Miscellaneous laptop discussions forum: What do I want?

What are the video requirements on the "occasional gaming" games? Are they old games or newer games that may have high requirements like Oblivion for example?

Link to Notebookreview.com's graphics card guide which may be helpful. That site also has a way to screen for laptops that may be worth using to see what you can find through it and what you want.

Don't forget that most new laptops come with Windows Vista which requires a gig of RAM to start with so I'd imagine you'd likely want 2 GB plus look for video cards with dedicated memory rather than those that take from the system RAM. On the hard drive front, again Vista will likely take up quite a bit of space so that 100GB + shouldn't be hard to find.

Also, what makes a keyboard "nice"? Wireless, keys having LEDS in them, diamonds on them, or what?

Regards,
JB

If you don't go for the Aero interface then it may not need as much firepower.

Vista's minimum is 512 MB though I wonder how many people run just the minimum and are happy with that as for example I think XP's minimum supported is 64 MB of RAM with 128 MB recommended that you are at 4 times that, fwiw. Often I've seen it recommended to have 2 GB of RAM on Vista machines for gamers. Vista needs 20 GB of hard drive space to install I believe. You may still find some laptops with XP and if you want to go that route good luck as they will likely get more rare among new machines.

Regards,
JB

I'd likely recommend XP with the caveat that in a few years you'll probably want to replace the laptop and so that would be the time to research if Vista is really here to stay or will Vienna be coming soon as well as if there are any Vista-only games that you want. My current laptop is nearly a year old and I plan on getting a couple more years out of it before moving onto a newer model though I do game on my desktop computer where it is easier to upgrade components, etc.

Regards,
JB

I see many games now have the "games for windows" thing at the top, with the vista symbol thing. Does that mean they will only work on Vista? Games such as supreme commander will only work on vista?

Sorry didnt know you wanted the little Dingy in the middle...

If that's the case get yourself a Lenovo Thinkpad... www.lenovo.com used to be IBM Thinkpad..

But for everyone else out there wondering if the Macs really ARE better... I'm sorry to have to admit after years of giggling at the Die hard Mac crowd.

The MACS are just better... JUST The bundled ware alone puts any windoze machine to shame.

For some of the stuff I can do with a few clicks... WIndows I'd spend 3 days installing and configuring and reconfiguring and checking for conflicts and reinstalling and reconfiguring.

the MAC? Works right out of the box.

And I've owned more HP's than probably some of you can even comprehend.

here's a sugestion for a thinkpad, looks like it covers most of what your looking for, i'm not sure if it has bluetooth tho?

http://shorl.com/nastifypropodra

If you do not like Macs, no problem. I believe that each person should get what works for them and makes them happy.

But I do wonder what the basic inner thoughts are when I hear that phrase. ??????????

If not a Mac, pick whatever machine looks cute for the cheapest cost. I find most of the PC options are just looks anyways. Its the same software no matter which version you buy and with the IBMs now made by China, the Compacts made by HP, etc, and all of them dark colored and square in shape, I cannot tell them apart.

PS. Macs for the last 5 years = No virus and NO SPYWARE. ( jump for joy. ) This spyware is driving me crazy on my work machine -- Dell Insprion)

en