Clueless on laptops - advice please

Okay so a colleague at work was told I knew my stuff on computers (people exaggerate - I know a bit but I'm no Bill Gates) and wants to know if a laptop he saw on sale in PC World will run FM2011. I said I'd check it out cause all he gave me was that it had a 500G HD and 4G RAM.

I think it's this one.

I'm pretty sure the 4G RAM and the 2.3GHz CPU will run the game no problems but is there going to be a hang up over the integrated graphics?

Is anyone using something like this and having few problems? He says he's not desperate to run a barrel load of leagues and the last time he was able to play FM there was no 3D graphics so I'm sure he can make do without.

I'm not really up on my laptop components parts. I'm tempted to say he'll get by but just wanted some clarification. I'm more worried about him going to PCWorld to be honest .

It meets the minimum requirements for the game so 2D should be fine.

Hard to say whether 3D would run but integrated graphics can be very limited in running games.

In my personal experience HP are worth avoiding and PC World haven't got the greatest reputation either!

Yeah I'm not overly impressed with PCWorld either. With them a sale comes first and good advice second. I guess it's understandable that they want to make a sale but some of their advice is a tad worrying, and I've been on the end of it.

This colleague is likely not on the biggest budget though, and if PCWorld can be good for one thing it's being able to make big discounts. £200 odd off of a laptop is pretty good and he gets all the free helplines that help a computing novice.

Their constant pressure to buy Norton or McAfee is a sin.

Thanks for the advice. FM is the only game he wants to play on the laptop so I think I'll suggest he go for it with a few pointers about the graphics.

It would run FM brilliantly! Fast processor and lots of RAM is all you really need. I just bought a machine of similar spec and it rinses through the game, leaves my old 1.6Ghz 1.5MB RAM laptop for dead. The processor on the link above is good, but if possible the intel i series are newer and worth spending a little more to get. Mine's an i3 with 4gb ram and is very fast, my brother in law has an i5 with 2gb, both good. But i5 is more expensive. An i3 with 2gn + of ram would be very good and i'd say probably worth getting above dedicated graphics.

Integrated graphics should still be able to run 3d match highlight, could on my last one that only had intel integrated graphics, i never tried it on the highest setting but it was certainly watchable. Either way that's a good FM laptop. If you're mate plays other games as well (why would he!) on his laptop that are more graphics intensive it may be worth going for one with dedicated graphics card, but for laptops they are expensive and can add £70+ onto the price.

edit ** reading the comments above have a look on ebuyer and itv247. Or i got mine direct from Dell, had a great offer on, they tend to have them very so often.

I have integrated graphics that have some didacted to gaming and it plays FM no probs at all