Anyway to make my Laptop run World of Warcraft?

[Meaker10]

There is also the chance to upgrade it to an A8 (with more shaders) later on (when it's out of warranty) if you are brave enough to take it apart.

 

[Chiropteran]

So now the question I have is, if you do have that model, what's the build quality in your opinion, and just the overall design? Pros & cons you feel. I would consider that one and save $250+ over the hp envy 14. Albeit I feel that based on notebookcheck that the envy 14 would actually be enjoyable (med/high) settings on wow rather than low, but money is money...

It's a cheap laptop, and it kinda feels cheap. I prefer the styling of the samsung over the cheap hp and dells, but it's still a cheap computer. General quality isn't so great. Also, the CD drive sticks out a little, looks like it doesn't perfectly fit.

But really I don't notice these flaws, since I bought the computer to use, not to stare at it's case. It runs great, performance amazing for the price, and battery life fairly decent. I even set the bios to limit battery charge to 80% to extend the life of he battery, because I feel like that is enough battery life.

The base hard drive was slow, but it's one of the easiest things to upgrade. That and the memory- I strongly recommend you spend $20-$30 to add a second stick of RAM (or 2 matching sticks) so your memory can run in dual channel mode.

 

[Barfo]

Less than funny, and again unhelpful. Thanks though.

It wasn't meant to be funny, if you expect to download magical_tool_that_makes_crysis_run_at_max_settings_on_my_crappy_laptop.exe and be done with it in 5 minutes, you're in for some disappointment, sorry bud.

 

[NTMBK]

NTMBK:

First, I appreciate your diligent post about this. Thanks for taking time to stab at it. Unfortunately I have done CCleaner, Glary utilities, and closed all background programs (including shutting off all anti-virus to see if that made a big difference). I could still try the defrag. As far as RAM goes, my main point is that it is cheap but I would have to actually buy 2x 1GB stick (since I currently have 2 DIMM) and that would run me only about $30 but then again if I am going to upgrade, I don't want to stink anymore money into this thing haha, so in that respect, if my RAM shows about 200MB left over while running WOW, would it actually help WOW by any means?

Thanks. Also, as I am going to revise my original post, I am open to low-end budget suggests that can run wow with LOW settings and maybe view distance slightly turned up. I plan on going to the desktop route long-term, but my living situation makes this unfeasible at the moment.

No worries I find it's always worth checking that people know about the basics of PC maintenance, good to see you're well on top of it. If you're alright spending money, then I'd definitely say go with a new laptop.

In terms of new laptops, I'm not going to recommend a specific model (I'm in the UK so I can't comment on prices that well), but if you're on a tighter budget I'd recommend going for one of the AMD Fusion chips. They have a good balance of CPU to GPU performance when it comes to gaming, and they shouldn't get as toasty (or use as much battery) as a CPU with a discrete GPU of the same power. I recently put together a budget A8 desktop build for my sister, which I was happy with the performance of for the money spent.

 

[Zargon]

if you want an ASUS laptop hee this warning

the support is awful. if it breaks you are almost better throwing it away, as you spend 20-40 bucks to ship it to them and it will be gone likely for months with little to no contact.

 

[frozentundra123456]

This whole situation is so I can be mobile. I fully understand I could do a desktop and get more performance, but I want a laptop, not a desktop for my current situation.



Thank you notty22, your post is very helpful. I just got done looking into that one more and I'm considering going down to my best buy to play with it and then maybe grab it there (says in stock). The reviews look really good and I think it make work just great for what I would want. With best buy I always have the 15 days to return it if I hate it too lol! Only negative I'd venture to say is the number pad (a positive for most, but I hate that thing making my touchpad off center of the main frame! Lol)


If anyone has any more suggests, throw um at me. Most of you have been very helpful! Thanks!

I would also recommend that Samsung for 400.00 if you can find it in stock. I seriously considered buying it on sale a few weeks ago at bb when it was on sale for 380.00, but it sold out almost instantly. 400.00 is still a good price though, and you wont get any kind of decent gaming on a laptop for less. I also think it should run fairly cool compared to a real gaming laptop. My grandson has an asus gaming laptop that should be much faster, but throttles down a lot due to getting too hot. And it cost more than twice what the Samsung does.

 

[randomrogue]

WOW is CPU dependent. It doesn't require the best GPU in the world but a good CPU is a must.

Also, the difference between 1/2 a GIG of ram and 1 GB is huge. 1GB to 2GB is pretty big too. 2GB to 4GB isn't that amazing.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

IMHO I would just get a llano lappy

 

[mak360]

bradallaround

my advice would be not to buy nvidia gpu laptop as it will most certainly overheat and die prematurely (nvidia desktop is fine as there is plenty of cooling) although nvidia will run WOW better than AMD.

I had an acer 8930g with 9700m gtx which i replaced twice and then finally the motherboard died, bcoz of this i wouldnt touch nvidia with an pole stick in a laptop, i would rather use intel as graphics, honestly. (you've been warned)

 

[mak360]

there is some cut down gaming versions of xp you can download (not sure if its legal) use that as your operating system and don`t use any 3rd party software you don`t need apart from min drivers to play (forget firewall, anti virus & patches for OS)

think they are called black editions (xp)

ps try enabling safe mode with networking on the system you have now (it will stop all useless stuff loading) - that should make a big difference

 

[maniac5999]

Short answer: You're f***ed, buy a new laptop.

Long answer: you can try to get slightly more performance out of the laptop, if you're willing to accept a small chance of it melting. you can see about using setFSB to overclock the processor, and AMD GPU tool to overclock the IGP. The issue is that you might cause instability, and you might overheat your computer by doing this, and at best, you're likely to see a limited improvement.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Hey op, remember when I said a desktop provides a better value?

Here is an i7 for $480 Buckaroos:
http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/678...-500gb-hdd-dvdrw-geforce-310m-win-7-pro-32bit

Throw an HD 6850 in there and run with the wind, because you can probably run WoW on high/ultra.

 

[NTMBK]

Hey op, remember when I said a desktop provides a better value?

Here is an i7 for $480 Buckaroos:
http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/678...-500gb-hdd-dvdrw-geforce-310m-win-7-pro-32bit

Throw an HD 6850 in there and run with the wind, because you can probably run WoW on high/ultra.

He wants a laptop. Quit it.

 

[Barfo]

Do some acid, you won't mind the 5 FPS.

 

[sm625]

Thinkpad x120e, according to sd it is on sale for $299.

There isnt much you can do because you are stuck with that gpu and it is only capable of processing so many frames per second. More ram, an ssd, overclock, you name it, you wont get more than one or two extra frames per second. It wont even be noticable.

Another option is to buy a used notebook that has a gpu, even one from 4 years ago, for a low price and then sell your current notebook to partially offset the cost. You could probably execute the trade for less than $100. Your screen is matte so it has aftermarket appeal to some.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Just get a llano!

 

[RavenSEAL]

He wants a laptop. Quit it.