Gaming ultrabook budget oriented advice

Knuckle_50

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Apr 19, 2011
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I'm looking to buy an ultra portable gaming laptop and squeak by under 1k. I already have a laptop that acts as my desktop a beefy asus 2 years old that doesn't grunt at any games I throw at it. The goal with this laptop is to be on the go and still good quality for eq, lol, counter strike for the most part.

I've narrowed my solution to these 2 models, curious if anyone has any feedback or an alternative:

Acer u m5
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Acer-Timelin...item27d03a8f24

Dell z14
http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/dell-i...ook/41593.aspx


Spec wise they feel fairly close, so I'm all ears to the little things that might make one better than the other. If anyone knows a good option cheaper that I could upgrade to a similar o,r better performance at around the same price with an aftermarket ssd or ram I'm open to good ideas.
 

X79

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I really was going to say the same ^^. Ultrabooks are premium devices. As much as I hate the word premium.
 

g-unit1111

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Yup. Either you get ultra portable or you get a gaming behemoth. As many have tried, none have succeeded. The closest that comes is probably that way overpriced Razer Blade but there's far less expensive laptops you could go with. You can't have it both ways. You will hate life gaming on an ultra book - the ultra low low low power CPUs will cripple pretty much anything they touch.
 

Knuckle_50

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Are these opinions or firsthand experience with the above referenced devices. I'm not trying to run the latest titles on high settings, I play league of legends, counter strike 1.6, Everquest emulator.
 

Knuckle_50

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Yea I guess I should of specified I'm not really a graphics nut, if I can play those titles smoothly I'm happy, I just really want some firsthand advice not just going off a spec sheet. I'm not a novice to pcs, I built, over clocked, and built a water cooling system for a desktop and know the limitations of an ultrabook platform. My question is aimed more at some real world experience from folks with a 'gaming' ultra book
 

X79

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Well you might be hard pressed to find someone with such experience here, since most people

would probably consider it stupid to buy such a thing, when they know how much they can get

in a desktop for the same money.


I couldn't check your first link.

But the second laptop looks like it would definitely play your games just fine.
 

Knuckle_50

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Apr 19, 2011
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Well I'm sorry you folks feel that way! I was dilligent in my search and found this gem:

Samsung NP700Z5C-S02US 15.6 LED Notebook Intel Core i7 i7-3615QM 2.3GHz Silver 1600 x 900 HD+ Display
8GB RAM
750GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M
Windows 7 Pro
Condition: New
Quantity: 1
Price: $719.99

Pulled the trigger, I am confident it will handle the games I play, and the newer games at medium settings, ive never cared for super fancy settings, if I can run smoothly at medium settings I'm happy. I'm confident this 5lb laptop can take on the duties! I'll update after I use the laptop for a few days for any other folks looking for a similar solution.

 

g-unit1111

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Ultrabooks will play nothing on high settings. The GPUs and CPUs are made for low power consumption and therefor, even plugged in, will still struggle with games and such on any settings. They are simply put, not made to play games for any length of time.

Well I'm sorry you folks feel that way! I was dilligent in my search and found this gem:

Not really sure I'd refer to that as a gem because that GT640 isn't really that great of a GPU. You try to play any first or third person games on it at decent settings and it will struggle greatly.
 

Knuckle_50

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"Not really sure I'd refer to that as a gem because that GT640 isn't really that great of a GPU. You try to play any first or third person games on it at decent settings and it will struggle greatly.[/quotemsg]

Forgive my ignorance but what is the cpu's relationship to gaming once the GPU kicks in?

NVIDIA
GeForce GT 600M Series
GeForce GT 650M SLI
768 cores @ 790-835 MHz 128 Bit @ 1000 MHz
GeForce GT 650M
384 cores @ 735 - 850 MHz 128 Bit @ 900 MHz
GeForce GT 645M
384 cores @ 710 MHz 128 Bit @ 900 MHz

**GeForce GT 640M 384 cores @ 625 MHz 128 Bit @ 900 MHz
GeForce GT 640M LE
384 cores @ 500 MHz 128 Bit @ 900 MHz**

GeForce GT 635M
144 cores @ 675-753 MHz 128/192 Bit @ 785-900 MHz
GeForce GT 630M
96 cores @ 672 MHz 128 Bit @ 900 MHz
GeForce GT 625M
96 cores @ 625 MHz 64 Bit @ 900 MHz
GeForce GT 620M
96 cores @ 625 - 715 MHz 64 / 128 Bit @ 900 MHz

the GT640m is rated as a class2 notebook GPU and middle of the 600 line on notebookcheck.com, so what issues would this have even with the low voltage CPU if its handling gaming resources? And where is the info on the low voltage CPUs effect on game performance when a discrete graphics card is present? I understand the disadvantages of the ULV cpu by itself, but what about this scenario??
 

g-unit1111

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Laptop GPUs are not the same as desktop GPUs because of the ultra low voltage requirements. Here's a good article that explains this, it's a bit older but it still applies: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6990m-geforce-gtx-580m-deception,3118.html
 

nhat11

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I have a first gen i5 cpu desktop that I built for $500 and I recently got the 4th gen haswell i7 cpu laptop for $850. The laptop i7 performance is barely better than my first gen i5 desktop, lol. It's really a performance dip when you're buying a laptop cpu but that's the tradeoff for all in one, portability.

 

g-unit1111

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Believe all you want but the specs and benchmarks on low power configurations will tell you otherwise. Ultra books just aren't meant for gaming. There's no sugar coating it.