Page 1 of 2
1
2
LastLast
  1. #1

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    Quote Originally Posted by Psilo
    I'm not interested in building my own.
    Well, you won't have to worry about interest or not cause as far as I know it's not possible to build your own laptop.

    The CPU is kind of slow at 1.6ghz which will hinder your wow performance because wow is primiarly a CPU intensive game. I wouldn't go for anything below a 2.4ghz chip.

    Ram and video card looks cool and should do well. I'm not a fan of laptop coolers cause personally I don't think they work all that well. You're probably better off just propping up the laptop off the table with a couple text books. I did read a review of the notebook cooler and it seems it keeps the laptop fan from coming on full while during a load test. That could potentially save you some battery power but it'll just be drawn by the cooler. Plus if you're trying to play on battery power it'll be a very short gaming session regardless ^_^

  2. #2

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    Quote Originally Posted by Psilo
    The processor is a 4x 1.60 Ghz. I don't know if that will retain the output of 6.4 Ghz or not?
    No no, that just means if you're a heavy multi tasker, the processor can process up to 4 different things at 1.6ghz each. WoW only uses 1 core, so it will essentially be 1.6ghz.

  3. #3

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    Quote Originally Posted by Psilo
    The processor is a 4x 1.60 Ghz. I don't know if that will retain the output of 6.4 Ghz or not?
    Core speed isn't additive, but that specific CPU has turbo capabilities and can overclock all four cores to 2.8ghz I believe. I also believe turbo is completely under your control with the 720QM, so you can overclock to 2.8ghz whenever you need it on your own. I'm not sure how it handles turbo without user input, but the desktop counterparts are fairly aggressive when it does clock the cores higher.
    Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all. - Charles Babbage

  4. #4

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    The memory is fine, but that i5 is a steep downgrade from the i7 720QM, if I were you I'd stick with the i7.

    Or instead of the i7, with the money saved from the i5, you could get something like a Mobile 5730 - 5850.
    Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all. - Charles Babbage

  5. #5

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    The i5 540 isn't a huge amount inferior to the i7 620, you could probably save a bit from changing it back down and sticking with the 5870.
    Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all. - Charles Babbage

  6. #6

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    The new spec looks much better.

    You still might need to tweak around with your graphic settings but it should run it fine.

  7. #7

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    Quote Originally Posted by op3l
    The new spec looks much better.

    You still might need to tweak around with your graphic settings but it should run it fine.
    The second set of specs is more than good enough to run WoW on a 15" screen.

  8. #8
    Moderator Cilraaz's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    PA, USA
    Posts
    10,139

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    Quote Originally Posted by op3l
    WoW only uses 1 core, so it will essentially be 1.6ghz.
    I really wish people would stop saying that... because it's just not true. WoW is made of one large main thread, one large sound thread, and a bunch of smaller threads. It can easily use a quad core CPU. On my i5 750, I often see utilization levels of 70/30/30/70% while playing WoW.

  9. #9

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    What you have listed right now in the OP should play WoW flawlessly...
    Processor - Intel® Core™ i7-620M Mobile Processor (2x 2.66GHz/4MB L3 Cache)
    Memory - 4GB [2GB x 2] 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM [Notebook Memory]
    Video Card - Mobility DDR5 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5870 PCI-Express 3D Video
    As long as you get a (dual core) CPU that's at least 2.4GHz+ and a decent video card you will be OK. For a desktop I would say 3GHz minimum, but that number is kind of hard to get on a laptop, especially with a budget. I also put dual core in parenthesis because most quad cores are budget and have a much lower clock speed than a dual core, which won't benefit your WoW or any other game performance.
    [23:43:22] [P] [85:Bowsjob]: If its between 2 holy pallys its gonna be a gear fight most likely

  10. #10

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    Quote Originally Posted by Cilraaz
    I really wish people would stop saying that... because it's just not true. WoW is made of one large main thread, one large sound thread, and a bunch of smaller threads. It can easily use a quad core CPU. On my i5 750, I often see utilization levels of 70/30/30/70% while playing WoW.
    Well I stand corrected ^_^

  11. #11

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    WoW is designed to run primarily off of 2 threads, but it does utilize up to 4 threads with the latter 2 running at low usage.
    2x Intel Xeon 5680 12 Cores (2x6 Cores)@ 5.0ghz.* EVGA Classified SR-2 Motherboard.*Kingston Hyper-X 48gb(12x4gb) DDR3 1600.* 3x OCZ Colossus SSD 1.5gb (3x500gb) Raid 0.* 2x Enermax 1250W PSU. 4x EVGA GTX 480 Quad-SLI.* Samsung F3 1TB Storage Drive.* Custom Watercooled (EK 2xCPU/4xGPU Blocks, 2xMCP655 Pumps, 3xXSPC Dual Bay Reservoirs, 3x480 GTX Radiators, 24x Scythe GentleTyphoon AP15 Fans in Push/Pull).* 3x Dell 3008wfp 30" IPS Monitors.* ASUS Xonar D2X 7.1 PCIe

  12. #12
    Moderator Cilraaz's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    PA, USA
    Posts
    10,139

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    I've seen WoW spawn upward of 8-10 threads in Process Explorer.

  13. #13

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    Quote Originally Posted by Cilraaz
    I've seen WoW spawn upward of 8-10 threads in Process Explorer.
    Well, I have 12 threads (i7 980x, 6 cores with HT).

    I've only seen wow use 4
    2x Intel Xeon 5680 12 Cores (2x6 Cores)@ 5.0ghz.* EVGA Classified SR-2 Motherboard.*Kingston Hyper-X 48gb(12x4gb) DDR3 1600.* 3x OCZ Colossus SSD 1.5gb (3x500gb) Raid 0.* 2x Enermax 1250W PSU. 4x EVGA GTX 480 Quad-SLI.* Samsung F3 1TB Storage Drive.* Custom Watercooled (EK 2xCPU/4xGPU Blocks, 2xMCP655 Pumps, 3xXSPC Dual Bay Reservoirs, 3x480 GTX Radiators, 24x Scythe GentleTyphoon AP15 Fans in Push/Pull).* 3x Dell 3008wfp 30" IPS Monitors.* ASUS Xonar D2X 7.1 PCIe

  14. #14
    Moderator Cilraaz's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    PA, USA
    Posts
    10,139

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    You realize that more than one thread can reside on a core, right?



    Each of the "Wow.exe+0x######" is a thread (the TID column is the thread ID). There's 15 threads. Only 9 pulled any activity, however. That was just logging in a lowbie to the Orc starting area, also.

  15. #15

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    Quote Originally Posted by Cilraaz
    You realize that more than one thread can reside on a core, right?
    Yes, and I chose the wrong terminology, how dare I post after a night of watching play off hockey and drinking. I meant to say wow never utilizes more than 4 cores (not threads). And when it does, it only uses 2 cores primarily, and 2 for sub tasks.
    2x Intel Xeon 5680 12 Cores (2x6 Cores)@ 5.0ghz.* EVGA Classified SR-2 Motherboard.*Kingston Hyper-X 48gb(12x4gb) DDR3 1600.* 3x OCZ Colossus SSD 1.5gb (3x500gb) Raid 0.* 2x Enermax 1250W PSU. 4x EVGA GTX 480 Quad-SLI.* Samsung F3 1TB Storage Drive.* Custom Watercooled (EK 2xCPU/4xGPU Blocks, 2xMCP655 Pumps, 3xXSPC Dual Bay Reservoirs, 3x480 GTX Radiators, 24x Scythe GentleTyphoon AP15 Fans in Push/Pull).* 3x Dell 3008wfp 30" IPS Monitors.* ASUS Xonar D2X 7.1 PCIe

  16. #16

    Re: Should I buy this? (Need advice!)

    Quote Originally Posted by Psilo
    So, in my budget laptop situation would I be better off with "4x 1.60" or "2x 2.66"?

    (TY to everybody, BTW. I might make my purchase tomorrow.)
    2x2.66, assuming that the 2.66 is an i5
    [23:43:22] [P] [85:Bowsjob]: If its between 2 holy pallys its gonna be a gear fight most likely

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •