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Cheap Notebook that can play World Of Warcraft (preferably Sub $1000)

I

imported_fallen

Member
I am looking for a low cost laptop that will be primarily used for MS-Office tasks, Email, etc, while traveling for business, but I would like to be able to occasionally play World of Warcraft.

Basicly I wouldnt mind turning down the resolution & Eye candy, as long as I can get the game to play at more than a "SlideShow" rate. I have a desktop that is decked out for gaming & this would only get used occasionally so again keeping the price reasonable is my primary concern.

Do I absolutely have to have a discrete video solution with dedicated video ram? Or would the newer integrated controlers with shared video ram be able to handle this game?
 
The ATI Radeon Xpress200 would probably be the bare minimum to start. That chipset is used in a lot of the sub-$500 notebooks you see every few weeks and are usually paired with Celeron-M or Semprons. Those CPUs are actually a lot better than most people make them out to be.
 
I'm in the same boat as the OP, but I'm also looking for it to be decently portable. I narrowed down my search to 1 laptop (between Acer, HP/Compaq, IBM/Lenovo, and Dell).

ThinkPad R51e - $899 (not including sh and tax)
Pentium M 730, 1.60GHz
Windows XP Pro SP2
15.0" XGA
Integrated Radeon X200 based graphics
512MB DDR2 SDRAM
40GB 5400RPM hdd
24x/8x CD-RW/DVD-ROM
Wireless b/g

I would much rather have the ThinkPad, but I don't think the X200 video card is as good as the Quadro NVS 110M (but honestly I have no clue).

Can anyone comment on my conclusions? Am I completely missing some brands or lines?


EDIT 1: Changed Dell link.
EDIT 2: The "256MB nVidia Quadro NVS 110M TurboCache" video card in the Dell Latitude D620 is NOT for gaming. Removed the info.
 
I can say that WoW runs reasonably well on my Inspiron 9200, but I don't know if Dell has those discounted to your price range. Might check the Outlet.
 
Originally posted by: gotensan01
I'm in the same boat as the OP, but I'm also looking for it to be decently portable. I narrowed down my search to 2 laptops (between Acer, HP/Compaq, IBM/Lenovo, and Dell).

Dell Latitude D620 - $959 (not including sh and tax)
Core Duo T2300E, 1.66GHz
Windows XP Pro SP2 Media
14.1" WXGA
256MB nVidia Quadro NVS 110M TurboCache
512MB DDR2-533 SDRAM
40GB 5400RPM hdd
24x CD-ROM
Wireless g

ThinkPad R51e - $899 (not including sh and tax)
Pentium M 730, 1.60GHz
Windows XP Pro SP2
15.0" XGA
Integrated Radeon X200 based graphics
512MB DDR2 SDRAM
40GB 5400RPM hdd
24x/8x CD-RW/DVD-ROM
Wireless b/g

I would much rather have the ThinkPad, but I don't think the X200 video card is as good as the Quadro NVS 110M (but honestly I have no clue).

Can anyone comment on my conclusions? Am I completely missing some brands or lines?


EDIT: Changed Dell link.
Click to expand...

You will be very unhappy with the performance of thoise 2 Laptops. check out HP's offerings....

 
Yeah, I didn't even realize that the "256MB nVidia Quadro NVS 110M TurboCache" video card wasn't for gaming -_-

It's good to know that those aren't gaming laptops before I buy them 😀
 
The D620 is intended for business use, not for gaming.

That said, as I have one, I can attest that it will run some games as with 1 GB of RAM, a 7200 RPM HDD (I've got the 100 GB Hitachi TravelStar), an Intel 1.83 Ghz dual core CPU, WXGA+ LCD (don't settle for the regular LCD), and nVidia Quadro NVS 110M TC (equivalent of GeForce 7300), it's got reasonable horsepower.

Really, this is a notebook that you should think of as:
1st - Business Notebook
2nd - Capable of modest Entertainment (movies, games, photos)

Additionally, for a 14" notebook, it's pretty light. I love the full size keyboard and portability.

Added a flashcard reader to the PCMIA slot, so this D620 has respectable multimedia capabilities. I used it recently to edit photos using Photoshop Elements and burned a DVD.

Play Diablo II on it occasionally (the expansion version at 800x600, which is the max that Blizzard built). If not for the $10 monthly fee, I'd consider playing WoW.



Cheers,
PCM
 
Check out the notebook I purchased. If I had not gone for overnight shipping, would have been $1085 shipped price (no tax for me in WI). This is for:

Core Duo 1.67GHz
1GB dual channel DDR2 533
120GB 5400RPM SATA
15.4" LCD with "brite" tech (whatever that is)
slot load DVDRW multidrive (IIRC it can read/write DVDRAM, made by Pioneer)
multi card reader (SD, etc.)
1.3MP web cam
802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth
Radeon Mobilty X1600 128MB (equivalent to X700 but uses less power)
 
Thanks Zap, I ended up purchasing this one. I havent seen anything even remotely close to it in terms of price/features.

After using it , & eventually upgrading it to 2gb ram I Highly recommend it as well.

Thanks again for those that posted feedback.
 
The hell? A Quadro might not be "intended for gaming" but it's just the workstation sibling of the consumer grade part. I imagine that's probably a Go7300 TurboCache.

I've heard of people playing WoW on the Intel GMA950 - as long as they don't spend a lot of time in LagForge, it's quite playable. RAM seems to make a big difference - 1GB is the bare minimum you should have for that.

- M4H
 
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