Laptop trouble

[Wind_Arcus]

Currently my laptop is reaching the 2 year mark and im starting to see the issues with it. I have a Asus Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P7350 @2.00GHz, a graphics card GEFORCE GTX 260M with 1GB dedicated memory, 4.00 GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard drive. The only real issue im starting to see is its speed declining, and some hard ware issue including over heating and some minor damage.

I have been reading up on Guild Wars 2 recently, and have taken a liking to it. I'm searching for a laptop capable of playing the game, but also cheap enough that I wouldn't mind buying it. Currently I have a budget of about $800 or less, not because I can't afford it, but more or less I don't want to spend more then I need to, considering I have school costs to factor in as well.

The laptop i've been looking at is here: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3473314&csid=_61

The requirements for Guild Wars 2 is here: http://guildwars2pc.com/guild-wars-2-system-requirements/

If you guys have any Idea's of what laptop I should buy let me know.. And no, im not really in a hurry to obtain the game, for right now I'm just looking for a suitable laptop to do schooling and gaming on.

[PineappleTom]

MacBook Pro :p

[Al]

MacBook Pro :p

This. Get a school discount and pay like an extra few hundred.

[PineappleTom]

You know you want to!

[Mojo]

mac book pros are under $800?

[PineappleTom]

He said he could afford more, I was trying to tempt him :)

[Mojo]

silly Applefags :stoke:

[PineappleTom]

We prefer: Mac homosexuals.

[Mojo]

silly Mac homosexuals  :cinn:

[PineappleTom]

Appreciated. Going back on topic from Mojohaza's distractions: I really recommend considering the extra. But it's obviously personal preference and I guess you have thought about it already!

[Armybuilder]

seeing as atm Gw2 doesnt have a dedicated mac client it would be stupid  for him to get a mac

[Wind_Arcus]

seeing as atm Gw2 doesnt have a dedicated mac client it would be stupid  for him to get a mac

Glad you thought about it.  ;)


And yes, I've never really been a fan of macs, I'm going into school for computer engineering anyways. I'm just looking to see if anyone knows of a good laptop for cheap.

I mean the one I posted looked like the best one around, but I can't be certain that it will be able to run the game :|

Thank's anyways :D

[Pacman Syu]

install gentoo

[Mojo]

I'm sure JC will be along shortly to help you out ;)

[JC]

We prefer: Mac homosexuals.

iFags?

I'll post a more substantial post later, but I definitely wouldn't get the laptop you've posted as it only just meets the minimum requirements for GW2 and I'm sure there will be better options out there in the $800-ish range :3

[Wind_Arcus]

We prefer: Mac homosexuals.

iFags?

I'll post a more substantial post later, but I definitely wouldn't get the laptop you've posted as it only just meets the minimum requirements for GW2 and I'm sure there will be better options out there in the $800-ish range :3

Hey JC, I just found a laptop now http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3381432&sku=A50-156319, its a quad core, and from what I've read up on it, It is easily above the minimum required range. Im going to have to get it shipped, but other then that, it seems like a half decent laptop.

[Wind_Arcus]

Update: Went to Tiger Direct branch store, and talked to this guy about a good laptop. He showed me this laptop that was on for 600$, but the store bought it for 800$. He actually showed me his computer, so he wasn't bullshitting that there losing 40% on it. Now the laptop is a Asus with a metal type body, only 4 GB of RAM, 500GB HD, Intel i5 2nd Generation Dual Core Processor, which runs like a Quad Core. I wasn't able to remember the Graphics card name, but we went to the Website Can you Run It, and the computer passed as one that can run it above minimum requirements. He told me the graphics card was integrated, which at the time I am assuming its a good one for the price.

Anyways, im thinking of buying it tomorrow some time. He wants to add a security system which is called Total Defense to the bundle, Do you think it's worth it for the anti virus? or should I just go with some free one on the internet :|

[Armybuilder]

One. Get your own decent security software. Theres enough recomendations on the web. Look hard through things.

Do me a favour and post your specs for gw2 here. I did have them somewhere and then lost them lolz.

Never heard of tiger direct blahblah oh being british +)

[Wind_Arcus]

One. Get your own decent security software. Theres enough recomendations on the web. Look hard through things.

Do me a favour and post your specs for gw2 here. I did have them somewhere and then lost them lolz.

Never heard of tiger direct blahblah oh being british +)

The requirements for Guild Wars 2 is here: http://guildwars2pc.com/guild-wars-2-system-requirements/

[JC]

Update: Went to Tiger Direct branch store, and talked to this guy about a good laptop. He showed me this laptop that was on for 600$, but the store bought it for 800$. He actually showed me his computer, so he wasn't bullshitting that there losing 40% on it. Now the laptop is a Asus with a metal type body, only 4 GB of RAM, 500GB HD, Intel i5 2nd Generation Dual Core Processor, which runs like a Quad Core. I wasn't able to remember the Graphics card name, but we went to the Website Can you Run It, and the computer passed as one that can run it above minimum requirements. He told me the graphics card was integrated, which at the time I am assuming its a good one for the price.

Anyways, im thinking of buying it tomorrow some time. He wants to add a security system which is called Total Defense to the bundle, Do you think it's worth it for the anti virus? or should I just go with some free one on the internet :|

Just looking at the specs you've listed here:

• Asus is normally considered a good laptop brand, so that's okay
• i5 2nd gen is 'end of line' now, so I would expect a good price.  The newer (3rd) gen i-series CPU's have generally been reviewed as being noticeably more efficient (Which is particularly important in a laptop, you want your battery to last) so unless it's a decent saving, it would be better going for a 3rd Gen.
• The Dual core performing like a quad core is marketing BS, hyper threading (which is what he's talking about) doesn't really work like that....
• 4Gb of RAM isn't really that impressive in this day and age.... It's okay, but just not great.
• 500GB Hard Drive, it's a laptop hard drive so it will be slow, but that won't affect the gaming performance massively and an SSD would be out of your budget
• If it's an integrated graphics card, that's a bad thing as it will probably be an HD3000 which is the absolute minimum for GW2.  Discrete graphics (Such as your GTX260M) are what you'll get in a gaming laptop and mostly give better performance, lower end discrete graphics are just marketing gimmicks
• I wouldn't get that security system, I've never heard of it and it sounds dodgy.

In general, to me it sounds like the store probably has a laptop that they're trying to flog to make room for their newer stock, so while hey may have paid $800 for it that would have been a while ago and it's not worth that now.

At that kind of Budget I would guess that there's two good options for you, go for the latest generation of intel option which has much stronger integrated graphics (HD 4000) that will be much better in GW2.  The way to ID the different Gen's of intel Chips are:

Core iX - xxx  (First Gen)
Core iX - 2xxx (Second Gen)
Core iX - 3xxx (Third Gen)

So something like a third gen i5 with an HD4000 would be okay for the budget as most discrete cards in your price range will be mediocre.  Here's a couple of options along those lines:

Dual Core i7, Good Brand, similar specs to above... $649
I would suggest that the $50 is worth it for the better CPU and the latest generation hardware.  Lenovo is also considered a better brand, although both Lenovo and Asus are good.

Quad Core i7, 6Gb ram, Good Brand $749
This is also a good option, but getting near your budget cap.  The quad core CPU is unlikely to massively affect gaming performance due to the low(ish) power graphics but it does give better multi-tasking performance.

The other area I would look at are the AMD A-series CPUs, which have better graphics performance.  This could be an option if you're willing to look at a refurbished laptop:

Refurbished Samsung Series 3

There is a new gen of the AMD CPU's out, and the 'A10' series is really impressive.  Unfortunately it doesn't look like Tigerdirect stocks them and even elsewhere there's not a huge range of them available so it's probably not an option.

From the above, if it was me I would choose them in this order:

• Lenovo for $650
• Asus for $750
• Samsung refurbished for $520.... I'm not sure I'd be willing to take the risk....

Hope that helps a bit, I know it's a bit of a wall of text :3

[Wind_Arcus]

Update: Went to Tiger Direct branch store, and talked to this guy about a good laptop. He showed me this laptop that was on for 600$, but the store bought it for 800$. He actually showed me his computer, so he wasn't bullshitting that there losing 40% on it. Now the laptop is a Asus with a metal type body, only 4 GB of RAM, 500GB HD, Intel i5 2nd Generation Dual Core Processor, which runs like a Quad Core. I wasn't able to remember the Graphics card name, but we went to the Website Can you Run It, and the computer passed as one that can run it above minimum requirements. He told me the graphics card was integrated, which at the time I am assuming its a good one for the price.

Anyways, im thinking of buying it tomorrow some time. He wants to add a security system which is called Total Defense to the bundle, Do you think it's worth it for the anti virus? or should I just go with some free one on the internet :|

Just looking at the specs you've listed here:

• Asus is normally considered a good laptop brand, so that's okay
• i5 2nd gen is 'end of line' now, so I would expect a good price.  The newer (3rd) gen i-series CPU's have generally been reviewed as being noticeably more efficient (Which is particularly important in a laptop, you want your battery to last) so unless it's a decent saving, it would be better going for a 3rd Gen.
• The Dual core performing like a quad core is marketing BS, hyper threading (which is what he's talking about) doesn't really work like that....
• 4Gb of RAM isn't really that impressive in this day and age.... It's okay, but just not great.
• 500GB Hard Drive, it's a laptop hard drive so it will be slow, but that won't affect the gaming performance massively and an SSD would be out of your budget
• If it's an integrated graphics card, that's a bad thing as it will probably be an HD3000 which is the absolute minimum for GW2.  Discrete graphics (Such as your GTX260M) are what you'll get in a gaming laptop and mostly give better performance, lower end discrete graphics are just marketing gimmicks
• I wouldn't get that security system, I've never heard of it and it sounds dodgy.

In general, to me it sounds like the store probably has a laptop that they're trying to flog to make room for their newer stock, so while hey may have paid $800 for it that would have been a while ago and it's not worth that now.

At that kind of Budget I would guess that there's two good options for you, go for the latest generation of intel option which has much stronger integrated graphics (HD 4000) that will be much better in GW2.  The way to ID the different Gen's of intel Chips are:

Core iX - xxx  (First Gen)
Core iX - 2xxx (Second Gen)
Core iX - 3xxx (Third Gen)

So something like a third gen i5 with an HD4000 would be okay for the budget as most discrete cards in your price range will be mediocre.  Here's a couple of options along those lines:

Dual Core i7, Good Brand, similar specs to above... $649
I would suggest that the $50 is worth it for the better CPU and the latest generation hardware.  Lenovo is also considered a better brand, although both Lenovo and Asus are good.

Quad Core i7, 6Gb ram, Good Brand $749
This is also a good option, but getting near your budget cap.  The quad core CPU is unlikely to massively affect gaming performance due to the low(ish) power graphics but it does give better multi-tasking performance.

The other area I would look at are the AMD A-series CPUs, which have better graphics performance.  This could be an option if you're willing to look at a refurbished laptop:

Refurbished Samsung Series 3

There is a new gen of the AMD CPU's out, and the 'A10' series is really impressive.  Unfortunately it doesn't look like Tigerdirect stocks them and even elsewhere there's not a huge range of them available so it's probably not an option.

From the above, if it was me I would choose them in this order:

• Lenovo for $650
• Asus for $750
• Samsung refurbished for $520.... I'm not sure I'd be willing to take the risk....

Hope that helps a bit, I know it's a bit of a wall of text :3

Thanks a lot JC, I hadn't bought the laptop yesterday because I wanted to check up on a lot of the specs for it. We did run it on Can you run it? so I'm certain the graphics card can handle what i'm talking about. But I will want to compare the Lenvo with the one he's talking about, and for the anti virus software, I did do some research, and it seems it was part of CA about a year ago. They were bought by some company in India and now have been going down hill ever since. So, if im buying a Anti-virus software, its going to be something along the line of Bitdefender or something more well known, and if not, I'll go for a free one such as Avast! or Avira to suit my needs.

I'll let you know what my choice is after today, but this really helped me look further into what I'm spending for this laptop.   :)

[Wind_Arcus]

Just found the one the guy recommended me: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1601907&CatId=4939

The graphics card is a AMD Radeon HD 6470M

The price is 599$, it just doesn't show it

[JC]

Just found the one the guy recommended me: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1601907&CatId=4939

The graphics card is a AMD Radeon HD 6470M

The price is 599$, it just doesn't show it

Yep, pretty much matches with what I thought above (other than the GPUS is a bit better than expected).

I would still suggest that the Lenovo I posted above is a better option, the HD4000 integrated graphics in that Lenovo would perform pretty much exactly like a 6470M but being integrated into the CPU it will be more power efficient (better battery life), the Lenovo also has a bigger battery which will also help.

The CPU in the Lenovo is also newer & faster, so it will perform better as well :3

[Wind_Arcus]

Just found the one the guy recommended me: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1601907&CatId=4939

The graphics card is a AMD Radeon HD 6470M

The price is 599$, it just doesn't show it

Yep, pretty much matches with what I thought above (other than the GPUS is a bit better than expected).

I would still suggest that the Lenovo I posted above is a better option, the HD4000 integrated graphics in that Lenovo would perform pretty much exactly like a 6470M but being integrated into the CPU it will be more power efficient (better battery life), the Lenovo also has a bigger battery which will also help.

The CPU in the Lenovo is also newer & faster, so it will perform better as well :3

Just got the Lenovo laptop yesterday, works great with GW2. Thanks for everything JC  ;)