Buying a new laptop

[Belteshazzar]

Hi all,

I recently got a new work laptop (Dell Latitude E6400), duo core 2.53ghz processor, 4mb ram, Mobile Intel 4 Series Express Chipset graphics card (1mb memory). Fortunately, it can run more instances of WoW than my 2 year old laptop (I'm assuming because it has more memory and faster processor), but unfortunately even when running only 1 instance, the FPS is worse than my 2 year old laptop (that I had to turn back into work when I got the new one). I think my old laptop had an older integrated nvidia card at least, compared to the current Intel express integrated card, which I'm assuming is crap. I'm basically getting stuttering graphics, even when I do have decent FPS, like out in the middle of nowhere, so not sure what is causing that. In Dalaran, I get from 1 fps to 10 fps, depending on timing. Since I can hardly tell my company I need an upgrade to my computer for gaming, I'm considering just getting a laptop for personal use and taking both with me when I travel, which is most of the time. Before I do that, I was curious if anyone else was using the Intel graphics card and if so, any troubles? I want to eliminate the possibility that I could tune my machine to work better. I can triple box with it, but at like a max of 5 fps on my main. Dual boxing I can get 10-15 fps on my main if I'm out of the city, but <5 fps in dalaran.

If I go with a new laptop, I was looking at something high-end like an Alienware, but am confused by the range of prices you can pay for one of these (anywhere from $1k to 5k), and what level of machine is needed for say 4 boxing maximum. Also, I was curious whether there were new graphics cards coming out imminently and whether it is worth waiting or just getting now. Also, I'd read about Alienware-like computers that cost less - any advice on those? Finally, was considering even a macbook pro, but have never used a mac, so am hesitant.

Thanks for the help!

[Catamer]

my personal experience with a laptop was not good.
it sounded so cool to be able to bring the PC with me and play while I travel.

I bought a Dell XPS M1705 with a nvidia 7950gtx or something like that.
it's a really nice laptop.
I couldn't believe they actually sold it with vista and 1G or RAM as a "gaming" pc.
It couldn't even run one copy of WoW until I bought aftermarket memory and upped it from 1G of ram to 4G of ram.
mine doesn't run multiple copies of Wow very well even with 4G of ram.

It gets HOT.. i mean REALLY HOT, so hot it has stopped working a few times.
I had to buy one of the laptop coolers that has fans that blow air onto the bottom of the laptop.
Also it's large, it's heavy, and add in a huge laptop cooler and what's the point of packing all of that up to travel with it.

to top it off, I haven't traveled that much since I bought the thing so it was waste of money for me.
I use it as my main pc in a 3pc setup for mboxing but I wish I had just both a desktop PC for 1/3 the price.

[Diwa]

I'm using a single laptop for 5man boxing: Dell Vostro [Core2Duo 2.0GHZ + 4GB ram + Ge Force 8600(256MB)]
OS: Windows XP [Not a Vista fan]

Using Keyclone Maximizer:

Old Setup: Main Window at the top while 4 windows at the bottom. Text is slightly unreadable but manageable for the 4 small windows but I have no problems in multi boxing in Outland instances.

New Setup: Main Window in my laptop screen while 4 windows tiled in my 32" HDTV as my Extension Monitor. Finally another use of my TV. It's like 4 full screen version of my laptop


Normal FPS

Main Window:
- 50+fps [Normal instance flow like ramps, I tank and 4 lvl 60 DPS kills it]
- 15-30fps [when my lvl 80 Pally pull all the mobs in SM Cath (I bubble, open the cathedral door, hit the boss, then drag all the mobs back near the entrance where my low level are located]

In Dalaran or in Org it drops to 20-30fps

4 Windows: 10-15FPS while I'm on my main window


Temperature
Vostro by nature is really hot but good thing I'm in the Bay area so I'm fortunate enough to have this kind of weather and a my laptop cooler is just an icing on the cake.


Addons Running: Questhelper, Tourguide, Cartographer, Lightheaded, Omen, Recount, ScrollingCombatText, Auctioneer...etc

- My rule in gaming is always to stay away from internal video Chipset because its only built for word processing and browsing.
- You can't blame everything on your laptop because your realm might be the caused of your low FPS. Try new servers and see if you'll have the same problem.