Gaming..

[Shambles]

I will be using the computer mainly for general internet browsing, word processing, but I will also be using CS5 applications such as PhotoShop and After Effects.

I will be selling my Xbox 360 to pay towards it, so I would need it to be able to play games (mainly COD) at decent settings.

I can't really afford the high end 15", which I know has a much better graphics card than the lower models.

Would I be better getting last years Pro or will this years lower end model do okay?

Many thanks

 

[snottlebocket]

I will be using the computer mainly for general internet browsing, word processing, but I will also be using CS5 applications such as PhotoShop and After Effects.

I will be selling my Xbox 360 to pay towards it, so I would need it to be able to play games (mainly COD) at decent settings.

I can't really afford the high end 15", which I know has a much better graphics card than the lower models.

Would I be better getting last years Pro or will this years lower end model do okay?

Many thanks

I'm using the high end 15" from two series ago. It plays modern warfare 2 just fine. Black ops, not so much. So depending on how up to date you want your games to be it'll do fine or fall short. (you would need to create a bootcamp windows partition)

With 4 gigs of RAM most cs5 software runs fine. After Effects runs alright but you can probably forget about editing HD footage.

 

[Shambles]

I'm starting to think about getting a PC for gaming and then maybe a MacBook Air for everything else. Hmm...

 

[snottlebocket]

I'm starting to think about getting a PC for gaming and then maybe a MacBook Air for everything else. Hmm...

What else? It's not like you'll be able to do that cs5 stuff you mentioned on an air.

 

[isaac65]

What about WoW Cataclysm? If I want to run it at high settings at least, could I do that with a base 13"? Not gonna do much gaming other than maybe Diablo 3 when it comes out.

 

[ZombieZakk]

i doubt youll run wow on high on either 13" maybe the low end 15"

but the 13" since they lack discrete graphics will probably do medium at best.

 

[snottlebocket]

What about WoW Cataclysm? If I want to run it at high settings at least, could I do that with a base 13"? Not gonna do much gaming other than maybe Diablo 3 when it comes out.

Are the system specs for diablo out yet? Looking at the video's it looks fairly hefty on the system.

 

[ssn637]

i doubt youll run wow on high on either 13" maybe the low end 15"

but the 13" since they lack discrete graphics will probably do medium at best.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-3000.37948.0.html

Notebookcheck now has gaming performance benchmarks for this GPU. WOW is playable in medium settings, with about half the frame rates as the previous NVidia GeForce 320M. However, some modern games run equally well on both systems where the CPU can compensate.

 

[panzer06]

I'm starting to think about getting a PC for gaming and then maybe a MacBook Air for everything else. Hmm...

That's what I did. I gave up trying to get both on my MBP. The ASUS in my sig can be had with a few less goodies for under $1200 or much less as a refurb, leaving you enough to buy a less expensive refurb 15" with the nvidia 330.

Cheers,

 

[ZombieZakk]

That's what I did. I gave up trying to get both on my MBP. The ASUS in my sig can be had with a few less goodies for under $1200 or much less as a refurb, leaving you enough to buy a less expensive refurb 15" with the nvidia 330.

Cheers,

i too have gone this route thats what my alienware is for.

but if you buy a pc for gaming there is no reason to for a 15"

i agree though buy a nice desktop pc for gaming and get an air