Solved! Will Starcraft 2 work on this laptop?

frogtrap

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Aug 11, 2010
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Hello,

This is the laptop I am looking to buy: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+Satellite+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174;+Core%26%23153;+i5+Processor+/+14%22+Display+/+4GB+Memory+/+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Slate/1006408.p?id=1218207311895&skuId=1006408

Same as: http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satellite-M645-S4048-TruBrite-14-Inch/dp/B003MVZ8EC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1281557166&sr=8-2 except it doesn't have the blu-ray drive, but has a NVIDIA GeForce 310M graphics with Optimus technology gaphics card

and here's Starcraft 2's recommended specs:

Windows Vista®/Windows® 7
Dual Core 2.4Ghz Processor
2 GB RAM
512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better

The main thing I'm worried about is the graphics card. Is it powerful enough?

If it isn't, is there a computer that costs near the same amount of money that will work well?

Thanks much
 
Solution



The Core i5 450m is a little bit more powerful than the Core i3 that he Acer one has, but the difference in speed isnt too noticeable, as long as you keep it well ventilated/cooled, since the i3 will throttle itself if it hits its thermal envelope, which is about 10 or 20 degrees lower than that of the i5.

If you want the Core i5...

sidewinderx2

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First, your link is broken.

Second, it'll probably run SC2 on low or medium... though for that price, i'd go for either:
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-TimelineX-AS4820TG-5637-14-Inch/dp/B003VTZPQ6

or

http://www.applied-computer.com/Inventories/ProductDetail.aspx?PG=2&GroupID=3833245&Acpn=CK4285

depending on what brand you like better.
 

frogtrap

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okay I found a similar link to the first one.

Questions for the acer aspire link:

Will that computer run SC2 on medium or high?

Also, is the i3 processor stronger than Dual core 2.4 GHz processor? It confuses me because the i3 has less GHz from what I read.

Also besides playing starcraft I want to edit and make movies. is i3 good for that?

I am a n00b at this stuff so thanks for the help!
 

sidewinderx2

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The Core i5 450m is a little bit more powerful than the Core i3 that he Acer one has, but the difference in speed isnt too noticeable, as long as you keep it well ventilated/cooled, since the i3 will throttle itself if it hits its thermal envelope, which is about 10 or 20 degrees lower than that of the i5.

If you want the Core i5 version, you can check out the higher spec-ed version of the Lenovo Y460 here http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/config.workflow:ConfigureMtmAsItem?mtm-item=:000000F3:00002BE9:
there's also a core i5 version of the Acer, but only Microcenter has it, so unless you live near one, you're out of luck.

It should be fairly capable at making movies as well, if you're not doing it for a living, in which case i'd recommend something with a better screen.
 
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vipers992

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The new 'i' series would be reccomended amongst most of the older Pentium Duo processors.

Ranked in order you have the i3, i5 and i7. Most of them are duo cores but the high end i5's / i7's are Quad core.

Starcraft 2 was made to run well on any PC, so you could achieve low settings with any modern dedicated graphics card and run fine.

You may struggle to find a Blu Ray drive and a decent mid ranged Graphics card at those prices. At that price i would reccomend looking for an ATI 5650, that would run Starcraft on Medium 40 FPS+ and can be found in systems for that price.

I'll link ones i am familiar with in the American market since i'm British, but you'll get the picture on what to look for.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115796&cm_re=ati_5650-_-34-115-796-_-Product

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-TimelineX-AS4820TG-5637-14-Inch/dp/B003VTZPQ6/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1281559632&sr=1-4

http://www.jr.com/msi-microstar/pe/MSR_GX640260US/

 

sidewinderx2

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you're welcome :) I bought my Acer (the i5 version) a few weeks ago, and I love it. Hope you'll like yours as much as I like mine :)