Need recommendation for a gaming laptop

[Quang Vo]

Hey everyone,

I purchased my Asus K73E laptop back in summer of 2012. It's an i3 and seems really sluggish and outdated to me. I'm now looking for a i5 or even an i7 laptop for my gaming and school's coding purposes. Do I really need an i7? Will i5 be kinda outdated and not much of an upgrade from an i3 that I'm currently using? Also, the laptop that I want to upgrade must have at least 128 SSD. My other plan is to have this laptop running multiple virtual machines.

If anyone can recommend me a gaming laptop (preferably Asus?), that would be great! Thanks tomsharware community!


Regards,

Philip

 

[B_S]

the i7 is more expensive and has hyperthreading(4 cores/8threads), which means it will be faster when the system is running lots of threads. Most programs and games today will not run too many threads. So i7 is overkill for most things. The performance increase is marginal, and does not have cost/benefit value. So no you do not NEED an i7, if you are a regular user.

But you said you want to run multiple virtual machines. I don't really know what that means, but i'm assuming it will involve running lots of threads simultaneously. In that case the i7 would probably perform better, i have no idea on how much better. However the CPU work involved in running multiple virtual machines might not be so work heavy on the CPU, so the i5's 4 cores/4threads might be enough even running several of those virtual machines.

For the above text i'm talking about the difference between i5 and i7 on DESKTOP. I'm not sure if the difference is the same on the laptop/mobile versions.

Compare the clockspeeds of the i5 vs i7. If they are the same then the performance per thread will be the same. But as threads increase CPUs with more cores perform better. DESKTOP version of i5 and i7 both have 4 cores, but mobile versions might be different. HYPERTHREADING will increase performance when running several threads. Theoretically I think if 5 threads are running then the i7 should have a theoretical advantage. But probably not noticable until more threads are running.

 

[Quang Vo]

the i7 is more expensive and has hyperthreading(4 cores/8threads), which means it will be faster when the system is running lots of threads. Most programs and games today will not run too many threads. So i7 is overkill for most things. The performance increase is marginal, and does not have cost/benefit value. So no you do not NEED an i7, if you are a regular user.

But you said you want to run multiple virtual machines. I don't really know what that means, but i'm assuming it will involve running lots of threads simultaneously. In that case the i7 would probably perform better, i have no idea on how much better. However the CPU work involved in running multiple virtual machines might not be so work heavy on the CPU, so the i5's 4 cores/4threads might be enough even running several of those virtual machines.

For the above text i'm talking about the difference between i5 and i7 on DESKTOP. I'm not sure if the difference is the same on the laptop/mobile versions.

Compare the clockspeeds of the i5 vs i7. If they are the same then the performance per thread will be the same. But as threads increase CPUs with more cores perform better. DESKTOP version of i5 and i7 both have 4 cores, but mobile versions might be different. HYPERTHREADING will increase performance when running several threads. Theoretically I think if 5 threads are running then the i7 should have a theoretical advantage. But probably not noticable until more threads are running.

Thank you for your explanation about hyper threading! When I mentioned virtual machine, I meant using VMware to create other individual machine, that runs virtually on my machine (laptop). That means, it may probably do twice or three times the work depending on how many other machine I would like it to run.

 

[PCGameFan2]

I love ASUS laptops but you really don't get out of them what you pay for most of the time. I'd recommend getting this Sager NP8268-S www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J9Q4WM8.

This is going to easily handle what you want to throw at it with VMware machines.

 

[B_S]

Then it sounds like you should buy the fastest CPU possible. Maybe an i7.

But i think it mostly depends on how you use those virtual machines. I think the impact on the CPU would be the same running program A on virtual machine 1 and program B on virtual machine 2, as it would running both those programs like usual.

Like now I have lots of eplorer tabs open and some programs minimized to the tray, my CPU usage is 0-1%.
But unpacking say 10 big rar files at the same time, the the i7 would be faster.

Also just a clarfification about hyperthreading. The i7 doesn't actually have more cores than the i5, it just works more effectively when switching between threads, thanks to intels hyperthreading technology.

But don't take my word for it. I'm not an expert.

 

[B_S]

But if you want gamin on your laptop, then AMD makes the best integrated graphics.

 

[Quang Vo]

I love ASUS laptops but you really don't get out of them what you pay for most of the time. I'd recommend getting this Sager NP8268-S www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J9Q4WM8.

This is going to easily handle what you want to throw at it with VMware machines.

Not a bad laptop, but I want to stick with brands that I know. I don't know Sager too well.

 

[PCGameFan2]

I love ASUS laptops but you really don't get out of them what you pay for most of the time. I'd recommend getting this Sager NP8268-S www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J9Q4WM8.

This is going to easily handle what you want to throw at it with VMware machines.

Not a bad laptop, but I want to stick with brands that I know. I don't know Sager too well.

Sager builds Clevo laptops which are a barebones/whitebook that some manufacturers use to build custom laptops. I built my own and LOVE it.

 

[AJdaBoss]

Hey everyone,

I purchased my Asus K73E laptop back in summer of 2012. It's an i3 and seems really sluggish and outdated to me. I'm now looking for a i5 or even an i7 laptop for my gaming and school's coding purposes. Do I really need an i7? Will i5 be kinda outdated and not much of an upgrade from an i3 that I'm currently using? Also, the laptop that I want to upgrade must have at least 128 SSD. My other plan is to have this laptop running multiple virtual machines.

If anyone can recommend me a gaming laptop (preferably Asus?), that would be great! Thanks tomsharware community!


Regards,

Philip

Hey, I am a student, and pc enthusiast/Hardcore Gamer, so I definitely know where you are coming from.



I am selling a Dell XPS 17, L702x it is a "high-performance laptop", but honestly it is more of an Alienware in Disguise.

The i7 with hyperthreading will definitely help considering you are a student and hyperthreading is aimed towards better workstation qualities, like Video rendering, etc.

A main point I would like to make is that it has two 2.5 inch Drive Bays, so you said you needed at least a 128GB SSD, well, this has a 120GB Samsung EVO 840 in one drive bay, and a Western Digital- "Black" (performance oriented edition) with 750GB and @ 7200rpm, rather than the 5400 rpm normally found in 2.5" HDD's. So it total you have roughly 870 GB of storage, and on the SSD you can have the OS and other commonly used programs that require fast load times, and on the WD Black HDD, you can store a massive amount of games, movies, pics, etc.

I have being using it to this day for gaming, it runs every game I have ever needed it to run at surprisingly good settings considering this laptop is from 2012. (40+ FPS easy)

Here is my pre-typed listing, I am fixing to put it on eBay, but here check this:

This laptop has been Maintained inside and out & Virus Free throughout its life thus far, and temperatures are very good for a High-Performance gaming laptop. It can run all Crysis 3, Arma 3, Battlefield 4, Far Cry 3, Bioshock Infinite, and more, and they look gorgeous and the frame-rate on these titles vary, but all will play above 40 Frames per Second with the help of NVidia's control panel, and the right balance between Performance and Quality. If you are a gamer and want some of my personal gaming stats and clocks of the GPU and CPU message me I will be happy to show screenshots.

Specifications:
---------Seller Refurbished--------------
+Display-17.3 Inch Display, 1080p (1920x1080), 60 Hertz, 32-Bit color
+WebCam-Small webcam is located directly in the center, above the screen for skype, and other recording possibilities
+Microphone-Comes with a built-in microphone and can be used at Studio Quality
+CPU-Intel Core i7-2670QM CPU @ 3.10 GHz Turbo Boost-On, it also has integrated graphics on-Board the CPU: Graphics HD 3000 (which can help take some of the load off of the Dedicated GPU---- Quad Core w/ Hyperthreading, (4 Cores, 8 Threads),
+GPU-8 months old NVidia Geforce GTX 555m w/ 3GB on-board Ram, OVERCLOCKABLE 😛 WITH ASIC Quality of 85.1%!!!!!
+Memory-There is 8.0GB of Ram, 2x4GB sticks, 1333Mhz, 2 Ram slots total
+OS (Operating System)-Windows 7 Home Premium-64-bit
+Motherboard-New motherboard put in about 8 months ago
++++++Storage Bays-2 locations within the laptop for two, 2.5 inch storage drives (HDD-SSD-etc)
+Storage-Bay 1-Hard Drive(HDD)- 8 Month Old-Western Digital Black(Performance Edition) 750GB, 7200rpm, 2.5" Drive
+Storage (continued)-Bay 2-Samsung EVO 840-120GB SSD- Installed on 4/3/14
+Optical Drive-Hitachi-LG brand: Blu-Ray player, CD and DVD Player and Burner
+ Sound Card-RealTek Audio
+Sound/Speakers-RealTek Audio Control Panel, built in JBL Audio Speakers w/ Waves MAXX Audio, Built in JBL Subwoofer underneath the laptop
+External Ports-HDMI, Ethernet, 3 Audio Jacks (1 for microphone), 3 USB 3.0 Ports, 1 USB 2.0 Port, eSata Port
+Cooling-New(from Dell) Heat-Sink, with new Thermal Paste applied, and New Fan
+Wireless-Internet Connectivity- Built in Wifi receiver, Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030, along with Intel My Wifi Technology which you can broadcast the Wifi you are connected to, to other devices, with customizable SSID and Password for security-
+Wireless (continued)-Internal WWAN slot open- 3G/4G card from Wireless provider can be added
+Wireless (continued)-Bluetooth 3.0
+Keyboard and frame- Brand New Touchpad and Frame around the keyboard and the Keyboard is backlit.
+Virus Protection (optional)- Norton 360, Norton Backup storage, 2.0GB of any data on the PC saved to Norton Cloud, 2.0GB and be increased up to 10-20GB, and easily Accessable
+Swiss Gear Laptop Bag included


I will provide any support I can to you on optimization of games to this laptop, and any problems you might encounter, VIA messages or phone conversation.