Help on Specs for a dell

Malckom · 28 Jan 2011

I am looking into buying a dell inspiron from best buy. My question is can it play counter strike source, Half life 2 and L4D with high settings?

The specs are:

Ram: 3GB DDR3 memory (Might upgrade to eight)
Hard-drive: 320GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
Processor:AMD Athlon™ II X2 processor P360*
Graphics:ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 graphics
Os version:Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

Not looking to buy any other computer other a dell. But if there is major problems in the one i am looking into getting please let me know.

Also i am new to the forum

Maguscreed · 28 Jan 2011

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 graphics for source engine games?

Should work, I don't know how well it will hold up to extended periods of play as laptop gpu's develop heat issues over time.

System Requirements
Minimum:

Supported OS: Windows® 7 / Vista / Vista64 / XP
Processor: Pentium 4 3.0GHz
Memory: 1 GB for XP / 2GB for Vista
Graphics: DirectX 9 compatible video card with 128 MB, Shader model 2.0. ATI X800, NVidia 6600 or better
Hard Drive: At least 7.5 GB of free space
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Recommended:

Supported OS: Windows® 7 / Vista / Vista64 / XP
Processor: Intel core 2 duo 2.4GHz
Memory: 1 GB for XP / 2GB for Vista
Graphics: DirectX 9 compatible video card with Shader model 3.0. NVidia 7600, ATI X1600 or better
Hard Drive: At least 7.5 GB of free space
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

as you can see you exceed even the recommended specs for even the newer source engine games.
You should be fine. Source engine games aren't that demanding in the way of min specs.
Those are the requirements for l4d2, and it's among the newest source engine games.

If you do plan on gaming with a laptop a cooling pad is essential. Both for performance and for the life span of the laptop.

Malckom · 28 Jan 2011

thank u for the quick replie. i can try it first hand within a week and see if it goes good inless my post gets closed. but yea by the specs it looks like it is going

to do nice. ty again.

stormy13 · 28 Jan 2011

High, maybe for the older games but definitely not for anything new,

ATI Radeon HD 4250 - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Malckom · 28 Jan 2011

I have been searching online and some say that they will do good on source and some say they don't. I guess i need to take a look at it when i purchase it. If it's a no go then i am going to have to return it and find another. I will also look for a good cooling pad for the laptop. Thanks again guys. Also again if the post doesn't get closed i will post what happens when i get the laptop. Maybe tomorrow or Monday. Depends when my income tax comes in lol.

Maguscreed · 28 Jan 2011

The first thing to do is take all the extra processes and apps off of it they put on there for no real reason. Trimming down running processes will go a long way.

Also if you turn off aero mode, that will more than likely give it a little more kick in games... but your desktop won't look as pretty.

Malckom · 28 Jan 2011

I usually delete every app off of the computer for that reason but also i thought windows 7 automatically turns off aero when entering a game? I could be wrong though.

Maguscreed · 28 Jan 2011

The only game I've played that it autoed to basic on was lotro.

Malckom · 29 Jan 2011

Oh ok i only seen it do that for counter strike source and counter strike 1.6....I miss 1.5 by the way

lol.

Malckom · 30 Jan 2011

Ok so i got the computer. css and cs1.6 play very well but for some reason when i hold down a key the mousepad doesnt work. I looked in the mouse settings and i dont see a link to fix the problem. Any suggestions?