Which laptop is bettere taking into account gaming/portability?

[Vignasty]

I need to buy a new laptop, and I would like to be able to run Starcraft 2 on high with the computer with 30+ FPS and no lag. I also kind of would like to be able to take the laptop around and use it in the library for college classes and things like that. I need a high powered computer for the CAD work, programminig, and 3D software I run anyways. So basically something with around an i5 processor and an Nvidia 330m or ATI 5660 or so. I wouldn't mind being able to use it as a portable machine, so I've selected laptops with decreasing portability etc, but increasing gaming. I just want to know at what level can I run Starcraft 2 on high with 0 lag. My budget is $1500-$1700.

Aside from Starcraft 2 I would mostly be running older games, with maybe some call of duty 4 (for mods) and counterstrike etc. I have an Xbox 360 for the more demanding games as well. I might occasionally run some higher performance stuff (Crysis, etc) during LAN parties.


Here are the three laptops:

Apple Macbook Pro
Cost: $1500 ($1700 with student discount & I was going to buy an Itouch anyways).
Processor: 2.4 GHZ i5
Graphics Card: Nvidia 330m (512mb)
Ram: 4GB
Hard Drive: 500gb 5400 rpm
Battery Life: 7-8 hours
Portability: High

Dell Studio XPS 16
Cost: $1400
Processor: 1.6ghz i7 720m quadcore with turbo boost up to 2.8ghz
Graphics Card: ATI 5730 (1GB)
Ram: 6GB
Hard Drive: 320 GB 7200 rpm
Battery Life: 3 hours
Portability: Medium

ASUS G51j A1
Cost: $1300
Processor 1.6ghz i7 720m quadcore with turbo boost up to 2.8ghz
Graphics Card: Nvidia GTS 360m with 1 GB GDRR5
Ram: 6GB
Hard Drive: 500 GB 7200 RPM
Battery Life: under 1 hour
Portability low-medium

Desktop (Dell XPS 8000) (In case no laptop is good enough)
Cost $1250 (+$200 for EEE PC)
Processor: 2.66ghz i7 860m
Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 260
Ram: 8GB
Hard Drive: 1.5TB RAID 0
Portability: Very High with netbook/0 with desktop.

 

[ZipSpeed]

I personally would go with the Asus model. Battery life isn't very good though so if you do use it on the go, make sure a place to plug it in is accessible.

 

[Vignasty]

I personally would go with the Asus model. Battery life isn't very good though so if you do use it on the go, make sure a place to plug it in is accessible.

Hmm so you need that much power to run Starcraft 2 on high with 30FPS? I thought Starcraft 2 was a low demand game.

But I have been console gaming for the past years, so I really don't know much about PC specs.

 

[AFurryReptile]

Hmm so you need that much power to run Starcraft 2 on high with 30FPS? I thought Starcraft 2 was a low demand game.

But I have been console gaming for the past years, so I really don't know much about PC specs.

Anything that puts your video card to use is going to drain your battery more or less the same. On a laptop advertising less than 1 hour of battery life, there's no way you could game without being plugged in.

Personally I would go with the Dell. They are all we purchase for our clients. They've got decent warranties and tech support; though they seem to be pretty well built, and we don't have many problems. Mind you, I've got no problems with Asus, I've just never bought a PC from them.

 

[Vignasty]

Anything that puts your video card to use is going to drain your battery more or less the same. On a laptop advertising less than 1 hour of battery life, there's no way you could game without being plugged in.

Personally I would go with the Dell. They are all we purchase for our clients. They've got decent warranties and tech support; though they seem to be pretty well built, and we don't have many problems. Mind you, I've got no problems with Asus, I've just never bought a PC from them.

Hmm well I just meant graphics card power, I know gaming is impossible without it plugged in. I was just thinking about you know like graphics card power.

I found there is a HP Envy 15 with 6-8 hours of battery with the same specs as the dell except it has an ATI 5830, and it costs the same with a student discount.

I read the XPS 16 has throttling issues or something like that, so that has made me a little wary now.