Off Topic: About to renew laptop. Advice?

[Joseignacio]

Hello.

I know laptops are weaker in components than the same price desktops but I take my computer to many places and I want a laptop for playing...

Ok, my laptop i s getting older and is having some problems with some 3D games, so I am giving it to my mom, whose needs aren't a really new one, as you can imagine.

I have been thinking of buying another Dell, like this one laptop because Dell lets you configure how you like it and I know (by experience too) that the real bottleneck in a standard laptop (and sometimes in desktops) for a gamer is the Graphics Card, so I would only need to buy a standard one with a potent GC.

1 - I would appreciate any recommendation of a good but not too expensive GC to include in the set.

2 - Since it looks probable I will be to NY by September, I wonder if because of taxes' matters and the known "lower prices" because of the competence for the tourists' business it would be better to buy a gamers computer in NY, taking advantage too of the temporary weakness of $ against €.

What do you think?

[AxelNL]

ORIGINAL: Joseignacio

Hello.

I know laptops are weaker in components than the same price desktops but I take my computer to many places and I want a laptop for playing...

Ok, my laptop i s getting older and is having some problems with some 3D games, so I am giving it to my mom, whose needs aren't a really new one, as you can imagine.

I have been thinking of buying another Dell, like this one laptop because Dell lets you configure how you like it and I know (by experience too) that the real bottleneck in a standard laptop (and sometimes in desktops) for a gamer is the Graphics Card, so I would only need to buy a standard one with a potent GC.

1 - I would appreciate any recommendation of a good but not too expensive GC to include in the set.

2 - Since it looks probable I will be to NY by September, I wonder if because of taxes' matters and the known "lower prices" because of the competence for the tourists' business it would be better to buy a gamers computer in NY, taking advantage too of the temporary weakness of $ against €.

What do you think?

You do not need a fancy graphics card for MWIF - but you should get a fast multi-core CPU with enough fast memory (8 GB is enough). That will help in supply calculation times. This is the first game in a long period where the CPU is more important than the grapics card.

If you want to connect it to one or two nice 30" LCD screen(s) at home the graphics card does have a spec to check in order to let than happen.

[Joseignacio]

Thanks.

I dont have problems to run MWIF even in my older laptop. Thanks for your input anyway, I will keep it in mind. What I was more worried aboud was about other games, like 3D graphics games (Heroes of Might and Magic VI or Age of Wonders III) who need stronger GC. And the future ones to come.

Any more insights?

[AxelNL]

ORIGINAL: Joseignacio

Thanks.

I dont have problems to run MWIF even in my older laptop. Thanks for your input anyway, I will keep it in mind. What I was more worried aboud was about other games, like 3D graphics games (Heroes of Might and Magic VI or Age of Wonders III) who need stronger GC. And the future ones to come.

Any more insights?

Dell has a subbrand called "alienware" any model of that brand will be good, although expensive, as they are made for gamers....

[Neilster]

Unless things have changed (I'm a bit out of the loop these days), most manufacturers like to seduce you with fast processors. The best all-round systems have pretty good CPUs but lots of RAM and a quality, fast and large hard drive.

Cheers, Neilster

[okiemcguire]

I recently (w/I the last year) purchased from Best Buy an ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) laptop. They have the processor speed and graphic cards to handle most any new game. The cost is higher but the portability and playability is great!

[Joseignacio]

Thanks for your inputs, I am checking them. [:)]

[Neilster]

If you can squeeze one in, check out getting a SSD (Solid State Drive) as a second drive and mount Windows at least on it. They've come down in price tremendously and that will really speed up any system.

Pretty soon conventional hard drives will go the way of the floppy disk.

Cheers, Neilster

[Joseignacio]

Thx, Neilster. A friend of mine, here, home, gave me exactly the same advice for the same reasons.

[Joseignacio]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... _ds71.html

[AxelNL]

ORIGINAL: Joseignacio

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... _ds71.html

Impressive specs. I wonder how much noise the cooling makes when you actually put some pressure on that system.

[Numdydar]

Not as much as you might think. I read a review and it topped out at about 80db under full load. Most of the time it was around 60db which was when running the majority of the  tests.

[AxelNL]

ORIGINAL: Numdydar

Not as much as you might think. I read a review and it topped out at about 80db under full load. Most of the time it was around 60db which was when running the majority of the  tests.

60db is not bad for such a monster, although still noisy as it is comparable to background music. 80db is standing 15 meters from a passing freight train.
see http://airportnoiselaw.org/dblevels.html

[Boschy]

Look up the MSI Ghost GS60 2PC. i7, 16Gb, 2 x SSD, nVidia GTX G860m and all in 1.9 kg.

[Zorachus99]

The most important thing to any laptop purchase is the screen IMHO.

I would get as many pixels as you can afford. MWIF will eat every single one very thirstily. My laptop has 1920x1200 resolution. My desktop has 2560x1600.

As far as graphics card goes, I think a toaster could run this game. No insult intended. No 3d Acceleration required. [:D]

[Joseignacio]

ORIGINAL: AxelNL

ORIGINAL: Numdydar

Not as much as you might think. I read a review and it topped out at about 80db under full load. Most of the time it was around 60db which was when running the majority of the  tests.

60db is not bad for such a monster, although still noisy as it is comparable to background music. 80db is standing 15 meters from a passing freight train.
see http://airportnoiselaw.org/dblevels.html

I don't know about sound measures, so ... are you serious? Almost like having a train 15 meters away? [X(]

[Joseignacio]

ORIGINAL: Boschy

Look up the MSI Ghost GS60 2PC. i7, 16Gb, 2 x SSD, nVidia GTX G860m and all in 1.9 kg.

I am afraid over 1.500 euros, like 2.000 dollars is a little bit out of my budget.

[Joseignacio]

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99

The most important thing to any laptop purchase is the screen IMHO.

I would get as many pixels as you can afford. MWIF will eat every single one very thirstily. My laptop has 1920x1200 resolution. My desktop has 2560x1600.

As far as graphics card goes, I think a toaster could run this game. No insult intended. No 3d Acceleration required. [:D]

I agree that is very important, my older laptop has very good resolution as well, but I will consider this although by now I am not having problems with visualization.

And I am glad a toaster can run the game. [:)] They all should; after all, too many games have fancy 3D and other features that aren't really adding to the game but slow your PC down and make you pay more RAM and GCs.

[AxelNL]

ORIGINAL: Joseignacio

ORIGINAL: AxelNL

ORIGINAL: Numdydar

Not as much as you might think. I read a review and it topped out at about 80db under full load. Most of the time it was around 60db which was when running the majority of the  tests.

60db is not bad for such a monster, although still noisy as it is comparable to background music. 80db is standing 15 meters from a passing freight train.
see http://airportnoiselaw.org/dblevels.html

I don't know about sound measures, so ... are you serious? Almost like having a train 15 meters away? [X(]

Sound is subjective, but 80db is very loud - more noise than vacuum cleaning. I myself like a silent running PC. which still have lots of power. But than you come into the realm of self-built desktops in order not to let the budget go sky-high. e.g. there are cooling fans in the market which make much less noise than standard fans, being larger than normal, spinning slower and use magnets and oil instead of normal sleeve bearing which will start to wear down and make more noise over time.

[Joseignacio]

Ufff. I cannot stand a vaccum cleaner in the room while playing. Not to speak of not hearing the sounds of the game.

I saw this one recently:

http://www.dominiovirtual.es/portatil-a ... 46191.html

Although the text is in Spanish there is few to translate, it's all specifications...

Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.30 GHz)
DDR3 de 8 GB
SATA de 1TB
NVidia GT630M