Hello all,
Just after a little advice if anyone's around. I've realised recently that I could probably do with a decent gaming laptop. Got to the point now whereby that's possible but I'm after a little help with a few things; in particular, I could use some advice about PS2/Wii emulation and the difference in performance in relation to this between dual and quad core. I'm looking at going with the fantastic 'PCspecialist' website recommendation in this thread but I'm not sure how to proceed here. I've looked at the official forums but it's full of people who are either contradicting each other or are getting genuinely angry with others for not having a desktop. Weirdos.
I really do know absolutely feck all about computers, but my understanding is that the PCSX2 and Wii emulators only use 3 and 2 cores respectively of any processor. Would this mean that I'd be better off looking at one of the i5/i7 dual cores instead of going all out and getting an i7 quad core? This is the main reason I'm thinking of getting a new laptop so the advent of games requiring quad core in the future is of secondary importance.
I gather that running some of these games on any laptop can really push the boundaries of what's possible a bit, but unfortunately it must be a laptop. I've been getting giddy recently finding out that I can somehow play Kingdom Hearts at full speed on this laptop, but (because of my own stupidity) it has already done fatal damage to a charger of mine and is just about to kill off this battery.
I've only just started the game but I know already that I absolutely must play the second one (amongst other things I missed whilst younger), and this will obviously involve getting a newer system.
Specs I'm looking at:
2.66 - 3 ghz Intel dual core.
8 gig RAM
Nvidia Geforce GT 650m
Without an operating system, I can get something like this from that site for between £550-£700. It depends on how good I want that processor to be and how much memory I want on it. Will this be good enough for what I'm looking at taking into account that what I have now (2.13ghz single, 4gb RAM, Intel HD) can play Kingdom Hearts? Some people on the forums say no, some say more than enough and that it works for them and others say overclocking needs to be done. It's all extremely unclear, basically.
Edit: It obviously goes without saying that I own or will own all these games and that I will be taking the bios from my own consoles for emulation. Obviously.