[vivalaratpig]

So my old laptop has finally bit the dust after four years, and I'm in desperate need of a new one. Since I don't really know what I'm looking for and somehow always end up being convinced by the retailer that I should buy such and such, I thought you guys could help me.
Essentially I need a laptop that will enable me to play PC games on it such as the Sims 3. Another question also, is memory important when you have an external hard drive? My budget is about £400 and I'm kind of hoping to stick with Windows.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Carbon]

Sims 3 system requirements are surprisingly steep - you will likely need a dedicated video card. This is going to add weight and cut battery life substantially. I would consider whether this is an issue or not and whether gaming is really a priority - in most cases where people need laptops, weight and battery life is a substantial concern.

I also doubt you'll be able to get a system with dedicated video for that budget - in the US, it's possible, but in the UK, it seems difficult - that laptop is £20 over your maximum price and has a pretty budget-y processor and no video card.

I would suggest buying a netbook and pocketing the difference for a desktop down the road. You will get a laptop that is better at doing laptop tasks in any case. The current best price/performance netbook is the Acer AS1410-2285, but I don't think it's available in the UK. The old standby is the Asus EEE 1005HA which should be significantly cheaper in any case.

Using "memory" to refer to hard drive space doesn't make much sense - the term is used for RAM. In any case, external hard drives should be used for media and backup, accessing anything fast over USB like programs is going to be annoying. 250GB+ is the norm on laptops now anyway, which is usually more than enough.