A new laptop

Off-topic chat. Real talk.
Post Reply
Devon
Forum Regular
Posts: 136
Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Britville, Britland

A new laptop

#1

Post by Devon » Sat Jun 30, 2012 6:36 pm

After extensive searching I have found a promising looking laptop for £730 (I have gone out of my initial price range here)

Intel Core i5 3210M Processor 2.5GHz
Samsung M8 1TB 8MB Cache SATA Hard Drive
2 x 4GB (8GB) DDR3 PC3-10600 1333Mhz SO DIMM Module
NVIDIA GT 650M 2GB Graphics
Windows 7 Home Premium

How good is this? Will it run doom on ogl smoothly, games like wrack smoothly, and how is it with more detailed games like civilisation 5 and sim city 4?

Thanks

EDIT: For the record it's a NovaTech laptop.
Last edited by Devon on Sat Jun 30, 2012 6:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

one_Two
Addicted to Zandronum
Posts: 1753
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:47 pm

RE: A new laptop

#2

Post by one_Two » Sat Jun 30, 2012 6:44 pm

It will run those with ease. £730 seems a bit much though, probably build a desktop for a fair bit less.

Arco
Retired Staff / Community Team Member
Posts: 69
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2012 6:42 pm
Location: New York

RE: A new laptop

#3

Post by Arco » Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:45 pm

With a dual-core processor and a decent graphics card you should be well above 500+ fps for most cases in Doom. If you use medium detail for Sim City and Civilisation you could get a good, stable framerate of 20+ fps. Also, is your graphics card GDDR3 or GDDR5? If it's GDDR5 then you have nothing to worry about except for a bit of a heat footprint.

Devon
Forum Regular
Posts: 136
Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Britville, Britland

RE: A new laptop

#4

Post by Devon » Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:01 pm

It's GDDR5.

So really, is this good value for money? I can't go above this price and really it's the best I've found of this price or below.

Thanks for the help so far guys!
Last edited by Devon on Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Arco
Retired Staff / Community Team Member
Posts: 69
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2012 6:42 pm
Location: New York

RE: A new laptop

#5

Post by Arco » Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:42 pm

Yes. Price is a tad bit high but knowing you're getting a premium graphics card along with a good overall setup you really shouldn't worry about it.

User avatar
Medicris
Forum Regular
Posts: 614
Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2012 5:29 am

RE: A new laptop

#6

Post by Medicris » Sun Jul 01, 2012 12:09 am

Personally I'd say a PC would be better due to better heat dissipation and the ability to easily fix/replace/upgrade parts as it ages.

If you're really strapped for cash and don't want to dump some money on a keyboard/monitor/speakers then I can understand.
Last edited by Medicris on Sun Jul 01, 2012 12:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

Guest

RE: A new laptop

#7

Post by Guest » Sun Jul 01, 2012 12:19 am

The specs are good, but it will probably suffer from heating. My HP TX1000 used to be good in it's time, then it took an arrow in the knee...

Isn't it better to upgrade/buy your desktop? Cheap and powerful.

Edward-san
Developer
Posts: 382
Joined: Fri May 25, 2012 8:14 pm

RE: A new laptop

#8

Post by Edward-san » Sun Jul 01, 2012 1:12 am

I'm in the same situation as Devon, as I need a new laptop. The desktop pc idea is a no-go, because, as a university student coming from outside, I need to bring it from home to study apartment and vice-versa in a bag. I don't want to bring a big suitcase around just with the desktop pc inside.

Guest

RE: A new laptop

#9

Post by Guest » Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:54 am

The voice of experience says to avoid embedded nvidia graphic chips in notebooks, although ATI/AMD seems ok since my dad's dell vostro 1000 is still rocking. Unless you want to run Linux (an Intel GMA will do the job here), a cheap sis based notebook is enough for any student, although I find netbooks far better for this matter (even for somehow though programs like GIMP, blender, libreoffice, office2010, scilab, etc.), if you feel unconfortable, buy an USB keyboard.

I don't know, I have some fear about NVIDIA and ATI/AMD in notebooks.
Last edited by Guest on Sun Jul 01, 2012 3:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

Devon
Forum Regular
Posts: 136
Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Britville, Britland

RE: A new laptop

#10

Post by Devon » Sun Jul 01, 2012 9:22 am

I don't mind about portability. So what more would I get in a £750 desktop over the laptop I posted at the start of this thread?

one_Two
Addicted to Zandronum
Posts: 1753
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:47 pm

RE: A new laptop

#11

Post by one_Two » Sun Jul 01, 2012 1:10 pm

Devon wrote: I don't mind about portability. So what more would I get in a £750 desktop over the laptop I posted at the start of this thread?
Ebuyer is pretty good and cheap, just a quick look will show fairly cheap desktop parts, also I know this is slightly less powerfull - http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/27090763 ... sbar&cbt=y but it's a good price.

User avatar
Medicris
Forum Regular
Posts: 614
Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2012 5:29 am

RE: A new laptop

#12

Post by Medicris » Sun Jul 01, 2012 4:53 pm

Devon wrote: I don't mind about portability. So what more would I get in a £750 desktop over the laptop I posted at the start of this thread?
If you're just talking about the tower, you'll be getting much, much more powerful hardware for the same price, and will probably get more life out of them since they're better ventilated and cooled.

I'd just go ahead and suggest you build your PC instead of buying it off the shelf. Shelf-bought PCs have you pay an absurd amount of extra money for the brand name.

Post Reply