Laptop for Sims 3

[Merry]

  Can someone give advise on a Dell or Toshiba laptop that a video card would enable to play Sims 3 decently?  I'm doing this for my daughter, we've been looking and are getting confused. She will be attending college this fall, she works at a camp and doesn't have access to a computer now, so I'm her personal shopper. We were told those brands are pretty reliable by a computer tech person (works for a school district, repairs/consults in spare time) Maybe someone has a different opinion? Our budget is hopefully under a thousand, including Windows software & some security software, hate to spend an extra several hundred dollars just to play Sims 3!!!!!!! 

[Joey]

Hello Merry. Welcome to the forums. :- )

I use to work at a large computer retail store and now at a company where I am the IT guy that handles all the laptops (and desktops) before they are distributed to everyone at work. From my experience Dell, Toshiba and HP are all good brands. Just like cars and other machines that are man-made some are lemons. So you will get a group of people that say Dells are horrible, Toshibas are crap, HPs are lemons, etc. I did some research for you and your daughter on the 3 best mainstream companies I know of (HP, Dell, Toshiba).

The following 3 laptops have similar configurations. All 3 are very good laptops for a college student and will play The Sims 3 smoothly (but at lower resolutions/graphic settings). Your daughter will be happy with either one but for $924 in my opinion the Dell is just too expensive.
$708 HP - http://bit.ly/HP-lap-G60t-070709
$870 Toshiba - http://bit.ly/Tosh-lap-A500-ST6621-070709 (Toshiba does not allow me to link any PC configurations like Dell and HP so I just took a screen shot and posted it online so I can share it with you)
$924 Dell - http://bit.ly/Dell-lap-Studio15-070709


While the 3 laptops above will run very well THIS YEAR, I recommend purchasing the higher-end Toshiba below. In 3 years from now it will still be a decent system while the 3 above may be considered “too slow”. The Toshiba has a faster CPU engine and an outstanding graphics card. Both of those specs are superior to the 3 laptops above. Also whenever The Sims 4 is released (which will probably need a faster laptop than Sims 3) this laptop will more than likely be compatible while the 3 above will not. Btw, I checked the HP and Dell sites for a similarly powered system and they are too expensive. You would be burning your money compared to this Toshiba model’s pricing.
http://bit.ly/Tosh-lap-500st-HigherEnd

DISCLAIMER: I don’t work for HP, Dell or Toshiba. So if they change their pricing/offers next month, week or even tomorrow I have nothing to do with it and can’t do anything about it. :- )

[Joey]

For the best Anti-Virus I strongly recommend Kaspersky Anti-Virus. http://www.cleartechinfo.com/Kaspersky-Anti-Virus-Computer-Protection-Viruses-Malware-Spyware

If you want a full, security suite I recommend Kaspersky Internet Security.

[Raphael]

When i saw this i totally wanted to help. I bought a laptop myself i can tell you that my toshiba laptop is great and great graphic card it can handle crysis(game with very high graphics) i saw the toshiba laptop that joey posted to you. it is good. If you want to buy it go ahead =D

[Raphael]

For a security program i strongly recommend Kaspersky Anti-Virus or Spyware doctor with antivirus (From pctools.com Not on the store shelves.) Good luck! Also check my post in the section Security im pretty sure it might help you choose a anti virus and other +

[Merry]

Wow, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the advice!! When we get the laptop, I'll let you know how things are working out.   

[Joey]

You are welcome. Definitely check back and tell us how smooth the laptop played The Sims 3 and at what graphics settings.