Small, somewhat cheap laptop to run WoW

whataboutbob?

whataboutbob?

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I know there have been other threads like this in the past, but i couldnt find a recent one so any help would be appreciated.

Im looking to get back into WoW and am looking for a laptop to run it fairly well for raids and in Dalaran and for when cataclysm comes out. Ive been kind of out of the laptop loop for awhile so im not really sure whats the gold standard now.

I did some looking and i liked the Alienware m11x and that price range (~$700-800). Something ~15" or smaller would be ideal. Ive had a 17" and that was just too big and bulky and it had no battery life.

Any recommendations for a price range of $500-800 and 15" and smaller?
 
[quote name='clickgoplay']Wait, what? Laptop? Hmm, I wouldn't recommend you to play games on laptop hehe[/QUOTE]

That is extremely helpful and relevant to OP's needs :roll:
 
Just to warn the OP, costwise "cheap" and "Alienware" don't mix. I'd be looking at other brands of laptop with similar specs if you're on a budget.
 
The dell insipron 1546 is only 449 and sports a radeon HD 4330. I have the older model (1545) with this same graphics chip, but a lesser CPU. And while I dont play WoW, "Can You Run It" says that my lappy passes the minimum and recommended specs. For comparison, my lappy also meets the minimums for Bioshock 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 and can fully play The Sims 3 and Civ IV.

If you can find a refurbished one (like I did) you could save a little more. Just dont go thinking you can run Crysis! ;)
 
[quote name='Spacepest']Just to warn the OP, costwise "cheap" and "Alienware" don't mix. I'd be looking at other brands of laptop with similar specs if you're on a budget.[/QUOTE]

You'd be surprised by their laptops. Their desktops suck, but the laptops they produce are pretty good for what they charge.
 
[quote name='SEH']You'd be surprised by their laptops. Their desktops suck, but the laptops they produce are pretty good for what they charge.[/QUOTE]

Naw, their laptops are still overpriced. Compare an Alienware laptop to a same spec'd Asus laptop. The Alienware model is hundreds of dollars more.

This is what I picked up last week.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+...lack/9736955.p?id=1218164036446&skuId=9736955

And this is an Alienware in the same price range.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Alienwa...lack/9732759.p?id=1218162977578&skuId=9732759

The Asus is actually lower priced with better specs, and is rated very highly by Best Buy customers.
 
[quote name='mogamer']Naw, their laptops are still overpriced. Compare an Alienware laptop to a same spec'd Asus laptop. The Alienware model is hundreds of dollars more.

This is what I picked up last week.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+...lack/9736955.p?id=1218164036446&skuId=9736955

And this is an Alienware in the same price range.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Alienwa...lack/9732759.p?id=1218162977578&skuId=9732759

The Asus is actually lower priced with better specs, and is rated very highly by Best Buy customers.[/QUOTE]

yeah, i took a look at the asus and the ratings on notebookcheck.net and it looked like it had the best gpu w/ the nvidia gts 360m. compared to the alienware it seems to be the better buy. However, alienware has it for sale for $799 on their website. if i could find a coupon i might be tempted to buy one of these 2.

i would love to try to keep it about $700, any other recommendations anyones had success with?
 
[quote name='whataboutbob?']yeah, i took a look at the asus and the ratings on notebookcheck.net and it looked like it had the best gpu w/ the nvidia gts 360m. compared to the alienware it seems to be the better buy. However, alienware has it for sale for $799 on their website. if i could find a coupon i might be tempted to buy one of these 2.

i would love to try to keep it about $700, any other recommendations anyones had success with?[/QUOTE]

I spec'd out a M11X for $799 at the Alienware site. It only has 2 gb of ram and a 160 gb HDD. :cry:
 
[quote name='mogamer']I spec'd out a M11X for $799 at the Alienware site. It only has 2 gb of ram and a 160 gb HDD. :cry:[/QUOTE]

yea i see that the price has gone back up for the m11x...there was a special w/ a coupon code that made the price for 4gb ram ~$750. now it seems that they are pushing the i5 and i7 processors w/ a significant price increase.

anybody else ran across a well priced laptop that would run WoW well in the past week?
 
I got this recently

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Samsung...39&skuId=9973019&st=samsung q430-11&cp=1&lp=1

So so in the graphics department compared to the Asus and Alienware spec wise. I havent played any games on it yet, so can't comment on the graphics. It's a pretty slick looking machine and barely runs hot. I remember my Asus G50 ran really hot, especially the side vent spewing out hot air.

Things to consider, you said you didn't want anything bulky, but the Asus is 16" which is pretty big. The Alienware is 11.6" , but does not have a cd drive. Also...I would look at the Alienware if your Best Buy has one. Seeing it in person compared to a computer screen is quite different. It was a lot smaller than I anticipated.
 
I wanna recommend Gateway as a good, reliable brand for notebooks when you're on a budget. I have an older Gateway with a core duo processor, 4gbs of ram, and an ati radeon 2600 hd; I could pretty much run any game on medium-high settings depending on the game. I currently run wow on medium settings. With the newer models, they upgraded to newer processors/graphics cards starting at around ~$500. with better processors/graphics cards you're bound to be able to play most modern games at medium-high settings. Best buy has some exclusives, here's a link:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemapper.jsp?id=pcat17080&type=page&qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1~~q70726f63657373696e6774696d653a3e313930302d30312d3031~~cabcat0500000%23%230%23%2311a~~cabcat0502000%23%230%23%23o~~nf510||47617465776179&list=y&nrp=15&sc=abComputerSP&sp=%2Bcurrentprice+skuid&usc=abcat0500000
 
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