FM 2011 Official System/Specs Thread

[0gris]

Wow, loads of great advice from chaps that know their specs, unlike me.

I need to upgrade but am broke - can spare little over 300 quid. Will an HP ProBook 4530s pass muster?

It's got an i3 dual-core processor (no way can I afford i5 or i7) with an Integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000.

I'm not bothered about running hundreds of leagues (maybe max 20-25) but I want a smooth 3D ME.

Will it do the biz; if not can anyone recommend a new laptop that will for as little dosh as possible?!

Ehhh, it might be able to do 20-25, but not with a lot of speed. Smooth 3D should work, but it's going to be pretty much equivalent to FA in the quality department.

[TiltonArmy]

Ehhh, it might be able to do 20-25, but not with a lot of speed. Smooth 3D should work, but it's going to be pretty much equivalent to FA in the quality department.

Mine runs just fine on the 3D and speed of game

[phnompenhandy]

Ehhh, it might be able to do 20-25, but not with a lot of speed. Smooth 3D should work, but it's going to be pretty much equivalent to FA in the quality department.

Sorry, don't follow you; do you mean the 3D will be poor quality? In what way? Or do you mean the 3D will be fine and something else will be crap??

TA - cheers. I notice the laptop you link to has a Dual-core Intel® Celeron® T3500 processor. How does that compare to the i3? Slower, isn't it? Otherwise, it has more RAM and HD than the one i'm looking at for the same price.

[TiltonArmy]

Sorry, don't follow you; do you mean the 3D will be poor quality? In what way? Or do you mean the 3D will be fine and something else will be crap??

TA - cheers. I notice the laptop you link to has a Dual-core Intel® Celeron® T3500 processor. How does that compare to the i3? Slower, isn't it? Otherwise, it has more RAM and HD than the one i'm looking at for the same price.

Hi phnompenhandy ,

Sorry the link I orignally posted is now not available fella , was available the time I posted - (http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/packard-bell-easynote-ts44-hr-035uk-refurbished-15-6-laptop-white-10934174-pdt.html) Product unavailable , the one you mentioned was a recomendation PC world had ( poor one at that lol) I'l keep a look out for you fella

[phnompenhandy]

Magic, thanks mate!!

[TiltonArmy]

Magic, thanks mate!!

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/packard-bell-easynote-tk87-gn-020uk-refurbished-15-6-laptop-red-10934188-pdt.html

There you go bud , looks like the i3's around the £300 mark are selling fast , it is a good price mind

[Lone Gooner]

Yes fella , this is a decent one , just over your budget but worth the little bit extra

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/packard-bell-ts11hr039-15-6-laptop-black-10783798-pdt.html

Or you could always go to your nearest store and look at the clearence section , I got £100 off mine in clearence/sale

Thanks buddy

What do you think of the below? Worth the price?

http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Laptops/buy-ASUS-X53E-SX118V-Laptop/715468

Cheers

[TiltonArmy]

Thanks buddy

What do you think of the below? Worth the price?

http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Laptops/buy-ASUS-X53E-SX118V-Laptop/715468

Cheers

Specs look OK , GHZ @2.1 per channel might have a factor , I would look for 2.5 GHZ and above personally

The Product Description is different to the Technical specifications stated in the ad , Id check that out cuz there is a bit of a difference

Still a good price either way

Good chip/good RAM/ Loads of HD space

[Lone Gooner]

Hmmmm its what to go for really, is the Packard Bell a better laptop?

[0gris]

Sorry, don't follow you; do you mean the 3D will be poor quality? In what way? Or do you mean the 3D will be fine and something else will be crap??

TA - cheers. I notice the laptop you link to has a Dual-core Intel® Celeron® T3500 processor. How does that compare to the i3? Slower, isn't it? Otherwise, it has more RAM and HD than the one i'm looking at for the same price.

No, 3D will work, just don't expect it to look any good, depending on how well optimized the game is maybe medium at a push, but as i said, won't look too nice but will work without any problems.

EDIT: Actually, it might be able to push up to high; But i wouldnt count on it too much, either way, 3D will work just fine.

[TiltonArmy]

Hmmmm its what to go for really, is the Packard Bell a better laptop?

Both are capable to run FM12 m8.

For the extra £40 you do get a better spec - i5/ and the enhanced GHZ , The Packard Bell has less RAM/Hardrive but has the better Processor - RAM and external HD'S are cheap.

Personally I'd go for the i5 purely for the Processor

[TiltonArmy]

No, 3D will work, just don't expect it to look any good, depending on how well optimized the game is maybe medium at a push, but as i said, won't look too nice but will work without any problems.

EDIT: Actually, it might be able to push up to high; But i wouldnt count on it too much, either way, 3D will work just fine.

0gris I have the exact same GC and the 3D looks fine m8 ,no blocky gameplay , just perfect TBH

[toon army 06]

Depends on your version of windows. On XP it should be alright, on 7 it's a bit crap though. Anything below 2 gigs is pushing it, even 2 is low. 4 should be the minimum if you consider buying a new PC really. This is obviously reffering to more than just FM atm

i'm on vista is 1.50gb to low on that my computer ispackard bell

[toon army 06]

Unless you plan on loading a gazillion leagues, you'll be fine.

i will only have the scottish premier league, english leagfue 2 up to the premier league and the spannish top league and maybe seria a

[0gris]

0gris I have the exact same GC and the 3D looks fine m8 ,no blocky gameplay , just perfect TBH

I was reffering to the level of detail, even on low it doesn't look block. This isn't 2000 anymore. As i said, medium sure, high MAAAAAAAAAAYBE. It's not about something being blocky or not, there's little actual difference between low and high when it comes to looks(the effects drain a ton of graphical power for some reason)

[TiltonArmy]

I was reffering to the level of detail, even on low it doesn't look block. This isn't 2000 anymore. As i said, medium sure, high MAAAAAAAAAAYBE. It's not about something being blocky or not, there's little actual difference between low and high when it comes to looks(the effects drain a ton of graphical power for some reason)

As phnompenhandy stated "I want a smooth 3D ME." I was simply stating and giving advice on my spec and how the game runs , level of detail wasent even mentioned

BTW FIFA 12 on my graphics card runs just as well and that takes a fair bit of resourses

[phnompenhandy]

Still not entirely clear about the graphics. Do you mean it will struggle if I have stadium, weather etc ticked? How about outside scenes? Really i'd like to have everything ticked and the 3D look and run well.

The machine i'm eyeing has only 2GB RAM. How much for 2 more RAM these days, and how much to up it to 8GB? Where is the best place to order it?

I'd love an i5 processor, but surely it would cost more than an extra 40 quid?

[0gris]

Still not entirely clear about the graphics. Do you mean it will struggle if I have stadium, weather etc ticked? How about outside scenes? Really i'd like to have everything ticked and the 3D look and run well.

The machine i'm eyeing has only 2GB RAM. How much for 2 more RAM these days, and how much to up it to 8GB? Where is the best place to order it?

I'd love an i5 processor, but surely it would cost more than an extra 40 quid?

You could probably have everything ticked at around medim quality and it should still run fairly fine, but I'm not sure if it would be PERFECTLY smooth. Other than that it should be perfectly smooth all the time if you disable one or two things.

RAM is pretty cheap, 40 quid will get you another 2 gigs. Going for 8 could get a bit more expensive and you probably wouldnt need it with a laptop but it's up to you. And yes, an i5 would cost you a bit more than an extra 40 quid but it is quite a significant difference; In the end it's up to you. An i3 will get the job done, an i5 will get the job done better. Simple as that really.

[TiltonArmy]

Still not entirely clear about the graphics. Do you mean it will struggle if I have stadium, weather etc ticked? How about outside scenes? Really i'd like to have everything ticked and the 3D look and run well.

No , I have the exact same graphics card and all the boxes were ticked automatically when I first installed the game , on my older computer only a few were ticked due to the conmputer/graphics card being over 4 years old , if you want I could upload one of my 3D match's on youtube

The machine i'm eyeing has only 2GB RAM. How much for 2 more RAM these days, and how much to up it to 8GB? Where is the best place to order it?

Depends on what processor is supporting it , a dual core would be sufficent , could you copy/paste the system your lookintg at for me bud , one way to look at it (- e.g -dual core requires 2 GB RAM/Quad core 3/4 GB RAM for optomise performance) RAM costs approximately £12/15 per GB from Scan.com but would require you to install it yourself (pretty easy TBF) or you could take it to any computer shop to have the RAM installed (probably charge you an arm and a leg lol)

I'd love an i5 processor, but surely it would cost more than an extra 40 quid?

That system I was refering to was specific to Lone Gooner's budget fella.

Sorry if I'm getting all technical , and if theres any more advice you need you can put it on here or send me a prt message

[phnompenhandy]

No need to upload anything; you're help is marvellous mate.

As mentioned above, my mind is set on an HP ProBook 4530s pass muster?

It's got an i3 dual-core processor with an Integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000.

I reckon I can stick the RAM in myself. Trouble is, I'm presuming it comes with a 1 GB stick in each slot, so i'd need to buy 2 @GB sticks - an extra 50-60 quid. That bites a bit for me but with the laptop being a tad under 300 quid I can just about do it. From what you're saying, looks like that will be dandy for FM12. I don't play any other games, so the machine will be more than sufficient for my other uses.

[TiltonArmy]

You could probably have everything ticked at around medim quality and it should still run fairly fine, but I'm not sure if it would be PERFECTLY smooth. Other than that it should be perfectly smooth all the time if you disable one or two things.

RAM is pretty cheap, 40 quid will get you another 2 gigs. Going for 8 could get a bit more expensive and you probably wouldnt need it with a laptop but it's up to you. And yes, an i5 would cost you a bit more than an extra 40 quid but it is quite a significant difference; In the end it's up to you. An i3 will get the job done, an i5 will get the job done better. Simple as that really.

Ogris Im not being funny fella but your probably confussing the guy by contridicting the advice Im trying to give.

I suggested a PC to phnompenhandy's budget as close to my specification as possible , that will run the game/3D ME as well as mine does

but I'm not sure if it would be PERFECTLY smooth

It does run perfectly smooth, I am sure, I have that graphics card! FIFA 12 runs smooth I highly doubt FM would require even half of the graphics card power

[TiltonArmy]

No need to upload anything; you're help is marvellous mate.

As mentioned above, my mind is set on an HP ProBook 4530s pass muster?

It's got an i3 dual-core processor with an Integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000.

I reckon I can stick the RAM in myself. Trouble is, I'm presuming it comes with a 1 GB stick in each slot, so i'd need to buy 2 @GB sticks - an extra 50-60 quid. That bites a bit for me but with the laptop being a tad under 300 quid I can just about do it. From what you're saying, looks like that will be dandy for FM12. I don't play any other games, so the machine will be more than sufficient for my other uses.

That be fine mate and more than likely if will have 1GB per channel.

If you decide on that machine my best suggestion would be to go to Scan.com and that site will automatically scan your opponents and make a recommendation to your machines RAM specifics. http://www.scan.co.uk/

Mine has 4GB (2GB per channel) and it suggested for optimise performance 8GB ( 4 per channel).

An i3 owuld need at least 4 IMO

[x42bn6]

For anyone who is interested... AMD Bulldozer reviews are starting to come out. This, unfortunately, doesn't change much - the i5-2500K outperforms the FX-8150. By quite a bit... http://www.anandtech.com/show/4955/the-bulldozer-review-amd-fx8150-tested

Bulldozer's lower-end chips will be reviewed over the next few weeks and we might see some interesting results when comparing price per performance of competing chips against the i5-2400 and i3 Sandy Bridge processors, of course, but the reviews for the FX-8150 simply suggest that unless you have an extremely threaded workload, don't bother with Bulldozer, and Football Manager isn't on that level of "threadedness".

[iAmGory]

True that

Yet again corrected by Ishu and yet again he's correct. I can't win

Remember rule 1 of upgrading - never early adopt on first generation releases, in this case the new AMD processors.

Always...ALWAYS wait for revisions

Ogris Im not being funny fella but your probably confussing the guy by contridicting the advice Im trying to give.

I suggested a PC to phnompenhandy's budget as close to my specification as possible , that will run the game/3D ME as well as mine does

Checked your spec. You're bang on. Won't be a problem with FM.

[CaseyJones]

hello, i just bought a new laptop since it was only £149.99. wondering if its ok for fm2012? and if so how many leagues would be ok for it to still be fast?

15.6" WXGAG HD Acer CineCrystal™ LED LCD Screen

2.53GHz Intel Core i3 380M Processor

4GB DDR3 RAM (2 x 2GB)

500GB Hard Drive

i'm hoping the fact it was cheap doesn't mean its ass lol

[TiltonArmy]

hello, i just bought a new laptop since it was only £149.99. wondering if its ok for fm2012? and if so how many leagues would be ok for it to still be fast?

15.6" WXGAG HD Acer CineCrystal™ LED LCD Screen

2.53GHz Intel Core i3 380M Processor

4GB DDR3 RAM (2 x 2GB)

500GB Hard Drive

i'm hoping the fact it was cheap doesn't mean its ass lol

Hello , yes that run fine , how did you get it sooo cheap? , thats cheap as chips.

Where did you buy it from? , also what graphics card does it has? - relevant for the 3D

Will run between 25/30 leagues comfortably , maybe more , I only run 25/30 myself

Hope this helps

[Lambo95]

hello, i just bought a new laptop since it was only £149.99. wondering if its ok for fm2012? and if so how many leagues would be ok for it to still be fast?

15.6" WXGAG HD Acer CineCrystal™ LED LCD Screen

2.53GHz Intel Core i3 380M Processor

4GB DDR3 RAM (2 x 2GB)

500GB Hard Drive

i'm hoping the fact it was cheap doesn't mean its ass lol

Where on earth did you get that for so little?

[stevie_G_32201]

Im not a fan of Acer, every single person i know who has owned them say they die after a year or 2 due to overheating.

[CaseyJones]

thanks for the info. it has Intel HD Graphics Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0 and i bought it at my local asda while i was shopping. it was an impulse buy being it was cheap, i was just praying it was a decent machine since im clueless when it comes to specs lol

[phnompenhandy]

Damn! I'd have bought that one if I'd known. It's better specs than the one I've got coming tomorrow for just under 300 quid. Hmm, it's too cheap to be credible - what's the hidden story?

[CaseyJones]

There isn't a story, they are having an electrical sale untill nov 31st

[Lone Gooner]

Both are capable to run FM12 m8.

For the extra £40 you do get a better spec - i5/ and the enhanced GHZ , The Packard Bell has less RAM/Hardrive but has the better Processor - RAM and external HD'S are cheap.

Personally I'd go for the i5 purely for the Processor

Thanks for your help mate, sorry to trouble you again but I was thinking its over my budget but looks a great spec at the price:

http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Laptops/buy-ASUS-X53E-SX110V-Laptop/733652

What do you think? Are Asus usually pretty good?

Cheers

[0gris]

Asus are usually pretty good so can't see how you could go wrong with them. Seems like a fairly good laptop for the price

[TiltonArmy]

Thanks for your help mate, sorry to trouble you again but I was thinking its over my budget but looks a great spec at the price:

http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Laptops/buy-ASUS-X53E-SX110V-Laptop/733652

What do you think? Are Asus usually pretty good?

Cheers

Your not troubling me , I'm more than happy to help

As 0gris said its a good lappy for the price , very good. shopping around is a good idea , fair play m8

Compared to the one I found , it has a larger HD , double the RAM (6GB RAM will optimise the speed to the max) for the xtra £70 , good find! Go for it!

The make of the laptop dosent make much difference tbh , most low to mid makes , use the same componements , its just the aftersales/customer services that make a difference

EXAMPLE - Sony offer excellent aftersales , extended warranty as standard/replacement product if yours needs fixing/replacing - etc etc , as oppose to a lesser make that only comes with a standard 12 month warranty

If you need anymore advice feel free to post it or you can PM mate

[TiltonArmy]

thanks for the info. it has Intel HD Graphics Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0 and i bought it at my local asda while i was shopping. it was an impulse buy being it was cheap, i was just praying it was a decent machine since im clueless when it comes to specs lol

Got a steal there my friend!

[wfc_collins]

can anyone tell me if this laptop will support fm 2012

Screen size - 15.6 in - 1366 x 768

Processor - Intel Celeron 925 - 2.3 GHz

RAM - 6 GB

Hard Drive - 250 GB

Operating System - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Optical Drive - DVD Rewriter

Graphics - Intel GMA X4500 3D

Webcam - Integrated

Warranty - 1 year warranty

[TiltonArmy]

can anyone tell me if this laptop will support fm 2012

Screen size - 15.6 in - 1366 x 768

Processor - Intel Celeron 925 - 2.3 GHz

RAM - 6 GB

Hard Drive - 250 GB

Operating System - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Optical Drive - DVD Rewriter

Graphics - Intel GMA X4500 3D

Webcam - Integrated

Warranty - 1 year warranty

it will support it..but..

Its a single core (obsolete now) so running multiple tasks will be impossible and being a Celeron chip , I wouldnt touch that with a bargepole.

RAMS V good , just running FM on its own should be pretty fast , hard drives a tad small and the graphics chip would even struggle to run high resolution games from 2008/2009 , don't think it run FM 3D smoothly.

Personally , I'd go for a more higher spec.

hope that helps

[x42bn6]

It's easily one of the most imbalanced laptops I've seen. 6 GB RAM and a single-core...

I wouldn't get it. It would be painfully slow on that processor. You'd be lucky to load 2 GB worth of stuff into memory with that speed, which is why you certainly don't need 6 GB of RAM. It's a rip-off, really.

[Lone Gooner]

Your not troubling me , I'm more than happy to help

As 0gris said its a good lappy for the price , very good. shopping around is a good idea , fair play m8

Compared to the one I found , it has a larger HD , double the RAM (6GB RAM will optimise the speed to the max) for the xtra £70 , good find! Go for it!

The make of the laptop dosent make much difference tbh , most low to mid makes , use the same componements , its just the aftersales/customer services that make a difference

EXAMPLE - Sony offer excellent aftersales , extended warranty as standard/replacement product if yours needs fixing/replacing - etc etc , as oppose to a lesser make that only comes with a standard 12 month warranty

If you need anymore advice feel free to post it or you can PM mate

Thanks fella, I did come across this what also seemed a good buy:

http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Laptops/buy-SONY-VPCEL1E1E/W.CEK-Laptop/750255

[TiltonArmy]

It's easily one of the most imbalanced laptops I've seen. 6 GB RAM and a single-core...

I wouldn't get it. It would be painfully slow on that processor. You'd be lucky to load 2 GB worth of stuff into memory with that speed, which is why you certainly don't need 6 GB of RAM. It's a rip-off, really.

hahaha , Thats what I thought

Its like an i7 with 1 gig of RAM lmao

[TiltonArmy]

Thanks fella, I did come across this what also seemed a good buy:

http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Laptops/buy-SONY-VPCEL1E1E/W.CEK-Laptop/750255

Nah mate, AMD Athlon Dual-Core (2 cores) is carp compared to the i5 dude, The i5 you posted is at least 3/4 times more powerfull, better chip AMD v Intel Core , no comparison , better HardDrive , much better Processor.

I'd take the Asus over the Sony if it was me mate

[TiltonArmy]

Damn! I'd have bought that one if I'd known. It's better specs than the one I've got coming tomorrow for just under 300 quid. Hmm, it's too cheap to be credible - what's the hidden story?

Hi , let me know how you get on when its delivered m8

[stevie_G_32201]

Just ordered a new laptop from the dell outlet, any ideas how many leagues this would run?

intel Core i7-2630QM processor 2.00 GHz

8 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)

2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M Graphics card

[iAmGory]

Nah mate, AMD Athlon Dual-Core (2 cores) is carp compared to the i5 dude, The i5 you posted is at least 3/4 times more powerfull, better chip AMD v Intel Core , no comparison , better HardDrive , much better Processor.

I'd take the Asus over the Sony if it was me mate

Defo. i5 is quad, the Athlon 2core won't hold a candle to it. Slower, smaller cache and less cores = less win.

Stevie...LOTS

[0gris]

Just ordered a new laptop from the dell outlet, any ideas how many leagues this would run?

intel Core i7-2630QM processor 2.00 GHz

8 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)

2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M Graphics card

As many as you'd want to really. Crazy specs for a laptop.

[el duderino]

Hi, I'm planning on buying FM12 when it's released, how many leagues and players am I looking at (I like really long games LLM-style)?

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700

4 GB DDR2 RAM

AMD 6750 1GB

Windows 7

Thanks

[0gris]

Hi, I'm planning on buying FM12 when it's released, how many leagues and players am I looking at (I like really long games LLM-style)?

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700

4 GB DDR2 RAM

AMD 6750 1GB

Windows 7

Thanks

It wont exactly be amazing but you could easily probably run around 20-30 leagues. Depending on if you overclocked your processor or not. A bit of a shame that it's a weak component as the rest of the PC(at least the specs you provided) seems to be pretty good.

[el duderino]

It wont exactly be amazing but you could easily probably run around 20-30 leagues. Depending on if you overclocked your processor or not. A bit of a shame that it's a weak component as the rest of the PC(at least the specs you provided) seems to be pretty good.

Thank you. Yes, forgot to write that it's overclocked from default 2.67 to 3.15 GHz. Will that make any significant change?

[wfc_collins]

it will support it..but..

Its a single core (obsolete now) so running multiple tasks will be impossible and being a Celeron chip , I wouldnt touch that with a bargepole.

RAMS V good , just running FM on its own should be pretty fast , hard drives a tad small and the graphics chip would even struggle to run high resolution games from 2008/2009 , don't think it run FM 3D smoothly.

Personally , I'd go for a more higher spec.

hope that helps

cheers for the reply, I did think that it would'nt run fm 2012 but just wanted to double check on here before I ordered it

[0gris]

Thank you. Yes, forgot to write that it's overclocked from default 2.67 to 3.15 GHz. Will that make any significant change?

Should help quite a bit with the processing speed. It depends on what you consider fast but really, i wouldnt go above 50 leagues personally(should be PLENTY regardless). It wont move along blazingly fast but it wont take forever to advance the game.