Vostro 1550 Expectations

Well, I just recently ordered a Vostro 1500 from Dell, after using a Sony Vaio and right now having a probably 7 year old Dell Dimension 1550 with 256MB Ram, 2 GHZ Pentium 4, and a 64MB GeForce4 MX 420.

For years I have run simple games like Age of Empires 2, Starcraft, and Counterstrike 1.6, which I have enjoyed and still enjoyed to this day. My most recent purchase, the laptop, will be used through the remainder of high school as a desktop replacement, where I will then be making my own machine, which will be a powerhouse, but thats not the main focus of my post.

I will still be using my Vostro(I hope, I haven't even gotten it yet *crosses fingers*) through college to bring around campus with me, but will have my desktop setup to play games and such on.

Here are my specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo 5250 1.4GHZ, 2GB, 120 GB 5200RPM and 8400M GS 128MB
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display

Should I expect a huge increase over what I've been using? I mainly used the computer I have now(the old dell on the top) for web surfing, music, and the games I wrote above. I've read that it will run HL2 and source games with high or Max at good framerates and I'm happy about that. I've also read that it can play most modern games with very good framerates, but on low settings, which doesn't bother me. What I'd like to do is catch up on some games I've missed over the past couple of years.

I currently have an XBOX 360 hooked up to a 50 inch HDTV, which I am enjoying very much, and is my main gaming system right now. I just bought Call of Duty 4 for it, so even if COD4 ran on this laptop, I probably wouldn't be interested in playing it.

Well, I was wondering if some of you could post some good games I've missed out on, and what kind of performance I can expect. My first purchase will probably be the orange box, because I here it will run perfect on the 8400M GS, and I also have not played the HL2 series. Well, I was wondering if some of you could post some good games I've missed out on, and what kind of performance I can expect.

 

you missed out on Deus Ex, UT3 (not that you can play it with the 8400gs anyway),

sounds like you dont need more since u got an xbox and plan to get a desktop later. so those games that you listed will run great

 

Would I be able to run a game such as Civilization 4 well on this machine, (Intel Core 2 Duo 5250 1.4GHZ, 2GB, 120 GB 5200RPM and 8400M GS 128MB if you don't feel like looking at the top)
And if it can run it, is the multiplayer any good in it?

 

if you want to game you will need to up the graphics card to the 8600gt and the processor to at least the 1.8ghz one.

 

I figure that is true, but I'm gunna be running mostly old games, old being the past 4 or 5 years, ones that I couldn't play on my old PC, so this laptop should be ablke to cover that. And I also am not to worried about it looking the best either, so if I have to tone it down thats fine. And I have an Xbox for my more serious gaming.

Civ 4 does not look to have the most intensive system requirements, so I was wondering how well it would run at what settings.

And also, any opinions on other games I should look into(anything from past 4-5 years) would be great

 

It'll run perfectly if you have the settings relatively low. One thing to remember is that the Orange Box generally takes more of a system to run well than vanilla HL2, as a number of graphical effects have been added. I have the 1500 with an 8600GT and C2D 7100, and TF2 runs well (not perfectly, but very good) on 1440x900 with a lot of the settings up. The thing is, the 8400GS is a fairly slow card by comparison - it'll play newer games, but at considerably lower settings.