FM24 - PC/Laptop advice thread *** PLEASE READ OPENING POST BEFORE POSTING ***

[joshpmilton]

Just now, kevhamster said:

What's your budget?  Automobilista is very demanding looking at the system requirements, so if you're looking at a laptop it's probably going to be a sizeable chunk of cash to get ideal performance. 

That one is more hopeful, so can absolutely park it if necessary. Ideally around the £1,000 mark, but would be willing to go a bit higher if I can consider it an long term investment.

[kevhamster]

23 minutes ago, joshpmilton said:

That one is more hopeful, so can absolutely park it if necessary. Ideally around the £1,000 mark, but would be willing to go a bit higher if I can consider it an long term investment.

The best overall I can come up with is this: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/optimusXI-15/dj48Ma3beQ/

The graphics card is below the recommended for Automobilista (Steam says the recommended is a GTX 1080), but still above the minimum so should still run it, just not at maxed out settings. 

[Smurf]

4 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

The best overall I can come up with is this: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/optimusXI-15/dj48Ma3beQ/

The graphics card is below the recommended for Automobilista (Steam says the recommended is a GTX 1080), but still above the minimum so should still run it, just not at maxed out settings. 

Price: £1,240.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/nova-15/UPuEy8RvAy/

 

I am a bit over but wanted the 3600 which is not in stock. On my phone in the car so not sure if this cuts the mustard. What do you think?

[kevhamster]

16 minutes ago, Smurf said:

Price: £1,240.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/nova-15/UPuEy8RvAy/

 

I am a bit over but wanted the 3600 which is not in stock. On my phone in the car so not sure if this cuts the mustard. What do you think?

That's definitely stronger on the CPU for sure. There's seemingly not a vast gap between the 1660Ti and the 2060 (aside from the 2060 being better with ray tracing) but still a bit of a gap for sure.

I'm amazed how strong the 1080 is even today. You have to go to the 2080 to get stronger performance and that still goes for stupid money. 

 

Edited November 21, 2020 by kevhamster

[joshpmilton]

Thanks both, really helpful as ever. Certainly a lot to mull over before pulling the trigger. Always found it incredibly difficult to decipher the difference in performance between all the different but very similar numbers!

[kevhamster]

12 minutes ago, joshpmilton said:

Thanks both, really helpful as ever. Certainly a lot to mull over before pulling the trigger. Always found it incredibly difficult to decipher the difference in performance between all the different but very similar numbers!

Yeah, it can be tricky!

[TN18]

Hi guys, 

Looking for a laptop solely for fm21 only really. I have seen the following and wondered which one you would recommend; 

https://ao.com/product/82b50042uk-lenovo-laptop-black-76931-251.aspx
 

https://www.box.co.uk/1L6E9EAABU-HP-Pavilion-Gaming-15-dk1005na_2958256.html
 

https://www.box.co.uk/NH.Q87EK.002-Acer-Aspire-7-Gaming-A715-75G_2934480.html
 

Or anything else up to a budget of about £750

thank you! 

[kevhamster]

26 minutes ago, TN18 said:

Hi guys, 

Looking for a laptop solely for fm21 only really. I have seen the following and wondered which one you would recommend; 

https://ao.com/product/82b50042uk-lenovo-laptop-black-76931-251.aspx
 

https://www.box.co.uk/1L6E9EAABU-HP-Pavilion-Gaming-15-dk1005na_2958256.html
 

https://www.box.co.uk/NH.Q87EK.002-Acer-Aspire-7-Gaming-A715-75G_2934480.html
 

Or anything else up to a budget of about £750

thank you! 

The top one. Best CPU, although it is pretty close between the top 2.

[Alannnnn]

49 minutes ago, TN18 said:

Hi guys, 

Looking for a laptop solely for fm21 only really. I have seen the following and wondered which one you would recommend; 

https://ao.com/product/82b50042uk-lenovo-laptop-black-76931-251.aspx
 

https://www.box.co.uk/1L6E9EAABU-HP-Pavilion-Gaming-15-dk1005na_2958256.html
 

https://www.box.co.uk/NH.Q87EK.002-Acer-Aspire-7-Gaming-A715-75G_2934480.html
 

Or anything else up to a budget of about £750

thank you! 

I got the HP one and it's a solid machine. Can't think of any issues I've had with it at all. Usually there is some little issue, but it's been faultless

[Smurf]

@kevhamster@EdL @Brother Benand anyone else

Is there something I'm missing with the 10875H? https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/202329/intel-core-i7-10875h-processor-16m-cache-up-to-5-10-ghz.html

I'm looking at this for myself
https://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?productcode=WCE81YU001UUK

And it says max RAM 32gb - but Intel site says differnt

What do you think? Anything similar, better?

[kevhamster]

2 minutes ago, Smurf said:

@kevhamster@EdL @Brother Benand anyone else

Is there something I'm missing with the 10875H? https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/202329/intel-core-i7-10875h-processor-16m-cache-up-to-5-10-ghz.html

I'm looking at this for myself
https://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?productcode=WCE81YU001UUK

And it says max RAM 32gb - but Intel site says differnt

What do you think? Anything similar, better?

My understanding is the max RAM is dictated by the mobo rather than the CPU, so in that model it could well be the case. 

Looks solid though, the 2070 is basically the successor to the 1070, so a cracking graphics card. 

I've been very impressed with how my 1660 Super has performed at 1080p and the 2070 is a level above that. 

[Smurf]

9 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

My understanding is the max RAM is dictated by the mobo rather than the CPU, so in that model it could well be the case. 

Looks solid though, the 2070 is basically the successor to the 1070, so a cracking graphics card. 

I've been very impressed with how my 1660 Super has performed at 1080p and the 2070 is a level above that. 

Toying with the idea of getting it. Can't believe the MoBo is restricted to 32gb here? That's insane right???

Would prefer a more powerful graphics card. 

What I started looking for was a laptop with the best processor but they are hard to come by. 

I finally settled on a blend of processor and graphics - but put off by limitation of RAM. 

It's not that money is no object, I'm about a year away from buying, so just scouting, but in the year and previous savings I can make a good go at a top spec.

[kevhamster]

5 minutes ago, Smurf said:

Toying with the idea of getting it. Can't believe the MoBo is restricted to 32gb here? That's insane right???

Would prefer a more powerful graphics card. 

What I started looking for was a laptop with the best processor but they are hard to come by. 

I finally settled on a blend of processor and graphics - but put off by limitation of RAM. 

It's not that money is no object, I'm about a year away from buying, so just scouting, but in the year and previous savings I can make a good go at a top spec.

There's always this: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/recoil-IV-15/7vp4B9K3ND/

A bit more than the prebuilt one you linked, but with 64GB RAM if you want to go full on crazy and a 2080!

[EdL]

21 minutes ago, Smurf said:

Toying with the idea of getting it. Can't believe the MoBo is restricted to 32gb here? That's insane right???

 

Pretty common for a mobo to have a smaller limit than the actual CPU, especially for laptops

[Brother Ben]

@Smurf 

Kev is right it's dictated by the motherboard, its one of the areas laptop manufacturers look to cut costs in the same way that prebuilt desktop manufacturers almost always ship with sub-par power supplies.  Thats not to say it won't be great, it probably is it's just limited for your needs

I'm a little out of the loop with current laptops but much like yourself i'd just be looking at the best processor I could find (at least we know now that at least for FM the performance equates almost exactly to the link you mentioned earlier) and then everything else is a bonus.

Also i'd probably spend an unhealthy amount of time looking at written and video reviews  

As you said though, plenty of time.  The FM21 benchmarking thread could end up changing your thinking entirely..

Edited November 21, 2020 by Brother Ben

[EdL]

Honestly I'd be poorly inclined to buy Intel anything right now, the power consumption/heat vs performance is just much worse than AMD and especially the new Apple ARM, shows how far behind Intel are.

[Smurf]

Thanks for the advice. I hate buying stuff for myself. I am a graphic designer by trade, and hate designing stuff for myself. I actually have a graphic designer to design my stuff....weird right... actually I design stuff for them so it's a good relationship. 

I can never make a decision based on my own itterations or thoughts. I really appreaciate the feedback, it focuses me.

 

[kevhamster]

7 minutes ago, Smurf said:

Thanks for the advice. I hate buying stuff for myself. I am a graphic designer by trade, and hate designing stuff for myself. I actually have a graphic designer to design my stuff....weird right... actually I design stuff for them so it's a good relationship. 

I can never make a decision based on my own itterations or thoughts. I really appreaciate the feedback, it focuses me.

 

I know what you mean.... I agonised over what specs to get my desktop when I decided I was going to buy one.  Thankfully, I'm definitely happy with my choice!

[Marki]

13 minutes ago, Brother Ben said:

Also i'd probably spend an unhealthy amount of time looking at written and video reviews

This! Looking at half the laptops mentioned on here and seeing negatives re fan noise/heat and/or poor screens is scary. 

Not a pop at the guys taking their time to help but people should look at the bigger picture and pure spec is only half the story. 

Warranty and after care are also important. My current Dell is one I would recommend but I had a 4 year warranty on it which meant the screen replacement, Bluetooth replacement and fan replacement cost me much less than it would have done without the warranty. If you are shelling out up to £1k or more surely you want some surety around your “investment”   

[Brother Ben]

6 minutes ago, Smurf said:

Thanks for the advice. I hate buying stuff for myself. I am a graphic designer by trade, and hate designing stuff for myself. I actually have a graphic designer to design my stuff....weird right... actually I design stuff for them so it's a good relationship. 

I can never make a decision based on my own itterations or thoughts. I really appreaciate the feedback, it focuses me.

 

I know exactly what you mean.  I really want a new system but I keep waiting for the next best thing but FM is the only thing I use that really taxes my processor and tbh it still runs fine on my old 4th gen machine

Like I said though the benchmarking for FM21 may well change your mind a lot

[Brother Ben]

Just now, Marki said:

This! Looking at half the laptops mentioned on here and seeing negatives re fan noise/heat and/or poor screens is scary. 

Not a pop at the guys taking their time to help but people should look at the bigger picture and pure spec is only half the story. 

Warranty and after care are also important. My current Dell is one I would recommend but I had a 4 year warranty on it which meant the screen replacement, Bluetooth replacement and fan replacement cost me much less than it would have done without the warranty. If you are shelling out up to £1k or more surely you want some surety around your “investment”   

You're correct of course however as you allude to there is only so much the guys here can do really

In fairness I notice that Box/Laptops direct (same company) get recommended a lot (they are amongst the cheapest) and their aftercare is pretty spot on.  I've got a few things from them and the one issue I did have was dealt with pretty quickly

Also a lot of people on this thread give feedback after they purchase too so there's a certain amount of reassurance there but at the end of the day its just standard due diligence that people need to do before they purchase anything I suppose

[Marki]

5 minutes ago, Brother Ben said:

You're correct of course however as you allude to there is only so much the guys here can do really

In fairness I notice that Box/Laptops direct (same company) get recommended a lot (they are amongst the cheapest) and their aftercare is pretty spot on.  I've got a few things from them and the one issue I did have was dealt with pretty quickly

Also a lot of people on this thread give feedback after they purchase too so there's a certain amount of reassurance there but at the end of the day its just standard due diligence that people need to do before they purchase anything I suppose

Caveat emptor I guess!

 

[ak71]

Hi, 

Just wish to check before purchase.

Thought of getting this laptop to play FM21 only and future FM iteration.  On top of that, would also use it to do some other work related stuffs with Microsoft Office. 

Razer Blade Pro 17 Gaming Laptop (EARLY 2020) (I7-10875H/NVIDIA RTX2070 8GB Max-Q /16GB/512GB SSD/17.3"FHD 300Hz /W10) - RZ09-03297E42-R341 

The price is about £2,000.

Will it be an overkill..?

Thanks. 🙂✌🏾

[kevhamster]

12 minutes ago, Marki said:

Caveat emptor I guess!

 

Exactly - we advise on specs which are suitable for the game.  We can't comment on the reliability or otherwise on a specific model, and even good designs will have bad units.

[Bowlesy95]

Hi all, I’m looking for a laptop purely to play the new FM and maybe have Spotify on in the background, after playing the touch version on a Nintendo switch for the last couple of years, I have a budget of around anything between £500-£800.  

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-pavilion-15-cw1598sa-15-6-amd-ryzen-7-laptop-512-gb-ssd-silver-10193332-pdt.html

would this laptop be a good choice or is there anything better for a similar price? I want to be able to run quite a lot of nations and leagues 

 

 

[EdL]

18 minutes ago, ak71 said:

Hi, 

Just wish to check before purchase.

Thought of getting this laptop to play FM21 only and future FM iteration.  On top of that, would also use it to do some other work related stuffs with Microsoft Office. 

Razer Blade Pro 17 Gaming Laptop (EARLY 2020) (I7-10875H/NVIDIA RTX2070 8GB Max-Q /16GB/512GB SSD/17.3"FHD 300Hz /W10) - RZ09-03297E42-R341 

The price is about £2,000.

Will it be an overkill..?

Thanks. 🙂✌🏾

yep! I'm sure you could get a machine to play FM as well for half the price

[kevhamster]

19 minutes ago, ak71 said:

Hi, 

Just wish to check before purchase.

Thought of getting this laptop to play FM21 only and future FM iteration.  On top of that, would also use it to do some other work related stuffs with Microsoft Office. 

Razer Blade Pro 17 Gaming Laptop (EARLY 2020) (I7-10875H/NVIDIA RTX2070 8GB Max-Q /16GB/512GB SSD/17.3"FHD 300Hz /W10) - RZ09-03297E42-R341 

The price is about £2,000.

Will it be an overkill..?

Thanks. 🙂✌🏾

Technically, yes it would be overkill as you don't need a 2070 for FM.  

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/optimusXI-pro-17/sBXgT0azxJ/

That would do the same, but with the 2060 rather than the 2070, which is still technically overkill.  This is just over £1,100.00, so a lot cheaper.

 

Edited November 21, 2020 by kevhamster
Typo

[kevhamster]

6 minutes ago, Bowlesy95 said:

Hi all, I’m looking for a laptop purely to play the new FM and maybe have Spotify on in the background, after playing the touch version on a Nintendo switch for the last couple of years, I have a budget of around anything between £500-£800.  

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-pavilion-15-cw1598sa-15-6-amd-ryzen-7-laptop-512-gb-ssd-silver-10193332-pdt.html

would this laptop be a good choice or is there anything better for a similar price? I want to be able to run quite a lot of nations and leagues 

 

 

That is not a good deal at all.  The CPU is OK, but not great and comes with integrated graphics.  I think the price is bumped up due to the touchscreen.

This will save you some money, has a better CPU and a dedicated graphics card.  It does have smaller storage and less RAM, but I'd consider this a much better deal: https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/gaming/pc-gaming/gaming-laptops/msi-bravo-15-15-6-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-rx-5500m-256-gb-ssd-10206090-pdt.html

Edited November 21, 2020 by kevhamster

[ak71]

11 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

Technically, yes it would be overkill as you don't need a 2070 for FM.  

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/optimusXI-pro-17/sBXgT0azxJ/

That would do the same, but with the 2060 rather than the 2070, which is still technically overkill.  This is just over £1,100.00, so a lot cheaper.

 

Thanks, kevhamster for the prompt reply. Really appreciate. 🙂

[Bowlesy95]

8 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

That is not a good deal at all.  The CPU is OK, but not great and comes with integrated graphics.  I think the price is bumped up due to the touchscreen.

This will save you some money, has a better CPU and a dedicated graphics card.  It does have smaller storage and less RAM, but I'd consider this a much better deal: https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/gaming/pc-gaming/gaming-laptops/msi-bravo-15-15-6-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-rx-5500m-256-gb-ssd-10206090-pdt.html

Thank you so much for the advice! 

[VintageEnnis]

Hi, my budget is €500 euro but could stetch it out to this laptop if ye think it would be good to run FM.Also if ye do recommend it do ye think its at a decent price. 

Thanking you very much in advance and appreciate any advice.

DELL Inspiron 15 3000 15.6" Laptop - AMD Ryzen 5, 256 GB SSD, Black Fast Delivery | Currysie https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/dell-inspiron-15-3000-15-6-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-256-gb-ssd-black-10214380-pdt.html

[Gilberto Silva]

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/acer-nitro-5-15-6-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1650-256gb-ssd-obsidian-black/6413246.p?skuId=6413246&ref=212&loc=1&extStoreId=350&ref=212&loc=BM01&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkuP9BRCkARIsAKGLE8V6OBjVqC2KQaz20vR25OmU_CXxZfSZWuV-RPjAp368BqFlKOamzMMaArtxEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Can someone give me the low-down on this laptop? Will it run a decent amount of leagues and handle high match-engine graphics? 

[bryn23]

6 hours ago, EdL said:

Honestly I'd be poorly inclined to buy Intel anything right now, the power consumption/heat vs performance is just much worse than AMD and especially the new Apple ARM, shows how far behind Intel are.

It'll be interesting to see how Intel evolves, they need to up their game, maybe even look at moving away from X86

It would be amazing to see SI optimise FM for the ARM (M1 chipsets) seeing good speeds on the laptops, but optimising  it for ARM would have to be around an 50% speed increase bypassing rosetta 2

hopefully we will see 2022 optimised verison 

 

 

 

[vkastanas]

22 hours ago, Smurf said:

As far as I can see that MoBo is not sold anymore. I can't find any - but then again I'm not parts buyer, so I might be looking in the wrong places. 

 

Don't want the same motherboard. Do you have any suggestion for a mobo that can use my current cpu?

[Smurf]

9 hours ago, Brother Ben said:

I know exactly what you mean.  I really want a new system but I keep waiting for the next best thing but FM is the only thing I use that really taxes my processor and tbh it still runs fine on my old 4th gen machine

Like I said though the benchmarking for FM21 may well change your mind a lot

 

9 hours ago, Brother Ben said:

You're correct of course however as you allude to there is only so much the guys here can do really

In fairness I notice that Box/Laptops direct (same company) get recommended a lot (they are amongst the cheapest) and their aftercare is pretty spot on.  I've got a few things from them and the one issue I did have was dealt with pretty quickly

Also a lot of people on this thread give feedback after they purchase too so there's a certain amount of reassurance there but at the end of the day its just standard due diligence that people need to do before they purchase anything I suppose

 

8 hours ago, Marki said:

Caveat emptor I guess!

 

Exactly - here's the rub... I bought a brand new car - spent a LOT of money on it. And I am not a car buyer, I went to the market, did as many reviews as I could, and a lot of money to me might be a little to others. Nonetheless, I did my due dilligence and bought the car after a lot of research.

After 2 years and 6 months the RED light came on the engine. I brought it back and they fixed it. I was driving home the same night and the RED light came on. I was livid. So they took it back and fixed it again. A few days later it CAME on AGAIN! I was outraged. I again gave them the time to fix it - they had for two weeks (as it was a new car I got a loaner for free). I got the car back, the SAME evening it CAME ON AGAIN.

After about 6 months of this. I finally lost it with them and insisted they replace the car, which was my rights as a consumer. They insisted there wasn't an equivalent car I could get, but I wasn't backing down. 

I went on to their dealership, and found another car, same make, model, year, colour, mileage etc, it was on the other side of the country. I said to him - get me that car. And he did. He agreed. 

I've had that car, same make, colour, mileage, year, etc. as the other car that was so faulty, and I've had it now close to a year, and it's been nothing but fantastic. 

 

So there you go - you can get bogey buys. A crappy sensor quality, a bad electrical connection... there's so many things that can wrong, it's amazing they go right. 

[Smurf]

@kevhamster @EdL @Brother Ben Thanks lads, put my mind to ease, I thought I was missing a trick. Good advice on the Intel. I am leaning towards AMD. Heck, might lose the plot altogether and go Mac! I really don't have a budget, just have to find a way to hide it from the wife !!! But not having a budget is dangerous!

@Marki As you alude to we recommend computers to people, and I'd say 99.9% have a great experience with what we suggest. But, the problem is they are on a budget, there's a limit - and we always go by their budget. They might find a computer that's £600 and think it's great, but it's the wrong specs for FM, not really wrong, but not the best, and typically there is another laptop for £600 that is better for FM. 

At the end of the day - they want a laptop for FM, and money is important and you don't want to waste it. So we do our utmost best to find 1) The right specs for FM, 2) A good retailer that's reliable, 3) Within their budget.

Outside of that, there's not a lot we can do. I myself spent €900 ish on a new laptop in 2011 and it was crap for FM. I blew my money. And I don't want others to do the same. 

It's different now for me, it's 9 years later. I'm older, wiser, married, and have a very good job, so I'm at a stage in my life where I can buy something outrageous, something I've never been able to do before. So I'm going to do it. Just for once in my life.

I'm also a graphic desinger, so it's important to me to have something with longevity and over spec'd to counter the new releases of Creative Cloud for the next 10 years!  Hopefully!

[Smurf]

32 minutes ago, vkastanas said:

Don't want the same motherboard. Do you have any suggestion for a mobo that can use my current cpu?

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/?compatible_with=7V7CmG

[Mattwall28]

27 minutes ago, Smurf said:

@kevhamster @EdL @Brother Ben Thanks lads, put my mind to ease, I thought I was missing a trick. Good advice on the Intel. I am leaning towards AMD. Heck, might lose the plot altogether and go Mac! I really don't have a budget, just have to find a way to hide it from the wife !!! But not having a budget is dangerous!

@Marki As you alude to we recommend computers to people, and I'd say 99.9% have a great experience with what we suggest. But, the problem is they are on a budget, there's a limit - and we always go by their budget. They might find a computer that's £600 and think it's great, but it's the wrong specs for FM, not really wrong, but not the best, and typically there is another laptop for £600 that is better for FM. 

At the end of the day - they want a laptop for FM, and money is important and you don't want to waste it. So we do our utmost best to find 1) The right specs for FM, 2) A good retailer that's reliable, 3) Within their budget.

Outside of that, there's not a lot we can do. I myself spent €900 ish on a new laptop in 2011 and it was crap for FM. I blew my money. And I don't want others to do the same. 

It's different now for me, it's 9 years later. I'm older, wiser, married, and have a very good job, so I'm at a stage in my life where I can buy something outrageous, something I've never been able to do before. So I'm going to do it. Just for once in my life.

I'm also a graphic desinger, so it's important to me to have something with longevity and over spec'd to counter the new releases of Creative Cloud for the next 10 years!  Hopefully!

Do you think there is a laptop out there that can run FM  21 and future ones for £500? 3D, good amount of leagues etc

[craigdrfc]

Anyone had any experience of the below?? Good value for FM usage?

https://www.box.co.uk/laptops/refine/46562~191219$46562~191220$46563~67690$46564~148014$46565~144435$46567~201232$46572~175942$47295~148175$52043~154151$66088~168787$max~750$min~500

 

[Smurf]

6 minutes ago, Mattwall28 said:

Do you think there is a laptop out there that can run FM  21 and future ones for £500? 3D, good amount of leagues etc

You really just need to read the opening post. Kev covered it pretty well there.

The answer is ambiguos.

2 minutes ago, craigdrfc said:

Anyone had any experience of the below?? Good value for FM usage?

https://www.box.co.uk/laptops/refine/46562~191219$46562~191220$46563~67690$46564~148014$46565~144435$46567~201232$46572~175942$47295~148175$52043~154151$66088~168787$max~750$min~500

This is better https://www.box.co.uk/82B50042UK-Lenovo-Legion-5-15_2938438.html

[Nozzer]

Hi, recently got some advice on the older thread which was very much appreciated.  Unfortunately I've had a couple of unforeseen expenses that have made a pretty huge dent in my new PC budget

I'm after a new desktop that will be primarily used to play FM21 and future iterations.  Other uses would be internet surfing, watching videos on YouTube, kids homework and the playing of some older games from Steam and GOG.  KOTOR 1 and 2 as an example.  I would imagine all modern desktops will be able to handle my other uses no problem so I'm asking for the best FM21 desktop I can get for £500-£600  

I usually use PC World to buy PCs / Laptops but stuff from there does not get recommended much.  Is this due to bloatware and/or being able to get better value for money from other places?  My concern is I have not heard of the sites that are mainly used to recommended on this thread (although this is not a surprise as my PC knowledge is very low) so I'm wondering about things like customer services, guarantees, delivery etc

Thanks in advance

[Smurf]

20 minutes ago, Mattwall28 said:

Do you think there is a laptop out there that can run FM  21 and future ones for £500? 3D, good amount of leagues etc

For 500 this is probably the best you can get https://www.box.co.uk/53010WHT-001-Honor-MagicBook-14_2916295.html

As previously - you should read the opening thread as well.

[kevhamster]

24 minutes ago, Nozzer said:

Hi, recently got some advice on the older thread which was very much appreciated.  Unfortunately I've had a couple of unforeseen expenses that have made a pretty huge dent in my new PC budget

I'm after a new desktop that will be primarily used to play FM21 and future iterations.  Other uses would be internet surfing, watching videos on YouTube, kids homework and the playing of some older games from Steam and GOG.  KOTOR 1 and 2 as an example.  I would imagine all modern desktops will be able to handle my other uses no problem so I'm asking for the best FM21 desktop I can get for £500-£600  

I usually use PC World to buy PCs / Laptops but stuff from there does not get recommended much.  Is this due to bloatware and/or being able to get better value for money from other places?  My concern is I have not heard of the sites that are mainly used to recommended on this thread (although this is not a surprise as my PC knowledge is very low) so I'm wondering about things like customer services, guarantees, delivery etc

Thanks in advance

There's nothing sinister about Currys PC World, it's just that often you can get better deals in other places. They'll be no worse with bloatware than other retailers, as it's the manufacturers who add this rather than the retailer. 

This is literally £1 over the budget, but it's a good spec: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-home-office/ddc3BB8zr2/

If that is too much, this is my next suggestion. There's no dedicated graphics card on this one, but the integrated graphics on the Ryzen 5 3400G is very strong for an integrated GPU: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-home-office/4mMBFTR!U6/

[Mattwall28]

25 minutes ago, Smurf said:

For 500 this is probably the best you can get https://www.box.co.uk/53010WHT-001-Honor-MagicBook-14_2916295.html

As previously - you should read the opening thread as well.

Cheers mate. I just need to decide cheap and chearful or pay the money for something half decent (£700) that could last! If the Lenovo Legion 5 drops next Friday I'm going for it! It seems to be recommended across many platforms for entry level gaming laptop. 

[BukyOHare]

21 hours ago, kevhamster said:

https://ao.com/product/nhq87ek002-acer-laptop-charcoal-77010-251.aspx

Something with this sort of spec would be great. 

There may be others which are cheaper, but I'm on my mobile and the AO site isn't great on mobile.  I looked at Currys but they seem to be struggling for stock at the moment. 

Thanks for your prompt reply mate. 

The AO laptop is out of stock so any other suitable alternatives would be appreciated but having read through the whole thread, is it the processor, above all else, that I should really be focusing on when making comparisons?

 

[TN18]

14 hours ago, kevhamster said:

The top one. Best CPU, although it is pretty close between the top 2.

Thanks a lot for taking a look mate, really appreciate it, gone with the Lenovo. 

[kevhamster]

51 minutes ago, Mattwall28 said:

Cheers mate. I just need to decide cheap and chearful or pay the money for something half decent (£700) that could last! If the Lenovo Legion 5 drops next Friday I'm going for it! It seems to be recommended across many platforms for entry level gaming laptop. 

It can often be a case of buy cheap, buy twice. I had this myself with a laptop I bought 3 years ago, ended up buying another within 2 years. 

If you can afford to go for something better, that is going to serve you better in the long run. 

[Mattwall28]

4 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

It can often be a case of buy cheap, buy twice. I had this myself with a laptop I bought 3 years ago, ended up buying another within 2 years. 

If you can afford to go for something better, that is going to serve you better in the long run. 

Yeah exactly! How many years do you recon that Levono can serve playing FM? 

[Smurf]

37 minutes ago, Mattwall28 said:

Yeah exactly! How many years do you recon that Levono can serve playing FM? 

1 years. 2. Maybe 6. Maybe 11.

Who knows.

[kevhamster]

56 minutes ago, Mattwall28 said:

Yeah exactly! How many years do you recon that Levono can serve playing FM? 

Really impossible to say, FM's system requirements don't tend to change much year on year, but that's not to say that can't or won't change.