Puchasing a new Notebook...

[Fawcks]

Hi, I was planning on, as the topic suggests, purchasing a laptop/notebook.

I have a notebook I am looking at, a new, 400$ notebook, with 4GBs of ram, 640gb memory, and such.

Sadly, the display didn't show any specs beyond that. Turning on the PC and going into System information, the following was displayed:

AMDA6-3400M APU w/ Radeon

Problem is, I have no idea what that means... I don't think it's an "integrated graphics card", but I have no idea what the specs for it are since I couldn't get that information. The display of the PC only had the notebook and the price.

I was mostly wondering if this would be good enough to play TF2, since that's pretty much the biggest game I have for my PC, and likely the biggest I'll be getting.

I believe this is the PC in question. [http://www.notebookscorner.com/toshiba/toshiba-satellite-l750d-st4n01-notebook-available/2840/]

Bonus Question: Recommend an Anti-Virus. Is Trend Micro good?

 

[Supernova1138]

I just bought a very similar laptop myself, has the same APU, though I haven't tried any really recent titles on it yet. You have a Llano APU, it is a CPU with a graphics core built onto the same chip. For graphics it has the AMD Radeon HD 6520G integrated graphics. This IGP is significantly faster than intel's best integrated GPU, so it will actually be able to run recent titles. It will definitely run TF2 without much trouble, though you may not necessarily be able to get maximum settings depending on which resolution you are using. The 6520G is about equivalent to a high end graphics card from about 6 or 7 years ago. Source engine games aren't really demanding, so there should be no problem running the game, just don't expect to max it out.

For Anti Virus, if you are looking for a free one, Microsoft Security Essentials is quite good. You can download it for free as long as you have a legitimate copy of Windows. Never heard of Trend Micro.

 

[Hashime]

Look at the entry level Asus notebooks. I have a K53T which including tax I paid $600 (Cad.) for. It has a discrete (or independent) Radeon 6720G2 and an integrated chip that it can use to save power. It can play TF2 and Fallout NV at high settings, and Skyrim at medium.

Asus makes the best computer components (motherboards and such) and my impression with their notebooks is that their quality level is the same.

As for anti-virus, you can use MS essentials, AVG, Avast, or anything paid except norton and be fine. Trend Micro makes good security software, but why pay for what you can get for free?

Also remember to use Spybot S&D to prevent spyware attacks.

 

[Fawcks]

I'll probably use Microsoft Security Essentials AND Trend Micro and get the mix going on. Just because. Security is good.

Also, I was kinda sold on this PC, as opposed to a Asus Notebook, just because I am getting this one at a fair discount (20% off new), so that was a major incentive. It's not supposed to be a powerhouse, I can use my PC for gaming, this is really just something for me to bring along to other places like school and do work and such. A median performance thing is really all I need, considering. I will definately look into a more expensive notebook later, of course, but I don't really think I can spare the cash for one now, sadly, but school starts soon...

Thanks a lot for the input, you two, you've been most helpful.