Cheap Laptop for World Of Warcraft required

[Jock in a Frock]

I'm thinking of buying a cheap / mid-range laptop, with the intention of running World of Warcraft on it. I understand the limitations of laptop GPUs, so I don't expect to push the sliders all the way up, but would like a reasonable performance with a decent graphics image. I don't plan to play any other games on it, they will remain on my desktop machine. With the laptop I can play WoW in the lounge while the missus sits next to me and watches all her crappy reality shows (Celebrity, Big Brother etc :-O )

I think my budget will be capped at about £500 but I won't even bother if playing WoW is just a frustrating experience. I already have a work laptop for surfing, email etc.

Can anyone tell me of their experience on WoW on a laptop, and let me know what CPU / GPU combo their laptop has?

Jock in a Frock

 

[Stardude82]

Of course "reasonable preformance" and "decent graphics" is relative mark. IMHO, the integrated Intel 4500MHD is actually pretty decent.

There should be a lot of laptops out there with discrete graphics in your price range, just about any of them should be okay.

One of the few webpages that benchmarks these things:
http/www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

 

[frozenlead]

Agree with the one statement; anything with a discrete graphics card will do.

 

[Jock in a Frock]

Thanks for your replies, and especially that link. It gives me a better way of comparing laptop GPUs.

 

[Jock in a Frock]

Jebus Crimes!

Just my luck, as I consider a laptop, my main machine starts playing up. Problems with POST, occasional power downs etc.

I have stripped, cleaned and reseated everything (RAM, CPU, Cooler, Gfx card, HDDs etc), but it still persists. I think it may be my PSU at fault (due to power downs), so I will try replacing that first.

 

[frozenlead]

Occasional power downs is a good sign of PSU trouble, you're on the right track.

 

[Jock in a Frock]

It's a pretty cheap 400w model, I have an Asus A8n-E mobo, Athlon 3700+ @ 2.4GHz, 2Gb PC3200 RAM, Radeon HD3870 GPU, Audigy Live soundcard, and the usual other bits & bobs.

Voltages are okay (measured with multimeter), but thats not always an indication that sufficient current is there.

Tried my old Radeon X800 card, but still no luck

A friend is lending me another PSU so I will try that. If not, I'll upgrade the mobo, CPU, RAM and PSU (an excude to go dual core ;-)