Jump to content

New Laptop/PC Advice -Please Read the Opening Post


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 5k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

On 07/11/2019 at 21:37, kevhamster said:

https://www.box.co.uk/4AU93EAABU-HP-Paviilion-15-cw0008na_2356478.html

This one is decent for that money.  My own laptop has the same CPU as this, and it runs FM19 nicely with 8 leagues loaded with all divisions (England, Scotland, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain) and the integrated graphics is strong enough to play 3D at high settings.

I've been unable to test it with the FM20 beta as it's the laptop itself has been away for repair, but as it ran FM19 nicely, I don't think FM20 would be any different.

 

Or, there's this one:

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/dell-inspiron-14-5000-14-amd-ryzen-5-laptop-256-gb-ssd-silver-10193797-pdt.html

This has a newer version of the Ryzen 5, and appears to be a bit stronger on the benchmarking sites.

The tradeoff here being the smaller screen (still full HD resolution, but 14" rather than 15.7"), and less storage space - but the storage is entirely SSD on this one, so the PC as a whole should run quicker (but I'm told SSD compared to mechanical hard drive has minimal impact on FM's performance).

Either of these should suit your needs - if you don't mind having a slightly smaller screen and less storage, the Currys one is probably the one out of these two to go for.

 

I've ordered the Dell from Currys, I get £50 off marked price and a further 10% from my wife's staff discount, £450 seems reasonable.

Thanks again 

Link to post
Share on other sites

I posted in this thread a week or so ago asking for opinions on a fairly budget laptop I was eyeing up. I was told fairly bluntly that it wasn't good enough and i'd have to double my budget and I must be lying/mistaken in thinking I'd managed to do things I said I did on a similar spec some years ago. Which, y'know... was helpful.

Anyway, I thought something that might actually be helpful is to post to say I bought a budget laptop; this Acer: https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/acer-aspire-5-a515-43-15-6-amd-ryzen-5-laptop-256-gb-ssd-silver-10198290-pdt.html

I've gone budget because I'm only really buying it for FM20 and some photo editing/cataloguing so couldn't justify forking out any more than this. I've now played through my first pre-season on the FM20 Beta and, with a Large Database and 12 leagues across 5 nations, i'm finding the performance perfectly acceptable for me. 'Continuing' doesn't happen instantly every time, but  when there is a delay it's just a few second's. The 3D match engine runs pretty smoothly, although the edges are a little rough on the visuals. Doing player searches in the Scouting area again takes a couple of seconds to show the results, but it's all perfectly playable for me and i'm happy with my purchase.

As someone who's played FM since the CM days of the 90s where you'd have to leave your machine for a few hours to process at the end of each season, a few seconds here and there and a slightly less slick looking match engine isn't a a problem at all. So, if you are able to adjust/align your expectations to a similar scenario, a budget laptop of a spec similar to this one i've bought (Ebuyer do a Lenovo for the same price and spec) can be perfectly fine. Currys also accept trade-ins on any laptop with windows 8 or newer, so you can get some further money off too.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have a budget of £1000 to spend. It's not my money so I'm happy to spend all of it. It's a scheme through work where I can get any laptop up to £1000 and they will give it back to me. 

I'm assuming any laptop at that price will do all the work stuff I need (Office, Visio, Project, large Excel data sets) so I guess FM will be the most intensive thing I'll run on it. 

Does anyone have any recommendations for laptops at that price? I want to get the most for the money to ensure its as future proof as possible. 

Thanks

Edited by DamianJMcGrath
Link to post
Share on other sites

On 07/11/2019 at 10:14, SamheinWitchKilla said:

Looking at getting a new laptop soon, possibly waiting til black Friday, will say my budget is around £600, but we'll see.

All I'll really be using it for is playing FM and Sims 4.

Currently when I play FM, my laptop sounds like a jet engine and I can hear it even without my hearing aids in.

I don't play in 3D, I use only commentary, however I load a lot of leagues.

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/1690000

Around your budget, one of the best processors you'll get for that price, decent graphics card, should run both FM and Sims 4 without a problem.

Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, DamianJMcGrath said:

I have a budget of £1000 to spend. It's not my money so I'm happy to spend all of it. It's a scheme through work where I can get any laptop up to £1000 and they will give it back to me. 

I'm assuming any laptop at that price will do all the work stuff I need (Office, Visio, Project, large Excel data sets) so I guess FM will be the most intensive thing I'll run on it. 

Does anyone have any recommendations for laptops at that price? I want to get the most for the money to ensure its as future proof as possible. 

Thanks

I'd go with this: https://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system/MSI-GF63-Thin-9SC-418UK

Best laptop processor available, good graphics card, 16GB RAM, and both an SSD to quickly boot up the laptop, and 1TB of space on another hard drive.

Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, JordanMillward_1 said:

I'd go with this: https://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system/MSI-GF63-Thin-9SC-418UK

Best laptop processor available, good graphics card, 16GB RAM, and both an SSD to quickly boot up the laptop, and 1TB of space on another hard drive.

Compared to the £600 laptop you commented on above, do you think I'd notice the difference? 

Link to post
Share on other sites

On 08/11/2019 at 09:57, kevhamster said:

Basically they've got the best benchmarking scores I've seen, suggesting they're very good! 

These computers have CPUs have what are advertised as super efficient CPUs. What I read this as is the base clock speed is kept low so they're more power efficient, but the clock speed gets increased automatically up to the turbo speed as required. 

So, whilst the clock speeds appear low, I would imagine these run FM nicely? 

Can I guarantee that? No. But the benchmarking sites work by getting users to get their computers to do certain tasks, the sites record how they perform in these tasks and that's where the scores come from. And the CPUs these machines use have the highest scores I've seen.

 

 

Thank you for all your help! Final question just wondering: while the Dell performed better in benchmarking and cpu would the surface laptop be more beneficial because it still did well but has a better graphics card? Will that lead to the most well rounded experience for football manager and the Sims?

Link to post
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, JordanMillward_1 said:

I'd go with this: https://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system/MSI-GF63-Thin-9SC-418UK

Best laptop processor available, good graphics card, 16GB RAM, and both an SSD to quickly boot up the laptop, and 1TB of space on another hard drive.

@Smurf I saw you recommend https://www.box.co.uk/9S7-17F212-252-16GB-MSI-GF75-Thin-9SC_2759297.html earlier in this thread.

With a budget of £1,000, would you say your link or Jordan's link is a better buy?

Link to post
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, DamianJMcGrath said:

@Smurf I saw you recommend https://www.box.co.uk/9S7-17F212-252-16GB-MSI-GF75-Thin-9SC_2759297.html earlier in this thread.

With a budget of £1,000, would you say your link or Jordan's link is a better buy?

They're both nearly identical.

On the cyberpower one if you can add more ram then go for that.

Link to post
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, DamianJMcGrath said:

Yeah from what I can tell, the differences is i5 vs i7, and 8GB RAM v 16Gb RAM. What do you feel is more important?

Well screen size is also different.

Obviously the i7 with the 16gb ram would be best.

Link to post
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, PrincessHammer said:

Thank you for all your help! Final question just wondering: while the Dell performed better in benchmarking and cpu would the surface laptop be more beneficial because it still did well but has a better graphics card? Will that lead to the most well rounded experience for football manager and the Sims?

Neither of them mention a dedicated graphics card that I can see, so I wouldn't like to speculate on which one is better in that regard. 

Graphics cards are not important when it comes to FM.  They're a nice to have to play at the highest 3D settings, but a halfway decent CPU should be good enough to display 3D at medium to high settings. 

I'm not so sure about The Sims though. 

Edited by kevhamster
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Smurf said:

Yes I can, that's perfect. I was trying to built in on pcspecialist by adding the components and it was getting £1300+. That spec looks ideal, thanks for finding it for me. Last question (promise!), do you trust cyberpowersystem? I've never heard of it. In a perfect world, I'd get it off Amazon for peace of mind if anything goes wrong. I trust your opinion on here though. Do you think it's OK?

Link to post
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, DamianJMcGrath said:

Yes I can, that's perfect. I was trying to built in on pcspecialist by adding the components and it was getting £1300+. That spec looks ideal, thanks for finding it for me. Last question (promise!), do you trust cyberpowersystem? I've never heard of it. In a perfect world, I'd get it off Amazon for peace of mind if anything goes wrong. I trust your opinion on here though. Do you think it's OK?

Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 9750H (2.6GHz, 4.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 - 4.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 1500MB/sR | 1000MB/sW)
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
 

Price: £1,102.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.ie/saved-configurations/optimusX-v2-17/hwNt2dJZQz/

 

There you go - choice is yours. 

Section 6 in the link to configure the install of which Web Browser etc.

 

Edited by Smurf
Link to post
Share on other sites

I bought a new laptop recently and pretty much bought the cheapest i could find. I always do this as my requirements are fairly basic, just browsing and FM which said laptop always ran albeit slowly at times.

This time however i foolishly bought a Linux one which obviously doesn't support FM20. I am considering trying to sell this one and pick up another cheapish one that will play FM. Wondering if the below would support it? I know it's only got 4GB RAM vs the recomended 8GB but i'm only really concerned with if it will play. I'm not really worried if it will be a bit slow or if you can't load many leagues etc. Appreciate any advice.

GEO Book 1 11.6" Intel® Celeron® Laptop - 32 GB eMMC, Black

Windows 10
Intel® Celeron® N4000 Processor
RAM: 4 GB / Storage: 32 GB eMMC
Full HD display

Link to post
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Degag said:

I bought a new laptop recently and pretty much bought the cheapest i could find. I always do this as my requirements are fairly basic, just browsing and FM which said laptop always ran albeit slowly at times.

This time however i foolishly bought a Linux one which obviously doesn't support FM20. I am considering trying to sell this one and pick up another cheapish one that will play FM. Wondering if the below would support it? I know it's only got 4GB RAM vs the recomended 8GB but i'm only really concerned with if it will play. I'm not really worried if it will be a bit slow or if you can't load many leagues etc. Appreciate any advice.

GEO Book 1 11.6" Intel® Celeron® Laptop - 32 GB eMMC, Black

Windows 10
Intel® Celeron® N4000 Processor
RAM: 4 GB / Storage: 32 GB eMMC
Full HD display

You could just buy a windows license

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/247804/how-to-remove-linux-and-install-windows-on-your-computer

In terms of playabity - not a chance in high heavens.

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, DamianJMcGrath said:

Yes I can, that's perfect. I was trying to built in on pcspecialist by adding the components and it was getting £1300+. That spec looks ideal, thanks for finding it for me. Last question (promise!), do you trust cyberpowersystem? I've never heard of it. In a perfect world, I'd get it off Amazon for peace of mind if anything goes wrong. I trust your opinion on here though. Do you think it's OK?

I've bought 3 full PCs and a laptop from them over the past 5 years (PC each for me, the missus and my stepson, and a laptop to take away with us on holiday, etc), and never had a single issue with them, and had good customer service whenever I needed to contact them.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Just now, kevhamster said:

What sort of setup are you looking for with FM?  And what else would you be looking to use the laptop for?

I'm happy with the standard 5 leagues, but would like to watch the game in 3D. I'd also use it for general internet browsing, Microsoft.

Link to post
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Bugdog7 said:

I'm happy with the standard 5 leagues, but would like to watch the game in 3D. I'd also use it for general internet browsing, Microsoft.

Should be absolutely fine for that.  I'd imagine it should be able to manage at least medium settings for 3D (possibly more, but couldn't swear to it.  I have a 5th gen i3 which played FM19's 3D at medium, and this is a higher spec core CPU and a newer generation).

Edited by kevhamster
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, kevhamster said:

Should be absolutely fine for that.  I'd imagine it should be able to manage at least medium settings for 3D (possibly more, but couldn't swear to it.  I have a 5th gen i3 which played FM19's 3D at medium, and this is a higher spec core CPU and a newer generation).

Ok sweet. Thanks for your help mate!

Link to post
Share on other sites

It's really not easy to settle for a laptop...

Had decided to go for the Lenovo Ideapad l340, but i dont like the cooling system it has - wich is underneath the laptop. 

So now i have decided to go for the Lenovo Legion y540 with the Intel core i5-9300H. It  seems to have a much better cooling system. So i was about to order it, but now im wondering on one more thing:

Is it worth to pay around £250 extra to get the Core i7-9750H? Or will the i5 be more than good enough for FM?

Im only using this for FM.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • SI Staff

I would say, likely no its not going to give you such a large boost, certainly to be worth £250, the only exception in FM terms would be if you like to play with lots of leagues set to full detail in the detail level screen (that is using the full match engine) but even then not really sure its worth £250!

Link to post
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, EdL said:

I would say, likely no its not going to give you such a large boost, certainly to be worth £250, the only exception in FM terms would be if you like to play with lots of leagues set to full detail in the detail level screen (that is using the full match engine) but even then not really sure its worth £250!

I usually dont have more than 5-6 leagues selected..

One more thing: It has 8Gb ram. Will that be enough or should i upgrade to 16? And what exactly does ram do for you in FM?

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • SI Staff

8GB is enough for FM itself, then it depends how much other stuff you want to have open at the same time, FM with 5 leagues I'd be surprised if you ever exceed 2GB used, depends a bit on graphics detail level though.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hey, was just wondering if this would be a decent option? 

https://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=7ZF76EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB

Budget is probably up to about £500 ideally, used to work at HP and still get some money off there which brings it down to roughly £340. Seems alright to me, but I know next to nothing about AMD tech so thought I'd just double check! Would only really use it for FM/the web/running the odd (non-intensive) python script.

Thanks guys!

Link to post
Share on other sites

59 minutes ago, stats94 said:

Hey, was just wondering if this would be a decent option? 

https://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=7ZF76EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB

Budget is probably up to about £500 ideally, used to work at HP and still get some money off there which brings it down to roughly £340. Seems alright to me, but I know next to nothing about AMD tech so thought I'd just double check! Would only really use it for FM/the web/running the odd (non-intensive) python script.

Thanks guys!

Depends largely on what sort of setup on FM you want.  Seems to score very closely to the Ryzen 5 2500U I have in single core performance.

It won't be Earth-shatteringly quick, but if you don't run a ton of leagues it should be acceptable.  For reference, I run 8 countries with all divisions on mine and find the speed to be fine.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi Everyone. Looking to get a laptop, mainly for FM20 but also to do a bit of light work as well.

I would normally load either the top 2 leagues from 4/5 countries or all leagues from 2/3 countries. I would only use 2D graphics and would ideally like a large database but could cope with medium.

 

Budget wise I am looking to do it as cheap as possible really as I’m not going to be spending hours on end playing each day. But I am happy to push the boat out a bit further if it means getting a much better machine.

I do have access to 20% off laptops at Very.co.uk (including sale).

After having a quick look I have come across these and wondered if the first one would run FM and my needs smoothly and if the second one would be worth the extra money. I am also more than happy to look at alternatives on Very or elsewhere if there is anything that stands out.

Cheap option. Would cost around £265 after discount...would it run FM smoothly?

https://www.very.co.uk/lenovo-ideapad-330snbspintel-core-i3-8130u-8gb-ram-128gb-ssd-14-inch-full-hd-laptop-grey/1600408613.prd

 

Other option - is it worth the price difference? Would be £440 after discount.

 

https://www.very.co.uk/asus-fx505dy-bq009t-amd-ryzen-5-8gb-ram-256gb-ssd-amd-rx560x-graphics-156-inch-full-hdnbspgaming-laptop-black/1600420476.prd

 

Any help would be massively appreciated! Matt

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi Everyone,

Currently looking at purchasing the Macbook Pro 2019 version but only the most basic model.

Will FM2020 work ok with the below spec please?

  • 1.4GHz quad-core 8th-generation Intel Core i5 processor
  • Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
  • Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645
  • 8GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 memory
  • 128GB SSD storage1

Cheers 

Link to post
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, mbourne said:

Cheap option. Would cost around £265 after discount...would it run FM smoothly?

https://www.very.co.uk/lenovo-ideapad-330snbspintel-core-i3-8130u-8gb-ram-128gb-ssd-14-inch-full-hd-laptop-grey/1600408613.prd

 

Other option - is it worth the price difference? Would be £440 after discount.

https://www.very.co.uk/asus-fx505dy-bq009t-amd-ryzen-5-8gb-ram-256gb-ssd-amd-rx560x-graphics-156-inch-full-hdnbspgaming-laptop-black/1600420476.prd

 

Any help would be massively appreciated! Matt

Much of a muchness - the first one has no graphics card except the internal one on the cpu.

The other one has a slightly lesser processor - but a graphics card.

I'd go on the 2nd one if you want to play graphics on a slightly higher setting.

1 hour ago, Pies_1988 said:

Hi Everyone,

Currently looking at purchasing the Macbook Pro 2019 version but only the most basic model.

Will FM2020 work ok with the below spec please?

  • 1.4GHz quad-core 8th-generation Intel Core i5 processor
  • Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
  • Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645
  • 8GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 memory
  • 128GB SSD storage1

Cheers 

Well min spec for a mac is 1.8ghz. 

But should do - the 128gb storage will be a stumbling block about 6 months down the road.

Link to post
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Smurf said:

Much of a muchness - the first one has no graphics card except the internal one on the cpu.

The other one has a slightly lesser processor - but a graphics card.

I'd go on the 2nd one if you want to play graphics on a slightly higher setting.

Well min spec for a mac is 1.8ghz. 

But should do - the 128gb storage will be a stumbling block about 6 months down the road.

Cheers, hoping it would be fine. Don't usually run many leagues, usually just the English ones. In terms of the 128gb - stumbling block for FM or in general terms?

Link to post
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Pies_1988 said:

Cheers, hoping it would be fine. Don't usually run many leagues, usually just the English ones. In terms of the 128gb - stumbling block for FM or in general terms?

IN general. Might need to get yourself an external drive.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi,

I’m looking at buying a new laptop mainly for uni work and FM! My budget is roughly £400 but could be willing to go higher for a good deal! Usually look to play 5 English Leagues, 2 German and 1 Spanish if this is possible? Graphics aren’t overly important to me , playing in 3D would be a bonus but certainly not essential. Have had a little look online and wonder if any of the 3 below would be ok.

Lenovo IdeaPad S340

  • AMD Ryzen 3200U
  • RAM 8GB / 128GB SSD GB

HP 15s-fq0002na

  • Intel® Core™ i3-7020U (2.3 GHz base frequency, 3 MB cache, 2 cores)
  • 8 GB memory; 128 GB SSD storage

Acer Aspire 5

  • AMD Ryzen 5 3500U Processor
  • RAM: 8 GB / Storage: 256 GB SSD

Thanks in Advance

Link to post
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Smurf said:

Much of a muchness - the first one has no graphics card except the internal one on the cpu.

The other one has a slightly lesser processor - but a graphics card.

I'd go on the 2nd one if you want to play graphics on a slightly higher setting.

Thanks for the feedback. Do you think the first one would run quite smoothly? If I were to run 4/5 countries with top 2 leagues or all leagues in England?

£265 just seems like a really good deal but obviously only if I can play the game.

 

cheers. Matt

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi everyone, FM19 was my first year playing FM. Played it on an old 2013 mac book air, which was pretty slow but ok. Looking to get a laptop that's hopefully little faster. Usually I play long term saves with 10-12 leagues loaded. I also play in 2D, but watch 3D replays of goals.

My budget is around $600 - $700 (I think thats like £450 to £550).

Thanks in advance! 

Edited by hammersnc
Link to post
Share on other sites

I want to buy a new laptop for FM 20 and want your opinion. I like to play 3D with high graphics, Quick loading and a good database for the next years. 

I found a laptop of Asus with this specs: 15,6 inch, RAM 16GB, Nvidia GeForce GTX1050 with 4GB workmemory, Full HD(1080p), refresh rate of 60hz, Intel core i7, turbo speed 4,1GHz, cash memory 9MB, SSD(256GB) +HDD (1000GB)

What's your opinion? 

Link to post
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Pietervdl said:

I want to buy a new laptop for FM 20 and want your opinion. I like to play 3D with high graphics, Quick loading and a good database for the next years. 

I found a laptop of Asus with this specs: 15,6 inch, RAM 16GB, Nvidia GeForce GTX1050 with 4GB workmemory, Full HD(1080p), refresh rate of 60hz, Intel core i7, turbo speed 4,1GHz, cash memory 9MB, SSD(256GB) +HDD (1000GB)

What's your opinion? 

OR is it beter to have a refresh rate of 120-144 Hz

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...