Asus X552CL Intel Core i3-3217U 6GB 500GB 15.6" Windows 8 Black

WHO IS THIS GAMING LAPTOP FOR?

This gaming laptop is aimed at the casual medium gamer that also needs a laptop for other purposes like studying at university, business or as a general laptop to get everyday tasks done. It will allow you to play many of your favourite and latest MMORGP's from the older, yet still popular, World of Warcarft (WOW) to the ever increasing in popularity Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) and right through to Rift, & Guild Wars 2. It will also play normal PC games such as Mass effect 3 and Diablo 3 plus many more (Settings will vary). However, if you are looking to play a majority of your games on Medium with all shader effects on, or at high settings then you fall into the more serious gamer category and need to think about spending £800 plus on a laptop that meets those needs. For those who do fit that high end gamer category please check out are stunning range of gaming notebooks!!

GAMING POWER & TAKING CARE OF YOUR GAMING LAPTOP

The ASUS X55 notebook offers a powerful NVIDIA 710M Graphics card equipped with 1GB superfast dedicated memory. This should allow you to be able to games around medium graphics settings on 85% of games. Please note that all laptops get hot when playing games and this occurs around the graphics and processor area and also around the venting area. Therefore, to help the laptop with sustained gaming it is wise to invest in a laptop/notebook cooler that sits under your laptop and cools the laptop while you play. Check out dabs for some great notebook coolers that can help you get the most from your gaming laptop.My preference has always been for Zalman as they also look pretty cool as well as using a great design that aids the cooling process.

Comparison from Computing Product Manager

To give you a good comparison I have a laptop with a nowvery old GT420M NVidia 1GB card with 6GB Ram and a Core i3 380M processor. This allows me to play Skyirm with a host of mods from Nexus. The default game put me on a High setting, however due to mods including HD texture, lighting and enhanced towns I did notice a slowdown in some areas but turning off some of the shader effects (Which are advised for best performance) helped combat this to some extent an moving to medium settings was best. I have also played WOW, LOTR, RIFT, SWTOR and GUILD WAR 2 on my laptop at around medium setting, again with shaders on low to Off.

This ASUS has a much newer 710M with a great Intel Core i3 2350M 1.8Ghz GHz chip and the same less ram as my laptop. I therefore recommend this laptop for anyone who wants to get in gaming and anyone who is looking for an upgrade who is a medium gamer.

PERFORMANCE & STORAGE

The Intel Core i3 1.8Ghz GHz processor built-into the ASUS X55 offers great power and combined with the 6GB Memory allows you to handle everyday general computing tasks with ease including: sending and receiving emails, surfing or browsing the web. Due to the quad processing power video editing and more intensive power apps like Photoshop are handled with ease. Added to the processor power is also the ability to store a massive amount of you photos, documents, movies and music with a more than ample 500GB hard drive.

LED screen, HDMI , USB3

Watching movies and videos is much better with a 15.6" LED Backlit TFT which offers stunning true colour images and brings movies to life. Connect to your HD TV via the HDMI connection and play blockbuster movies on the DVD super Multi Drive/recorder. While connection to other devices is a breeze with USB3

Internet, Webcam, Card Reader

Surf the Internet and stay in touch with your people with reliable, high-speed connectivity via Ethernet or Wi-Fi wireless-N network connection enables long-range, fast, reliable wireless Internet. A fast wireless connection is perfect for video chats, and the HD webcam and microphone optimise photo capture and sound for good video communication. You can also upload your photos via the inbuilt card reader which has SD functionality.

MAIN FEATURES

• Processor: Intel® Core™ i3-3217U Processor (1.8 GHz, 3 MB cache)
• Storage: 500 GB HDD, 5400 rpm
• RAM: 6 GB DDR3 (6 GB maximum installable RAM)
• Optical drive: DVD/RW with double layer support
• Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 710M 1GB
• Screen size: 15.6" LED backlit 1366 x 768
• Wireless: 802.11 b/g/n
• Ethernet: 10/100 Ethernet
• USB: USB 3.0 x 2
• Ports: HDMI & VGA
• Camera: Integrated 0.3 MP webcam
• Microphone; Yes
• Keyboard: Full-size keyboard with numeric keypad
• Mouse: trackpad
• Audio interface: 3.5 mm jack
• Card Reader: SD memory card reader
• Speakers: Integrated stereo speakers
• Battery:6-cell Lithium-ion,Up to 4 hours
• Colour: Black
• Security: Kensington security lock
• OS: windows 8
• Manufacturer's guarantee: 1 year