EPTAnyway, you're not going to be able to do much better for SC2 than an Ivy Bridge laptop i5 at that budget. I'm not finding super-duper deals on anything in DK. And it's not like a game like that will actually overload the cooling on most systems unless there's too much dust or the bottom is placed on a poor surface. You're not actually maxing out a dual core, and loading the GPU consistently all the way. All laptops need maintenance.
Lagfree laptop for SC2 gaming? - Page 2
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
Anyway, you're not going to be able to do much better for SC2 than an Ivy Bridge laptop i5 at that budget. I'm not finding super-duper deals on anything in DK. And it's not like a game like that will actually overload the cooling on most systems unless there's too much dust or the bottom is placed on a poor surface. You're not actually maxing out a dual core, and loading the GPU consistently all the way. All laptops need maintenance. | ||
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Alryk
United States2718 Posts
I actually thought the 2630QM had the same clock speed as the 3510M, but yeah. | ||
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Daewon
127 Posts
Thanks for all the answers guys. Just to clarify: Travel a lot in this case means staying here for 4 months, there for 3 months, etc. Once I'm settled I will buy a stationary. I insist on the laptop being at least 17", no way in hell will I play SC2 on less. I'm basically looking to get a mobile stationary experience as cheaply as possible :-). As for the pricing - Denmark is silly expensive, this is by far the best laptop in this price range, most others don't even have a discrete GPU, and less Ram too. I must say, I was a bit surprised about the laptop being dismissed by some, after having seen a similar build on youtube run battlefield 3 maxed (link). Pretty sure that game is much more taxing on at least the GPU than SC2 is. Sure the FPS is not great but still... As far as I can read the CPU should not be bottlenecking me (though not everyone agrees). Another question. Will the HDD being 5300 rpm in any way affect my SC2 experience? I couldn't care less about the loading time being increased from say 6 seconds to 20 or whatever, that's fine. Will it affect SC2 ingame in any way? Oh one final thing. I definetly qualify for the term "hardcore gamer", focusing exclusively on SC2. It seems as if some people here are suggesting that performance will drop significantly after a few hours of playing, I don't get it? I'm not talking about the dust issue, but rather the idea that somehow performance will be worse once I launch my 15th game 4 hours after playing my 1st? So can I safely assume that this laptop will run SC2/low perfectly while SC2/high+ is more questionable. Thank you so much guys, truly appreciate it. | ||
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Alryk
United States2718 Posts
A 17 inch should have very little trouble dissipating that heat imo, although it IS acer. I honestly doubt that you'll have any real trouble with throttling, you should be able to play SC2 on whatever setting you start at continuously, although I wouldn't go past medium personally, because I prefer fluidity over anything, and would prefer to play a quality level under what I should in order to get the most frames possible. The HDD will have no effect ingame on SC2, and your CPU won't bottleneck you. I don't really know denmarkish prices so I don't actually know how expensive it is, but check out the Dell Inspiron 17R SE. It might be too expensive for you though. The HP dv7, while HP and kind of sucky imo, will give you a lot of power for what you pay for, but then you might run into heat problems. The Acer isn't a bad idea, with the particular parts in a 17 inch form factor, cooling it should be pretty simple. Edit: Notebookcheck reviewed your exact model Here. Good news: while it DOES throttle there when on Furmark, it only throttles on Furmark. Additionally, all the parts are higher TDP than what you have, the 630M should consume a lot less power than the 650M i.e. less heat. And the 3210M has a 10W lower TDP than the 3610QM, and might consume less power anyways because of dual cores and not 4. Notebookcheck says "We performed 3DMark 2006 benchmark directly after the stress test to see if this(throttling on furmark) had an impact during normal usage. The result does not differ much compared with the cold state. Thus, thermal throttling should not be an issue under normal usage and during gaming." So, unless you plan to play SC2 while running Furmark, I see no reason why it shouldn't meet your needs. Where are you buying from? If you're in the US spending 1020 USD on that, you're overpaying... if you're in Europe, I have no idea. | ||
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
I'm not so sure about the GT 630M using a lot less power than the GT 650M, since the GT 630M is a rebranded 40nm part whereas the GT 650M is a more power-efficient 28nm part. But I doubt the GT 630M uses considerably more power, so I don't think it would be more than that laptop's cooling can handle. (the idea that performance would be worse over time has to do with continued heavy use causing heat buildup, making temperatures go so high that the parts need to throttle down to slower speeds to protect themselves, hence you get worse performance. That probably isn't going to happen, and if it did, you may be able to just use a cooling pad.) High settings on native resolution aren't going to happen with acceptable FPS. It's probably impossible on that budget. | ||
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Alryk
United States2718 Posts
Yeah, I guess the CPU could bottleneck for a little bit in late game situations, but only for a moment likely, and you'll experience that with any CPU ifi there are enough lings on the map.  But it's essentially the best you can do with your budget anyways. | ||
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exousia_7
Taiwan215 Posts
Yes, the laptop will run SC2 just fine on all low settings assuming you only play 1v1. I can't guarantee there will be 0 framerate drop for 4v4 200/200 battles, but on 1v1 it will be smooth enough for sure. How do I know? I have a friend with Sandy Bridge Core i5 with a Radeon 6320 laptop and it runs just fine. The specs on this laptop is newer and better than my friend's laptop in terms of CPU and graphics. If he can run it, then this laptop will definitely run SC2 fine in low settings. | ||
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Zax19
Czech Republic1136 Posts
On July 02 2012 08:27 Myrmidon wrote: ... I'm not so sure about the GT 630M using a lot less power than the GT 650M, since the GT 630M is a rebranded 40nm part whereas the GT 650M is a more power-efficient 28nm part. But I doubt the GT 630M uses considerably more power, so I don't think it would be more than that laptop's cooling can handle. ... That's one of the reasons I'm pushing for GT640/650. Depending on the application it's 40% to 90% more powerful than GT540, it’s actually cooler and the price of an Acer Aspire V3 with one should be below 1000USD. | ||
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ObviousOne
United States3704 Posts
On July 02 2012 13:16 exousia_7 wrote: As much as I enjoy reading the arguments above regarding benchmarkings and what not, I'll just answer it simply for OP: Yes, the laptop will run SC2 just fine on all low settings assuming you only play 1v1. I can't guarantee there will be 0 framerate drop for 4v4 200/200 battles, but on 1v1 it will be smooth enough for sure. How do I know? I have a friend with Sandy Bridge Core i5 with a Radeon 6320 laptop and it runs just fine. The specs on this laptop is newer and better than my friend's laptop in terms of CPU and graphics. If he can run it, then this laptop will definitely run SC2 fine in low settings. Yeah, this is what I would say, too. You have to realize you probably won't be running SC2 at the highest quality settings on a budget laptop, not without significant tweaking (if at all). Settings and configuration (Windows, nVidia, SC2) will make all the difference on any new hardware with dedicated GFX. | ||
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SoulReaver17
Netherlands1 Post
I have the same specs, GeForce 630m, intel core 3210m 2,5 ghz, and it's not some weak laptop. I play Skyrim on low settings 1024*768 on 100 fps, medium 50-60. | ||
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Jaso
United States2147 Posts
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lhr0909
United States562 Posts
On July 06 2012 21:10 Jaso wrote: Consider a Lenovo y580 or customized Sager from xoticpc.com. if your budget is tight, go for the 480. It is a bit smaller, but it does the job. I can use xsplit and play sc2 at the same time and still got very smooth fps | ||
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