Gaming/General Usage Laptop

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genjaguar

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Nov 8, 2010
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1. What is your budget? around $600 (maybe a bit more if the extra money would be well spent and justified)

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? any

3. What screen resolution do you want? not very particular, able to play anything and do general applications in a good resolution

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? A little of both, able to do light browsing and chatting as well as playing games with a respectable performance

5. How much battery life do you need? Not very important, would mostly be used around the house

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? The games mostly played would be World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, with performance as good for this price range as possible

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.) Just some minor browsing and video chatting

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? Not very particular, normal amount of HD space would be fine

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. I buy a lot of things from newegg and wouldn't mind getting one from them, Best Buy is of course another option as well as any reliable site/store.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? Want a decent performer for a few years


11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? A dvd burner would be fine, don't really need much else

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons. No real brand preferences

13. What country do you live in? Chicago, USA


14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I was looking through the threads and I saw some recommendations. I was looking at these two laptops
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220755&Tpk=N52DA-X1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220733&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=3463938&SID=

They are a bit more pricey than what I would consider, but if the extra money is worth the performance then I would be leaning towards it. Not sure the kind of laptop in the ~$600 range that would be able to come close to those and still have good performance in the games I would play on it. Was mostly wondering if either of these is worth the price or if there is something in my price range that would come close.

The laptop would be used for gaming so I want something that can play the games listed well, having both a good GPU and CPU to handle them without problems. Also have some questions regarding CPU speed as the first laptop has a quad core but only at 1.6ghz...not sure how that stacks up performance wise.

I am more than willing to consider other brands and types that would give good performance
 
Solution
Passmark CPU scores:
AMD Phenom II P920 Quad-Core = 1982
AMD Phenom II N950 Quad-Core = 2696

Besides a nice bump up in the CPU that 17" Acer has a higher resolution LCD @ 1600x900.
While the performance gap in the two GPUs is fairly small, the higher res of the 1600x900 will make the HD 5650 seem even a bit weaker, relative to the HD 5730 in the Asus.

This is a tough call. I really like the higher resolution and better CPU of the Acer, but @ 17" and over 7lbs.
Now that Asus is not a lightweight either @ 6.5lbs. But it does have the better GPU in the HD 5730 and a smaller 1366x768 res what will let the GPU 'game' a bit better than the 1600x900 w/ 5650.


Hello genjaguar;
In almost every case you have to 'pay to play' when you're talking about laptop gaming.
For your $600 target price range you can get lenovo IdeaPad Z565 with AMD Turion II Dual-Core P540(2.4GHz) 15.6" 1366x768 LCD and Mobility Radeon HD 5470 that will do well with WoW on medhigh graphics and will play CoD:MW2 at low settings.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146853

See a comparison of the Mobility HD 5470 and Mobility HD 5650 here:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html
(hint; check the HD 5470 and HD 5650 boxes, and any others you want to compare and use the Restrict button up top)
 

Onus

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Jan 27, 2006
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One of my nieces got a $560 Toshiba laptop recently, with an 880G chipset (HD4250 IGP). I had an opportunity to test it, and was pleasantly surprised to get 45+ FPS in Guild Wars at mostly High settings.
 

genjaguar

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Nov 8, 2010
6
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18,510
Comparing the ASUS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220755&Tpk=N52DA-X1&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=3463938&SID=

and the Acer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115864&cm_re=5650-_-34-115-864-_-Product&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=3463938&SID=

Which is the better buy? I notice that while the ASUS is more expensive...they both have 4 cores but the ASUS is clocked lower...does that have any effect. And I believe the ASUS has a better graphics card...or am I mistake on that?
 
Passmark CPU scores:
AMD Phenom II P920 Quad-Core = 1982
AMD Phenom II N950 Quad-Core = 2696

Besides a nice bump up in the CPU that 17" Acer has a higher resolution LCD @ 1600x900.
While the performance gap in the two GPUs is fairly small, the higher res of the 1600x900 will make the HD 5650 seem even a bit weaker, relative to the HD 5730 in the Asus.

This is a tough call. I really like the higher resolution and better CPU of the Acer, but @ 17" and over 7lbs.
Now that Asus is not a lightweight either @ 6.5lbs. But it does have the better GPU in the HD 5730 and a smaller 1366x768 res what will let the GPU 'game' a bit better than the 1600x900 w/ 5650.


 
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