I’m currently in the market for a new laptop. Now, while I’d love one from say Falcon Northwest or Alienware my pockets aren’t that deep. In fact my pockets are pretty shallow. While I know its less, in my current situation a desktop won’t work out. I’m looking for suggestions on a laptop that will let me play adventure games (like the Agatha Christie games and anything that Benoit Sokel touches such as Paradise). I know that I need a laptop where the video card isn’t onboard and that a celeron chip is bad for most games. Apparently games like Post Mortem aren’t fond of laptops as they are generally configured (I was told it was whatever type of chip the laptop was using from the company that made the game). Below is the recommended system requirements for the new Agatha Christie game coming out as an example of what I need to work with. My understanding is that most off the shelf laptops will have the video card onboard and that makes most of my games not work. Any suggestions about laptops would be appreciated. Also, I’m not looking forward to Microsoft Vista, so I’d rather buy a computer before it comes out.
Thanks for any help!
OS: Windows® XP
CPU: 2.0 GHz Pentium® 4 Processor or Higher
RAM: 512 MB
Disk Space: 1.5 GB
CD/DVD-ROM: 16x
Video Card: 128 MB DirectX® 9 Compatible Video Card
Sound: 16-bit Sound Blaster® Compatible
Input: Mouse, Keyboard and Speakers
Get more RAM.
512 these days is a minimum. Get more, more, more. 1 GB should be your starting point.
Also shop a lot in terms of laptop video cards; make sure you know exactly what you’re getting, and that it meets the requirements of any game youu might load onto it.
There are two main kinds of video cards – one is better for things like CAD and business applications that require a lot of processing, and the other kind is better for video games that need to render complex scenes very quickly. It has to do with the math used for the rendering, which is why you’ve been told that regarding the video cards. This doesn’t preclude using one for the other purpose, mind, but if you want the best performance possible, check that.
I recently picked up a Dell Inspiron E1505, which has an ATI Radeon Mobility card – this card is better for gaming purposes as opposed to the integrated video (I think it was Intel).
Note: The E1505 is a widescreen laptop, which leads to interesting screen ratios in general (16:10 instead of 10:6). A lot of games haven’t been built to take widescreen into account yet. Be aware before you buy. There’s an excellent pdf out there that explains the difference if you search for laptop screen ratios.
I second **RickJay’s ** point regarding RAM. The more, the better.
For laptop reviews, I used this site to help me research what I wanted, especially regarding performance and battery life. It wasn’t the only resource, but it contains some good information.
Regardless of what you go for in the end, check online for any possible coupons and/or promotions that the mfr might be having – that’s the way I got a nice bit knocked off the price of my Dell.
Think about your priorities regarding the following categories – that should help you figure out a starting place – which ones are the most important, and go from there. Start with new and then go back from there until you hit a balance you like.
- Battery life
- Video card
- Sound card
- General performance (does it run with a quickness, etc)
- Sturdiness
- Screen size, ratio, brightness
- Weight (do you intend to schlep it around a lot)
- Does it run hot/cool
- Price range
- Additional software
- How long do you think you’ll hang onto the laptop?