmed]

You cannot upgrade a laptop, not most anyway and especially not Acer's.
The unsuitable bit is the "Intel HD Graphics" like you said, it is unsupported being an IGP (Integrated graphics). Read Game Help:Onboard Graphics for more info on why.

comparison of Acer 15" @newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006550%2050001146%2040000032&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemList=32|34-215-110^34-215-110-TS%2C34-215-122^34-215-122-TS%2C34-215-108^34-215-108-TS%2C34-215-119^34-215-119-TS)
Huh, I thought the AS7750G-6444 is such a good bargain with i7, bigger HDD and the HD 6650M, and at the same price. But after looking at this image, changed my mind. :) For context the "mainstream" cards for right now start at the 1000 mark level (2000 better mid-range and above 3000 is high-end) for comparison, the 2 cards in Acer line is in 600 and 700 ranges respectively. Source (http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html)
http://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/img/1/5/1/5/0/0/2/MTS_ellacharm3d-1226040-ss382.png

So, they are still good for low settings, just don't expect miracles. ;)