Hi Facepunch, I think this is my first thread ever on here.
I'm hopefully going to university next year and bringing my computer would be impractical so I'm looking for a laptop that will run most new games at reasonable settings, the portability will also be good for doing work.
I understand that laptops aren't primarily designed for gaming but it looks like there are some good choices in my price range.
The best I have found so far seems to be the MSI GX740, which has an i5 430m and mobile HD5870. I'd like your opinions on this laptop and also if anyone could tell me how it compares to my desktop so I have a better idea (my computer has an i5 750 and a HD5770). From looking around on the internet the GX740 doesn't seem to be much less powerful than my computer.
Suggestions and advice will be much appreciated.
Mine's a similar model, but a GT640 with an i7 720qm and GTS 250m. The i5 750 is probably more powerful, since mobile CPU's like the i5's and i7's have a different architecture, its just my opinion. If you're satisfied, go with it. But before you do, look up the reviews for the machine because there could be issues.
Thanks, I've seen some i7s within my price range but they're not as fast (around 1.6GHz) and they're quad cores, my dad who knows more about this sort of thing says that seeing as I'm after one for gaming the dual core, faster i5s would be better.
So specs-wise the one I suggested is good enough then, I will look at specific reviews as well
Those specs are pretty good for a laptop, usually you don't see many with good specs. The hardware it has could probably run some of the more recent games on medium-high settings. Some of the reviews talk about a cooling issue, but it looks to me like that's pretty common with gaming laptops.
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220739[/url]
Here's one to look at, the specs are decent, and the reviews say you can run most games decently on it on high settings (note: one of the reviews says bad company 2 will run around 30FPS on medium with no AA) at around 30 FPS, so it should work pretty well (and not as many cooling complaints).
Oh, and a tip: if you have a quad core CPU at let's say, 2.0 Ghz, it will likely run as good if not better than a dual core that has a higher speed. Dual Cores aren't the best choice for gaming, so try to find a laptop with a quad core if possible, or check the reviews to make sure it can run games decently.
The i5 has hyperthreading, making Windows think its quad core. So its most likely to increase performance quite a bit.
Just read a review on the GX740, the main issues (besides short battery life but that's to be expected no?) were the screen is apparently quite thin and possibly prone to breaking, the other issue was that the fan gets really loud when playing higher end games (this may also be an expectation in this sort of thing though.
@Schmaaa as far as I know newegg don't ship to the UK.
[QUOTE=swiftmus;26490076]Just read a review on the GX740, the main issues (besides short battery life but that's to be expected no?) were the screen is apparently quite thin and possibly prone to breaking, the other issue was that the fan gets really loud when playing higher end games (this may also be an expectation in this sort of thing though.
@Schmaaa as far as I know newegg don't ship to the UK.[/QUOTE]
I would check here: [url]http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-MSI-GX740-i7247LW7P-Gaming-Notebook.30511.0.html[/url]
Its a bit quieter than my GT640.
[QUOTE=swiftmus;26490076]Just read a review on the GX740, the main issues (besides short battery life but that's to be expected no?) were the screen is apparently quite thin and possibly prone to breaking, the other issue was that the fan gets really loud when playing higher end games (this may also be an expectation in this sort of thing though.
@Schmaaa as far as I know newegg don't ship to the UK.[/QUOTE]
Oh, it's an ASUS K42JV-X1. I don't know any online stores offhand that ship to UK, most of the ones I've found are US-only.
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