OT? Best Laptop for Computer Wargames?
Robert S. Solow
I am in the market for a new laptop. As a PC wargamer my thinking is that
the following criteria are relavent, in priority order:
1. Screen Size
2. Screen Resolution
3. Battery Life
4. CPU/Video Card Performance
Q: Anyone have strong feelings about what I should buy given that the
machine's only purpose will be to play current turn-based PC wargames.
I was considering a Mac (*cringe*) since it seems they can no run PC
software, but was wondering about compatability issues.
Q2. Do most/many/some/any wargame publishers test their PC programs for
compatability with Macs?
eddys...@hotmail.com
> Greetings All,
>
> I am in the market for a new laptop. As a PC wargamer my thinking is that
> the following criteria are relavent, in priority order:
>
> 1. Screen Size
> 2. Screen Resolution
> 3. Battery Life
> 4. CPU/Video Card Performance
>
> Q: Anyone have strong feelings about what I should buy given that the
> machine's only purpose will be to play current turn-based PC wargames.
I'm in the same (shopping) boat so I'm interested in recommandations
too
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
JeF
> Q: Anyone have strong feelings about what I should buy given that the
> machine's only purpose will be to play current turn-based PC wargames.
Always difficult.
Strong feelings, no.
Here are the specs of the laptop I use to, sometimes, playtest COTA.
This will handle any turn-based wargame just fine and basic 3D games
as well.
Screen size : 15". Bare minimum I'd say. Except if the ultra
portable is your way. YMMV of course.
Screen resolution : 1024x768. Just fine. At least SSG games display
fine. :-)
Battery life : used to be 3 hours. Now back to 1.
CPU : Intel Pentium M 1.73 GHz. Not super fast but handles all tasks
timely.
RAM : 512 MB, again, bare minimum nowadays.
Video : Intel 915 GM, with shared mem. Sufficient for basic 3D.
Windows XP : this will provide the best possible compatibilities.
Take it a bit sturdy. Mine is OK (an HP), but you'll fine some
cardboard cases at such low price nowadays...
> I was considering a Mac (*cringe*) since it seems they can no run PC
> software, but was wondering about compatability issues.
>
> Q2. Do most/many/some/any wargame publishers test their PC programs for
> compatability with Macs?
Almost nobody.
Shrapnel and Battlefront.com released a couple of games running
specifically on Macs. This is nearly anecdotical.
Anyway, if you can get Windows to run (either dual boot or virtual
machine), there is a very high chance that you won't have any
compatibility problem with turn-based games or basic 3D stuff (CM,
PC).
I myself was looking for the latest MacBook. Except for the small
screen (13"), they'd fit the bill.
My 2 cents,
JeF.
Paul Ney
"Robert S. Solow" <rso...@Comcast.Net> wrote on 16.05.2008 06:05 GMT the
message news:AbGdndi1Qcmoi7DV...@comcast.com
> I am in the market for a new laptop. As a PC wargamer my thinking is that
> the following criteria are relavent, in priority order:
>
> 1. Screen Size
> 2. Screen Resolution
> 3. Battery Life
> 4. CPU/Video Card Performance
>
> Q: Anyone have strong feelings about what I should buy given that the
> machine's only purpose will be to play current turn-based PC wargames.
Items 1, 2 & 4 should certainly comply at least with the minimal system
requirements for the considered games.
3: Questioning "Battery Life" means you expect to spend some time beyond the
"electrical civilization"? With a place to plug-in your power supply cord,
you could comfortably play and also re-charge the battery. Otherwise you
must organize your own power supply, e.g. some larger batteries, or
muscle-driven generators etc.
5: If it is a longer journey, then you could reach the websites and download
game updates, patches etc. by SAT-communication.
Greetings, PY
phmal...@gmail.com
essentially) and I'm really happy with the computer. This is a Danish
company with outlets in several countries. You buy online from them,
then they send the assembled machine in your national outlet, which
installs the OS and then send it to you (they were fast and very
customer friendly also).
What is great is that you choose the components yourself. For example
I choose to have Windows XP, 4 gig of RAM (yes it was 2 or 4, so I
choose 4 even if XP don't support more than 3), and a Geforce 8800m GT
with 512 mb. 1650x1080 screen resolution etc.
Very nice thing... For now I would choose again them if I had to buy
another one, I'm completely satisfied.
eddys...@hotmail.com
> I choose to have Windows XP
<Sits up> ok - I'll definitely check this one out - apart from Dell I
didn't know any other laptop makers who were still offering XP so I
had already resigned myself to it, but now ...
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
splu...@gmail.com
mostly better than any other machine in our house (dual core, etc.), I
thought I'd try the newly-purchased Combat Mission: Shock Force on it
running Windows from BootCamp mode (forget about most games and one of
the virtual machine solutions on a lowly MacBook--MacBook Pro, maybe,
but not MacBook). As I recall, CM:SF was slow to unusuable, but I'll
caveat this with the statement that I didn't try to do much/any
optimization, or hunting down latest video drivers, or even apply
CM:SF patches. I did try out an HPS hex 'n' counter game and it ran
fine, as expected. But the 13" screen size really does hurt.
MMQ
Falcon Northwest still offers WinXP in it's Fragbook DRX laptop. What,
you can't afford a four grand laptop? Cheapskate ;-)
eddys...@hotmail.com
> On May 16, 9:57 am, "eddyster...@hotmail.com"
>
> <eddyster...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > On 16 mei, 15:32, phmalac...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > > I choose to have Windows XP
>
> > <Sits up> ok - I'll definitely check this one out - apart from Dell I
> > didn't know any other laptop makers who were still offering XP so I
> > had already resigned myself to it, but now ...
>
> you can't afford a four grand laptop? Cheapskate ;-)
Zepto now only offers Vista - damn' - even seriously considering going
second hand just to get an XP - and it's cheaper too ! :)
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
Dimensional Traveler
> Greetings All,
>
> I am in the market for a new laptop. As a PC wargamer my thinking is
> that the following criteria are relavent, in priority order:
>
> 1. Screen Size
> 2. Screen Resolution
> 3. Battery Life
> 4. CPU/Video Card Performance
>
is the Video Card. The video card on most laptops is minimal for business
purposes, utterly inadequate for gaming. They have problems with even the
comparatively minimal graphic requirements of many wargames. Its been a few
years since I bought a laptop so this may have changed but its the one area
that I've always found to be the problem with laptop gaming.
Another thing to keep in mind is that laptops are not modular like the usual
desktop model is. It is not usually possible to upgrade just part of a
laptop, such as replacing the video card. So whatever you buy, that is what
you will be stuck with. That may seem obvious but it is easy to forget when
you're in the store or browsing online and most people are so used to being
able to upgrade their desktop computers that they don't take it in to
account when looking at laptops.
That's my two cents.
--
.-- - ..-. ..--..
SR
good laptops for game playing and might have been able to supply xp.
Giftzwerg
34g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>, phmal...@gmail.com says...
> What is great is that you choose the components yourself. For example
> I choose to have Windows XP, 4 gig of RAM (yes it was 2 or 4, so I
> choose 4 even if XP don't support more than 3), and a Geforce 8800m GT
> with 512 mb. 1650x1080 screen resolution etc.
Every 32-bit OS can address 4GB of memory. The additional limitation on
this is that the address space has to encompass the video ram as well.
So my Vista desktop "loses" 512 MB of RAM from the 4GB DIMMs. To use
more memory, you'd have to use a 64-bit OS.
--
Giftzwerg
***
"The Marine Corps far surpassed its recruiting goal last month and could
eventually be more than a year ahead of schedule in its plan to grow the
force to 202,000 members. All military services met or exceeded their
monthly recruiting goals in April, with the Marine Corps signing 142
percent of the number it was looking for."
- San Francisco Chronicle
"Translation for the NY Times headline: 'RECRUITING WOES CONTINUE'."
- Giftzwerg
suppor...@gmail.com
<eddyster...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> On 16 mei, 18:23, MMQ <mastermindqu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On May 16, 9:57 am, "eddyster...@hotmail.com"
>
> > <eddyster...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > On 16 mei, 15:32, phmalac...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > > > I choose to have Windows XP
>
> > > <Sits up> ok - I'll definitely check this one out - apart from Dell I
> > > didn't know any other laptop makers who were still offering XP so I
> > > had already resigned myself to it, but now ...
>
> > Falcon Northwest still offers WinXP in it's Fragbook DRX laptop. What,
> > you can't afford a four grand laptop? Cheapskate ;-)
>
> Zepto now only offers Vista - damn' - even seriously considering going
> second hand just to get an XP - and it's cheaper too ! :)
>
> Greetz,
>
> Eddy Sterckx
You can buy a 6625WD without O/S and then install it yourself. This is
what I did in fact, as I managed to crash completely the puter 24hours
after getting it (Norton Ghost screwed me badly here!). So I took my
CD, installed XP, then installed the drivers, which are either on a CD
they give you or provided in their forum ... It worked w/o any
problems.
About video drivers, you can also use Omega
mcv
> Robert S. Solow wrote:
>>
>> I am in the market for a new laptop. As a PC wargamer my thinking is
>> that the following criteria are relavent, in priority order:
>>
>> 1. Screen Size
>> 2. Screen Resolution
>> 3. Battery Life
>> 4. CPU/Video Card Performance
>>
> From my personal experience, the biggest problem you are likely to run in to
> is the Video Card. The video card on most laptops is minimal for business
> purposes, utterly inadequate for gaming. They have problems with even the
> comparatively minimal graphic requirements of many wargames. Its been a few
> years since I bought a laptop so this may have changed but its the one area
> that I've always found to be the problem with laptop gaming.
My rather unimpressive Dell laptop seems to be perfectly fine for gaming.
Probably not for Crysis, but an older 3D game like Vampire Bloodlines
worked perfectly. (Well, almost; I did have a few crashes at first and
it didn't always start up properly, but once it was running, it worked
fine.) Non-3D wargames shouldn't be a problem either, I expect. Just
don't try anything too state-of-the-art.
mcv.
--
Science is not the be-all and end-all of human existence. It's a tool.
A very powerful tool, but not the only tool. And if only that which
could be verified scientifically was considered real, then nearly all
of human experience would be not-real. -- Zachriel
Giftzwerg
says...
> My rather unimpressive Dell laptop seems to be perfectly fine for gaming.
> Probably not for Crysis, but an older 3D game like Vampire Bloodlines
> worked perfectly. (Well, almost; I did have a few crashes at first and
> it didn't always start up properly, but once it was running, it worked
> fine.) Non-3D wargames shouldn't be a problem either, I expect. Just
> don't try anything too state-of-the-art.
The ugly fact is that a laptop - with its un-expandable basic nature -
is never going to rival a desktop for gaming. The best you can do is
spend a pile of cash and play *this year's* games ... and hope that next
year's games require no great expansion.
--
Giftzwerg
***
"Now I've heard some say that counting Florida and Michigan would be
changing the rules. I say that not counting Florida and Michigan is
changing a central governing rule of this country, that whenever we can
understand the clear intent of the voters, their vote should be
counted."
- Senator Hillary Clinton
"Ah. Barack Obama. 'Selected, not elected,' eh?"
- Giftzwerg
Mike Kreuzer
news:MPG.22a4dc95888e3513989a8a@localhost...
Yep, you may as well buy a Mac (except that'd also rule out this year's
games. <g>)
Regards,
Mike Kreuzer
www.mikekreuzer.com
Giftzwerg
says...
> Yep, you may as well buy a Mac (except that'd also rule out this year's
> games. <g>)
The funny thing is that I'd *love* to be able to have a Mac. Windows is
probably my least favorite system ... I'd just have to resign from (a)
business and (b) gaming to embrace Apple, and I don't have enough $$$ to
mix & match.
mcv
> In article <483adb5a$0$14360$e4fe...@news.xs4all.nl>, mcv...@xs4all.nl
> says...
>
>> My rather unimpressive Dell laptop seems to be perfectly fine for gaming.
>> Probably not for Crysis, but an older 3D game like Vampire Bloodlines
>> worked perfectly. (Well, almost; I did have a few crashes at first and
>> it didn't always start up properly, but once it was running, it worked
>> fine.) Non-3D wargames shouldn't be a problem either, I expect. Just
>> don't try anything too state-of-the-art.
>
> The ugly fact is that a laptop - with its un-expandable basic nature -
> is never going to rival a desktop for gaming. The best you can do is
> spend a pile of cash and play *this year's* games ... and hope that next
> year's games require no great expansion.
If you want to play this year's games, you need a desktop or a very
expensive laptop. But some of last year's games are fun too, and I
haven't played even half of them. I play lots of games well over a
year after publication.
A laptop is never going to compete with a desktop on the desktop's
turf, but that doesn't mean a laptop is useless for playing games.
You just need to know which games to pick.
BP
wrote:
>Here are the specs of the laptop I use to, sometimes, playtest COTA.
>This will handle any turn-based wargame just fine and basic 3D games
>as well.
>
>Screen size : 15". Bare minimum I'd say. Except if the ultra
>portable is your way. YMMV of course.
>Screen resolution : 1024x768. Just fine. At least SSG games display
>fine. :-)
>Battery life : used to be 3 hours. Now back to 1.
>CPU : Intel Pentium M 1.73 GHz. Not super fast but handles all tasks
>timely.
>RAM : 512 MB, again, bare minimum nowadays.
>Video : Intel 915 GM, with shared mem. Sufficient for basic 3D.
>Windows XP : this will provide the best possible compatibilities.
Do you know if Civ4 will play on this? Not a real wargame, I know, but
I am a Civ3 addict and plan to buy Civ4 for an upcoming trip with my
girlfriend - while she is shopping/tanning I can be playing Civ4!
Since I am also buying a new laptop soon, I'd like to know that Civ4
can play on it (COTA would also be nice, and AGEod stuff).
Is Vista a problem? Specifying XP Pro on new purchases seems to reduce
the available selections quite a bit.
BP