Help Me, LAPTOP: Choosing a Mainstream Machine Than Can Game

You ask for help and LAPTOP answers. This time, we’ll address a question from a reader who needs help choosing a mainstream notebook with good enough performance to play basic games and strong multimedia playback.

Reader Marc J writes:

My criteria for laptop would for price point between $500-$750. I really don’t want to spend alot, since it’s almost impossible to keep up with the technology. I am liking the Alienware m11, but my last Alienware left bad taste in my mouth plus price point is a bit out of my range. CPU something middle to high ground with either an Intel or even AMD, even keeping up with CPU hardware is tough enough. Basically, want laptop that can be somewhat portable and is capable of watching movies, but can play games like Starcraft II. I don’t need it to play at the highest settings, but I don’t want have to play at lowest settings. Did I mention I wanted a screen range of 11-14? I’ve been looking at the HP Pavillions. I’m just wondering what you might recommend?

What Marc wants is a mainstream system with reasonable graphics power. Reading the minimum system requirements for Star Craft II, it sounds like the game should be playable on a notebook with integrated graphics. However, something with discrete graphics would be ideal. From his description, it also sounds like he wants something fairly light, but processing power is more important to him than battery life. As with a lot of notebook decisions, this one is going to come down to budget.

With a cap of $750, it’s difficult if not impossible to find a notebook with discrete graphics, but you can either stretch the budget a little bit or get really solid overall performance with integrated graphics on  a laptop with Intel’s Core i3 or Core i5 processors.

For Marc’s purposes, we recommend the 14-inch Toshiba Satellite M645, because it has a great keyboard and the best speakers we’ve heard on a mainstream notebook. It’s got a classy fusion finish and it weighs just 5 pounds. Though the configuration we reviewed was over $1,000, you can get a base configuration of the M645 for around $700 online, with a 500GB hard drive and a 2.26-GHz Core i3 CPU, which is more than good enough to play common games like World of Warcraft at basic settings.

However, if you’re willing to spend just a little bit more, you can configure the M645 with Nvidia’s Optimus graphics on Toshiba.com for $814. (Optimus technology automatically switches between integrated and discrete grpahics to save battery life.) If you’re configuring it, we’d also splurge $15 for the 7,200 rpm hard drive option, because you’ll really notice the difference in responsiveness when it comes to opening apps, booting, and copying files.

Marc also asked about the HP Pavilion series and, indeed, we reviewed a version of the HP Pavilion dm4 recently. It’s a really solid notebook with good performance, and it comes standard with a 2.26-GHz Core i5 CPU for just $729.99. It can also be configured with discrete graphics (but not Optimus) for $829.99. However, most of the Pavilions have touchpads with integrated buttons, which can be jumpy.

Each week, we answers questions from readers in our Help Me LAPTOP section. If you need help buying or making the most of a notebook, smart phone, or other mobile gadget, e-mail us at helpme@laptopmag.com. We’ll use the most interesting questions in a Help ME LAPTOP post.