Solved! Best gaming laptop under 800 dollars?

[theravindu]

Hi, I am about to enter my freshman year of college and am looking for a laptop that can play starcraft 2 on high/ultra settings. I was thinking about this one but if anyone has any better suggestions, I would greatly appreciate them!

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215122
^ Also, is this a dual core or a quad core? This is the laptop i had in mind, please tell me the pros and cons about this laptop for gaming and school related work and if there are any better alternatives under 800 dollars. Thanks a bunch!

 

[WR2]

Hello theravindu;

i5-2410M is a fast dual core Sandy Bridge CPU. It's a great match for the Radeon HD 6650M graphics card in that price range.

Intel Core i5-2410M CPU review
AMD Radeon HD 6650M graphics card review

That laptop will handle any school, home office or entertainment related tasks easily.
In gaming it will be 'mid-range' for a laptop which means comparable to a low-end desktop computer.

You'd need a better graphics card to get better gaming results. And you'll be hard pressed to find a better gaming laptop in that price range.

 

[WR2]

Or maybe not so hard pressed.
Here is a coupon deal on a HP Pavilion dv6 Select Edition Core i5 "Sandy Bridge" Laptop roughly $800
Core i5-2410M CPU, 6GB RAM, 640GB 5400rpm HDD.
and Radeon HD 6770M Graphics card upgrade. The 7200rpm HDD upgrade is also a nice upgrade option if you want to spend and extra $20.

AMD Radeon HD 6770M graphics card review

 

[WR2]

@ Laptop Mag online: HP Pavilion dv6t Review

 

[theravindu]

Thanks for the info. Also how far do you think that computer and that HP you posted could overclock to? Also on that HP is it worth upgrading to i7? and is the HP the better computer out of the 2? Do you happen to have an AIM or MSN we can talk on?

 

[WR2]

Won't be doing any laptop overclocking, sorry.
Difference in graphics card Shader count / operating MHZ
AMD Radeon HD 6770M 480 725 (roughly a desktop Radeon HD 5670 performance)
AMD Radeon HD 6550M 400 600 (roughly a desktop Radeon HD 5570 performance)

I think the Core i5-2410M / Radeon HD 6770M is a pretty well matched combo at a very good price.

To keep cost down I think you can skip the i7 quad upgrade if you want. $200 blows your budget out of the water. And if you have a $1000 to spend we might find an even better option.

 

[theravindu]

also is there a computer like that that has a bigger screen?

 

[WR2]

This could get you a 1600x900 resolution screen HP Pavilion dv7t 17.3-inch "Sandy Bridge" Laptop

 

[theravindu]

Thanks
Also is the 7200 RPM vs 5400 RPM harddrive affect gaming performance? also does the video card memory (1gb vs 2gb) affect gaming performance alot?