Laptop Suggestions for playing WitP:AE

[Rusty1961]

I'm thinking of buying a laptop for WitP:AE as I'll be traveling for a month away from my desktop.

Any suggestions as to the minimum requirements to play this game on a Laptop? I don't want to spend a lot of money on said machine.

Thanks!

[Sardaukar]

It's not really a game that needs really high-end rig.

I play it on laptop with Intel Core Duo and 4Gb of RAM. Better processor and more RAM, faster it is. And it's fast enough for me already.

Edit: I am not sure if you could even buy a Windows laptop nowadays that could not run WitP-AE (unless used), minimum requirements are not very high. Of course, some netbooks and other devices meant for surfing might struggle.

[btd64]

Probably anything will do. Just don't buy the cheapest. They usaully suck. I played on an old winxp desktop 6 years ago. GP

[jcjordan]

Most any should work only thing you'll probably need to become more familiar w/ the different cmd line switches as machine will probably be win8 or 8.1 so will need some to work

[rockmedic109]

Anything not bought at an antique shop will likely run AE {and some of the antiques will too}.

The faster the CPU, the faster it will run a turn. My current rig will need 8-12 seconds to go from end turn button to beginning of combat reports. My old refurbished Toshiba I bought back in 2003 {and below specs} will run AE but it will take 7-8 minutes to go from button push to combat reports beginning. I think the more RAM you have will also improve this speed. This time is the main time consumption I have with the game. I Alt-Tab between the game and my personal history of the war {AAR} and it takes forever on the old Toshiba {I had to just go through the combat reports and fill out the day's AAR after the turn was over}.

I've read that the better graphics card you have can help you scroll around the map faster. I do not know if there is a cut off on how much you need for optimum scrolling.

Get a cooler and/or a laptop deck. Heat kills laptops and nothing will overheat a laptop faster than setting it in you lap and covering the intake vents.

Play with the laptop connected to AC as much as possible. When on batteries it will slow down the CPU.

I HATE Window 8, so I would try to find one with Win7.

Good luck

[dr.hal]

Look for an older used one on Craigs List or something like that and keep it as your unique WITP AE computer. I have an old desktop that I use but laptops of the same era will do. I don't pug the old thing into the internet but use my MAC for PBEM games and a thumb drive to transfer moves to the desktop (or in your case, laptop) from the MAC and back again. Works just fine. But if you go on the road with the laptop, it will have to connect with the internet... which really older models might present a problem. Hal

[wdolson]

As others have said, about the only thing that might be stressed on a computer is the memory. AE is something of a memory hog, so you should have minimum 1GB, I would max out a Win32 machine with 4GB. x64 machines can have more RAM than that, but 4GB is the limit for Win32.

Pretty much any laptop made in the last 10 years or so should work as long as the original owner didn't skimp on memory. I did my development work for this game on one computer I built from parts in 2001 and another that was 2006 vintage. Both worked fine. In fact a single core processor works better without as many command line switches. The slow downs happen due to interactions between the multicore switching hardware and some function calls into DirectX the game uses.

Heat is the biggest enemy of laptops. They are built to closer heat tolerances than desktop machines and the heat they generate can shorten the life of the machine. I have a platform with a giant fan the laptop sits on and it plugs into a USB port. It blows air constantly on the bottom of the laptop and keeps it cooler. It isn't practical when traveling, but I always use it if the laptop is used at home.

Bill