Laptops as Gaming Rigs?

[MIKECLAN]

Any thoughts?

basically my wife has been saying she wants to get rid of her comp and get a laptop instead for a few years now. But, we find the cost prohibitive.

My thing is, IF we ever get around to playing games together again, I'd like it if her rig could play games decently. Specifically, EQ2.

Anyone have any thoughts, or experience with this?

thanks!

[Goldenpaww]

Most of your laptops are mased on an M(moble) processor and is slimmed down for less power consumption and heat generation. Most laptops don't make the best gameing rigs since there not really upgradeable, and usually have low graphics cards.

Alienware is about the only one I've seen to make a gameing laptop useing a standard processor and a good vid card. I think it cost around 4K though.

Your either going to spend a fortune to get a good gameing laptop, or get a cheap laptop and spend the extra cash on a good gameing home PC

[Andara Bledin]

While these days many laptops have the processor power to handle many of todays games, the video cards are usually less-than-acceptable. Most can't handle FPS games well enough to make them worth playing and a number of them have technical issues with different games that rarely get addressed by the manufacturers as it's usually the laptop company that pushes new drivers for them. I know, for instance, that the Radeon Mobility drivers have to go through the laptop makers as laptops don't always use standard driver arrangements. I believe mostly due to heat generation issues.

The big question, really, is why she wants a laptop instead of a desktop.

^-.-^

[Wolf]

As they have said laptops aren't great gaming rigs because of the less power. I was able to play Everquest (not Eq2) on my old laptop although zoning took 3 minutes :D.

To get a gaming laptop is just not worth the cash, might as well get a decent laptop and then buy a desktop for games.

[Mutton]

Ask your wife if it's more about the unintrusive amount of space a laptop takes or if she really want to have mobile computing.

If she's more interested in gaining back space, then she would be further ahead to put together an Ice-cube to handle the hog of EQ2 or you could switch to WoW and get her a Mac-mini (as usual I'll deny ever recommending an Apple to anyone and I'll dispute any proof offered to the contrary).

[ancarett]

I use a thumb drive and a PDA for my truly portable computing needs (built in wireless, dontcha know) and am very happy with a desktop and a LCD monitor to maximize desk space.

I used to have a laptop. Fragile as heck and much too costly plus upgrades were virtually impossible (expense and having to send the danged thing away). And you couldn't game worth a darn!

Truly, I don't advise a laptop as a gaming rig unless you really, really, really need that portability and can pay the premium and be content with the second best on components compared to an average desktop!

[Wolf]

Oh you just had to mention PDA's. I just found out that on the one my dad has you can write the letter in with the stylus (sp?) and the letter or number will appear in a font as if you typed it.

[MIKECLAN]

Thanks for the advice everyone :)

[Eucep]

I got a fullbreed pc, yet the pc + tft screen I can take along in a small backpack. PC's can be small enough if you want them to be like with Shuttle PC's.

[Ryodanu]

I own an Alienware Area 51 Xtreme Mobile gaming platform. (AKA a laptop) I paid 3500 bucks for it, it weighs a ton, its a very pretty blue, and I totally love it. I play SWG and EQ on it with absolutely no issues, the graphics are awesome, and it is twice as fast as my desktop. I have had a few blue screen errors, but the tech support is always good and fast. I only got it because I am on the go so much, otherwise I would have built myself an insane desktop with a 30" LCD screen. :)

[Acabar]

Because my univeristy has a laptop requirement, this was my question a few months ago.
I am currently using a Dell Latitude D800 with a GeForceFX Go5650 video card. I can play EQ2 no problem on High performance and sometimes Balanced thanks to my 1.5 gigs of RAM (I bought the lappy with 1 512 sim with the intent on upgrading, which I did *grin*). I also have no problem playing Half-Life 2 on almost full settings. My roomie got an Alienware, and he can run EQ2 on Balanced all the time, and can handle Doom 3 and HL2 on pretty much full settings. So, if ya want a fairly economical and decent system, a Dell can work fine. If ya want to splurge get an Alienware. But the Alienware will definately empty your pockets (About $3000). My Dell was about $2200, excluding the memory upgrade.

Hope this helps!

[DocBobo]

Here are a few links about graphic chipsets for notebooks:
ATI (http://www.beyond3d.com/previews/ati/m28/)
nVidia (http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20041108/)
some older, but cheaper stuff (http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20040421/)
Usually the notebooks are benchmarked against desktops solutions, so you can get a feeling for what to expect for the money you invest.