Hey guys, I am looking to buy a middle-of-the-road laptop to play WoW and a few other low-impact games while I am on the go. I know very little about PC specs and what they mean in terms of performance, so I am hoping someone can give me their thoughts on these two I have my eye on. I don’t intend to raid on the laptop, just knock out WQs, farm and maybe the occasional key run and run it on at least medium settings.
Laptop 1: on sale $699.99
15.6" Full HD display
9th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-9300H mobile processor
8GB system memory for advanced multitasking
Solid State Drive (PCI-e)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics
Laptop 2 is identical, except: on sale $499.99
Ryzen 5
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
EDIT: As my luck would have it, those are not in stock (for now). Here is an HP that I think has similar specs: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-envy-x360-2-in-1-15-6-touch-screen-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-8gb-memory-256gb-solid-state-drive-sandblasted-anodized-finish-nightfall-black/6339175.p?skuId=6339175
Both laptops only have 8gb of ram, which I’d usually suggest 16 but for your stated usage case, 8 will be sufficient.
The only issue I have with both of them–but especially the cheaper one–is that they have limited storage space. 512 should be adequate, 256 will just fill up too quickly unless you make sure and manage it.
Like I said though, both are adequate. The more expensive one is a bit faster and has a bit more storage so you can do more with it without having to upgrade something.
Now, that being said, if the only game you intend on installing is WoW the smaller storage may not bother you. The only question that remains then is if the savings are worth the cost in performance to you?
EDIT: No, don’t get that HP. It doesn’t have dedicated graphics. Here is a link to the more expensive one you linked earlier but on Amazon. It is in stock.
8GB of RAM should be fine (heck, I have 8GB of RAM on my gaming PC, and it can run all but the newest resource-intensive games). However, that’s only the case if you get a laptop with a dedicated graphics card.
…on that note, don’t get anything with integrated/onboard graphics if you are planning on doing any gaming. It’s just not worth it.
And, I’d like to stick to Best Buy, since I have a very large stash of those reward points that’ll help shave some of the cost. Best Buy does have https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-g531gt-15-6-gaming-laptop-intel-core-i7-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1650-512gb-solid-state-drive-black/6335589.p?skuId=6335589
in stock, which is just a beefier version of the one I originally linked. 512gb should be plenty big, since Wow, Diablo and City Skylines are about the only games I would install on it.
It should be fine then, so long as you keep it cleaned. Dust will kill a laptop/its performance though. It gets to the point where it can’t adequately dissipate heat.
Yeah, they’re good fun. I’m working on a sci-fi city at the moment. I downloaded a map that is effectively like a mix between mars and the surface of the moon but with some water filling some of the craters.
Terraforming stuff (I have all of the parks) and building these huge sky-highways and “domes” and what-not. Pretty cool stuff.
