Help a laptop Noob

[bradqwer]

Guys girls and things inbetween!

Ok so looking to get a new laptop budget is around £350/£400 that would run SWTOR on decent settings, I dont do the PVP aspect just tend to group/solo quests in all the other MMO's Ive played Im a UK player so would like to buy in the UK has anyone any suggestions??? Obv if i can get a model that is nice and cheap n runs it ill be happy

[bradqwer]

23 views n no one has any options am i that screwed

[Zargs]

Well a Gaming laptop is not eazy to find for that kind of cash. But IF i ever got me one I get this one.
New! Alienware M18x gaming laptop details | Dell

Its no £400 but omg its good.

[clamus68]

Well us yanks do not know what £350/£400 pounds sterling equal to in usd. I'm also going to assume that most won't do the currency conversion. And if this thread has 23 page views with no response then I will gather my assertion is correct. If the two currencies are trading 1.0 to 1.0 then your answer is none. Most low end laptops do not have the processor/memory/graphics capability to do anything SWTOR related. Look for the following specs: intel core i5, 4gb ram minimum prefer 8gb, DISCREET nvidia graphics with a minimum 1gb video memory, no integrated intel graphics of ANY kind will run the game. Anything short of that is a waste of time. A solid laptop to run SWTOR would cost $700 usd on the lowest graphic settings. To run it reasonably well would cost $850. I know the second figure easily exceeds your budget. In the end good not great gaming laptops are somewhat expensive.

[SoulBender]

Your looking to spend $545-$623... Good luck. Sorry about that, but you may want to continue saving your money.

You may want to consider a small desktop or even a build your own system. Just a suggestion...

[blayde]

I bought a toshiba satellite L505 bout 3 ago and if you turn shadows off i can run swtor pretty good with setting up a bit. It was 750$ when i bought it.

[SoulBender]

Well a Gaming laptop is not eazy to find for that kind of cash. But IF i ever got me one I get this one.
New! Alienware M18x gaming laptop details | Dell

Zargs,
I spec'd one out and topped $4500... OMG I need a new laptop to replace my aging Orange Dell M6400 Covet

[clamus68]

When I said a $700 usd computer would play it, I meant at 7-12 frames per second. To put that in perspective, the best desktops run TEN times that latter figure. Video games by and large are considered to need to run 30 fps to be somewhat smooth. In SWTOR your lack of frame rate would not allow for any type of combat as your computer could not feasibly keep up. You would have to effectively forecast your actions many keystrokes in advance. In effect, save your money until you get 3x the initial amount. If that is not possible then I will simply put it this way: not going to happen to any level of your satisfaction.

[bradqwer]

ok

[bradqwer]

AMD Radeon HD 6380G Discrete-Class

4 GB (Expandable to 6 GB)

AMD Dual-Core E2-3000M (1.8 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache)

would a laptop with these specs run it

[bradqwer]

or

Processor	AMD A6-3420M Quad Core (1.5GHz, 4MB Cache, Up to 2.4GHz in Boost Mode)
Screen	15.6" (Acer CineCrystal, 1366x768 HD, High Brightness, LED Backlit)
Operating System	Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit
RAM	8GB
Hard Drive	500GB
Optical Drive	DVD Rewriter (Records DVDs 8x & CDs 24x & Dual Layer Super Multi)
Graphics	Dedicated (AMD Radeon HD 7670M with 1GB Dedicated RAM)
Wireless LAN	Wireless (802.11b/g/n Wireless)

[Lucious]

What I could find, it would cost about $800 - 900 US for a decent I5 processor, 8 gigs ram, and a good Nvidia card (non-iintegrated) w/2 gigs ram and a 17" display. Put in a 60 gig SSD and you'll need about another $50.

SWTOR is very, very client-side demanding. I have some really good equipment (State-of-the-art MOBO, 16 gigs ram, amd fx-4100 o/c'd out the butt, a nice SATA 3 120 gig SSD, and the killer: OC'd GTX 480, aftermarket cooled to a max 44 degrees at load - this card is still rated 10th fastest card on the market even after 2 years by passmark) and i drop below 60-70 in congestion and pop up to about 100 FPS in convos at The highest setting and no v-sync (windowed mode). My system this replaced (didn't do it because of SWTOR, but it was 3 years old - time to replace) was nice, but chugged at about 30 fps and took a decade to load.

Unless you really NEED a laptop ( i find them annoying to game on, personally) slap together a desktop. For what you would pay for an adequate laptop you would get a superior desktop. Not only that, you can make them teenie-tiny, nowadays (the AMD A-series chips are excellent) and can drag them around from house to house. Or, you can go my way and get an oversized mid-tower that moves air like a jet engine and build a computer that takes loads of power but you get undeniably superior performance for the ediface you constructed. Plus it is fun building a computer.

[bradqwer]

yeh I know what u mean but my budget is only like $650 max n Ive never built a PC

[Lucious]

yeh I know what u mean but my budget is only like $650 max n Ive never built a PC

It isn't as tough as it sounds. You can go online and find places that actually sell build-it-yourself kits ant bundled discounts. you'll get MOBO, CPU, video card, RAM, Power Supply, Hard Drive, and optical drive, typically. Most sell dozens of versions and one will fit your price range. Some may even come with a monitor. Just take a look about. Usually it is the online sellers that offer up a large variety of parts that cater to enthusiasts that serve these up. In the US we have MicroCenter, NewEgg, and TigerDirect, just to name a few that do this. Don't know 'bout the UK, but I'm sure they are there.

[Lucious]

i looked up an examples of DIY kits NewEgg sells. Sadly they don't ship internationally. But it may give you an idea of what to expect. I think there may even be laptops that can be done like this to a certain extent. I think I recall see something like this (no it isn't a virus-loaded link):

Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more!