Starcraft 2 laptop needed. HELP!

[Guest]

I've spent the past few days trawling the web and still haven't really got anywhere. I'm based in the UK and it seems everyone looking for laptops is buying in dollars and just gets referred to newegg.com I haven't got that luxury and I really need some help.

I want a laptop that I can take to uni that can run starcraft 2 on medium. No more, no less. I don't mind too much about super high resolution but as a not very clued up person, I don't know what graphics card will run medium on what resolution. It seems that the graphics card is the issue when looking for a gaming laptop so could anyone advise please?

The only 2 possible candidates I've found so far are:

http/www.simplyasus.com/ASUS_G70S-7S007C_609949.html

http/www.pcspecialist.co.uk/form-view/enigmaII/vortex-800-gaming-laptop/
(Slowest processor chosen and a few other things lowered to give a price of £666)

 

[Maziar]

I wouldn't recommend ASUS G70,because 2 8700MGT's aren't going to perform very well in SLI.
The second one,however looks good and can handle SC2 on medium settings.
Tell us your budget and you may be able to find something better

 

[Guest]

Well, I started out wanting to be on or below the £600 mark but I'm realising that that is unrealistic. As close to that as possible would be good though. I don't really want to exceed £700 unless its a really good value purchase.

 

[Maziar]

Go with the one from pcspecialist,couldn't find anything better with a 5650M

 

[Guest]

any idea how a 5650M would run starcraft 2? I don't really have much experience with graphics cards and it from research it seems mobile version are worse by about 100. ie the 5650M would be a 5550 desktop.

 

[Guest]

another quick question, laptop cooling systems. How much is it worth spending on one or are they not necessary? Is that the kind of thing I should try to figure out after the first few days of use?

 

[Maziar]

It can handle SC2 fine on medium settings(or maybe on high if you play on low resolutions)
For cooling system,well a combination of i3/5650M shouldn't require extra cooling.You can always add a cooler later on if you needed

 

[Guest]

okay thanks.
final question, would it be worth going a bit mental and getting the i7 720QM (1.20GHz) for an extra £110 over the i3 350M (2.26GHz). I want to be using this laptop for many years to come and its likely that i'll be using good 3D software as I'm an engineer. Would that be 110 pounds well spent or is it really an unecessary extra for what I require?

 

[Maziar]

Definitely yes,if you are keeping it for some years,then a quad core will become useful,also Image/Video editing/renderings and some games benefit from a multi-Core CPU,so I'll say its worth the extra cash.

 

[Guest]

laptop ordered. 780 pounds in the end. thanks very much for your help.

 

[Maziar]

With i7 720/HD 5650M ? if so,then it looks a great deal,hope you enjoy it

 

[kindlepower]

I have an Asus G51J-A1 and it is awesome for Starcraft 2. I can play all the games on the highest resolution. I also use virtual machines a lot and the dual drives works much better than the single drive laptops. For heavy db virtuals I use an esata drive with an Velociraptor and it works great too. This laptop is like having an alienware at half the price. I used to own an alienware btw and I'm normally a Dell guy because of the warranty service.

 

[Maziar]

G51J is way out of the OP's price range.