I have had a Sony Vaio 17" VPCEJ which I love (I'm a huge Vaio fan), and it's getting on a bit. Gets very warm even with one of those fan things you can rest laptops on and it keeps shutting down. I'm afraid that the thing just stop working altogether so I'm looking to replace. I am not a techie! I want to be able to play Forge of Empires and Elvenar and other such games. Don't play those big games that seem to need 4 dimensions and warp-speed graphics. We use spreadsheets and word documents and I do a fair amount of work on my digi photos I use the web a great deal. I need 17" monitor but don't want a built-in webcam, preferring a plug in one. I've no idea what graphics card I need but I think I would prefer an SSD drive (is it?) rather than a mechanical hard drive. With a budget of £1,000, what could I get? I've tried the build your own facility on here but I just find myself going round in circles.
My current Laptop specs are as follows - please note, I have no idea if all this info is needed but here it is. I'd be interested to know what upgrade anybody can suggest if at all possible. Hope this isn't too much information!!!
Architecture
CHIPSET
Intel® HM65 Express Chipset
CPU
NUMBER OF CORES
2
PROCESSOR NAME
Intel® Core™ i5-2450M Processor
POWER AND PERFORMANCE
with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology
PROCESSOR SPEED (GHZ)
2.50 with Turbo Boost up to 3.10
L3 CACHE (MB)
3
Memory
MEMORY TYPE
PC3-10600
MAX. SUPPORTED MEMORY
8 GB
MEMORY SIZE (GB)
6
MEMORY SPECIFICATION
DDR3 SDRAM
MEMORY SPEED (MHZ)
1333
MEMORY COMPOSITION
4 GB (SO-DIMM) x 1 + 2 GB (SO-DIMM) x 1
Colour
COVER COLOUR
Black
Drives
READ
CD 24x, CD-R 24x, CD-RW 24x, DVD 8x, DVD-R DL 6x, DVD-R 8x, DVD-RW 6x, DVD+R DL 6x, DVD+R 8x, DVD+RW 6x, DVD-RAM 5x, BD-ROM 4x, BD-R 4x, BD-R DL 2.2x, BD-RE 4x, BD-RE DL 2.2x
OPTICAL DRIVE TYPE
Blu-ray Disc™ ROM Drive with DVD SuperMulti
HARD DRIVE CAPACITY (GB)
640
HARD DRIVE TYPE
Serial ATA
HARD DRIVE SPEED (RPM)
5400
WRITE
CD-R 16x, CD-RW 10x, DVD-R DL 4x, DVD-R 8x, DVD-RW 4x, DVD+R DL 4x, DVD+R 8x, DVD+RW 4x, DVD-RAM 5x
Screen
ASPECT RATIO
Wide (16:9)
MAX RESOLUTION EXTERNAL DISPLAY
1920 x 1200
DIAGONAL SIZE (CM)
43.8, 17.3
SCREEN TYPE
VAIO Display
RESOLUTION
1600 x 900
RESOLUTION NAME
WXGA++ (1600 x 900)
Graphics
-GRAPHIC CARD NAME
NVIDIA® GeForce® 410M GPU
VIDEO RAM MEMORY SIZE
512 MB
Interfaces
HEADPHONE JACK
Stereo, Mini Jack x1
MEMORY STICK™ SLOT(S)
Memory Stick Duo x1, SD memory card x1
HDMI OUTPUT
Yes
SD CARD SLOT
SDHC, SDXC compatible, Not support for copyright protection
VGA OUTPUT
Mini D-Sub 15 pin x1
MICROPHONE JACK
Stereo, Mini Jack x1
OPTICAL AUDIO OUT (SPDIF)
No
USB PORT(S)
USB 2.0 (Type A Connector) x4
Network Connectivity
BLUETOOTH RANGE (M)
max. 10
ETHERNET TYPE
1000BASE-T/100BASE-TX/10BASE-T x1
BLUETOOTH MAX. DATA RATE (MBPS)
24
WIRELESS LAN
Yes
ETHERNET (RJ-45 DIRECT PORT)
Yes
WIRELESS LAN MAX. DATE RATE (MBPS)
150 Mbps (RX) / 150 Mbps (TX)
BLUETOOTH
Yes
BLUETOOTH VERSION
Bluetooth® standard Ver. 3.0 + HS
WIRELESS LAN TYPE
IEEE 802.11b/g/n
Audio
BUILT-IN MICROPHONE
Internal, Monaural microphone
BUILT-IN SPEAKERS
Internal, Stereo speakers
Keyboard
KEY PITCH (MM)
19.05
STROKE (MM)
2.0
TOUCH PAD
Yes
NUMERIC KEYPAD
Yes
Dimensions
DEPTH MAIN UNIT (MM)
274
HEIGHT MAIN UNIT (MM)
32.8
WIDTH MAIN UNIT (MM)
409.1
WEIGHT WITH SUPPLIED BATTERY (KG)
3.1
Thanks Chris
My current Laptop specs are as follows - please note, I have no idea if all this info is needed but here it is. I'd be interested to know what upgrade anybody can suggest if at all possible. Hope this isn't too much information!!!
Architecture
CHIPSET
Intel® HM65 Express Chipset
CPU
NUMBER OF CORES
2
PROCESSOR NAME
Intel® Core™ i5-2450M Processor
POWER AND PERFORMANCE
with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology
PROCESSOR SPEED (GHZ)
2.50 with Turbo Boost up to 3.10
L3 CACHE (MB)
3
Memory
MEMORY TYPE
PC3-10600
MAX. SUPPORTED MEMORY
8 GB
MEMORY SIZE (GB)
6
MEMORY SPECIFICATION
DDR3 SDRAM
MEMORY SPEED (MHZ)
1333
MEMORY COMPOSITION
4 GB (SO-DIMM) x 1 + 2 GB (SO-DIMM) x 1
Colour
COVER COLOUR
Black
Drives
READ
CD 24x, CD-R 24x, CD-RW 24x, DVD 8x, DVD-R DL 6x, DVD-R 8x, DVD-RW 6x, DVD+R DL 6x, DVD+R 8x, DVD+RW 6x, DVD-RAM 5x, BD-ROM 4x, BD-R 4x, BD-R DL 2.2x, BD-RE 4x, BD-RE DL 2.2x
OPTICAL DRIVE TYPE
Blu-ray Disc™ ROM Drive with DVD SuperMulti
HARD DRIVE CAPACITY (GB)
640
HARD DRIVE TYPE
Serial ATA
HARD DRIVE SPEED (RPM)
5400
WRITE
CD-R 16x, CD-RW 10x, DVD-R DL 4x, DVD-R 8x, DVD-RW 4x, DVD+R DL 4x, DVD+R 8x, DVD+RW 4x, DVD-RAM 5x
Screen
ASPECT RATIO
Wide (16:9)
MAX RESOLUTION EXTERNAL DISPLAY
1920 x 1200
DIAGONAL SIZE (CM)
43.8, 17.3
SCREEN TYPE
VAIO Display
RESOLUTION
1600 x 900
RESOLUTION NAME
WXGA++ (1600 x 900)
Graphics
-GRAPHIC CARD NAME
NVIDIA® GeForce® 410M GPU
VIDEO RAM MEMORY SIZE
512 MB
Interfaces
HEADPHONE JACK
Stereo, Mini Jack x1
MEMORY STICK™ SLOT(S)
Memory Stick Duo x1, SD memory card x1
HDMI OUTPUT
Yes
SD CARD SLOT
SDHC, SDXC compatible, Not support for copyright protection
VGA OUTPUT
Mini D-Sub 15 pin x1
MICROPHONE JACK
Stereo, Mini Jack x1
OPTICAL AUDIO OUT (SPDIF)
No
USB PORT(S)
USB 2.0 (Type A Connector) x4
Network Connectivity
BLUETOOTH RANGE (M)
max. 10
ETHERNET TYPE
1000BASE-T/100BASE-TX/10BASE-T x1
BLUETOOTH MAX. DATA RATE (MBPS)
24
WIRELESS LAN
Yes
ETHERNET (RJ-45 DIRECT PORT)
Yes
WIRELESS LAN MAX. DATE RATE (MBPS)
150 Mbps (RX) / 150 Mbps (TX)
BLUETOOTH
Yes
BLUETOOTH VERSION
Bluetooth® standard Ver. 3.0 + HS
WIRELESS LAN TYPE
IEEE 802.11b/g/n
Audio
BUILT-IN MICROPHONE
Internal, Monaural microphone
BUILT-IN SPEAKERS
Internal, Stereo speakers
Keyboard
KEY PITCH (MM)
19.05
STROKE (MM)
2.0
TOUCH PAD
Yes
NUMERIC KEYPAD
Yes
Dimensions
DEPTH MAIN UNIT (MM)
274
HEIGHT MAIN UNIT (MM)
32.8
WIDTH MAIN UNIT (MM)
409.1
WEIGHT WITH SUPPLIED BATTERY (KG)
3.1
Thanks Chris