Buying a new laptop for editing?

[AimoAio]

Ah,don't play much first-person shooters on the computer.I usually just sneak a shot on my brothers xbox when I have time so integrated graphics should be fine ^^

Okay,I quite like the ones on asuslaptop.co.uk and I've found 2 I'm pretty keen on buying.

Asus K50IJ-SX043C

Asus K50IJ-SX138C

What's your opinion on them?

Also another problem is neither of them seem to have alot of product information.I can't even find how many hours of battery life it has

And is there a website where I can find reviews/specs on particular laptops?

Oh and what do you think of Dell?

[Kariudo]

looks like the battery life is about 2-3 hours (http://www.simplyasus.com/ASUS_K50IJ-SX138C_655114.html I just googled and came across a good page)

There isn't much of a difference between the two...the only real things is that the 138C has a 250GB hard drive (the other has 320) and a 2.0GHz cpu (vs 2.1GHz on the other). For the money you save, I'd go with the SX138C

I don't really have an opinion on Dell, though I do have an opinion on alienware (the alienware stuff is ridiculously overpriced.)

[AimoAio]

Ok that sounds good

Btw is it possible to upgrade laptop batteries?If so,is it difficult to upgrade?

[Kariudo]

Depends on the model, it looks like the asus k50ij only has the 6-cell Li-ion battery available to it.

Batteries are hella expensive though (a replacement for the asus k50ij's battery would run you around 144 Pounds)

[AimoAio]

Okay,maybe not then xD

The Core2duo processor is better than the p4 isn't it?

I just remembered that the sims3 required a 2.4Ghz P4 processor or equivalent to run,however the laptop I'm going to buy only has 2.0Ghz,but it's a Core2duo...will it still be able to run the game?

[Kariudo]

Yes, core2duo is better than a p4.
remember that you should be looking at the laptop specs, not the desktop specs. 2.6GHz Pentium D or 1.8GHz Core2duo or better

look here. For encoding some stuff with divx, the 3.7GHz P4 took 210 seconds.
The 1.8GHz core2duo did the same thing in 156 seconds

[AimoAio]

Ah okay.Right.Got another question,this time for desktops

My little brother is interested in buying a computer for gaming.So I told him to get a dedicated graphics card for it.Trouble is,both of us don't know much about graphic cards...it's just for him to have a look before he decides whether or not he's buying it,so any recommendations for him?

Also he wants to know if it'll be difficult to install(He's not a very techy person either)

[Kariudo]

installation is just plugging the card into a slot (some cards need a connector from the power supply,) and then putting a CD with the software into your computer. It's a pretty easy process.

The card I'd point you to depends on the budget and what games your brother is looking to play.

For light gaming like Sims, SimCity2000, Doom (and other old stuff) you'll probably do fine with the ATI HD4650 (~45 pounds) or something even cheaper

For general gaming, something like the ATI HD4830 should do
(~60 pounds to 95 pounds)

For heavy gaming (stuff like Crysis on a 1920 x 1200 monitor) you'll want something like the ATI HD4870x2 (~250 pounds)

all those are ATI, Nvidia would do just as well...but they rename their products so often that it's hard to keep up with what is what.

You'll need to know what kind of interface the motherboard has (this and this other thing and another other thing should help)

If your brother isn't planning to buy all the parts and build the computer himself chances are that you won't be able to upgrade the graphics card too much as the more powerful cards need 6-pin or 8-pin connectors (or two of one, or one of both) which something like a typical Dell isn't likely to have

[AimoAio]

6-pin,8-pin connectors?

Do you think it's worth the cash to upgrade this desktop computer to one with similar specs to the SX138C asus laptop?What parts of a computer can I upgrade?

AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+
2.07 GHz, 448MB of RAM
111 GB of Hard Drive Space

Or would I better off just buying a brand new one?

(This is probably a software question but I'll ask here anyway)

Is it possible to downgrade Windows Vista to XP?

[Kariudo]

this goes over the various connectors a power supply can have (the 6-pin and 8-pin connectors I'm talking about are the pci-e connectors)

As for upgrading that desktop, no...wouldn't really be worth it. Chances are you wouldn't be able to find the parts that you need (Athlon XP line is pretty dated.)
For pre-built computers (pretty much anything from Dell, HP, Sony, eMachines, etc...) there is more of a limit on what you can upgrade. RAM, Hard Drives and CD/DVD drives are pretty much it. Sometimes you can upgrade the cpu (a little, in your case you'd have to go with another Althon XP. Upgrading to an Athlon 64 X2 wouldn't be possible.) Likewise, you may be able to upgrade the graphics card sometimes...but you probably wouldn't be able to get anything that needs a 6-pin or 8-pin cable (as the dinky power supply wouldn't be able to give it the power it needs)

To the best of my knowledge, you can't downgrade to XP and transfer all your programs and files (you could manually back up your important files and put them into their respective folders though.) You can wipe the drive and install XP on it...and that's about it