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Started by FoD93 | | 14 answers
Need a gaming system to play MMOs
Hello everyone, nice to meet you all and hoping to get some desirable feedback.
I'm from Australia so I hope no one suggests the Lenovo Y510P or whatever it's called since Australia doesn't stock it anywhere.

I'm hoping to play MMOs at max setting but if I can't, that's okay as I can settle for less as my major priority is to be able to game without lag moreover the graphical effects. However I do want to move up to playing at least medium setting from minimum setting on my current Toshiba laptop with GTX 525M or something like that when I played Tera Online.

I plan to move onto playing MMOs like Guild Wars 2, Blade and Soul, FFXIV, Diablo III and the list goes on. Let me make it clear that I do not plan to play any first person shooter games whatsoever.

I am currently a university student living away from home and the internet at student boarding is crap as I have 11 housemates + me which reduces the speed significantly, hence I go to uni to play games on my laptop. HOWEVER, during holidays and 6am~9am is when the internet is at max speed which is why I might consider PC but it's really useless every other time outside of the 2 conditions for fast internet at home.

I want to keep my budget around $1.5K with $100 (AUD) wiggling room. The PC I've customised is:
Case: Bitfenix Prodigy M $84AUD @ UMART (mini ITX because I have limited space in student boarding and I move places yearly so I won't know how much space I'll have for PC)
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1241V3 $325AUD @ UMART
MOBO: ASUS H97I-PLUS $122AUD @ UMART
GPU: ASUS GTX770-DC2OC-2GD5 2GB $386AUD @ UMART
PSU: Corsair 600W CX 80+ Bronze $95AUD @ UMART
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws-X 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz $99AUD @ UMART
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB $79AUD @ UMART
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO $36AUD @ UMART
OS: Windows 8.1 OEM 64-bit MS $112AUD @ UMART
Total of $1338AUD + 5% surcharge from retailer + $70AUD labour for constructing + 1yr warranty
Grand Total = $1475AUD
I need to also buy monitor, keyboard and mouse which'll probably take it to at least $1700AUD
I can learn to build a PC but I'd rather trust a professional.

Personally, I don't think it's worth it if I can't even play games during the day as PC is not portable which is why I want a laptop for gaming but if it's not possible then I'll have to settle for something I can only use for about 1/4 of the entire year. I'm only needing whatever I use for 3 years as I plan to get a new device when I graduate from uni and maybe settle for PC that time when my environment is more stable. I am willing to drop in game settings just to reduce heating issues if needed.

I am willing to spend the same amount of money that I would have spent on that PC, on a laptop. I'd like suggestions on cooling mats for laptop and a laptop model that I could purchase in Australia.

I've seen
http://www.msy.com.au/nsw/auburn/notebook/14214-asus-n5...
and
http://www.umart.com.au/umart1/pro/Products-details.pht... (pushing my budget but if anyone can persuade me)
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September 21, 2014 12:26:18 AM



Sorry, I know you solved my issue with the $1500 budget but I actually managed to stretch my budget all the way up to $2000AUD as my upper threshold from an unexpected income. Could you suggest something better than the MSI Leopard? If you think the Leopard is good enough for my purpose then that's cool too as I get to save the $500.

Best solution chosen by FoD93

a c 283 4 Gaming
September 20, 2014 5:49:30 PM

Any PC can overheat. A lot do here causing problems such as BSODs. To prevent this happening, you need to blow the case out with compressed air evry year at the most plus have a good laptop cooler.

Asus, MSI and Lenovo seem to fare best. HP and Dell worst.

The more powerful the laptop, the better cooling they need to have.

If you look after it, the MSI won't be a problem.
September 20, 2014 5:43:26 PM

i7Baby said:
Look at the link. It shows the specs eg "The MSI GP70 gaming notebook features an i7 4710HQ processor, 8GB DDR3 memory, 1TB 7200RPM hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce 840M 2GB Graphics, 17.3in Full HD display, DVD drive, Killer Gigabit LAN, WiFi, Bluetooth, SteelSeries keyboard, Windows 8.1 and more! Backed by a 2 year MSI warranty."


I've read reviews here and there including this forum about the heating issues of MSI products and as a result it doesn't last as long as say, an ASUS that provides much better cooling system. I've asked about the cooling mat in initial post because of the reason of longevity of the laptop life. I want to be able to use it for at least 3 years -> Accurately until the early quarter of 2018 as that's when I graduate and able to settle for a PC.
However there was 1 thing that was not addressed in any of the threads I've read which was reducing game settings to reduce heating -> Would this make MSI more viable regardless of the heating issue?

By the way thanks for heaps of replies and the suggestions.
a c 283 4 Gaming
September 20, 2014 4:10:31 PM

Look at the link. It shows the specs eg "The MSI GP70 gaming notebook features an i7 4710HQ processor, 8GB DDR3 memory, 1TB 7200RPM hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce 840M 2GB Graphics, 17.3in Full HD display, DVD drive, Killer Gigabit LAN, WiFi, Bluetooth, SteelSeries keyboard, Windows 8.1 and more! Backed by a 2 year MSI warranty."
September 20, 2014 6:03:55 AM

wh3resmycar said:
limited space means smaller display, what size are we talking about here? what resolution?


If it's a laptop then the space does not really matter as I'll be at uni computer labs (cannot game on comps provided by uni as they have restricted the applications and programs that can be used which is why I take my own laptop) with it most the time which has plenty of space. But It would be nice if the laptop is 15.6" as it'll fit in my backpack easily but I can go for 17.3" if my budget permits. I'd like 1920x1080 but I can settle for less, not too picky with all these things, I just want to be able to experience gaming with a device that's better than settling for minimum but of course I am willing to pay upto $1500 for it which should be a big upgrade from the crap I've been using.
September 20, 2014 5:52:40 AM

limited space means smaller display, what size are we talking about here? what resolution?
September 20, 2014 5:35:05 AM

i7Baby said:
OK - just not very clear. Budget?


My budget is $1500AUD as of now but able to extend it further by $100~$200 if persuasive enough.
Pretty sure if I was in the US or somewhere not Australia, I could get a much better deal for that much money.
a c 283 4 Gaming
September 20, 2014 5:29:28 AM

OK - just not very clear. Budget?

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