The Watcher

Join Date 11/2005

New Laptop compatability question

Hi,
I am looking to get a new laptop and i obviously want one that will play GCII easily without too much lag. I have found one that is in my price range and wondered if someone could verify that the specifications for it will allow me to run the game.

AMD Turion 64 X2 TL62 (2.2GHz) processor. 2Gb DDR2 RAM. 200Gb hard drive. 17in widescreen XGA display. DVD supermulti dual layer. ATI RS690MC graphics. Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium. Wireless b/g. 0.3Mp webcam with integrated microphone.

Thanks

MS

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Should work, game plays on my laptop with basically those same numbers. If you get into a gigantic map with lots of planets and ships, it starts to slow down, though.

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Thanks

Wasn't sure as i have never purchased a laptop previously having always gone for base units instead.

Cheers again!

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that graphics chip makes baby jesus cry.

it'll get the job done, but... well, GC2 isn't the most graphically intensive game around (it's much more CPU-hungry), and that display won't need all that much power anyway. the 2.2 GHz will be more than enough for GC2, but don't expect to see many other 3D games play well on that laptop. plus that series of ATI chips couldn't handle anti-aliasing for squat, so don't expect to use AA at all, ever.

if you say what your price range is and you're interested, i'd be happy to do some browsing for you

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By all means

I have a £600 budget. More and the wife will kill me LOL

BTW i dont really play 3D games other than GC2.

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i hope you don't mind if i do the shopping in US dollars (£600 is equal to a little less than US$1,200, according to the google exchange calculator). baseline prices should be similar enough, i'll just make sure to avoid special sales and such.

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Hoes about this one: -

Fujitsu Siemens - Amilo Pa3553

# AMD Turion Ultra X2 ZM80 processor.
# 2.10GHz processor speed.
# 2Mb cache.
# 3Gb DDR2 RAM (800MHz).
# 15.4in screen size.
# Resolution 1280 x 800 pixels.
# Widescreen WXGA with BrilliantView Technology.
# 320Gb SATA hard drive capacity.
# Multi-format dual layer optical drive.
# 24x CD-ROM read speed.
# 8x CD-RW write speed.
# 8x DVD-ROM read speed.
# 4x DVD-RW write speed.
# ATI Radeon HD 3470 Hybrid X2 dedicated graphics.
# 256Mb graphics memory.

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Acer Aspire 7720G: -

* Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 Processor
* (2 GHz, 667 Mhz, 2MB Cache)
* Genuine Windows Vista (R) Home Premium
* 3GB Memory
* 250GB Hard disk drive
* Blu-Ray & Super Multi DVD drive
* 17" CrystalBrite display
* nVidia GeForce 9300M GS graphics
* Wireless & Wired network-ready
* Gloss black exterior with white interior

Siemens is out of stock

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Last one to throw at you

All reviews have been good for this model but let me know anyhow please...

HP PAVILION DV6623

Screen size 15 inches
Screen type Widescreen
Processor AMD Turion 64 TL-58 x2 Dual Core
Memory (RAM) 2048 MB
Storage (hard drive) 250 GB
Dedicated graphics Nvidia GF8400M GF 128 MB

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actually, it's easier to shop in pounds. gotta love the power of the interweb

i'm shopping around and whether or not i can recommend something better depends on your priorities. i'm looking over UK MSRPs for Asus laptops. i started with Asus because they're known for exceptional customer support and tend to have very good quality products (with some exceptions). however, they're also known for being pricey.

with that said, i can't say Asus offers anything better in the £600 range. they have other options and whether one of them would be better for you is a matter of your priorities. essentially, they offer a better graphics chip on a much smaller screen (14"), or a 17" screen with better resolution (1440x900), but a far worse graphics chip (Intel GMA x3100).

i also checked into Dell and Sony. the Vaios were worse than the Asus lineup in terms of cost/performance. regarding Dell, i'd started off on the Dell website browising their offerings in N. America, and I was about to recommend one of them. then i double-checked the UK prices, and sadly they seem rather inflated. an XPS 1530 in the US is less than $1,200, but in the UK the same model is well over £700.

so all in all, i'd say you actually found a pretty good laptop for the price. i admit that i'm biased against that line of graphics chips in general, but they're not bad in their own right. the premise of my bias, however, was in the realm of desktop graphics. it appears that for the superior performance nvidia offers, you have a pay a hefty premium in the mobile computing sector. since you aren't planning on anything other than GC2, i'd say you found an excellent laptop for the price.

the only thing i'd be sure to do before purchasing: research the manufacturer's customer support reputation. poor customer support can often mitigate any bang-for-the-buck you might seem to gain with better hardware at the same price.

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Fujitsu Siemens - Amilo Pa3553

Acer Aspire 7720G

Last one to throw at you

hehe, i see you've been doing some shopping as well

out of those three, the Acer has the best graphics chip, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily the best buy. it all really depends on your priorities. would you rather have a physically larger screen, a smaller screen with higher resolution, or a smaller low-res screen with much more graphics capabilities (for more advanced 3D gaming)? that's basically the trade-off.

personally, i would recommend a smaller screen with better resolution. this will mean you have smaller pixels, which in turn means you don't need quite as much graphics power for the image to look good (but you do still need decent power, since you've got more pixels). if you can find a 15" WXGA+ screen (1440x900), i think that's the best compromise. i find having a higher resolution makes GC2 more enjoyable, since you can see more of your map at once.

i think if you can get a 2.0 GHz dual-core processor and 2 GB or RAM, you'll be set on those levels. you probably won't see much benefit in spending your money on a faster CPU or more memory (well, unless you're planning on some kind of crazy video editing on your laptop, but i'm guessing not

)

just avoid intel integrated graphics like the plague. nVidia tends to be the best. here's a rough breakdown of the best-to-worst graphics chips available for laptops that i can recommend at all for playing games:

nVidia 9xxx series
nVidia 88xx series
ATI HD 38xx and 35xx series, respectively
nVidia 86xx and 84xx series, respectively
ATI HD 34xx series, AMD RS690 (which is a rebranding of a scaled-down ATI core)
nVidia 7xxx series

now you might be able to enjoy gaming on an Intel GMA x3100 graphics chip... but i know i wouldn't.

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Thanks Dystopic. Would there be any advantage in stripping out vista and installing XP? and thanks for the heads-up. I think i will stick to the one i have ordered and shut down most of vistas stupid graphics enhancements to start with

Oh and a 17" screen is not the most important thing to me i would rather go for a 15" version with more raw power. I think i may have just been lucky to find the Toshiba "L350" Athlon TK-57 laptop. However it is going to take up to 4 weeks for the delivery

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Thanks Dystopic

my pleasure. no, i really, literally mean it. i'm a university employee, and it being summer, i really have almost nothing to do all day at the office

Would there be any advantage in stripping out vista and installing XP?

such as not having to put up with Vista?

the advantages of XP would be: it uses much less memory, it's been developed and refined for much longer, and there's a much larger knowledge base regarding technical issues in XP that's built up over the years.

two things to consider, however. you should check to see if installing a new OS will affect your warranty, and you should also check to see if you'll be able to re-install your virus protection software and subscription on XP. of course, that's assuming the virus software is even worth trying to keep. if you already have your own solution, then the issue is moot.

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Just a bit of a note here on graphics chip on this model:

HP PAVILION DV6623

Screen size 15 inches
Screen type Widescreen
Processor AMD Turion 64 TL-58 x2 Dual Core
Memory (RAM) 2048 MB
Storage (hard drive) 250 GB
Dedicated graphics Nvidia GF8400M GF 128 MB

The nVidia mobile chips of the G84 and G86 series are having heating issues and are causing issues in Dells and HP's and any other laptop that has them. Most PC websites have articles about the issue, but you have to search a bit. So I would recommend the ATI chipsets whenever possible. And just to reiterate, it is not the laptop manufacturers that are at fault, the nVidia series of the chips are causing the issues across multiple brands. Here are a couple of links for you...

http://www.slashgear.com/nvidia-gpu-over-heat-problem-affecting-all-chips-notebook-desktop-1012483.php
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/27/dell-models-defective-nvidia

Hope this helps

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