Getting a gaming laptop for 5-boxing

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11-02-2009, 10:38 AM
Presby

Getting a gaming laptop for 5-boxing

I've been looking for a gaming laptop just for solo play, but in the event I get into multi-boxing (it's been my dream for a year now) would this be able to handle it?

http://www.frys.com/product/6054438?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

The 2 main questions I have are these:

Is quad-core worth it? I know WOW only handles 2 cores, but if I'm running 5 copies of the game would the 4 cores really help? Otherwise this one is duo-core:

http://www.frys.com/product/6054428?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Also, how important is an SLI setup for graphics cards? The top laptops I linked above both have a gig of dedicated VRAM, is that enough?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Please help me live my dream =)

EDIT: I'm looking around the $1,000 - $1,300 price range, if there are any other laptops out there for around this price I would appreciate the tip.
EDIT2: I was thinking of upgrading the RAM in either of the above laptops to 8gig, is RAM going to be the main hold-up or am I going to run into processor speed problems first?
11-02-2009, 04:20 PM
BobGnarly

A few things:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Presby

I've been looking for a gaming laptop just for solo play, but in the event I get into multi-boxing (it's been my dream for a year now) would this be able to handle it?

http://www.frys.com/product/6054438?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

The 2 main questions I have are these:

Is quad-core worth it? I know WOW only handles 2 cores, but if I'm running 5 copies of the game would the 4 cores really help?

I'm not sure what you mean by "wow only handles 2 cores". It's a single-threaded application, nothing over a single core helps. However, a quad-core definitely helps multiboxing (if you are going to run over 2 clients) because each one can be on a different core.

Quote:

Also, how important is an SLI setup for graphics cards? The top laptops I linked above both have a gig of dedicated VRAM, is that enough?

In general, very nice upgrade. For wow, nothing. It doesn't support SLI modes.

Quote:

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Please help me live my dream =)

Live the dream brother!

On the laptop in general: I'm sure you could multibox on it. I don't know how well it would run, but it's possible. I don't know if you have enough screen real estate to be reasonble though. It probably just really depends on what your expectations are.

About a year ago, I bought a really high-end gaming laptop. The reason I did is that I didn't want to haul my desktop machine to lan parties anymore, and I just wanted another portable wow client. While the laptop does kick ass on games and such (and the 1080p screen is great for a portable), I wouldn't do it again. The problem is, while it's great for those few things, it absolutely sucks at everything else you'll want to use a laptop for.

Wanna lie in bed and watch a movie? WHIIIIIRRRRRRR - prepare to have to crank the sound to the max so you can even hear the audio over the always-running fans cooling that SLI video card.

Wanna run it without the power cord attached? Awesome, you get 45 minutes before it shuts itself down because it's low on power. This assumes you do nothing more strenuous than browse the web. Fire up and game and you're lucky if you can get in the game before your power is depleted.

I also hope you like your crotch super-heated, because that's what happens if you ever put this in your "lap." I recommend cooking a turkey and putting it in your lap right out of the oven to simulate this awesomeness.

Oh and let's not forget that most of them duct in fresh air from the bottom of the case, so you have to be careful not to plug those intake vents (like, if you have it on your lap, or lying next to you on the bed for the above example).

By contrast, I have a modest 15" dell for work. It's cool to the touch, I never hear the fans, will go 3-4 hours on a recharge, and has a great keyboard. Plus, it will play probably 1/2 of the games I like to play.

I'm not trying to say there isn't a place for gaming laptops. However, I'm fairly hardcore and my next purchase will be more like my work laptop and less like my gaming one. And if I really need more horsepower, my desktop isn't THAT hard to move around. Just wanted to let you know my experience with laptops in general.
11-05-2009, 04:33 AM
Sychosys

In all honesty Wow is pretty good with RAM until you add in mods, Then you are at the whim of the person who made them (I went from 1.5gigs per wow down to around 900kb just by adjusting which mods load where). Anywho, the one thing I wanted to point out was hard drive speed. This can be an issue depending on how you set up your wow folders. If you hop on a ship or a zeplin I have seen posts of people getting stuck on a permanent loading screen because by the time y a load a zone, the zep/boat has taken you back.
11-06-2009, 10:43 AM
boxblizzard

my strong advice is to avoid buying a laptop to multiplay with, i know it may sounds negative but i went down this road and i ended up with a hardcore rig with no regrets.

you cant get better than a base unit setup.

my opinion anyway, the amount you spend on a laptop you can really get a very impressive system built.
11-06-2009, 11:20 AM
Kedash00

Quote:

Originally Posted by boxblizzard

my strong advice is to avoid buying a laptop to multiplay with, i know it may sounds negative but i went down this road and i ended up with a hardcore rig with no regrets.

you cant get better than a base unit setup.

my opinion anyway, the amount you spend on a laptop you can really get a very impressive system built.

i agree, if you aren't going to need it to be mobile i would definately get a desktop, you will get a really good one for your price range, monitor and all included.

If you can make your own and put it together go to newegg.com and just build it, it's much cheaper.
11-06-2009, 12:51 PM
Clone

Id reccomend just buying a bog standard laptop that can handle 1 copy of wow incase u ever need to play on the move. Then a bog standard quad core desktop. With a nice overclock on the desktop you will manage 5 wows easy. Laptops just arent practical for multiboxing. Yes there are gaming laptops out there that you could multi box on easily. But I cant see any situation where Id specifically want to multibox on the laptop rather than a desktop. Even if I was going to a friends, Id sooner take my desktop round there.
11-06-2009, 02:08 PM
Noids

Up until about 6 months ago I had played WoW exclusively on a laptop both single and multi boxed. The reason I got the lappy was that it was a perk from work basically and they let me configure a Dell XPS M1710. Initially it had 2GB RAM, 7200RPM HDD Nvidia 7950 512MB video and centrino 7400 2GHz dual core CPU.

This served me fine multiboxing all through TBC although areas where there were lots of details to load such as AV or Shatt, it would slow to single figure FPS. As such, when I got my team to 80, I bought my new desktop with SSDs, i7, 12GB RAM and GTX 295. The difference in performance is night and day obviously.

If you need a laptop I would have no problems selecting one for gaming, but as the above comments have mentioned, it will not be a proposition on batteries and it will likely be a big, heavy, hot machine. If you are happy with this then by all means laptop it up. The above configs should be fine, although as mentioned, more RAM and an intel SSD HDD would be very worthwhile upgrades although possibly not in your budget.

The video RAM of 1GB should be fine, but a mobile 4650 is not a particularly strong chip and if you were able to find something with a 4870 or a mobile 280GTX that would probably be ideal. It has been a while since I have shopped for laptops so I don't know if you could find a config like this in your price range, but they would be my recommendations. I would prioritise the upgrdes as RAM, then SSD, then GFX.

Cheers