If you could wait a couple more weeks, I'd suggest a laptop with Sandy Bridge. There've been a few available on pre-order in various sites.

 

Leaning toward this one: http://www.amazon.com/N53JQ-XV1-15-6-Inch-...=dp_ob_title_ce

Any opinions? Bad choice?

Honestly I'd be willing to pay a bit more if it's a decent computer, though, if someone has a better suggestion.

 

My friend just got that one. It is very nice.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16834152211

 

I don't think you will find a laptop that can handle Dolphin Emulator properly. You need a lot of CPU power to emulate GameCube, at least 3ghz or more.

You need to go for the computer with the fastest CPU, since Dolphin is CPU intensive and NOT GPU intensive.

 

it's not multi-core optimized. The best laptop GPU's for this won't be the i7's. They'll be the higher clocked i5-dual cores, or specifically; the (Arrandale(?)) i7-620M (2.66-3.33) and the i7-640M (2.80-3.46). To be honest, the processor strength is more important than the GPU. On a laptop you're really looking to run things at native resolution (not much higher).

To be clear, for running emulators; higher clock speed is the most important element. Relying on Turbo boost is not a good idea for high-end emulation. The reason is that Turbo-Boost in the i7-Mobile architecture is never running at a static frequency. It's always changing depending on the game/system ~ console/program requirements.

At best you'll be running at 2.40-2.53Ghz for a few seconds. The frequency fluctuates so fast that even a few seconds is pushing the characteristic of turbo-boost. The Intel-core i7-Monitoring Widget you're only getting maybe ... at best 1/5th of of the frequency changes. The frequency actually changes so fast that the widget can't accurately report more than general analysis.

Having a GPU such as a mobility 5870 won't help you. Emulation is far, far more processor intensive than games (which is where GPU's really shine). The GPU can't help emulate the multiple processors that's the Wii/Gamecube, PS2 have natively. It's not just the fact that they're native to the consoles; it's the fact that they run parallel keeping them in sync is a big deal for accurate, smooth and responsive emulation.

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np5160-clevo-...der-p-2999.html - Sandy Bridge Processor (can upgrade it with your budget) / 540M GPU w/ Optimus
http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-u36jca2b-p-3024.html - Power House Mobile Dual Cores - Here.

Actually, I just found the best performance/gaming-emulation-oriented deal / Mobility 5850 w/ a choice of i5-Processors up to the i7-640M that I mentioned above.
http://www.xoticpc.com/force-1656id5-msi1656id5-p-2822.html?wconfigure=yes

- Resolution - 1680 x 1050 - 2 GB Ram (Upgradable for +35 / 4GB) / Mobility 5850 GPU - Which gives solid gaming performance / Choice of Processor.
~ Total will be around $1000-1250 (depending on 2GB vs 4GB of RAM & processor choice).


Both of these that I've mentioned will net you great processing power, the thing is, that you will suffer some on/in the GPU department, because you've asked for specialization that favors emulation & processing power over GPU / Gaming Prowess.

So yeah... GPU = Games. Processor = Emulation. Frankly, you'd be fine so long as you can find an i5-Dual Core (say the i5-460M) & maybe a mobility 5650.

 

Didn't mean to be. I earn Yen, so I might as well take advantage while I can. You never know when these things could change.

I2aven, do you think the Asus would be fairly okay with the i7-740QM or not?

Or what are your thoughts on this one? http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GX740-079US-GX74...mp;sr=8-1-fkmr0

It's $300 more, and doesn't seem as good as the Asus, but maybe I don't know.

There's this one also: http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GX640-260-15-4-I...mp;sr=8-1-fkmr0

I'd like to get it from Amazon, by the way, because I can expedite it, as I'm on a tight schedule, and they're really quite good about immediately refunding money for defective stuff, and make it very easy.

I suppose I'm leaning toward the Asus, but I'm thankful, of course, for any suggestions.

 

There's this one: http://www.amazon.com/HP-dv7t-Processor-Wi...mp;sr=8-2-fkmr1

Thoughts?

 

So it's basically a choice between the MSI GX640 and the HP Pavillion dv7t, with the HP being the better of the two -- at least as my desire to do emulation.

Would you say the HP is all-around better for everything else (non emulation) as well?

Stupid question -- does the DVD burner on the HP burn ONLY Blu-ray?

 

for non-multi-core/multi-threaded apps both are on fairly even ground. The advantages that the HP has over the MSI are a stronger processor, larger HDD, and more RAM. The main advantage that the MSI has is primarily the mobility 5850, which is primarily a gaming based GPU/chip and a slightly bigger screen.

Both laptops are multimedia powerhouses, there are trade-offs of course. The 5850 will get hotter under load than the 5650, but the 5650 has more hard-drive space. (640GB is twice what I have, with a 320GB / (297GB) HDD. It's a lot of space on a notebook. Depending on how you use that space it becomes an advantage in and in-of-itself. For example, do you want to run multiple-operating systems? Do you want to run an Ubuntu partition or insert [other linux distro here]

When you talk about all-around it really matters what sort of tasks you're talking about. Photo Editing, Video Editing, Encoding, CAD, Photoshop; these sorts of tasks run faster (and more efficiently) on a multi-core / multi-thread system. The GTX 460M which the 5850 competes with now'a'days has CUDA, CUDA is hardware that can provide an advantage with the sorts of tasks I list below (which is, why nVidia GPU's are usually paired with a quad-core processor, I'd imagine). (However, mentioning CUDA is somewhat moot because the i7-460M combo is generally 1300/1400). --The 5850's real prowess lies in gaming.

The i5-460M does have hyperthreading, which means it has 2 Physical cores and 2 virtual cores designed to give the user some lee-way as far as lighter of the (above mentioned) tasks go. Things like photoshop use will run well, but not to same effect (note: speed/efficiency). Having the extra +2GB of ram up from the standard 4GB really means you really shouldn't have to worry about having multitudes of applications up at once.

It ultimately depends on what sorts of applications other than emulation you plan to use the laptop for. I'm not going to throw out numbers, percentages, etc, because frankly, there are sources (notebookcheck) and people much better qualified than myself to advise you.