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Maven
Premium Member
join:2002-03-12
Canada

Maven

Premium Member

Samsung laptop for light gaming - good deal?

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to buy a laptop for general use and some light gaming (mostly Blizzard and Maxis games, nothing too demanding).

Here's the one I'm looking at:

Samsung 15.6"
i5 3210M
8GB DDR3 RAM
1TB HDD
GeForce GT 630M
2X USB 3.0, 2X USB 2.0
$650 CAN

Sounds like a good deal to me, just wanted to confirm with the experts. Thank you!
BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium Member
join:2000-01-13

BlitzenZeus

Premium Member

I'm not familiar with maxis games, but that should be ok for blizzard stuff with some settings turned down. The 630 isn't exactly a gaming card, but with stuff like AA turned off you'll get 40+ fps most of the time. It's more of their budget card for those who don't want to, or can't use onboard video.

Maven
Premium Member
join:2002-03-12
Canada

Maven

Premium Member

Thank you. Yes, that should be fine. Would you say the price is right, or could I do better?

El Quintron
Cancel Culture Ambassador
Premium Member
join:2008-04-28
Tronna

El Quintron

Premium Member

said by Maven:

Thank you. Yes, that should be fine. Would you say the price is right, or could I do better?

If you're getting it from a big box (BB, FS, Staples) I'd say that's as good as you're going to get price wise.

If you live in a city, you might do better somewhere like Tiger Direct or Canada Computers, or even an independent... where you might get more for that price.

EQ
BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium Member
join:2000-01-13

BlitzenZeus to Maven

Premium Member

to Maven
I'm not familiar with canuck conversion rates anymore, and local prices, so I can't help you there.

If you can find a similar laptop with a 650M, or similar amd gpu that would do better as a gaming laptop in the future. Systems with these kinds of video cards almost seem a waste of money honestly, they might as well have just used the intel gpu.

Maven
Premium Member
join:2002-03-12
Canada

Maven

Premium Member

Are you saying I may as well aim for the Intel 4000 integrated GPU?
BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium Member
join:2000-01-13

BlitzenZeus

Premium Member

For the estimated price of $60 for a 630 it's maybe 1.5 times more powerful than the intel gpu, and since you're getting new hardware you might want to aim a little higher for gpu performance. It's your money.

Maven
Premium Member
join:2002-03-12
Canada

Maven

Premium Member

Well I could certainly aim higher. For instance:

Lenovo 15.6"
Intel Core i7-3630QM
6GB RAM
750GB HDD
GTX660M 2GB DDR5
$865

Which certainly packs more punch, but at this rate I may as well get a proper desktop PC... I guess I have some thinking to do.

Thanks

El Quintron
Cancel Culture Ambassador
Premium Member
join:2008-04-28
Tronna

El Quintron

Premium Member

said by Maven:

Which certainly packs more punch, but at this rate I may as well get a proper desktop PC... I guess I have some thinking to do.

Thanks

Three questions:

-Do you want a laptop or a desktop?

-What's your total budget?

-Was this going to be an impulse buy, and you're checking to see if it's worth it?

Maven
Premium Member
join:2002-03-12
Canada

Maven

Premium Member

Well come to think of it, I may as well get a desktop cause it won't be moving much.

My budget is anything under $800. Honestly though, I'd rather spend as little as possible. Most of my gaming will probably remain on dedicated gaming consoles, so having a "future proof" PC isn't such a big concern.

It wasn't an impulse buy, my laptop died over the holidays and right now I'm looking for a system to replace it.

Also, I would prefer sticking with Intel because I like to tinker with Linux, and Intel offers far superior support for Linux than AMD.

El Quintron
Cancel Culture Ambassador
Premium Member
join:2008-04-28
Tronna

El Quintron

Premium Member

Good to know, I was reading up on the 630M, and it's a rebranded 540M, (which I have on my N53SV-A2) and might be an Optimus card, which can be a PITA on Linux, so consider yourself warned.