Buying a laptop

[Darkchaoself]

tl;dr: new laptop, which of 3 below is best for gaming

Well my sister is buying my current desktop from me, so using the money I'm buying a laptop.

I'll be using the laptop for some gaming, however the games wouldn't be that intensive (WoW, LoL, CoD, Mercs 2, Bioshock), as well as schoolwork, and webrowsing.

Now I've narrowed it down to 3 laptops, however I came here for advice on which would be the best for my needs, since I'm not THAT good with computers.

The laptops are:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115763

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834101230

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115796

Help greatly appreciated

 

[Slapshot136]

I think the 2nd one is the best overall

 

[Darkchaoself]

Thanks, I've narrowed it down to the less expensive ofthe 2 Acers, and the Gateway, the only difference being the Gateway having .14 more gigs, and 180 more GB of hdd, so one more question: Would spending that extra ~80$ really be worth it in the long run?

Also: I noticed on the specs for the Acer's Graphic card it had 1 GB of VRAM, whereas the Gateway, having the same video card, does not have that listed. So did they just choose not to list that, or is it a slightly different video card? (I'm goin with the former)

 

[seph ir oth]

NOOOOOOOOOOO NOT THE GATEWAY! Every gateway laptop I've run into have had heating issues (though it could've been the user). I dunno, consider manufacturer reviews.

I'd almost prefer #3 for price over power. Yes, the purpose is for gaming, but with computing power increasing more and more, how long do you expect to keep the laptop working for up-to-date games?

Save the money, go the cheaper route. 2 models down in the processing isn't worth the extra $70 or so.

 

[Darkchaoself]

Well the overheating gateway thing just seems like a personal thing

And I rarely ever buy newer gem games, the not recent being mercs 2, otherwise I just borrow from friends, I honestly only play, and will play WoW and LoL oftenly, that's how I consider myself somewhat of a "gamer", and I plan to keep this laptop for 4-6 years, so I won't need to be worried about being able to keep up with new games with huge PC requirements.

I think I my get #2, though more opinions would be helpful.

 

[13lade619]

Would spending that extra ~80$ really be worth it in the long run?

From core i3 to core i5 is a really really big jump in processor power,
so i believe that in the long run you'll have games that would perform better on i5's.

My professor discussed about the iCores in class and this is what the specs are:

i3 = 2 cores x2 (Hyperthreading)

i7 = 4 cores x2 (Hyperthreading)

i5 = 4 cores. (essentially it's just an i7 with Hyperthreading disabled.)

 

[Darkchaoself]

But like I said, I won't play many more games than wow/lol so I'm not looking for something that will have to play something like crysis. Unless getting the i5 over the i3 will increase my fps on wow by a fair amount, I'll probably stick to the i3

 

[Slapshot136]

WoW uses 2 cores but doesn't like hyper-threading (it actually hurts performance) so the i5 would be the best choice for wow, none of the other titles seem to be cpu-dependent

 

[Icyculyr]

WoW uses 2 cores but doesn't like hyper-threading (it actually hurts performance) so the i5 would be the best choice for wow, none of the other titles seem to be cpu-dependent

These are all the dual core i series, none of these are quad core. They all have 2 cores + HT.

I used notebookcheck to see if the 5650 or the GTX 260M was better, and it appears the 260M is better.
I found this system, GTX 260M, Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.53GHz, 500GB HD, 6GB RAM(800MHz I think).

EDIT: Is says the system is re-certified, does that mean its second hand?

What do you think? According to notebookcheck, the GTX 260M gets 52 FPS on High in WoW, but I don't know the other specs of the laptops testing the game.
If 5650 is enough for you, then the other machines would appear better as they are using the newer CPUs.

 

[Slapshot136]

o.o - I(13lade619) was wrong, looks like the i5's are dual cores with HT

I think im going to agree with Icyculyr on this one

 

[Dave312]

o.o - I(13lade619) was wrong, looks like the i5's are dual cores with HT

I think im going to agree with Icyculyr on this one

Correct. Both the i3 and the i5 are dual cores with hyperthreading. The i7 is a quad core with hyperthreading (6 cores if it is the 980X extreme edition)

 

[Icyculyr]

Correct. Both the i3 and the i5 are dual cores with hyperthreading. The i7 is a quad core with hyperthreading (6 cores if it is the 980X extreme edition)

There is still a dual core i7 you can get though, like in the MBPs.

 

[Crazy_Dead]

Get an iMac.

Question(not hijack), Why does everybody say that Mac's is office computers?
I mean, the latest mac installs WoW on 1.5 hours. On my Windows, it took 1.5 days. I just get abit angry, because they aint office computers. They are powerful.(Please No -rep Windows Users )

 

[UndeadDragon]

Question(not hijack), Why does everybody say that Mac's is office computers?
I mean, the latest mac installs WoW on 1.5 hours. On my Windows, it took 1.5 days. I just get abit angry, because they aint office computers. They are powerful.(Please No -rep Windows Users )

This is regarding the power of the computer, not the make of it. If you had a Windows computer which cost you the same amount as that latest Mac, it should be able to equal those speeds with no problems.

 

[13lade619]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_i5

well sorry for that..
i didnt know that there were i5 models with only 2 cores.
but there are core i5 models with 4 cores.

 

[Icyculyr]

I've tried WoW on Windows 7 on my 27" iMac (4850M) and it gets 30 FPS maxed out at 2560x1440, but the OP wants a laptop, and the iMac with that GPU performance is out of the OPs budget.

 

[polishgenius]

the second one is best

 

[Darkchaoself]

Alright, i havent bought the laptop yet incase anymore deals would pop up, and I've found nothing comparable to this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220733

Until i looked at bestbuys site (hush i hate them too) and found this:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Samsung...p?id=1218161511080&skuId=9728443#BVRRWidgetID

So how does this bestbuy one compare to the one from newegg? And is it more viable due to it being new unlike the one from newegg?

 

[codemonkey]

The Samsung's graphics card isn't as nearly as good as the ASUS one

 

[Icyculyr]

What exactly do you need it for and how long do you need it to last?

The Core i5 CPU @ 2.26GHz (Turbo to 2.53GHz) as probably going to be better than the Core 2 Duo @ 2.53GHz, not necessarily faster, but better.
The GTX 260 is a fair bit better than the GT 330M in the Best Buy machine, so if you're going for just gaming performance, the former would be more suitable.

You can have a look at mobile GPU performance in games (FPS) at notebookcheck.