Laptop recommendations
- Thread starter bradbowen
- Start date
For $1200, you will have difficulty finding a laptop that can reliably play the game on huge maps into the modern age... I gather that the game is very Graphics intensive and that a standalone graphics card is almost essential and I don't know of any laptops in that price range that do not have on-board video.
I just spent $1,650 (including taxes and shipping) on a laptop just to play the game (but I did give my wife the excuse that I would do some work on it) !
Dell Inspiron 9300 with 1.73 GHz Pentium M, 2GB Ram, 17" UXGA screen, 60GB-7,200rpm Hard Disk, GeForce Go 6800 Graphics Card and 9 cell battery (I gather the 9300 has short battery life even with the Pentium M).
That was with a $750 coupon (do a web search for dell coupons). I think that base price has to be $2,000 for the coupon to apply and taxes/shipping will add up to $150 depending upon where you live. So, you can probably get it down to about $1400 by selecting some combination of the 6 cell battery, the 5,400rpm Hard Disk, the non-TrueLife screen and only 1GB of RAM.
I would recommend that you keep the 2GB of RAM if possible since it will avoid most memory paging and improve performance on anything memory intensive (and future software will only get worse !) The faster hard drive improves loading times by up to 40%, but this is mostly only relevent when you startup or do a save if you have enough RAM to avoid paging. If you are going to be mostly plugged in, the 6-cell battery will be fine - it only runs about 1 to 1.5 hours when playing games since the screen and graphics card suck juice. There are different opinions on the True-Life screen.
I just spent $1,650 (including taxes and shipping) on a laptop just to play the game (but I did give my wife the excuse that I would do some work on it) !
Dell Inspiron 9300 with 1.73 GHz Pentium M, 2GB Ram, 17" UXGA screen, 60GB-7,200rpm Hard Disk, GeForce Go 6800 Graphics Card and 9 cell battery (I gather the 9300 has short battery life even with the Pentium M).
That was with a $750 coupon (do a web search for dell coupons). I think that base price has to be $2,000 for the coupon to apply and taxes/shipping will add up to $150 depending upon where you live. So, you can probably get it down to about $1400 by selecting some combination of the 6 cell battery, the 5,400rpm Hard Disk, the non-TrueLife screen and only 1GB of RAM.
I would recommend that you keep the 2GB of RAM if possible since it will avoid most memory paging and improve performance on anything memory intensive (and future software will only get worse !) The faster hard drive improves loading times by up to 40%, but this is mostly only relevent when you startup or do a save if you have enough RAM to avoid paging. If you are going to be mostly plugged in, the 6-cell battery will be fine - it only runs about 1 to 1.5 hours when playing games since the screen and graphics card suck juice. There are different opinions on the True-Life screen.
Would folks mind posting the brand/model and hardware in their laptops here? I'm having the same thoughts as the initial poster did. Price is not so much the issue as the size is. I'm looking for something that can handle Civ, without the bulk of the mentioned Dell 9300....
Is there a 'thin' laptop with a suitably powerful graphics package that can handle civ out there?
Is there a 'thin' laptop with a suitably powerful graphics package that can handle civ out there?
The problem with thin laptops is the cooling needed for a decent graphics card. If you are getting a smaller laptop, the screen is presumably going to have a lower resolution and this MIGHT mean that you can get away with a less powerful graphics card, depending upon how the game uses it, but I don't know for sure.
The 9300 is large... at 8 pounds it's not quite as heavy as traditional desktop replacements, but it is too big for most laptop cases, I gather. However, it does seem to provide the best balance of power and price that is currently available.
Personally, I would have preferred a convertible laptop (where the screen flips over and you can also use it as a tablet), but these do not tend to have internal CD Drives which is a pain unless you have the no-CD crack. They also tend to be underpowered and overpriced compared with traditional laptops. However, I suspect that they will take over the market completely in the next year or two.
The 9300 is large... at 8 pounds it's not quite as heavy as traditional desktop replacements, but it is too big for most laptop cases, I gather. However, it does seem to provide the best balance of power and price that is currently available.
Personally, I would have preferred a convertible laptop (where the screen flips over and you can also use it as a tablet), but these do not tend to have internal CD Drives which is a pain unless you have the no-CD crack. They also tend to be underpowered and overpriced compared with traditional laptops. However, I suspect that they will take over the market completely in the next year or two.
Don't get me wrong... I'm not looking for a tiny laptop. Just one that's around 5lbs as opposed to 8... Makes a huge difference when you're constantly running around the airport.
As far as CD drives, I try not to play anything off the original discs. Those are stashed safely at home. ISOs save me bag space...
So anyone else? A laptop with a decent graphics setup that's around 5 lbs??
As far as CD drives, I try not to play anything off the original discs. Those are stashed safely at home. ISOs save me bag space...
So anyone else? A laptop with a decent graphics setup that's around 5 lbs??
bio_hazard
Prince
If you can wait a few more months- you might think about a g4 powerbook. The mac port of civ 4 is due out "early 2006" (whatever that means). larger powerbooks with satisfactory amounts of ram won't be under $1200, but you know what they say "once you go mac you never go back" 
civ3 complete will be out by christmas. the project lead Brad Oliver is on civfanatics pretty often answering questions.
Testing may be a lot better on macs since there are a lot fewer combinations of hardware and drivers, plus it will be a later build.
civ3 complete will be out by christmas. the project lead Brad Oliver is on civfanatics pretty often answering questions. Testing may be a lot better on macs since there are a lot fewer combinations of hardware and drivers, plus it will be a later build.
vanguardian1
Chieftain
Hmm... truthfully I've never paid attention to the weight of notebooks, so I can't be of much assistance in that field. But for that price range I think the best you can end up with would be an AMD Turion64 processor and ATI X300 video, I've seen a few units like that sell for that range, of course, depending on where you live, your mileage may vary.
P.S. Sincer you're traveling, make sure ANY laptop you get has built in 802.11g wireless support! Most of them do now, but there are still a few.....
P.S. Sincer you're traveling, make sure ANY laptop you get has built in 802.11g wireless support! Most of them do now, but there are still a few.....
You may have to pay a slight premium for 802.11a/b/g as opposed to b and g only, in which case b and g only should be sufficient since they probably cover 90% of WAPs.
Keep a lookout for Dell coupon offers... you can usually find a $750 discount one. You will probably have to spend $2,000 to take advantage of it so get the size and style of laptop you want and get extras up to $2,000. That way it costs you $1,250 or so plus tax etc. If necessary, you can probably resell some of the extras.
Make sure that you get as much RAM as possible and a fast hard disk. Get the best graphics available and you'll be okay (well, down to Intel 9 onboard graphics... Intel 8 is worthless). Stick with the Pentium M, if you can... they are very good - the speed is about equivilent to a Pentium 4 running at 1.6 times the claimed speed. For example, a 2 GHz Pentium M is equivilent to a 3.2 GHz P4 and will use much less power and be a lot cooler.
Keep a lookout for Dell coupon offers... you can usually find a $750 discount one. You will probably have to spend $2,000 to take advantage of it so get the size and style of laptop you want and get extras up to $2,000. That way it costs you $1,250 or so plus tax etc. If necessary, you can probably resell some of the extras.
Make sure that you get as much RAM as possible and a fast hard disk. Get the best graphics available and you'll be okay (well, down to Intel 9 onboard graphics... Intel 8 is worthless). Stick with the Pentium M, if you can... they are very good - the speed is about equivilent to a Pentium 4 running at 1.6 times the claimed speed. For example, a 2 GHz Pentium M is equivilent to a 3.2 GHz P4 and will use much less power and be a lot cooler.
Just a quick disclaimer on AMD chips... The Athlon 64 is a desktop chip like the Pentium 4 and while it may be better or worse than the P4 in particular situations, it really is not ideal for a laptop. The Turion is equivilent to the Pentium M, but seems to be too new to have much recommendations for or against.
DO NOT GET A CELERON !!!
DO NOT GET A CELERON !!!
vanguardian1
Chieftain
Celerons have their uses, just no HEAVY uses. 
Celeron's were obsolete by design... they were a cheap, cut-down version of the P3, IIRC. They do not have any benefits over more recent CPUs other than their price, and I doubt that they are much more the $100 cheaper. Since they will last a much shorter time with normal upgrades etc, unless you are purely using the machine for web browsing and BASIC word processing, you are better off finding the extra money now rather than spending another $500 in two years for a replacement laptop.
As for their performance playing cIV... I suspect that with ample memory and a good graphics card, they'll work fine, but it's unlikely you can find a Celeron laptop with a good graphics card.
Just my opinion, of course.
As for their performance playing cIV... I suspect that with ample memory and a good graphics card, they'll work fine, but it's unlikely you can find a Celeron laptop with a good graphics card.
Just my opinion, of course.
vanguardian1
Chieftain
They're actually stripped down or crippled P4's now.
As I said though, for the price they're okay for some people (I know many people that have bought those 4-500mhz celerons and still do simply because it does what they need and want).
It's just imporant to know what you want in a computer, moreso than many other things in life. It's hard to dominate the world with a piece of junk, you know.
As I said though, for the price they're okay for some people (I know many people that have bought those 4-500mhz celerons and still do simply because it does what they need and want).
It's just imporant to know what you want in a computer, moreso than many other things in life.
It's hard to dominate the world with a piece of junk, you know. ....thanks to everyone for the help. Any thoughts on how this unit would perform?
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Acer...30931/catOid/-12963/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Acer...30931/catOid/-12963/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
bradbowen said:
Without checking the graphics subsystem details, which aren't given in the ad, I cannot be sure. If the graphics can handle the T&L stuff, it will probably do okay for small to medium size maps.
More RAM would help (512MB is theoretically enough but cIV is a memory hog and to some extent you can compensate for weakness elsewhere by adding RAM... if you can upgrade to 1GB, it will probably make a noticable difference). This is especially true since the graphics is going to be using some of the main memory.
You are going to be limited anyway by the 64MB of Shared Memory being used by the graphics, which will mean that you will need to use fairly basic graphics settings.
Have a look at www.NotebookForums.Com for the Acer section and you may get more information, including the possibility of doing upgrades to it.
Good luck.
I did get a laptop under $1200 (after rebates and all of course) from CompUSA. Try the Toshiba Satellite M55-S325.
Pentium M Processor (Centrino) 1.73GHz
14" diagonal WXGA
512 DDR SDRAM (I bought another 512 for a gig of RAM)
5400 RPM 100 GB HDD
DVD SuperMulti Double Layer
(edit: Mobile Intel 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express is the chipset/display adapter)
I'd say it's light enough for you. Now bear in mind I don't actually have the game, my friend does and while it doesn't work on his computer, it worked fine on mine. I didn't really test it too far since I've had too much homework to afford to be sucked up into Civ4, but it started playing fine and no graphical issues. I didn't even have the time to go past ancient era, BC times though.
Pentium M Processor (Centrino) 1.73GHz
14" diagonal WXGA
512 DDR SDRAM (I bought another 512 for a gig of RAM)
5400 RPM 100 GB HDD
DVD SuperMulti Double Layer
(edit: Mobile Intel 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express is the chipset/display adapter)
I'd say it's light enough for you. Now bear in mind I don't actually have the game, my friend does and while it doesn't work on his computer, it worked fine on mine. I didn't really test it too far since I've had too much homework to afford to be sucked up into Civ4, but it started playing fine and no graphical issues. I didn't even have the time to go past ancient era, BC times though.
Hey guys, I've posted this before but not many people answered. I've got a Compaq Presario with AMD 64 3200 at 800 MHz with a GeForce4 440 Go Graphics card (the memory is dedicated) and 512 RAM. I thought it would play the game well for sure with the lowest graphics but I downloaded the demo and it runs like ****. I'm hoping it might just be the demo though. Anyone have a similar comp that [plays the game well? Also, I downloaded those Omega drivers for my raphics card to get the black terrain to go away.
bio_hazard
Prince
@carpiquet
I have a presario 2195US, but most of the hardware is different, so not sure how relevant my situation is (althlon 2500 1.8mhz, Radeon 320M, 512ram.). The game runs, but its slow, and i have black terrain (fixable with a cheat) and movies stutter. The game is 'reasonably stable'- meaning i can usually play 2-3 hr at a time w/out a crash. haven't tried Harkonnen's fix yet- i've heard some other people have had success once patched and with various code fixes, even running on supposedly substandard laptops. Haven't tried big maps yet, and I'm running on lowest graphics settings.
I have a presario 2195US, but most of the hardware is different, so not sure how relevant my situation is (althlon 2500 1.8mhz, Radeon 320M, 512ram.). The game runs, but its slow, and i have black terrain (fixable with a cheat) and movies stutter. The game is 'reasonably stable'- meaning i can usually play 2-3 hr at a time w/out a crash. haven't tried Harkonnen's fix yet- i've heard some other people have had success once patched and with various code fixes, even running on supposedly substandard laptops. Haven't tried big maps yet, and I'm running on lowest graphics settings.
I have a couple of fairly decent (or so I thought tower machines both amd's) but my Acer 1502lmi laptop kicks their arses into touch, it has an AMD 64 3200, 512 ddr and a mobility m10 (radeon 96/9700), I have to run it on 1024 and low res but its stable and no CTD's, doesnt slow down either...NB I 'll have to remember to send a thankyou note to the CEO for getting it for me :>
Me too, I have some questions about playing Civ4 on a laptop:
- Is 1GB of RAM enough for a resonably game-performance?
- Is it better to buy a ATI Graphics card with 64MB DDR (not shared memory) or a 128MB shared-memory card?
- Which processor to choose? I have no clue about the differences between Intel Centrino, Intel Pentium M and AMD Sempron. Which is the best for Civ4?
- Is 1GB of RAM enough for a resonably game-performance?
- Is it better to buy a ATI Graphics card with 64MB DDR (not shared memory) or a 128MB shared-memory card?
- Which processor to choose? I have no clue about the differences between Intel Centrino, Intel Pentium M and AMD Sempron. Which is the best for Civ4?
