Buying a New computer

[acblumen]

I've spent quite a few hours researching the best route to take.

Firstly, It has to be a laptop. I know that's bad and a desktop is the way to go, but it must be a laptop.



This is the laptop I am considering purchasing
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834157112

My goal is to be able to run WoW at Ultra Settings without significant heating issues.

My current laptop is a much older version of the Pavillion ( dv7-1245dx).
Visto Home Premium SP2
4gigs of ram
amd turion(tm) x2 dual-core mobile rm-72 2.10GHz
ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics card ( sticker on it says it has 1918mb total memory)

Someone told me that this computer should be able to run WoW beautifully, but I have serious FPS issues in 25 man(1-5), and serious over heating issues when not on Power Saver mode, which only runs 50% of the CPU.

Before I go out and by this computer, is there a better option for a laptop? I was looking at alienware but it can get pretty pricey. Or maybe there's something going on with my current laptop I'm missing?

[Jerseÿ]

Hey Acblumen,

Have you cleaned your heatsink in awhile? Chances are theres alot of dust caked on your heatsink and its not cooling as good as it should be. If you do alot of gaming on your laptop you should look into getting a cooler for it.

WoW is a CPU intensive game. If you have to limit your CPU's power then you are greatly hindering WoW's performance.

The specs on the newer laptop are very nice and should have no problem, but the specs on your current laptop should aslo have no problem with getting atleast 15-25 fps in 25mans.

The problem is your cooling and the older a laptop gets the worse its cooling gets. My advice would be open up the bottom of your laptop, remove the heatsink, clean all the dust out of the heatsink and out of its compartment. Before reinstalling the heatsink get some thermal paste ( ex. atric silver 5 ) and apply a small amount on the cpu. this will improve your laptops cooling.

Good luck!

[Aalamar]

Well I was looking at the specs, the HDD is 600gb, but its rpm is pretty low: 5400. Also they have a weird RAM set up 1x4gb and 1x 2gb thats kinda odd. I was looking around and found this computer its pretty close in specs except for the video card and the HDD is about half the size.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220696 The video card in the one i linked is quite a bit better than the one you have which is the NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M the one I linked is the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730. Also the HDD in the Asus has a higher rpm, which means shorter load times. Also, the Asus one you get about $200 off compared to the price of the HP. With the extra money you can buy an external HDD for your music and stuff :P

Edit: I guess with the Asus if you mail in your accidental warranty (for one year) within sixty days of purchase they upgrade it to 2 years.

[nwo]

The first laptop you linked is awfully overpriced because it has a blue ray drive. Its specs are nothing impressive and definitely not worth the $$$. The second laptop is cheaper, with pretty much the same specs. Both laptops have extremely slow quad core CPUs. If WoW is your primary focus then get a laptop that has a 2.4GHz or faster Intel i5 (dual core) CPU and a decent graphics card of course.

[acblumen]

Update 1:

I followed some of the guidlines from the Sticky to Increase FPS and they seem to have worked quite nicely on my laptop, however over heating seems to have gotten much worse (When on high performance it hovers around 216F, power saver 185F while running WoW in a 25m Raid ).

I am taking it in this Friday to have the Heat Sink cleaned out by a Geek Squad agent ( $30 usd Labor Fee not bad since I dont want to poke around down there). I am also purchasing a Fergus Cooling Fan and a HeatDefense pad as well as a new AC Adapter ( which also frequently overheats ). Everything is relatively cheap, except for the adapter (80usd). I also dont keep it very clean so I'm getting some materials for that.

Need a new headset as well.

So all in all I'll only be spending 200 dollars compared to 1300+ for a new computer.


When I get some more money I plan on purchasing 2 additional gigabytes of memory($80), Windows 7 home premium ($200), and an external hard drive ($60).

On an unrelated note I totally need a new backspace key. Have for a few weeks now...

Edit:

Running in Ultra getting 60fps isn't a realistic goal with my current finances. I'll just be be happy to have 10+ fps in 25 mans for Raiding Purposes, without burning my legs and random shutdowns.

[Cilraaz]

You have a definite heat issue. 216F is over 100C. That's melting point for the vast majority of CPUs. You probably need to open it up and clean some dust out. I'm rather surprised that your CPU isn't auto-downclocking at that point to avoid frying itself.

[nwo]

It's quite common for the AC adapter to heat up a lot, and as long as that doesn't cause any problems with your laptop such as it losing power or going to battery power, then that's not really an issue you need to address. You definitely need to take care of your CPU temps though. When mine gets above 70-75 degrees it pretty much slows down to a crawl. I had to open my laptop up again today (did it about 6 months ago). I cleaned up the dust clogging up the exhaust heatsink. I also removed the old thermal compound and applied some old Geil thermal paste I bought for my first PC I put together about 8 years ago. It still works like a charm. Dropped my load temps from 68-70*C to low-mid 50s, even without using the cooling pad fan which is pretty amazing.

[acblumen]

It's quite common for the AC adapter to heat up a lot, and as long as that doesn't cause any problems with your laptop such as it losing power or going to battery power, then that's not really an issue you need to address. You definitely need to take care of your CPU temps though. When mine gets above 70-75 degrees it pretty much slows down to a crawl. I had to open my laptop up again today (did it about 6 months ago). I cleaned up the dust clogging up the exhaust heatsink. I also removed the old thermal compound and applied some old Geil thermal paste I bought for my first PC I put together about 8 years ago. It still works like a charm. Dropped my load temps from 68-70*C to low-mid 50s, even without using the cooling pad fan which is pretty amazing.

The adapater gets so hot to the point where it'll stop charging my laptop until it's unplugged and allowed to cool for ~15 minutes minimum. I'm guessing that calls for replacement. Doesn't happen frequently, at random almost.

[vesseblah]

The adapater gets so hot to the point where it'll stop charging my laptop until it's unplugged and allowed to cool for ~15 minutes minimum. I'm guessing that calls for replacement. Doesn't happen frequently, at random almost.

Yeah, that definitely smells like it needs replacement. That should never happen when used according to the operating temperatures listed in manual. How's the ambient temperature there, or does the adapter sit in place where it would heat abnormally (right next to some heaters for example)?

[acblumen]

Yeah, that definitely smells like it needs replacement. That should never happen when used according to the operating temperatures listed in manual. How's the ambient temperature there, or does the adapter sit in place where it would heat abnormally (right next to some heaters for example)?

Typical room temperature. Although it might be worth noting it sometimes is lying on a carpeted floor, and i recall the first time it happened there was some clothes on top of it ( Months ago ). But it has happened in other areas ( tile / hanging mid air ) as well.

[nwo]

Sounds like you definitely need an AC adapter replacement then. But, I think $80 is a little too much. Try to look on newegg.com if they have the one you need or a universal one.