you will have a great time playing et with i5 or i7, or any amd processor. desktop or laptop, it doesn't matter. at this point, any computer you buy or build will run et like a champ. now, you will have to do some tweaks, you may have to use 2.60b instead of etlegacy, or vice versa, but with any new hardware you'll be able to play with a great framerate. we are really only limited by our internet connections these days