AMD or i7 laptop for 5 boxing

[Rawr]

Have always wanted to 5 box, and I'm just getting back into WoW, so it's the perfect time to start fresh. Would like to use a budget laptop to stay mobile and be able to do instances between classes or at a friends house.

I have always played on the lowest settings, and plan on playing 5x BM hunter, Mage and Warlock(pet classes that are lag friendly). Only buying WoW TBC combo w/ gamestop 15% discount to start. That's what I'm planning on, but I may just get WotLK at the same time.(coupon 15SHIP expires 10/31/10, would save $30 or $60 if I got 5x WotLK also)

With my play-style I'm wondering what type of processor I would need. The CPU benchmarks I've found on this forum show older benchmarks with 4gb of ram, and the site linked shows both CPUs outscoring the ones mentioned (not the i7).

I could buy a AMD Phenom II p940 quadcore with 1.7Ghz 2mb l2 cache and 8gb and a decent for WoW videocard, ATI 4650 1GB. Has 15.6 screen with low res(1366 x 768). $874 before tax, $971 after w/ fs. But the deal ends today.

I could wait for a steal to come up on an i7 720 (again ><) if it's truly necessary to be able to box, and spend a couple hundred more. But all the i7s I can find right now for a decent price have 4 or 6gb of ram and are refurbed and/or not customizable.

Any guidance is appreciated! Even advice to not box on a laptop etc.

Edit: Getting dangerously close to an impulse buy. Could get an i7 with 4gb and upgrade ram later or get the 8GB phenom II n950 for 20 dollars less.

Edit2: Got the n950 with 8 GB of ram, I'll be kicking myself in the ass when black friday rolls around but want to start boxing! Plus to expand to 8 or 12 GB from 4 I would have to spend 200+ dollars at least. ><

[Paws]

I'd advise against a laptop. Hardly any will have the ram / video card you'd like. And those that do will be crankin' so hard they'll get really hot and reduce their life expectancy.

[Rawr]

Thanks for the response! Know laptops aren't ideal, but hardware boxing wasn't an option atm.

Already ordered, so it should get here mid November. Just in time for me to see a steal on an i7, and then try and sell it for a markup on craigslist.

• AMD Phenom(TM) II Quad-Core Mobile Processor N950 (2.1GHz, 2MB L2 Cache)
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650
• 8GB DDR3 System Memory
• 640GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard) - Up to 4.5 hours of battery life +++
• 15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Display (1366x768)
• Standard Keyboard

$950 US after Cali Tax and recycling fee.

Monitor and keyboard are crap but I always play low rez, and will be getting a ps2 gaming keyboard for more simultaneous keystrokes and 10 key for control. Wish I could have gotten an internal SSD and a smaller primary HD for windows, but under 1k that isn't happening.

[Davewesh]

If you intend on multiboxing with that Laptop, Few things id suggest.

First, Get a Cooling Pad, Laptops suck in dust and get extremely hot when put under pressure like that. Be ready to take the sucker apart every 2-3 months and clean it out, replace and reapply Thermal Compound. (Assuming you don't dust or play on your bed where fuzz and stuff can get sucked up.) The cooling pad will help keep the laptop cooler, and Probably keep you from having to deal with the dust problem *AS MUCH*

Secondly, Get a second monitor once you have the cash, All day long you can get a 1440 X 900 19inch monitor for 100 at newegg, and 130-140 for 1080P(way to high of a res for the laptop). That will help mitigate the WoW's so their easier to look at, One monitor for your main wow and a 2X2 grid for the others.

other things to note;
SSD's will only help boot and start up times, The only way id ever suggest an SSD in a small laptop like that would be if the laptop supported E-Sata or had an Express Card slot (for an E-sata Card)

You'll be fine with a Normal laptop hard drive, The first boot for WoW will probably take some time, But loading screens wont be "horrible" I've Attempted Multiboxing on my Laptop (although a Desktop replacement Laptop...and 3 years old) it can be done even with a dual core.

Just remember to keep an eye on the heat, There are measures in place to keep it from getting too hot, But if your playing at 20 FPS (main) and suddenly jump down to 5-10 In a light area then your probably over heating.

Good luck though, Hope you like your new laptop!

[Rawr]

For the hard drive I thought the ideal WoW set up was 1 dedicated windows and storage drive and 1 dedicated WoW SSD. The gist of what I've read being that an SSD with lots of information storage / deletions / rewrites will stop working.

Was planning on getting an external SSD to launch WoW from but not sure how USB 2 compares to an internal drive. Even more confused now that I've started looking and there are internal SSDs that are also external. One had a mounting device for inside the comp, but another just said "USB compatible". From link to link the opinion changes from USB driver support can make it slower/equal, or that depending on what you're doing there is a diff, not all SSDs are created equal etc.

Thanks for the advice on cooling though. Hadn't really thought about overheating... hopefully there are quiet devices that are also effective. That way people won't think I'm watching Top Gun all the time.

External monitors I'm worried about. I've been told that each additional monitor will take up more CPU resources. Not sure how, but if that's legitimate I'll have to keep reading to find out how much it would use. Then find out if my comp can handle it.

Thanks for the advice, good luck to you too!

[Davewesh]

Originally Posted by Rawr

For the hard drive I thought the ideal WoW set up was 1 dedicated windows and storage drive and 1 dedicated WoW SSD. The gist of what I've read being that an SSD with lots of information storage / deletions / rewrites will stop working.

Yes SSD's kinda stop working after a specific amount of writes to the memory, However the time it would take you to hit that point you'd probably need or be well ready for an upgrade. Apart From that, SSD's that have hit the write cap can still be read just fine.

Was planning on getting an external SSD to launch WoW from but not sure how USB 2 compares to an internal drive. Even more confused now that I've started looking and there are internal SSDs that are also external. One had a mounting device for inside the comp, but another just said "USB compatible". From link to link the opinion changes from USB driver support can make it slower/equal, or that depending on what you're doing there is a diff, not all SSDs are created equal etc.

Stay away from External SSD's if they aren't USB 3.0(and even then id still advise against it), or E-sata. Usb 2.0 has a max bandwidth of about 60MB/s Which is about the speed of PATA (IDE) if i recall correctly. Spending the money for a SSD and only using what 33% of its speed (if you were getting a crappy one) doesn't sound to fun. E-Sata on the other hand is perfectly fine, The difference in speed between e-sata and Sata is 0, Theres no performance defecate with E-Sata.

Thanks for the advice on cooling though. Hadn't really thought about overheating... hopefully there are quiet devices that are also effective. That way people won't think I'm watching Top Gun all the time.

External monitors I'm worried about. I've been told that each additional monitor will take up more CPU resources. Not sure how, but if that's legitimate I'll have to keep reading to find out how much it would use. Then find out if my comp can handle it.

Thanks for the advice, good luck to you too!

My laptop that i mentioned last post, is using a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, and 4Gb of ram. I could do 5 wow's with little issues apart from over heating, And the native Resolution on my laptop is 1920X1080 (1080P). Its Graphics aren't the best either 9600M GT.

Your Laptop should have no issues, Although ive never Heard of the CPU getting performance draws from a second monitor, It would mainly Impact your GPU(thats where you'd notice it) I guess on Vista Multi Monitor Systems were Crippled cause of the Operating systems issues, However in Windows 7 on the same laptop ive mentioned.....the one im still using today. It hasnt been much an issue. Also If you want a little mathematical support.

1920 X 1080 = 2,073,600 Pixels
1366 X 768 + 1440 X 900 = 2,345,088 Pixels

Believe it or not, an extra 300K pixels with a quad core and a GPU probably at-least 2 times faster then my own GPU, There should be really no issue at all.

[Ualaa]

Also with SSDs, if you're running Windows 7, you can use the TRIM command, which greatly prolongs the life of the drive.

[Davewesh]

yeah i couldnt remember if TRIM was default with Win7

[Rawr]

Woot! I always do research on my own before I ask for help, so it was awesome to get exact answers to my questions right when I got home. Can only get so much knowledge from browsing Tech article comments as a computer newb.

Thank you Dave!

[Davewesh]

Just remember Rawr, There are and always will be people like me around that are more than willing to answer your questions even if you haven't researched it for yourself. Believe me i know the pain of trying to get the best bang for your buck. This laptop i've had took me about 3 weeks to decide upon after reading reviews on specific parts, CPU, GPU, HDD, Ram, and Reviews on the laptop itself.

Before i do any type of finalizing i always give myself room to consider the X factor. In my Brain the X Factor is usually "How soon will the better stuff come out.... can i wait or is it worth it?" For instance, Ive been ready to build a new desktop for about 8 months, Ive had the money and the time, However I wanted better eyefinity/Multi Monitor Support, and Cheaper hardware. So i Opted to wait till the i7 950 Got its price cut, and Am still waiting till the 6970 or 6990 come out. I know exactly what im going to do, and because im buying top of the line i wont have any of the performance worries as "anyone" would with a laptop.

Now i have other things to look forward too; I can save money on a new motherboard because i know the New top of the line sandy Bridge CPU's from intel will be launching this time next year and i doubt ill need more then 2 cards in Xfire i can get a more mid-range mobo vs a high end like the Rampage III extreme. Also LCD monitor prices have dropped about 30% across the board. 1080P is cheap and 1440X900 is even cheaper. 6 months ago you'd be lucky to find a 1080P monitor for under 150bucks now thats the Mid-High-end price(in the 22-24inch bracket).



But the point remains the same. There will always be people around to answer your questions, and you pretty much always have all the time you want to make sure what your getting is what you "need" (for lack of a better term).