Help! Anyone know about laptop processors?

K

King of Creation

Vault Fossil
I'm looking at getting a new laptop since my crappy Vaio just had an aneurysm and died. Thing was only 2 years old.

Anway, the one I'm looking at right now is this one:
http://www.compume.com/index.php?target=products&product_id=32203

My concerns are about the processor:
Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 x 2 Dual-Core L310 1.2GHz, 1 MB Cache
Processor Bus Speed: 667 MHz FSB
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While being 64 bit dual core and cool like that, I worry about the fact it's only 1.2 GHz. Is my concern unfounded and this is a very nice processor for a laptop? Or will I still not be able to play Fallout 3?
 
To be perfectly honest with you i dislike gaming laptops. I don't think high end hardware should be stuck in such tiny cases. Whats the graphics in it?
 
I recently got a HP laptop with the same processor as that one, only faster: AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core 2.1 GHz, 1Mb cache (and graphics being Radeon HD 4530).

I haven't tried out a lot of games yet, but I've been playing borderlands with decent graphics settings without any problems at all.

1.2 GHz sounds a bit low however, and you should probably aim at at least 2 Ghz if you want to play modern games.
 
How much did that laptop cost? The one I'm looking at is about $730 USD.

Also, does the 64 aspect of the processor make any big difference, or is it still going to be pretty slow?
 
King of Creation said:
How much did that laptop cost? The one I'm looking at is about $730 USD.

Also, does the 64 aspect of the processor make any big difference, or is it still going to be pretty slow?
Click to expand...

64 bit processors are only worthwhile if your running a 64 bit operating system and then the software has to be 64 bit to use it, otherwise you wont notice a difference
 
King of Creation said:
It comes with Windows 7 64. I'm assuming a game like Fallout 3 can use 64 bit tech to its full advantage.
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Doubt it. Most games are 32 bit to allow 32 bit systems to run them, otherwise they would need to code two versions. Most programs are 32 bit. Photoshop and 3D Rendering software are often 64 bit, but that's because such programs can use the extra power. Crysis is the only game that springs to mind as 64 bit.

Also, if its windows 7, i hope it has 4 gig of ram if you want to game on it. My brother installed it on two and the system absolutely shits itself because of how much writing its doing to the page file.
 
King of Creation said:
How much did that laptop cost? The one I'm looking at is about $730 USD.
Click to expand...

I got it through work (as a bonus) so I'm not sure, but I think it was about the same. it was pretty cheap for such a powerful laptop.

I searched on that site you linked to and the closest I could find was this: http://www.compume.com/index.php?target=products&product_id=32063 which I guess is a later and more powerful model and a bit more expensive. I have the dv6 1250eo model, see if you can find it elsewhere.

I don't really know a lot about laptops (I too started a thread asking about it here not long ago) but I can tell that HP is real quality. so far I'm very happy with my laptop. and from what I was told from many sources while I was looking around, Acer seems to be rather low quality.
 
Thanks for the replies!

I found this one:
http://www.compume.com/index.php?target=products&product_id=32204

and it seems to be much better while only about 50 GBP more expensive than the one I posted before.

Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo T6600 2.2GHz, 2MB L2 Cache
Processor Bus Speed: 800 MHz FSB
Memory: 3GB DDR2
Hard Disk: 320 GB SATA
Hard Disk Spindle Speed: 5400 RPM
Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW Double Layer
Screen: HD Acer Cine Crystal LCD
Screen Size: 15.6"
Screen Resolution: 1366 x 768
Display Card: ATI Radeon HD 4570
Display Card Memory: 512MB Dedicated - Up to 1791MB
Click to expand...

Any thoughts?
 
If you are looking for a gaming laptop, a hd4570 would be probably too slow. Try searching for something at least with hd4650/gf 240m. Good and affordable choices are

15.4''
Acer 5739G with 240M GT DDR3
Samsung R522 with ATI 4650 DDR3
Lenovo Y550 with 240M GT DDR3
Compal KHLB2 with ATI4650 DDR3
Asus N61VN with 240M GT DDR3
Toshiba L505 with ATI 4650 DDR3
MSI EX625 with ATI 4670 DDR3

17"
Acer 7738G with 240M GT DDR3
Samsung R720 with ATI 4650 DDR3
Packard Bell LJ65 with 240M GT DDR3

The r522 for instance after tweaking has over 8k points in 3dmark 06 and runs most games with ease : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6puTTtXUM8&feature=PlayList&p=11E15CDAE9761E4D&index=0&playnext=1
 
how much are you gonna carry the laptop around? is it gonna be basically a stationary gaming laptop that is easy to move or will you move it around on a daily basis?

my 15.6" weighs nearly 3kg and while that might not seem like much, it gets a bit tiresome. lucky for me I don't need to carry it around that much. I can only imagine a 17" will be a real pain to carry around.
 
I have a really comfortable and spacious northface Surge laptop backpack, so I'm not really worried about the weight. My laptop that just died was pretty heavy too and it didn't bother me.
 
http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/qosmio/X500/X505-Q850

X505-Q850 : Detailed Product Specs
Processor*

Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor
Operating System*

Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Memory Size*

6GB
Memory Speed*

DDR3 1066MHz memory
Display Size*

18.4" widescreen
Display Type*

FHD TruBrite® TFT LCD Display
Display Resolution*

Supports 1080p content, 1920x1080
Graphics Engine*

NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 250M
Graphics Memory*

1GB GDDR5 discrete graphics memory
Hard Drive Size*

64GB Solid State Drive (Serial ATA, SSD)
Secondary Hard Drive Size*

320GB 2nd HDD
Secondary Hard Drive Speed*

7200rpm
Optical Drives*

Blu-ray Disc™ ROM and DVD SuperMulti drive (+/-R double layer) with Labelflash® supporting 16 formats
Webcam

Webcam and microphone built into LCD bezel
Wireless LAN*

Realtek® 802.11b/g/n wireless LAN
Wireless USB*

No Wireless USB
Bluetooth

Bluetooth® V2.1 + EDR
Inputs and Controls

CD/DVD Buttons (Play/Pause, Stop, Prev Track, Next Track), TouchPad™ pointing device with multi touch control, TOSHIBA eco utility™ (Energy-saving mode), 104 key US LED backlit keyboard with 10-key pad, Mute button, Media button
Security and Protection

Security Cable Lock Slot
Modem

No Modem port
LAN

10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN
Audio

harman/kardon® stereo speakers, Microphone jack (mono), Built-in microphone, S/P DIF output port (shared with headphone port), Headphone jack (stereo)
AC Adapter

120W (19V x 6.32A) Auto-sensing, 100-240V / 50-60Hz input
Battery

High Capacity Li-Ion (8000mAh, 12-Cell)
Battery Life*

Up to 3.3 hours
PC Express Slot

1-ExpressCard™ Slot
Media

S/P DIF output port (shared with headphone port), Memory Card Reader
USB Ports*

3-USB (2.0), 1-eSATA/USB (2.0) combo port with Sleep and Charge
iLINK

i.LINK™ IEEE-1394
HDMI

HDMI-CEC output port
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I am pretty happy with my qosmio X series. Actually, I might pick this one up as a second laptop to China if I can get my TV at a discount. The speakers are awesome, and it has a full size keyboard. I like the screen size and the weight doesn't bother me. The thing is, if you want a small thing to just type and listen to music on the move, get a netbook. Or, hell, get a keyboard with your smartphone and type away. A 10-12 in netbook should suit your basic needs for academic uses or basic business presentations. I personally feel the 13-16 in betweens as a half fail. You ain't small enough to lug around, nor are you powerful enough to run crap. But, in the end, it comes down to personal choices and preference.
 
Silencer said:
I've it on good authority that Intel mobile processors pwn teh sh!t outta AMD calculators. What you posted seems reasonable to me.
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Intel still kicks the shit out of the alternatives atm.

that said, i too have never been fond of the 'gaming laptop' thing. but as long as you're aware it's a suboptimal choice that most likely means lots of weight, noise, heat and higher than average failure rates, then go for it.

i'd suggest dodging Dell, HP/Compaq and Packard Bell though.
 
If you want to game on the laptop the choice in graphics is more important than CPU (as long as the CPU isn't single core and/or running at less than 2 GHz). Pretty much any dual core 2+GHz CPU from Intel or AMD should be plenty enough for most gaming, since the graphics will pretty much always be the bottleneck anyway. For laptops, the main advantage of Intel's CPUs are their lower power consumption, which means a bit less heat (which in turn can give you a quiter laptop) and a bit more battery life.
 
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