wilson1790

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After suffering through with the same laptop since fm14 I've decided its time to treat myself. Problem is every good "gaming" one i have seen is like £1200+ and i dont think i can justify that to the girlfriend just to play FM on. I'm hoping somebody out there will drop some pearls of wisdom on me
 
Tbh I'd wait until the system specs come out then you can get a better idea of a price range etc. It also depends on what leagues, database size etc you want to load up. As an example, for FM 17 these were highly recommended https://fm-space.com/football-manag...-computers-for-playing-football-manager-2017/ . So realistically, you shouldn't have to pay more than £650.

What I will advise though is do not buy Alienware. Completely overpriced for nothing special. When I see some "gaming" laptops I cringe because they are anything but suitable for gaming. Any chance you could perhaps build your own PC? Be a **** of a lot cheaper and with some of the build guides out there, you can play AAA titles aswell as FM for a fraction of the cost.

Edit-and also try to ensure the RAM is DDR4
 
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After suffering through with the same laptop since fm14 I've decided its time to treat myself. Problem is every good "gaming" one i have seen is like £1200+ and i dont think i can justify that to the girlfriend just to play FM on. I'm hoping somebody out there will drop some pearls of wisdom on me

For FM, you don't need a Gaming machine simply because FM isn't you typical game. For one, it's more processor heavy than GPU (Graphics card) heavy. The only thing that puts any sort of strain on the GPU is the 3D Match Engine so if you're running matches in 2D, you'd be buying hardware you'd literally be using <1% of.

In Order of preference, what you're looking to prioritise is CPU, RAM, SSD
  • CPU - Typical set up on a Laptop is Dual Core/Quad Core in the 2.10GHz - 2.8GHz Range. From personal experience, don't go after something with less than 2.0GHz or it'll cough it's way through FM. When it comes to CPUs: Faster isn't always better, there are nuances to the CPU that make slower processors faster than others. eg; my desktop Quad-core 3.1GHz is slower than my Laptop 2.2GHz Quad-core. Age, number of cores, clock speeds and the L1, L2 & L3 Cache speeds all add to this but you don't need to know what any of those are; just use this resource to find out if the CPU is any good: CPU Benchmark. When you're buying a laptop, it'll tell you the make and model of the CPU; just search for it on that site and it'll give you a score: When comparing laptops, go for the one with the highest score.
  • RAM - Simply, More = Better. A typical laptop these days comes with between 4GB and 8GB of RAM but you can usually get more with a bundle, or buy more later since they're usually easy to install (and if you're not comfortable installing it, take it to a PC repair centre and they'll do it for you.) Now, not all RAM is created equal. There are two few variables to consider; the Data Rate Edition (ie, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4) and the speed of the RAM itself (ie, 2144MH, 2400MH). DDR4 is the best available on the market right now and when you're buying it, make sure you're buying the Laptop with the Faster RAM.
  • SSD - Now, while there's nothing wrong with running FM of a standard Hard Disk Drive (HDD), they simply cannot compete with the Speed of a Solid State Drive (SSD) - you're not going to see a huge increase in game speed but where you'll see it is in Database creation, saving games and the general running of the Operating System itself. Another nice benefit of SSDs is that they are more shock resistant so if you drop you laptop, your precious save games are less likely to be affected by a Damaged Hard Drive.



Unfortunately, the bad news is this - Buying a Laptop is like picking a girlfriend/boyfriend: sure, I can tell you what I'd choose, but unless you know what you're looking for, I can't tell you what you're looking for. DO some research, read the reviews and be prepared to spend money. They ideal laptops you're looking for (without breaking the bank) are in the €500-€700 range.
 
Unfortunately, the bad news is this - Buying a Laptop is like picking a girlfriend/boyfriend: sure, I can tell you what I'd choose, but unless you know what you're looking for, I can't tell you what you're looking for. DO some research, read the reviews and be prepared to spend money. They ideal laptops you're looking for (without breaking the bank) are in the €500-€700 range.

Hi Brendn
What would you choose, in the lower end of that bracket... Purely on a FM perspective... As the only other things I would use it for is word processing and Excel anyway
 
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