Hey guys,

As the title says, I'm looking for a laptop that can play SC2 (+ HoTS) on medium. It doesn't have to be high-end and my budget is around $800 - $1200 before shipping. I was hoping sites like eBay would sell cheaper ones (even with shipping) compared to buying it here (Qatar, Middle East).

Do you guys have any recommendations? I've checked out the laptop threads but most recommend ones from newegg and they don't ship internationally.

Thanks.

YouthSC

United Kingdom355 Posts

September 11 2012 15:18 GMT

Its pretty complicated to ship internationally since you usually have to pay to transport electronic goods to countries you don't share trading rights with. Probably laptops are that expensive in your country because companies have to pay to bring them there, not just because.

phoenixfeather95

665 Posts

September 11 2012 18:25 GMT

I've narrowed it down to two:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Edge-E530-325978U-i7-3720QM-2-60-3-60GHz-8GB-320GB-Blu-Ray-/370638551813?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item564bc77b05

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-N56VZ-DS71-15-6-Core-i7-3610QM-8GB-DDR3-NVIDIA-GT-650M-B-O-Audio-BT-LAPTOP-/160828898865?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item2572263e31

Which one do you guys think is better?

EnE

417 Posts

September 11 2012 19:02 GMT

The second one, it has a graphics card.

If you plan to game, this is ALL IMPORTANT, a 650M will run most modern games fine, onboard graphics will run very little on decent settings.

phoenixfeather95

665 Posts

September 11 2012 19:11 GMT

Hmm,
Like I said I just want Medium Quality with no lag, is the 650M way faster / better?
Isn't the HD Graphics 4000 enough just for Medium?

bduddy

United States1326 Posts

September 11 2012 20:12 GMT

On September 12 2012 04:11 phoenixfeather95 wrote:
Hmm,
Like I said I just want Medium Quality with no lag, is the 650M way faster / better?
Isn't the HD Graphics 4000 enough just for Medium?

It's not even a contest.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-650M.71887.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4000.69168.0.html

The 4000 is better than previous Intel integrated "graphics", but that's not saying much. As that page says, it will only do low, and the 650M's benchmarks are about 4 times as good.

Paradise`

United States201 Posts

September 11 2012 20:26 GMT

My Macbook Air ran medium on HD 3000 lol.. I'm sure the 4000 would be able to run it pretty easy,

Get the ASUS though

bduddy

United States1326 Posts

September 11 2012 20:43 GMT

On September 12 2012 05:26 Paradise` wrote:
My Macbook Air ran medium on HD 3000 lol.. I'm sure the 4000 would be able to run it pretty easy,

If this is true either you were playing at ~15 fps or performing a minor miracle.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-3000.37948.0.html

I'm sure you can find something with dedicated graphics for cheaper than $1200, though, although I'm not really sure what sites ship internationally...

Paradise`

United States201 Posts

September 11 2012 21:45 GMT

I never checked the fps but it was never laggy (only played 1s')

iGrok

United States5142 Posts

September 11 2012 21:47 GMT

#10

Never, ever, ever get integrated graphics for a gaming computer.

Shield

Bulgaria4824 Posts

September 11 2012 22:17 GMT

#11

On September 12 2012 06:47 iGrok wrote:
Never, ever, ever get integrated graphics for a gaming computer.

Do you really have a choice with i5/i7 CPUs? They come with that integrated bullshit. t.t

bduddy

United States1326 Posts

September 11 2012 23:57 GMT

#12

On September 12 2012 07:17 darkness wrote:

Show nested quote +

Do you really have a choice with i5/i7 CPUs? They come with that integrated bullshit. t.t

There are plenty of i5/i7's that also come with dedicated graphics - I have one myself. In fact, some will come with both (integrated and dedicated), which is actually better - when you're not gaming and not plugged in you can use the integrated graphics and improve your battery life (because otherwise most "gaming" laptops have terrible battery life).

Yoshi Kirishima

United States10366 Posts

September 12 2012 00:03 GMT

#13

idk about international shipping, but playing sc2 on med on 15 inch (13x7 res) with maybe 30 fps in lategame battles isn't very hard, you could do that with a 400-500$ laptop (though, that would be considered a "good" deal, not as in a rare outstanding deal, but one that you should be able to find with a few hours of searching/research)

Shield

Bulgaria4824 Posts

September 12 2012 00:14 GMT

#14

On September 12 2012 08:57 bduddy wrote:

Show nested quote +

You're right. Just found an i7 CPU without integrated graphics: http://ark.intel.com/products/37151/Intel-Core-i7-960-Processor-(8M-Cache-3_20-GHz-4_80-GTs-Intel-QPI)

On topic regarding a gaming laptop, has anyone tried "the first true gaming laptop"? http://www.razerzone.com/store/choose/razer-blade Thoughts?

Paradise`

United States201 Posts

September 12 2012 00:57 GMT

#15

Way too overpriced

Rollin

Australia1552 Posts

September 12 2012 02:31 GMT

#16

On September 12 2012 09:14 darkness wrote:

Show nested quote +

If a laptop comes with a dedicated graphics card, it will use that over the integrated graphics by default, or use a switching technology (optimus/enduro) to save power by using integrated when you're just browsing the web and such. HD 4000 is not remotely playable (50+ fps) on medium, the difference from medium to low in terms of graphics requirements is huge. What do you need a quad core for anyway, are you encoding? An i5-3xxxM will offer identical performance for starcraft 2.

EDIT: The only reason those i7's don't have an iGPU is because it was faulty, so they just laser cut the connections, it's still physically there.

EnE

417 Posts

September 12 2012 04:46 GMT

#17

On September 12 2012 04:11 phoenixfeather95 wrote:
Hmm,
Like I said I just want Medium Quality with no lag, is the 650M way faster / better?
Isn't the HD Graphics 4000 enough just for Medium?

Yep. The second laptop you posted isn't cheap at all for what it is but at the end of the day don't dream of getting a laptop with the intent of gaming and skipping a graphics card, because that's crazy. Integrated graphics are not made for running modern games and will bottleneck it's i7 to an absolutely ludicrous level.

The 650m is a decent card, the i7on that laptop is a good procesor, overall it's not the cheapest ever but if you choose that laptop, it will run all your games.

MisterFred

United States2033 Posts

September 12 2012 05:32 GMT

#18

For just SC2 on med-low, the HD 4000 laptop would probably be fine. But at some point you may want to play a game other than SC2 on the laptop. Then the HD 4000 will not be good enough.

EnE

417 Posts

September 12 2012 09:11 GMT

#19

On September 12 2012 14:32 MisterFred wrote:
For just SC2 on med-low, the HD 4000 laptop would probably be fine. But at some point you may want to play a game other than SC2 on the laptop. Then the HD 4000 will not be good enough.

Yeah and performance was already lowered with patch 1.5, so, you're at a risk of not being able to maintain good fps at all times even on lowest settings, in the future especially and I'm sure he'll want to do another game or something in the future.