I'm not a total noob to computers, but I'm not the best with the actual hardware. Right now, my laptop sucks when it comes to games. I can only get about 10 FPS max in LFS and can pull it down to around 4 FPS. I need some recommendations on what I can do to make this a better system without breaking the bank. Here are my specs:

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (6.0, Build 6000)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron 1720
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A04
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5250 @ 1.50GHz (2 CPUs), ~1.5GHz
Memory: 3062MB RAM

Name: Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip Type: Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
DAC Type: Internal

my laptop sucks also, it starts to make quiet radiating sound when i join some servers, tho i get 25 fps when action goes around me.
my gfx card is getting toasted or what?

Can't really upgrade a laptop to run a game better.

If you want to build a desktop, that seems like your only viable option. If that's the case, you'll need 350-500 USD to make a decent build.

You're really limited on a laptop, you can't upgrade the video card cause it's part of the motherboard. You can only upgrade 2 things: the CPU and the RAM. You have 3GB of RAM already, if you make it 4GB you may not notice a difference. The only upgrade worth doing is the CPU. I don't know for sure what the motherboard can and can't support, but I'm willing to bet that it can support an Intel Core 2 Duo T7800 CPU. You can find one on ebay for $250 or so. That's the only thing you can really do. But again, I'm only like 75% sure that it will work, Dells are really retarded laptops, it's hard to know what exactly they support and what they don't support.

Even updated this laptop won't get you a great LFS experience. To do so, you'll need to head towards a tower build.

I run a laptop with Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 @ 2.6Ghz, 4gb ram, nVidia 8800M GT, and it's having some troubles at some points. Therefore talking from experience and go for a tower .

Oh yea, I wanted to say that too but forgot - your laptop will never come close to the performance of a desktop computer. That would be your best bet, to get a desktop with a good video card, and you'll easily get 100 fps in LFS on a consistent basis.

So in a nut shell, I'm fcked if I want to run this on a laptop. There goes my $40 on a license.

No, you can still use your license on any computer that has LFS on it. As long as you have your username and password, you won't lose it.

Well this is my only computer. Don't want to spend thousands on a desktop just to play games.

Quote from cmnspwr :

Well this is my only computer. Don't want to spend thousands on a desktop just to play games.

$300-400 at most. If you live nearby I can probably get you a used rig for $225 ish that can run LFS fine.

Then again you would need a monitor, mouse, keyboard, headphones ... but a 19" only costs $90 and the rest is cheap.

We live in a one bedroom apartment. I barely have enough room for my laptop, let alone a desktop as well.

Your graphics card is shit, theres nothing you can do.

If you dont want a desktop then it'll be another laptop or... nothing.

Figures. Guess I'll manage with single player.

Well you can't really blame the game for being demanding, it's one of the least demanding games out there. It's just that your laptop was not meant to be used for gaming (you can tell by the video card, all Intel video cards are garbage, and not meant to be used for gaming).

turn all your details down and everything maybe u can hit 15 fps and just lose some graphics.

we need some mod that will cut everything till we got only track. if u imagine how much ram those windmills take in blackwood, rendering enourmous ammounts of buildings in south city..

Wait for the Christmas rush imho.

Quote from cmnspwr :

So in a nut shell, I'm fcked if I want to run this on a laptop. There goes my $40 on a license.

If your laptop can't run lfs with details low, there will be very recent games/simulations that run properly on your laptop.

Gaming on laptops is possible and with very good performance. However, that comes with a big price-tag. Much bigger then it would cost with a desktop pc. A decent laptop for gaming comes easily at $1750+. A decent desktop system including monitor keyboard etc. about $1000 and there is a risk involved the much cheaper desktop system will stll be faster than the laptop.

So you should have thought about the performance of your laptop before buying any game or simulator! Start saving money!

Quote from Steven Seagal Is The Co :

we need some mod that will cut everything till we got only track. if u imagine how much ram those windmills take in blackwood, rendering enourmous ammounts of buildings in south city..

60-100mbyte. Lfs reports at my system 66 to 100 mbyte texture memory is used. For todays standards that is very little of texture memory needed.
lfs uses in total about 350-400mbyte.
This is with all grapghics settings maxed out.

average graphicscard has 512MB or more memory
average dekstop/tower system has 4096MB or more memory .

video card <1 GB, computer 6 GB RAM!

but really for the people who are just bare bones for a system, there should be a way to get nothing but track and maybe grass in there

how hard would an app like this be

Just delete your dds folder then. (for noobs, don't do it lol)