Originality said:
Between the Asus and the Lenovo laptops linked, I would go with the Asus. Slightly faster CPU, good GPU, and I like the design more. The MSI laptop Wombo linked costs more, but has a high end GPU which sets it apart from the others. EDIT: Who says "Using a laptop for gaming is hardly optimal"? I'm willing to bet that it would do better in games than my PC (E8400 and a HD4870).
Core i7-740QM is a fairly powerful CPU. It's only rated 1.73Ghz before Turbo Boost, but it has Hyper Threading so it can handle 8 threads. Now, I've no idea if Dolphin is optimized for CPUs with more than 2 cores, but if it is it will do very well with a Core i7 behind it. Minimum requirements is a Pentium 4 anyway, according to
Wiki.
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.