i3-2370M vs i5-2450M vs i5-3210M

Hello,
I have been looking for an affordable laptop to play games on for about 700USD and i have come across the HP g6z-2200. The only issue is that I'm not sure what processor to get (i have the HDD, GPU, and RAM decided). I would like the opinion of someone more experienced than myself on which processor to get so i can play games like Team Fortress 2, Battlefield 3, Minecraft, CS:GO, etc. at about 30-60 fps on med-high quality in 1366x768.

Processors

1. 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2370M Processor (2.4 GHz)

2. 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2450M Processor (2.5 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz)

3. 3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3210M Processor (2.5 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz)
(#3 is a 20USD increase from #2 and I'm wondering if it is worth it since i have heard it is more "future compatible" and about 10% faster)


The laptops are customized with: 1GB AMD 7670M, 6 GB DDR3 RAM, and a 500GB 7200RPM HDD




P.S.
Please don't say "those all suck get this :[link to 2k laptop]"

 

The i5-3210 is worth the $20 in my mind. The differences are small on the surface, but there's a couple key differences. The 3210 is an Ivy Bridge, while the 2450 is a Sandy Bridge. Ivy Bridge offers a much better integrated GPU - which doesn't pertain to you if you plan on gaming with it. It's a die shrink, so it'll run with less power. The speed difference, like you stated is only about 10%. Your most important component in a laptop for gaming is the GPU.

You could probably pick up an outlet laptop off of Dell for around 700 that would have a nicer GPU. Either way, remember Black Friday and Cyber Monday are coming up very soon.

Also, check out the Alienware M14x forum on here. They start at $1k on the website, but there are sales reps on there that can give pretty big discounts. I saved several hundred dollars on my M17x.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/669327-alienware-sales-assistance-thread-redux.html

I *strongly* recommend that you contact them and see what kind of deal you can get. It would be a massive step up from that machine in every way. The GPU in it is twice as fast.

Edit: Definitely look at that thread and get a quote from them, I looked around real quick and saw people paying in your price range.

These are the specs at the one you'd be looking at:
3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-3210M (3MB Cache, up to 3.1GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
14.0" High Def (720p/1366x768) with WLED backlight
8GB3 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
500GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s
Slot Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW)
1 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M with Optimus™

 

i doubt i would be getting that notebook since im using my notebook for school and i dont want to use anything less than a 15.6 in notebook either but the alien ware looks nice but i will get the HP with the i5-3210m or better

 

I would strongly advice against going at 15" 1366*768. It's terribly low for resolution and I felt that it was too low for my ex 13.3" laptop, let alone a 15.6" one.

 

Suit yourself, but it is a far superior laptop to what you're looking at. Trust me when I say smaller is better in school, I carried around a 17" Asus ROG laptop, it was rough. If you need something bigger for your home/dorm, you can pick up a cheap external monitor.

 

Do note that while Ivy Bridge does offer some extra power savings over Sandy Bridge, the HD 4000 is still far away from being as powerful as the integrated GPUs on the Trinity APUs. Just referring to your WNBSIB thread, the HD 4000 will be a poor choice for the games you're wanting to play. The extra CPU power in the i5 might help slightly in BF3, but the bottleneck caused by the Intel graphics will pretty much ruin the gaming experience for all your games, save Minecraft. Whereas with a more balanced CPU/GPU combination, you'll have an acceptable gaming experience for all the games you are planning to play (though BF3 will be a bit low in fps, but will be even lower on the HD 4000).

15.6" isn't that bad for a college student. I'm on a somewhat hilly campus with lots of slopes, stairs, etc and even still, I barely get weighed down by my W520 (~5.75 or 5.95lbs). So long as you have a half-way decent backpack, 15.6" is fine. 17.3" is very large imo, though.

 

I used to love 15.6" machines too. The problem was the blurry picture (crappy DPI) in most due 1366x768 resolution was actually giving me headaches and accelerated my eyestrain so I couldn't stare at the screen for longer than 3 hrs towards the end. Plus, the 2.4kg wasn't too bad but add in the PSU (300-400g) and some books, you really start to notice. Back and eyestrain don't come straight away, its a cumulative thing and you usually won't notice until its too late. My lower back hasn't been the same after lugging around an ASUS N61jq then an ancient HP Dv6-1045ee for the good part of 4 years of college. Plus, being a dental student doesn't do any favours for your lower + upper back AND eyestrain lol. I actually never noticed how much of an impact there was until I switched to the lighter W110er (i'm sure some Ultrabooks are even lighter), back problems went away, high DPI meant reduced eyetrain resulting in longer clinical endurance and more backpack space for food

 

Obviously you should go for the i5-3210M if you want to game as it's the most powerful, however you won't get near medium settings in BF3 on that HP laptop no matter what CPU you choose.
If you can't go higher with the price I strongly recommend checking out AMD based alternatives as are usuallly cheaper so you could get a better GPU for the same price. However if you can, try to get something with a GT 650M (Alienware M14x, HP DV6T, MSI GE60, Lenovo Y580), they don't cost much more, and are more than worth the price difference.