Suggest a Dell Laptop?

[automator]

Going to be buying a laptop soon (girl is getting tired of me always on the desktop when she needs to do work). Rather than get a strictly productivity machine, I'm thinking of getting a laptop on which I can play my Civ4, so if she needs the desktop she can, and vice versa.

So I'm budgeting about $1,000. Will I be able to do this, or should I forget about it and save $400 by getting something that will be fine and dandy for Internet and word processing?

looking at an Inspiron E1505 Dual Core
• 1.66 GHz dual core processor
• 1 GB RAM
• Integrated graphics (up to 256MB)

I know the integrated graphics will be a drag (was running Civ4 on my desktop with integrated graphics [512MB RAM, 2.1 GHz P4] and while it worked, was pretty slow), but will this run Civ4?

 

[tekjunkie]

well would u like to play civ4 and it be fast or not play it at all? i recommend even a gaming laptop. like a P4 M with 512MB ram at least and a x700 radeon mobile. www.ibuypower.com or cyberpowerinc.com, im getting a hypersonic laptop so i can take to lans. personally i would never purchase a dell... ever. all my friends have a dell and im always trying to fix them. there cheap, and very slow

 

[Landmonitor]

I'm playing it on the old Inspiron 9300. I got it right before they went out of production. It runs VERY well, but the thing cost about $3000 (Canadian). This game really likes having the 6800 (Which is kinda at the bottom of its class now but still has more than enough for Civ IV), and the game is beautiful in 1920 x 1200.

Although this thing may be overkill for Civ IV, I don't think what you've got in mind is enough. As to reliability, its been fine, and I know other people with the same model, and apart from one person having a bad battery, none of them had any problems after more than a year.

I would recommend spending the money and getting one with a UXGA (WUXGA, whatever, the 1920 x 1200 screen) monitor, at least a 2.0 GHz (Dual Core isn't neccessary), a 7800 Graphics card, and at least 1 GB Ram. You'll be glad you did, and they offer installments. If this isn't an option due to cash, I'd go with a really low performance work laptop. The middle ground isn't cheap and it won't play your game properly, so why bother? Also, the low performance ones can be really small and portable.

 

[automator]

Thanks.

Think I'll save a few hundred and get a cheap one. I'll deal with not being able to play Civ4 while flying.

 

[eddiebluedevil]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Toshiba-Satelli...857251751QQcategoryZ31550QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


how would the game run on this system?

 

[N3pomuk]

As for the dell laptop, I say don't I have one and it worked fine for 4 years with minor twiches and such but I was never ever 100% happy with it. Keep in mind Dell is known for the streamlinig of it's operation and minimization of overhead and costs, not making the best PCs they could

as to the toshiba:
Not, celeron and integrated graphics card are your problems. If you want to run civIV at 1280x800 on a laptop (meaning lcd display, you always want to run these at optimum resolution, or else they don't look good) an Integrated graphics card with shared memory just won't cut it. You should probably go with 128 dedicaded memory from ati or nvidia because the support for intel extreme graphics aren't well supported by game manufacturers. also you'll be happier with a Pentium M (also known as the centrino platform) because It does much better with ppowersavings than the celeron, mainly because the celerons don't "stepp down" the clockspeed. Or go with a turion64, they can handle 64 bit instructions which are the way it's going the next 4 years.

 

[Landmonitor]

I think Dell's cheap laptops are just that- cheap laptops, but their good ones are almost the same as what you'd get from alienware, except they don't look like their designed for a 13-year-old and they're about 25% cheaper. Anyway, I'm not here to defend Dell, but I'm really happy with mine.

 

[N3pomuk]

Oh I'm not riping on dell, I have one that was top of the line 4 years ago, still runs, it's just that, one should remember why dell is in the position it is. any ways building your own is allways best, just kindof hard with laptops ya know.

 

[Landmonitor]

Yeah, that's true about building your own. I really needed a laptop, and it just ended up being best through Dell. Had I needed a desktop, it would have been different (and a lot cheaper!)