Hi all, I'm looking for a new laptop and since it will be new I was thinking maybe it would be cool if it could play entropia in a reasonable ish way. After all my geforce 260gtx on my main PC played it pretty well and that was 5 generations behind the current gfx cards. So thought maybe new laptops might be similar (or better?). I plan to get one with the latest generation of the intel chips in. I've heard they have reasonable on board graphics. Does anyone have any experience of these? I like Thinkpads... my Pentium2 thinkpad has been great but those days are sadly past, So I'll probably be hitting the Lenovo site. Basically I like solid tough laptops not poncy silly ones with go faster stripes. Anyhow of course I'll be doing my own research but thought I'd see if people have input or experience Thanks Wistrel PS why doesn't this forum have a "not games" section?
Stick with a desktop for EU and then save your money on overpriced overheating laptops and just get an android tablet and use the new android app if you need to log in while you are mobile.
Wife and I have been happy with the Acer Aspires we have gotten, hers is newer, but mine is a 7741G-6426 and runs just fine on medium settings.
Really depends on what your budget is. for 1k usd Lenovo has some elegant designs...check out the lenovo y510p, you should be able to play Entropia on High settings at 1080p res with that. Although if I was looking to buy a laptop I'd look for one with a thunderbolt port...you can add on an external graphics card to keep your laptop a little more future proof. It might be a little tricky to find a laptop with a thunderbolt port for sub 1k usd...I haven't really looked into it. If price is no problem look at the asus g750jx, it has very good performance and has a thunderbolt port. What size of laptop are you thinking about? 14"? 15"? 17"? or some clunker desktop replacement? I saw on maximum PC's facebook page there is a Eurocom desktop replacement laptop...costs over $3000 usd. actually closer to $4000 I think. Oh and you will see a lot better performance from a laptop with an SSD hard drive.
Alienware laptops comes to mind. They were a prize or something for an Arkadia competition of some sort, so I'm assuming you could play EU on these. There's a link here.
After trying playing on some laptops I am thinking that it is cheaper and better to get powerfull PC for gaming and cheap laptop for typing/browsing/movies. And if you want to play Star Citizen next year wait 1 year and buy some AMD PC. Now just buy cheap laptop.
I think I'm looking at 14inch display. i5 latest gen. probably low res by the looks of what is out there. Thanks some good responses here. I guess what I'm really looking for is some info about how the embedded intel graphic or mobile ati and NVidia graphics stack up against say a standard GeForce 260gtx in a PC. Don't panic believers in desktops. I'm not about to abandon my trusty Desktop. It's just I want to move about some places and take a computer with me.
OK I found this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html looks pretty useful. My rough conclusion is that the acer mentioned above is around the GeForce 8800 level which I remember was the "crisis card" so essentially should be just about good enough for entropia. Looking at intel integrated stuff Its a fair way below that. I know my old 7600/8500 cards were good for entropia pre cryengine but probably no good after. So it looks like I'd need to go with a non intel solution for things to be useful. Ah: http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/notebook-gpus/geforce-gt-750m/performance gives a good comparison of how the NVidia mobile cards compare to an intel solution
Deep sigh Right I spent a good bit of time going through Lenovo's site looking at thinkpads (I'm a fan) and eventually decided http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-ThinkPad-S440-Touch-Ultrabook.100047.0.html would be a reasonable bet. I only found that review at the end though and have to say its kinda put me off. However there is also the somewhat LARGER problem that you can't bloody well buy the damn things yet. Lenovo say 1-2 weeks for the non touch screen one and 4 weeks plus for the touchscreen one! This is obviously some new sales technique involving "having nothing to sell" that I was not previously aware of! So I'm probably back to square one. OK so start again. I like solid sturdy things like Thinkpads. I would like an i5 4th gen processor but not a top end one. I'd like ideally I think one of the mobile geforces if possible, min 4gig ram (can always put some in later). I can live without a SSD. (can always put one in later). I think ideally I'd like an IPS screen that is 14 inches and I think a touchscreen might be handy (have some stuff in mind for that). Win 8 is sadly a necessary evil too. Ideally weight would be around 2kg or less . HDMI out, 2 or more usb ports. Doesn't burn my legs off. Don't mind about optical drive - don't think I use them too much so could probably live without now. It sounds like battery life is better these days for standard use ie typing. N network wireless and an ethernet port. Not fussed on mobile 3/4g internet. uuurgh my brain just melted. I've been starting at specs too long. I'll be on Calypso if anyone wants me...
http://www.mytoshiba.com.au/products/computers/qosmio/x870/psplxa-00t00e I expect they have slightly better spec now than the one I have but it is a beautiful thing
Thanks! looks good wow and 3D haha not even sure my main PC can handle that, certainly don't have the monitor for anything other than the anaglyph method.
OK I got annoyed with myself last night for my indecision so had another look around today. Basically I concluded that the s440 was the best bet in the end. That Y one from lenovo was tempting though (good find wildar! I'd totally missed that one too) however was a little bigger/heavier than I wanted and a few other things (eg out of stock till next year). The problem is I'm trying to swiss army knife here. Small, light, better than the onboard intel graphics, current processor and tough oh and was trying to keep price down too and wanted a touch screen (there are reasons). I found a lot of sites a nightmare to look through, it seems the majority of sellers sell to people who don't care about specs or being able to make good comparisons. Alienware was better but was min spec over what I wanted to pay. Well we will see how I go with it. If worst comes to the worst can always resell later and get another. Thinkpads tend to hold value better than most laptops.
