I'm having a look at this Carphone Warehouse AOL broadband deal with the free Dell Inspiron 1520. The spec is 1G of memory, an Intel Celeron Processor and an Integrated Intel™ Graphic Media Accelerator x3100.
Does this sound like a laptop that could handle modern games? If not how easy is it to slip a new graphics card/extra memory into a laptop?
Any comments from you computer experts gratefully received.

doesn't that mean it cant be changed

dunno sorry....too
wait for Scribble

No, you won't be able to change the GFX card in it, and you certainly won't be able to play modern games on it.

It would be OK as a browsing/word processing machine, but no more.

The Intel GFX accelarators have damn good Linux support, though - so it'd be a good candidate for having as a Linux machine - it'd be able to run Beryl/Compiz 3D desktops just fine.



e2a: An extra 1GB of RAM for this laptop is about £20.

u get the laptop to! it aint a blag, my sister has just received one with windows vista installed and with a dvd and cd writer its a nice laptop for nothing

but isn't AOL broadband shite, just what i've heard

Just try using their Customer 'Support' or try cancelling your AOL account....

yeah had loads of problems with it me but i was willing to sign back up for a while just to get the free laptop but i can't get the offer in my area.

is it also true that you can't click on 'links' on e-mail. sure i heard that u have to copy n paste them n summat (i'm crap with computers, can ya tell)

You don't want to be clicking on links in emails - ever. They could be hidden 'phishing' links that look legit, but send you to somewhere malicious.

Always copy & paste links instead of clicking on them directly.

This has nothing to do with AOL specifically, BTW.

learn summat new everyday, on the trusted uk420

cheers scribble

Thanks for all the advice, on second thoughts I'll get the laptop and give it to the wife and take the family computer for myself.

I'm running a Radeon 9200 graphics card at the moment and it can't handle some of the modern games. Any one got a top tip for a modern graphics card that doesn't cost too much (maybe on ebay?) I want to play newer Medal of Honour etc which says it calls for Pixel Shader 3.

Sorry to sound like such an ignorant arse - I'm a couple of years too old to have an instinctive grasp of these computer thingies.

i heard that the Sapphire ATi Radeon HD 2400 PRO 256MB graphics card is good, and its cheap too only about £30 online.

T1

Thanks for the suggestion T1, reckon I'll get one off ebay. Do these graphics cards generally cover all systems. I'm running Windows XP, will the newer graphics cards do the older Windows?

Yes they'll be drivers for Vista, if that's what you're asking, but then again, I'd stick with XP if I were you.

Hi Scribble,
what I mean is can I run the card T1 suggested with an XP operating system?

yeah it will with no problems mate, it is also able to run vista.
i am having the same card installed on my new pc, which is why i suggested it, i am having xp on mine

T1