Laptop for Matrix wargames

[Valgua]

Hi! I'm thinking of buying a laptop to enjoy Matrix wargames. Any suggestions? Should I pay any attention at all to the GPU? Is it important to get a lot of RAM? A powerful CPU?

Thanks in advance!

[Lord Zimoa]

If you look for great quality, value for money, power gaming notebooks look for Clevo based custom builds.

In US Sager:

http://www.sagernotebook.com/

In UK/Europe Kobalt:

http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/

Sweden GGS DATA

http://www.ggsdata.se

This is a great site and forum to really get into notebooks

http://forum.notebookreview.com/


Cheers,

Tim

[SlickWilhelm]

I think that any modern laptop that has 4GB of RAM, Win 64-bit and a discrete GPU should be fine and keep you gaming for years with the Matrix Games stable of wargames.

Avoid anything that has shared video memory. You want a dedicated video card in your laptop.

[LarryP]

I bought a Dell Inspiron 1545 last year and I know of two things I would do different for game compatibility now.

1) Make sure you have good fans for cooling! A good built in cooling system.
2) Get a graphics card that has at least 512mb memory and IS upgradeable.

Those two items hold me back with some games. I did however buy a good cooling unit for the bottom of the laptop, but that is not as good as built in cooling.

[Valgua]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

I bought a Dell Inspiron 1545 last year and I know of two things I would do different for game compatibility now.

1) Make sure you have good fans for cooling! A good built in cooling system.
2) Get a graphics card that has at least 512mb memory and IS upgradeable.

Those two items hold me back with some games. I did however buy a good cooling unit for the bottom of the laptop, but that is not as good as built in cooling.

What games gave you problems?

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: Valgua

What games gave you problems?

Kings Quest, Fallout3, Dragon Age Origins, and I can't remember the rest but there are several more. It's funny that I can run the entire Total War series perfectly though, and the Empire Total War is a demanding game. It's pretty much "try it and if it works great." Otherwise uninstall it and hope the next one will work. [;)]

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[jomni]

ORIGINAL: woodrolf

get alienware,strong to play games

...from dealstudio?

[jomni]

Anyway that dealstudio bot actually made me think of getting an Alienware laptop for gaming sometime by the end of this year.

[NefariousKoel]

ORIGINAL: Slick Wilhelm


Avoid anything that has shared video memory. You want a dedicated video card in your laptop.

Yep!

Buying a gaming PC.. always make sure you have a good video card. While laptop vid cards aren't the greatest, they can still hang in there if you get a decent one. [:)]

[2guncohen]

Iff I would buy a laptop I would  go for a Alienware laptop or a asus G-series laptop.

[Valgua]

My budget is very limited and I am buying the laptop mainly to watch movies and play Matrix wargames. Can a laptop with integrated graphics and 4 gb of RAM be sufficient?
 
 

[Lützow]

For the price of a high-performant gaming laptop, which needs to be connected most of the time due to extensive power-consumption anyway, one could acquire a desktop pc and in addition a notebook for reading pdf's or mobile deployment.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Valgua
My budget is very limited and I am buying the laptop mainly to watch movies and play Matrix wargames. Can a laptop with integrated graphics and 4 gb of RAM be sufficient?

For non-3D games, that would work.

[2guncohen]

ORIGINAL: Lützow

For the price of a high-performant gaming laptop, which needs to be connected most of the time due to extensive power-consumption anyway, one could acquire a desktop pc and in addition a notebook for reading pdf's or mobile deployment.

Are the battery's so bad on these laptops ?

[jomni]

When I use my laptop, Its always plugged most of the time.

[SlickWilhelm]

ORIGINAL: 2guncohen

Are the battery's so bad on these laptops ?

Yeah, on a gaming rig with a fast CPU and a good GPU, the battery can deplete in an hour or less, depending upon what you're doing.

Some laptops are coming with upgraded batteries, though, like a 9 or 12 cell instead of the typical 6 cell.

[jomni]

If you value mobility andd battery life, then you might want to look at net books. But you will only be able to play older 2d stuff.

[Lützow]

ORIGINAL: 2guncohen
Are the battery's so bad on these laptops ?

As more performant hardware components are, as more power they consume. So a dedicated gaming laptop, made for modern 3D titles, would run out of power after playing an ego-shooter for like 2h and since the battery is mostly not full charged, one have to use the outlet all the time. On the other hand there are notebooks optimized for mobile deployment, but while those run considerably longer on battery, titles like 'Fallout 3' or alike wouldn't work well. Another thing to take into consideration is the fact, that laptops are subject to ergonomic restrictions in one way or another.

That said, if you want to acquire a laptop primarily for Matrix titles, get a cheap one. There is no need to buy an expensive Alienware pc.

/edit: if you consider a netbook, take care that it delivers a vertical resolution of 768 ppi at least. Most ones only support 600.

[Bison36]

What is your budget? There are a number of decent lappy availible that can handle Matrix games. It'd be easier for folks to help if the amount you want to spend was known.