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Which low end 11.6" for light WoW gaming?

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Due to changes in my career I am currently looking for a small and light 11.6" laptop for use during work travels. I'd like to be able to at least play World of Warcraft on lowest settings at a manageable framerate (~20fps) as well as OLD titles to kill some time when staying in hotels.

Since it is rather hard to find benchmarks that allow an exact comparison between the low end chipsets I'd like to ask your opinions and - if available - personal experiences with the following models:

AMD A/E-series (E1-2500 / maybe A4-5000 specifically)
Intel Celeron 1007U / N-series (mostly the quads like N2930).

Do you think it would be realistic to succesfully run WoW in the open world for some light questing? I'm not too concerned about productivity performance because I will probably only use it to run word processors and rather simple excel sheets, maybe a simple drawing software.

If all else fails I'll get an i3, but I'd prefer to spend as little money as possible on this device.

Examples for devices I am looking at (German, but the specs should be understandable)

http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/acer+aspire+e3+111+c6lg+netbook
http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/acer+aspire+v5+131+10072g50nkk+netbook
http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/lenovo+thinkpad+edge+e145+topseller+20bc0006ge+notebook

Thanks!
 

Frick

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Of those, the Thinkpad. Without a doubt.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-ThinkPad-Edge-E145-Notebook.103235.0.html

Remember they are updating the graphics with the next expansion, but they have said it will probably not change the requirements.

Also, note that the linked computer comes with FreeDos, so you'll need a Windows for it as well. ;)

EDIT: But if you have a license you can throw on it, €319 for a Thinkpad is excellent.
 
Joined
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165 (0.04/day)
Location
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System Name Upgraded Not-So-Silent-Anymore Black Box That Computes
Processor Intel i7-6700k @ 4.4Ghz / 1.24V
Motherboard Asus Sabertooth Z170S
Cooling BeQuiet Dark Rock 3
Memory 2x 8GB 3000Mhz Corsair Vengeance LP (CL15)
Video Card(s) Asus Strix GTX1080
Storage 256GB Samsung 850 Pro / 500GB Samsung 840 Evo / 3TB WD Green
Display(s) 24" Asus PB248Q (1.920x1.200)
Case Fractal Define R3 / 3x 120mm Corsair AF case fans
Audio Device(s) Asus Xonar DX
Power Supply Corsair RM750i
Mouse Logitech G700
Keyboard Logitech G710+
Software Windows 10 Professional / Arch Linux Dualboot
Well I work in pc repair / digital signage so getting free licenses is no problem at all for me.

Yes, I'm partially towards the Thinkpad because of their exceptional keyboards, but I still don't know what kind of performance to expect from those low end chips... probably because nobody bothers to toroughly review them.

EDIT: Yes, I get your point about upgraded graphics. As you probably know contrary to popular belief 25 player raids need a lot of hardware power, but I just want to be able to do dailies or less demanding activities like hanging out in Dalaran at the auction house or some farming. I suppose this should be possible, when WotLK was out I used to do that on my old Netbook (1.6Ghz Atom, Intel GMA945 I believe) with moderate success.

EDIT2: Here's a Youtube video of an unspecified Bay Trail chip running WoW on 1.366x768 and medium details:


This kind of performance would be sufficient for me since I could still dial it down to low.
 
Last edited:

Frick

Fishfaced Nincompoop
Joined
Feb 27, 2006
Messages
18,914 (2.86/day)
Location
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System Name Black MC in Tokyo
Processor Ryzen 5 5600
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Memory 2 x 16GB Kingston Fury 3400mhz
Video Card(s) XFX 6950XT Speedster MERC 319
Storage Kingston A400 240GB | WD Black SN750 2TB |WD Blue 1TB x 2 | Toshiba P300 2TB | Seagate Expansion 8TB
Display(s) Samsung U32J590U 4K + BenQ GL2450HT 1080p
Case Fractal Design Define R4
Audio Device(s) Line6 UX1 + some headphones, Nektar SE61 keyboard
Power Supply Corsair RM850x v3
Mouse Logitech G602
Keyboard Cherry MX Board 1.0 TKL Brown
VR HMD Acer Mixed Reality Headset
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores Rimworld 4K ready!
Joined
Jun 4, 2013
Messages
165 (0.04/day)
Location
Switzerland
System Name Upgraded Not-So-Silent-Anymore Black Box That Computes
Processor Intel i7-6700k @ 4.4Ghz / 1.24V
Motherboard Asus Sabertooth Z170S
Cooling BeQuiet Dark Rock 3
Memory 2x 8GB 3000Mhz Corsair Vengeance LP (CL15)
Video Card(s) Asus Strix GTX1080
Storage 256GB Samsung 850 Pro / 500GB Samsung 840 Evo / 3TB WD Green
Display(s) 24" Asus PB248Q (1.920x1.200)
Case Fractal Define R3 / 3x 120mm Corsair AF case fans
Audio Device(s) Asus Xonar DX
Power Supply Corsair RM750i
Mouse Logitech G700
Keyboard Logitech G710+
Software Windows 10 Professional / Arch Linux Dualboot
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-ThinkPad-Edge-E145-Notebook.103235.0.html

What about that one? Here's some benchmarks with the HD8240. And here's a list with all the GPU's they've tested on WoW. Look for #342.
I've been on notebookcheck a lot, but somehow it didn't occur to me that I could sort those lists by game. Thank you for that.

As it turns out my boss has just received a bay trail device for evaluation. When he's done with it I'll have some time to play around with it. I'll wait until I had a look to decide what I buy. I lean towards a Celeron 1007U because the E1 just seems to be very underpowered CPU-wise. I'm really curious how our Clevo evaluation device will hold up. I'll update this post if there is any interest.
 
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