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Hi: i'm allowed to pick a laptop for use at work. I'm aiming at bringing it home and play starcraft at max settings with it. What is my best pick? (I did a preselection so price does not matter)
(1) TOSHIBA TECRA A11-11J (Intel Core i5 520M / 2.4 GHz ( 2.93 GHz ) ( Dual-Core )) W7P+XP I5-520M/ 4GB/320GB/15.6/GMA HD (Intel HD Graphics Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0, WXGA (1366 x 768))
(2) TOSHIBA TECRA M11-13X I5-520M (Intel Core i5 520M / 2.4 GHz ( 2.93 GHz ) ( Dual-Core )) W7PRO-64+XPP/ 4GB/250GB/14.0NG/INT/W1Y (Intel HD Graphics Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0, WXGA (1366 x 768))
(3) TOSHIBA TECRA S11-11F W7P+XP I5-520M (Intel Core i5 520M / 2.4 GHz ( 2.93 GHz ) ( Dual-Core )) / 4GB/250GB/15.6/DVD/NVS2100M (NVIDIA® Quadro® NVS 2100M dedicated:512 MB, 1600x900)
(4) HP PAV DV6-3150ED PHII QUAD N930/4GB /750GB/HD5650/1GB/DVD+-RW/15.6LED (Graphics controller ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650, video memory 1 GB, 1366 x 768)
(5) HP PAV DV7-4140ED PII N930/4GB/640GB/HD5650/1GB/DVD+-RW /17.3 HD+ BV (Graphics controller ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650, video memory 1 GB, 1600x900)
(6) HP 6550B I5-520M 2.5Ghz /4GB2/320GB/DVDRW/15.6 HD CAM/WIN7 PRO64 (Internal graphics some INTEL)
(7) SONY VAIO EC3M1E INTEL CORE I5-460M 2.53GHZ 17.3/A-HD+ 4GB 500GB SUPERMULT ( Graphics controller ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650, video memory 1 GB, 1600*900)
is "NVIDIA® Quadro® NVS 2100M dedicated:512 MB" better than "Intel HD Graphics Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0" (don't have more info on the intel one, no MB's)?
Number 4 and 5 looks best to me now. But how do those CPU's compare to i5 520? And how does sony's i5 460 compare to 520?
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Can you give the gpu's or each one...the ones with integrated graphcs are gonna struggle, beyond that hard to say because there's not enough info
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I updated the gpu's. Which ones are integrated? Is the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 integrated? The NVS2100M? Is Intel HD Graphics Dynamic blahblah 5.0 even a GPU?
Last time I build a PC was an amd 1.6 ghz, top of the notch!
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Worst part is the only thing that matters is that they all do not have 960 pixels in hight 
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(7) Sony Vaio would be the best for gaming. Out of those GPUs, the Mobility Radeon HD 5650 is by far the best--it should be capable of medium settings on most resolutions. The Intel HD graphics would struggle badly on lowest settings. That Quadro is really weak, maybe a bit better than the Intel HD? Certainly it's not close to the mobility HD 5650.
The mobile Core i5 is way better than AMD's current mobile CPUs, clock-for-clock, so that makes (7) better than (4) and (5). For games you're more worried about single-threaded performance rather than having a lot of cores. The only difference between the two i5 CPUs there is just a small clock speed difference.
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Regarding my questions, if this forum isn't probably the best to ask those types of questions, where is a better place? If I had a Dell, I'd have called their technical support, but I built my computer.. 
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#7 is definitely the best choice on there with #5 running in at second.
The i5 460 has a higher base clock than the i5 520, but it has a lower turbo boost multiplier. Insignificant for the most part really.
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On December 07 2010 02:20 maxchgr wrote:Regarding my questions, if this forum isn't probably the best to ask those types of questions, where is a better place? If I had a Dell, I'd have called their technical support, but I built my computer..
I dunno, you can ask here, or on the manufacturers' respective websites. e.g. about the PCI slot, I wouldn't worry about it, but you could look around on the motherboard manufacturer's webpage/forums.
Both WHQL and beta drivers should be fine--the former have been certified by Microsoft, but the latter are newer and may have a small improvement somewhere. Nvidia wouldn't turn out a beta driver if it is likely to suck and annoy their users. Separate partition for an OS doesn't really matter, except maybe very marginally.
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On December 05 2010 15:09 Myrmidon wrote:Show nested quote +On December 05 2010 05:56 lOstHeaven wrote:
Even terrible PSUs should be able to handle the 100-150W at max power draw or whatever that build uses. If this computer's intended for living room use as an HTPC though, is noise a concern? If so, maybe you'd want to spend a little bit more on a suitable case/PSU.
Thank you for the solid response. The computer will be in the living room and i forgot to add that my biggest concern will be the noise. I want it as quiet as possible so that no weird noise will annoyed me while i stream or do other stuff. If you can suggest me a case/psu combo for that matters or much details on it, I will appreciate it. Thanks
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On December 07 2010 16:11 lOstHeaven wrote:Show nested quote +On December 05 2010 15:09 Myrmidon wrote:
Even terrible PSUs should be able to handle the 100-150W at max power draw or whatever that build uses. If this computer's intended for living room use as an HTPC though, is noise a concern? If so, maybe you'd want to spend a little bit more on a suitable case/PSU. Thank you for the solid response. The computer will be in the living room and i forgot to add that my biggest concern will be the noise. I want it as quiet as possible so that no weird noise will annoyed me while i stream or do other stuff. If you can suggest me a case/psu combo for that matters or much details on it, I will appreciate it. Thanks
I'm not an expert at quiet builds, but you may also want to look for an aftermarket CPU heat sink to be quieter. Look for a case with minimal mesh, thicker panels, maybe noise-absorbing material, etc., and also a good HDD mounting system to avoid noisy vibrations. A slower HDD can be quieter as well--an SSD would be pretty much silent too, but that's a lot more expensive. There are many PSUs that should be decently quiet at the type of low powers you're drawing, so any decent model should be okay.
Actually, you should probably just read silentpcreview for ideas and advice. Keep in mind that since you don't need gaming graphics or CPU horsepower, you can get away with relatively cheaper stuff. It would be much more difficult and expensive to make a powerful gaming rig quiet and cool.
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Thank you for your responses. Now I know a little more about the numbers too. With your explantation, #7 definately seems the best.
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Hey guys I've been playing sc2 on my laptop for a while and it's been a pretty shitty experience. So I've decided to get a new desktop but being the poor student than I am I really wanted to save some cash.
So basically I'm going to build a new computer and it looks a lot like this guys build:
+ Show Spoiler +
The catch is that I have an oldish monitor and I'm planning on using it.
It is a Hannspree HF199H http://www.hannspree.com/US/product_detail.aspx?id=24724&key=HF199H
Now I'm not very tech savvy but I know that some computers/graphic cards would need a bigger/better monitor to work. So I just want to know if that build is too much for that monitor or what graphics cards would suit the monitor better, I really have no idea about these things
Also I'm not somebody who wants to play in extreme graphics mode and all that, I just want to play sc2 with constant fps and not have it drop to like 4 fps during large battles.
So is this monitor compatible with today's stuff? Do I get a worse/cheaper graphics card to suit the monitor? Or should I just flat out get a new monitor, and if so can you recommend one?+ Show Spoiler +on the cheaper side 
thanks
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You can definitely go cheaper. Somewhere around Athlon II x3 and HD 5770 for your cpu and processor.
Will you be buying from Newegg? Will you need a wireless card? Will you need Windows 7 (you can get this at a discounted price I believe if you're a college student)?
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so i just put my cpu in(i7 930), and the heatsink, which already had thermal grease on the bottom, i believe they come like this, and i kinda fucked the first placement, i didnt slide it around or some stupid shit, but the second placement went fine(i think), this is obviously my first build. did i fuck up hardcore? and have to take it off and put remove the thermal grease? or is this not much of an issue. someone reassure me, im feeling terribly vulnerable right now, lol.
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No, you're fine. As long as you didn't get random artifacts in there like lint or hair in there. It probably didn't spill outside of the cpu/heatsink contact, but if it did, try and clean it up a bit.
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@Mascherano: agreed with R04R, you can get something cheaper than that. For that monitor (and thus that screen resolution), an HD 5770 is enough for ultra settings. GTS 450 or HD 5750 would also be good choices if you can find them cheaper. If you're not looking to play any DirectX 11 games in the future, maybe a GTS 250 or HD 4850 if cheaper than that would be good for high settings. An Athlon II X3 for the CPU and a corresponding AM3 motherboard would be fine, as mentioned. With those parts, you could get a cheaper PSU and maybe save slightly on a couple other places too. Where are you buying from?
@Minzy: There shouldn't be a problem, but if you're worried and want to confirm, you can just test empirically. Just run something like OCCT or prime95 to max out your CPU, leave it running for a while, and check the CPU temperature with some kind of temperature monitoring utility like HWMonitor. I don't know exactly what temperatures a stock i7-930 should max out at, but you should be able to find typical figures online without much trouble.
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Thanks R04R and Myrmidon for the feedback.
I'll probably be buying from newegg, and will have a look at the stores around my area. (chicago)
Missed out on black friday but hopefully there are some good christmas deals.
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Is it normal for Ram to be at 30-40% used (according to my RAM and CPU gadget) when I have barely anything (except this window even) open?
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On December 08 2010 08:27 maxchgr wrote:
Is it normal for Ram to be at 30-40% used (according to my RAM and CPU gadget) when I have barely anything (except this window even) open?
Yes because you have Superfetch enabled. This feature learns which programs you use the most and loads them into the ram so that they will be ready when you need them.
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You can easily disable Superfetch from your starting services if you dont mind the programs that you use often to load slower than usual. Im using W7 64-bit, usually boot up with 20-25% RAM usage when Superfetch is on.
If you want to disable it, type msconfig in the run box and uncheck it from the starting services.
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EPT
