Budget SC2 gaming laptop

[negent]

Greetings

I’m thinking of buying a laptop primarily for Starcraft 2. It should match the following criteria:

1. Avoid the massive overheating problems that laptops are prone to have (for this reason I’m leaning towards ASUS, particularly the K53SV series, which are supposed to allow the heat to dissipate well).
2. Being able to run Starcraft gameplay smoothly even in high supply 3v3 and 4v4 games.
3. Run the game at a decent frame rate at medium settings.

My questions are on the specs. Im leaning towards investing in a I7-2630QM Processor, but im wondering if a I5-2430M will get the job done. What are the advantages of a I7 processor compared to a I5. For example will the I7-2630QMs 6M Cache make a difference? As for the GPU, is a GeForce GT 540M good enough for smooth medium settings gameplay, or should i go for a GT 550? If you where to choose between a I7 system with a GT 540 GPU and a I5 system with a GT 550, what would you pick?

All advice will be much appreciated.

 

[simon12]

The 540M will be good for Medium settings @ 1369 x 768 while the 550M is good for high at the same resolution. I don't think there will be much difference between the i5 and i7 unless you get a much better graphics card as the GPU will be limiting it. Laptops with powerful GPUs are always prone to overheating.

 

[negent]

Thanks guys

 

[negent]

Im thinking of a
ASUS N55SF S1161V
Intel® Core™ i5 2410M Processor 2.3 GHz
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M 2GB DDR3 VRAM
8 GB DDR3 1333 MHz SDRAM
2 GB video memory

And a similar model: ASUS N43SN VX117V with 2.4 GHz I5-2430M and a GT 550M. Will any of these get the job done?

 

[Deeks]

i agree with what is said above for video cards as for cpu there are i7 and i5's that are pretty similar. You need to look at the last letters of the i7's which will tell you if its dual or quad core. QM is quad core. As for starcraft 2 it only uses 2 cores so the quad core wont give u any more benefit then the dual core. this being said if you ever decide to game any fps or any other games that support 3+ cores then the quad core will show great improvement. To be honest like everyone else has said here your best bet is to find the best GPU you can get and if all your going to use it for is SC2 then the fastest clocked daul core.