Is this laptop good for gaming?

Lauran Nightbreeze

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Greetings,

I'm planning to buy myself a new laptop which I'll use mostly for gaming. I found one and I wonder if it's worth the performance/price ratio.

Here are the specs:

Intel® Core i7-720QM 1,6 GHz (has a one-button overclocking which takes it up to 2.80GHz)
1GB GDDR5 128Bit ATI® Mobility Radeon HD5870
15.6" Full HD 16:9(1920x1080)LED Bright Screen
4 GB DDR3-1333 Mhz (3 Slot / 4 GBx1)
500GB 7200 RPM SATA 16 MB CACHE SEAGATE® ST9500420AS
Dual Layer DVD RW
Intel® WiFi Link 1000
4-in-1 External Card Reader (SD / MS / MMC / XD)
USB3.0 + VGA + HDMI + eSATA
External Bluetooth v2.1
HD Camera
9 Cell Battery

for 1600$

Optional: NVIDIA GeForce GTX460M 1,5GB DX11 192bit which adds 200$ more but I'd rather keep it at 1600$

Some of the games I play are: WoW, Team Fortress 2, Rift and will most likely go for Dragon Age 2. I'm hoping to play these games with good/high graphics, not necessarily full on everything (Although I don't really know what result I'll get).
The place I found this laptop is the place from which I got my current laptop. I bought it 3 years ago for a good price. I run WoW on it with graphic settings somewhere between fair and good. Rift I need to run on low with some details improved a little. I also prefer the place as they offer a very good service. I can also post the current one if you need.

I live in Turkey so I may not be able to get some brand new products right away and shipping might be a little pricey. So the stuff that are recommended should be obtainable in Europe.

I'm planning to use the new one for 3 years at least. Battery is not much of a problem as I mostly use it desktop (I know, you might wonder why I don't get a desktop one instead but I prefer the versatility and portability of a laptop.)

As an extra info, I'm using a 2 fan cooling pad which usually is not enough (It gets around 80*C). I'm trying to find a better solution at the moment.

I hope it's nice and I can buy it happily :)

Thanks,
Lauran
 
Solution


*sigh* Laptops have come a long way. Are they as good for the money as a desktop? No. But laptops equipped with the higher end cards can still crank out adequate numbers.



I looked that laptop up and wondered why it looked so familiar. It's because it's an MSI...

ram1009

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In answer to your original question: No laptop is good for gaming.
 

Lauran Nightbreeze

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Nice to hear positive comments on it :)

My guess is that it's an Asus G53, correct?

No, it's MONSTER Q72MS-16F11 15.6" . Monster is a brand in Turkey; they basicly gather the laptop parts and put them in their own cases and sell it (and I think that's why it's usually cheaper than some famous brands).

Although I've been told that overclocking it even using its' own feature will reduce its' life drastically. What do you think?
 


*sigh* Laptops have come a long way. Are they as good for the money as a desktop? No. But laptops equipped with the higher end cards can still crank out adequate numbers.



I looked that laptop up and wondered why it looked so familiar. It's because it's an MSI GT680 that they are reselling: http://www.msi.com/product/nb/GT680.html#/?div=Specification

Either way it's a decent system that will handle your games just fine despite what ram thinks. As for overclocking, you are basically asking the laptop to handle a decent amount of extra heat. Some are just not able to cope with it. Generally, I would advise against it but it is after all your laptop. The other side of that argument is that the overclocking is being done by software that is provided by MSI. Thus, if anything goes wrong your laptop should be covered under warranty provided you used the presets loaded by the software.
 
Solution

randomstar

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Digging around I am pretty sure that the unit is a MSI chassis with some mods- if you can wait even in Turkey you should be able to get sandy bridge in about a month..for the same price.

with that said, I agree that it is most likely a good pc for the money, although I would look around a bit more and see if you can get the Clevo chassis equivilent.
 

Lauran Nightbreeze

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I've found some laptops with sandy bridge but they are over my budget right now, I'll check it in a month.
 

simonyee04

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Get a metal cooler pad preferred CoolerMaster
max out the memory and graphics card


after 3 year remove the cover of the laptop
remove the heat sink compound put silicon grease in
and clean out those dirty fans
 

Lauran Nightbreeze

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Well I'm currently using Notepal by Cooler Master (with two fans). It feels like it's not really enough (I also detached and cleaned the fans of the cooler some time ago, and my god that was a lot of dust :p). I send it to the tech service of the place I bought my laptop every 5-6 months to get it cleaned and to get its' thermal paste renewed. Besides that I sometimes open it's cover to use hoover on the fan and clean in between a little. This way it gets around 70C and 80C later on, doesn't get above 80C much; but especially in summer it quite often stays around 80C and I can't really help it. So I'm hoping to find some better solution than what I have right now.

I've been told that I could use Arctic Silver as paste but I don't know if the tech service can provide me that. Besides I've read about Heat Pipe Cooling but I really don't have much info about it. How much would each of these cost?
 

Lauran Nightbreeze

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Well unfortunately I do :p. Alienware wouldn't be a wise choice for me anyway as you pay more for its' looks and its' service. First one is nice yea but second is something I can't benefit from due to where I live I think. I'm better off getting something from MSI or so.
 

simonyee04

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Hi,
I think most of the time the service people never bother to even remove the cover.
Look for the service manual for the laptop.
the heat sink compound they use is normal one.
just go and get a tube of silicon grease.
 

Lauran Nightbreeze

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Well my service actually does take care of those stuff :). That's why I prefer them, they have one of the best tech services I've seen; and they even do it for free!