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View Full Version : Would this laptop be a good gaming rig / multimedia workstation?



linuxforartists
December 21st, 2010, 09:04 AM
I was browsing around the Best Buy website when I saw this monster of a machine. It's the Asus K52N-BGR5 (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+AMD+Turion%26%23153%3B+II+Processor+/+15.6%22+Display+/+6GB+Memory+/+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Dark+Gray/1572108.p?id=1218270199430&skuId=1572108).

Here are the specs:

--15.6-inch screen
--AMD Turion II 2.4GHz processor
--6GB RAM
--500GB hard drive (7,200 rpm)
--ATI Mobility Radeon 4200 graphics card

I was expecting it to be expensive. RAM alone is a huge cost in most computers. However, the price was US$549.99.

At first I thought that low price had to be a mistake. Most computers I've seen with insane amounts of RAM cost over US$1,000. I'm debating whether to buy this computer or not. The price is making me suspicious. There has to be a catch, somewhere.

Do you think this would be a good laptop for games? One of my friends is a hard-core gamer and was shopping for a laptop. I was thinking of recommending this Asus to him.

In my case, I was thinking of getting a more powerful machine to do video editing. Maybe also maybe batch processing RAW image files from a DSLR camera. Could this machine handle that kind of workload?

theasprint
December 21st, 2010, 09:08 AM
Hi,

Sure, the laptop is really powerful.

Your laptop is better than mine, and mine can already handle graphics in GTA IV, COD Black Ops, and AC 2 very well.

My laptop only comes with 4gb ram and the hard drive is 5400 rpm. Graphics is Nvidia.

*BTW there doesn't seem to be any Ubuntu problem.

Dobbie03
December 21st, 2010, 09:18 AM
I have a laptop with those specs, except I have a 640gb HDD, it cost me $1900 NZ dollars. Its a nice laptop.

linuxforartists
December 21st, 2010, 09:29 AM
Your laptop is better than mine, and mine can already handle graphics in GTA IV, COD Black Ops, and AC 2 very well.

Whoops, I should have been clearer. I have not bought that laptop. At least not yet. ;) My current computer is nowhere near the likes of that Asus machine.

theasprint
December 21st, 2010, 09:35 AM
Aww come on, just buy and forget about the specs. Just start gaming!

cascade9
December 21st, 2010, 10:39 AM
Thats an impressive parts list. I was so impressed I went to the best buy...or tried to. I got a lovely "You don't have permission to access "http://www.bestbuy.com/" on this server." msg....what the heck? Is best buy using geolocation to block non-us servers?

I cant say much about the 15.6'' LCD, you never know untill you see them IMO. It is limited to 1366x768, in these days of 1080p people are looking more and more at laptops with 1920x1080 resolutions. That will be pushing the price down as well.

The turion II (P540) should have about as much power as similar clock speed core2duos and current desktop athlon IIs (not that there is a 2.4GHz athlon II). Not bad at all. It would be outclassed by some of the i3M CPUs, but they are more expensive. BTW, AMD has never had anywhere near as good a reputation for mobile CPUs as Intel, thats one reason why its got a really good price.

ATI mobility...well, to be honest I'd prefer nVidia for linux, but ATI OK.

Whats really impressive is the HDD, according to the 'review' I saw its hybrid drive.

I'd say that it could handle batch processing RAW image files just fine. Of course, a faster CPU wouldnt hurt. You can actually get that for a similar price-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115856

The i3M 370 in that should be faster for pure number crunching......but the K52N-BGR5 woudl be faster for gaming (thanks to ATI), should boot and run for desktop use faster, thanks to a bigger, 7200 RPM drive (if its a hybrid is will be a LOT faster). An extra 2GB of RAM is nice as well, and might actually get used for RAW images.

All the asus laptops I've seen have been pretty good. Not my sort of thing, to glossy for me, I prefer the matt/non-gloss finish on laptops and monitors. I know somebody whos owned a Core2Duo asus laptop for well over 2 years now, given it hell, and had no problems. If this one is built anythign like that, it should be a good buy.


Do you think this would be a good laptop for games? One of my friends is a hard-core gamer and was shopping for a laptop. I was thinking of recommending this Asus to him.

In my case, I was thinking of getting a more powerful machine to do video editing. Maybe also maybe batch processing RAW image files from a DSLR camera. Could this machine handle that kind of workload?

I dont know how any 'hardcore' gamer could use a laptop as a main gaming machine. Its a lot cheaper to get a nice gaming machine in desktop form.

Same goes for video editing. That machine should handle it just fine, (I've seen people use much, much weaker machines for much nasiter jobs) but if you spent the same amount on a desktop box you'd get a much better video editor. Unless you had to buy a monitor, keyboard and mouse, then it would just be better.

linuxforartists
December 21st, 2010, 09:05 PM
@cascade9: Thanks for your insightful comments and even-handed review. Good coverage of the pros and cons.

I especially appreciated how you pointed out where Asus had cut corners to get the price down. I hadn't even thought about screen resolution until you mentioned it.

3Miro
December 21st, 2010, 09:27 PM
The RAM is nice, but windows will not take full advantage of it, most of the time you will be wasting at least half of it. Ubuntu can take full advantage of any amount of RAM, however, games are iffy and I don't expect you will be able to do good gaming on wine + ATI setup.

Turon is weaker than Core 2 Duo. Anything AMD short of Phenom II (and possibly Athlon II) is weaker than Core 2 Duo. Don't get me wrong, I am not an Intel fanboy, I own three AMD desktops and I don't see myself getting an Intel one any time soon. On the other hand, AMD's bad reputation on the Laptop market may be justified (due to weak mobo chipset). For a Laptop, I would recommend Intel.

One of my desktops has integrated ATI 4200 and it runs great under Linux with the default (FOSS) driver. I know I cannot do wine games and I don't know how it will run under windows. One thing to note about most modern games is that they have a lot of adjustable settings, so you may be able to play a game even if it is not on maxed texture quality and realistic shadows.

cascade9
December 22nd, 2010, 09:31 AM
@ linuxforartists- no problem.


The RAM is nice, but windows will not take full advantage of it, most of the time you will be wasting at least half of it. Ubuntu can take full advantage of any amount of RAM, however, games are iffy and I don't expect you will be able to do good gaming on wine + ATI setup.

Turon is weaker than Core 2 Duo. Anything AMD short of Phenom II (and possibly Athlon II) is weaker than Core 2 Duo. Don't get me wrong, I am not an Intel fanboy, I own three AMD desktops and I don't see myself getting an Intel one any time soon. On the other hand, AMD's bad reputation on the Laptop market may be justified (due to weak mobo chipset). For a Laptop, I would recommend Intel.


You should be able to use the full 6GB on windows as well, if you use a 64bit version.

True, the original turions are weaker than the Core2Duos. Not that you cant really lump all the Core2Duos in together, aside from chipset/memory speed differences, they varied a lot in cache and FSB (big difference between the original 2MB/1066FSB desktop models and the last 6MB/1333FSB models) Turion II uses pretty much the same core as the 'u' series (ultra low voltage) Athlon IIs, and the same 2 x 1MB cache so it should be roughy the same speed.

The only evidence that I have for that is passmark, which isn't the worlds best benchmarking programs (not even close!). Linked, just out of intrest (P540 gets 1506 CPU marks on that chart)

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/mid_range_cpus.html