Cheap Laptop for a Friend, worth waiting for Ivy Bridge

[Smartazz]

My friend's Core 2 Duo HP Laptop is dying and he's looking to replace it. He need it for chemistry applications and office work as well as a little gaming on the side. He's looking to spend $700-$800. Any suggestions and should he wait for Ivy Bridge laptops to come out?

Edit: I found one that looks pretty good: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246327

Any thoughts?

 

[DaveSimmons]

That seems good for the price:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-630M.63761.0.html

It looks like it will even run Skyrim at medium settings near 30 fps:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-540M.41715.0.html

 

[rabbitz]

Yes wait for ivy bridge. Why even ask? If he can afford to wait, ivy bridge will be better. If not, sandy bridge will be cheaper.

Anyway on a more serious note, ivy bridge should be only slightly more powerful cpu-wise (not really anything crazy) but there should decent improvements in battery life and cooling (always good for a notebook). Also, I think there were some benchmarks of the nvidia gt640m, which should be around the most powerful graphics card they will put into 'slim' notebooks (think of the same category as gt540m) but with the power of a gt555m. While this isn't exactly top of the line graphics, it is still fairly powerful and the gt555m is usually found in thicker, more 'gamer-oriented' notebooks. Besides that, the hd4000 should offer a 50%+ increase in power of the hd3000. Not bad.

 

[Smartazz]

It should be enough to play GTA 4 and mainly console ports right?

 

[DaveSimmons]

The benchmark link I gave you above says GTA IV runs fine at medium settings. Console emulators need CPU more than GPU so with a i5 2.5 GHz (+ turbo boost) he should be set.

In case you missed it in my first link, 540M was renamed as 630M, the card in your lenovo.

 

[Meaker10]

Ivy bridge launches on the 29th, does he need it now? You can even pre-order an MSI with it.

 

[Smartazz]

The benchmark link I gave you above says GTA IV runs fine at medium settings. Console emulators need CPU more than GPU so with a i5 2.5 GHz (+ turbo boost) he should be set.

In case you missed it in my first link, 540M was renamed as 630M, the card in your lenovo.

Didn't read those until I got back to my desktop, thanks for the links. The GPU seems solid for his needs, but a 28nm version of that card would be nicer. Regardless, waiting for Ivy Bridge seems sensible, especially since he doesn't need it until June. I hope more 28nm GPUs are out by then as the gt 630m uses quite a bit of power.

 

[IntelUser2000]

At least the quad core versions of mobile Ivy Bridge is 15-20% faster than Sandy Bridge. Unlike the desktop, the mobile Ivy Bridge chips are showing so much better gains.

$378 quad like the 3720QM will have performance better than 2500K and sometimes on par with 2600K. Gaming will require discrete graphics so you won't care about the iGPU anyway, but the CPU is looking good.

 

[Meaker10]

If the IGP stays off it leaves room for the CPU to turbo up, though my ES likes to stick to 3ghz anyway lol.