Laptop for WoW on the road.

[Quaeras]

Hi folks,

I'm browsing around for an affordable laptop that can play wow at raid-appropriate framerates and response times, but I've never bought a gaming laptop before. Price is flexible, I'm looking to run mid-level graphics.

I know I need a dedicated video card, but browsing through newegg is very confusing knowing only that.

Any brand recommendations (I heard Asus was the way to go)? How do I know if the setup is "good enough" or "overkill"?

Any recommendations for what video card to look for? I'm willing to run a cooling platform if I need to.

Any links to suggested items are appreciated.

[qw4]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834200060

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834131115

[BicycleMafioso]

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...ist.844.0.html <-- Check the GPUs and their benchmarks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834200060

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834131115

Not really gaming GPUs. Although the computer with 540M will probably play WoW decently.

[Tulion]

You'll need the cooling pad ~ have you decided on what screen size you would like? > 15.6 ~ 15.6 ~ 17.4 ~ <17.4?


Trying to keep this under 2 grand? 1 grand? 800? 1200?

---------- Post added 2011-03-21 at 07:26 AM ----------

Also 10 man or 25 mans ~ and do you have a preference on resolutions?

[Thoaee]

I'm not really all that technical, But I had my partner choose a good laptop for me.

I'm playing on an Acer aspire 5739
It runs wow smoothly on highest graphics (except shadows, but that causes frame rate issues for almost everyone I know), plus has a battery life of about 2 and a half hours when watching films directly from the hard drive.
The only downside is that it sometimes has some issues with picking up wireless networks. With low signal strength it tends not to connect / stay connected.

Not that bad, and quite affordable. Around 750 - 850 pounds depending where you buy it from.

http://compreviews.about.com/od/thin...spire-5739.htm

[coldfiredragon]

Take a look at the Alienware M15x it has a Core i7 and you can get a Geforce GTX 460M on it.
http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-m...s&cs=19&~ck=mn

[Deleted]

Take a look at the Alienware M15x it has a Core i7 and you can get a Geforce GTX 460M on it.
http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-m...s&cs=19&~ck=mn

Using dated processors. A definite no at this point.

[nwo]

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...ist.844.0.html <-- Check the GPUs and their benchmarks.
Not really gaming GPUs. Although the computer with 540M will probably play WoW decently.

Definitely always refer to that link when making a decision on which GPU is better/which one to buy.

I have a 2GHz sandy bridge i7 in my laptop paired up with a radeon 6570 GPU. In WoW, I get fairly decent fps with most settings on high/ultra with 1366x768 resolution. A 540m is pretty much the equivalent of a 6570, so you should definitely be able to play WoW beyond your expectations. However, most other games run pretty choppy, like crysis and metro 2033, so you have to turn down the settings quite a bit in order to get smooth fps.

If you're looking for mid level graphics, then a 540m will be able to do just that in any game and much better than that in WoW.

[BicycleMafioso]

Definitely always refer to that link when making a decision on which GPU is better/which one to buy.

I have a 2GHz sandy bridge i7 in my laptop paired up with a radeon 6570 GPU. In WoW, I get fairly decent fps with most settings on high/ultra with 1366x768 resolution. A 540m is pretty much the equivalent of a 6570, so you should definitely be able to play WoW beyond your expectations. However, most other games run pretty choppy, like crysis and metro 2033, so you have to turn down the settings quite a bit in order to get smooth fps.

If you're looking for mid level graphics, then a 540m will be able to do just that in any game and much better than that in WoW.

Yea, and the nVidia Optimus-technology is pretty amazing for when you're not connected to the wall and do things non-intensive.

[Quaeras]

I feel like what I need shouldn't cost more than $900, but price isn't my first concern.

I have no idea how to make sense of that chart, but that's a good resource. Thanks for posting it!

I want to be able to play 25s if I need to, but probably 10s. I run a 17" standard at 1280x1024 and that's good enough.

540M seems to be recommended by multiple peeps, so i'll keep an eye out for those.

Any other advice?

Thanks for reading and posting!

[Tulion]

For 1075 you can get a Dell XPS 17 with a 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM processor 2.00 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GH and NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 550M 1GB graphics with Optimus ~ 2nd gen quad core with a graphics card thats at the top of the "mid range"

If your against Dell ~ Sager has the NP5170 which can be had at 1019 with the same CPU but the 1GB GDDR3 nVIDIA GeForce GT 540M GPU with Optimus Technolog

Ibuypower.com Sells the 17 inch Battalion 101 W170HN Gaming Laptop for the same 1019 price as Sager with the same specs as well

They also sell the Battalion 101 W150HNQ Gaming Laptop with is a 15.6 with the same specs for $899 if you want to save some money ~ however the resolution is only a 1366x768 ~ for 100 bucks though you can bump it to the 1920x1080

If going the 15.6" route I'd Reccomend the Sager NP5160 ~ great notebook. The 17 route I'd recommend the Dell