Question 1

Does this laptop have a dual-core or a quad-core processor?

Accepted Answer

The Intel Core i5-4200M is a middle-class dual-core processor for laptops launched in Q2/2013. It is based on the Haswell architecture and is manufactured in 22nm. Due to Hyper-Threading, the two cores can handle up to four threads in parallel leading to better utilization of the CPU. Each core offers a base speed of 2.5 GHz but can dynamically increase clock rates with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz for 1 active core or 3.0 GHz for 2 active cores.

Haswell is the successor to the Ivy Bridge architecture with improvements on both GPU and CPU performance. The CPUs are produced in 22nm and offer an optimized branch prediction as well as additional execution ports. Furthermore, new features like AVX2 and FMA should increase the performance in future applications.

Due to these changes, the performance per clock has been improved by almost 10 percent compared to Ivy Bridge. Therefore, the i5-4200M is about as fast as the former Ivy Bridge model i5-3340M.

Question 2

Does the GP60 come with anti-virus software pre-installed?  If so, which one?

Accepted Answer

I believe it offered Norton, but i uninstalled a lot of the bloatware to speed it up on boot/login.  There is a stripped down Microsoft Security Essentials called Windows Defender installed, it is a basic but descent AV/malware detector.

Question 3

Is this computer bulky? In other words, would it be a annoying to travel around with and take on a airplane?

Accepted Answer

Its pretty large, I went from a 14 inch laptop to this, and it is noticeably larger.  I don't really travel with it except bringing it to work every once in a while.  I think it's a budget laptop with a great screen and graphics card for the price.  The touchpad, keyboard, and speakers are decent.  The body is plastic and the build is not stylish or particularly firm.

I'm happy walking around the apartment with it and having it on my lap most of the time; but I wouldn't want to travel with it on a regular basis

Question 4

What is the power connector like? Barrel plug, or some other connector?

Accepted Answer

yes it's a barrel plug... I have a old acer laptop and it's just a little bigger diameter than that power cord.... but it's 5 years newer than the acer

Question 5

Is the the case kind of solid, reliable and easy to carry? because I want to use it for school and I dont want it to break after 2 weeks.

Accepted Answer

The case on this laptop is made of plastic, but I don't get the sense that it will break unless you picked up the laptop and dropped it onto the ground from shoulder height.

I throw my laptop in my bag for travel, which means that the bag that it's in gets tossed in the trunk of my car and kicked under the seat of airplanes and jammed in over head compartments.

When its at home, the laptop will occasionally be gently tossed onto my couch or bed. I don't abuse my laptop, but I don't quite treat it with kid gloves either is what I am trying to get at.

I have not noticed so much as a scratch on the laptop after all of this and it works just great.

Is it easy to carry? Its big. You need to make sure you have a bag that will fit a 17" laptop (and still have space for books!) even though this is technecally a 15". The power cord takes up a lot of space as well.

The size of this laptop along with the screen resolution makes it great to do work on, doubly so if you don't have a desk top as well.

All in all I have been very happy with this laptop and would recommend it.

Question 6

I recently purchased this laptop and was wondering if it comes with a webcam.  If so, how do I access it, because when I go on Skype, the program doesn't recognize a web cam?

Accepted Answer

You have to turn on the system control manager before you can use the webcam , also fn+f6 enables and disables the web cam , when you have the service turned on

Question 7

Will this computer run WoW on ultra for small raids and at least good for 40 mans? Also wondering how well this can handle 6+ hours regularly.

Accepted Answer

I can't answer as to Wow because I don't play mmos but I can tell you that I get 4 hours of battery regularly with no effort but I would imagine if you used a power saving plan that the laptop has available you might be able to squeeze out an extra hour or two. You won't be able to last nearly that long while gaming though.

If I were to guess you would probably be able to play WoW with no problems on High at least. That's what I play most games at because I like to have smooth framerate. If you are moving from a desktop keep in mind that 1080p on a 15 inch screen looks different than on a 27 inch screen and also keep in mind that this laptop uses a previous generation graphics card.

Question 8

What is the max quality or highest quality game able to be played on this laptop? I have plans for running League of Legends(LoL), skype and a few other programs all at the same time and still keep the FPS and a reasonable ping.

Accepted Answer

This thing will eat LoL and spit it out with GHz to spare. It runs Skyrim on Ultra High. It's a wonderful gaming machine if you keep the charger plugged in : )

Question 9

i read that this laptop is just for casual players, is that true? because im a regular player and i dont want to invest in a latop that cannot handle my gaming hours.

Accepted Answer

It's for casual gamers as far as frame rates and graphics performance in demanding games, but has served me well during my sometimes 6+ hours of gaming. All I recommend is using the coolerboost on a flat surface to keep things cool so you don't run into thermal throttling issues. Coolerboost does add quite a bit of fan noise but most people game with headphones anyway.

Question 10

Does this laptop come with a 64-bit operating system?

Accepted Answer

Yes it comes with x64 bit windows 8.1

Questions & Answers