What Notebook To Buy?

[AThousandYoung]

OK. I have $700 to $1000 to spend on a notebook depending on what I can get for that extra $300. I want it to be Civ compatible. Dell and Gateway only offer Vista, which I am reading is not good for Civ IV.

I also want to make sure my video card, etc are up to requirements.

What should I get??

 

[Markus5]

Dell Business machines still offer XP.
Try this Vostro 1500: http://bensbargains.net/redirect/34796

And this Dell Inspiron 1501 seems to offer XP:
http://bensbargains.net/link.php?threadid=34751&linkid=1

I have the Inspiron 1505 with an Intel Core duo processor and an ATI x1150 graphics. It runs Civ4 without problems.

 

[MarshalAlex]

Fujitsu Simens Amilo Pa 1510 !!! i have it and its GOOD! - it has vista.. lame lol
AMD TURION64 x2 2.0
ATI Radeon XPRESS 1100

 

[AThousandYoung]

OK, here's what I am thinking about getting. Any major blunders?

My System Details
PROCESSOR Intel® Celeron M® M540 (1.86GHz, 1M L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows XP Home Edition, SP2 edit
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display edit
MEMORY 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM edit
HARD DRIVE 80G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive, without Roxio Creator edit
VIDEO CARD 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS edit
WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-card edit
WEBCAM Integrated 2.0 mega pixel Web Camera edit
SOUND OPTION Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™HD Software Edition edit
My Accessories
BATTERIES 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery edit
My Software
PRODUCTIVITY Microsoft Office 2007 Basic edit
SECURITY Norton Internet Security™ 2006 90 Day Trial edit
ADOBE SOFTWARE Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.08 edit
My Support & Services
WARRANTY & SERVICE 1 Year Limited Hardware Warranty with Mail-in Service edit
DELL DATASAFE™ ONLINE BACKUP 10GB for 1yr Online Backup by Dell Datasafe edit
AUTOMATED PC TUNEUP No Dell Automated PC Tune Up Installed edit
STANDARD VOSTRO SERVICES TOOLS DellNetwork Assistant 1.7 edit
ON-SITE SYSTEM SETUP No Onsite System Setup edit
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
Integrated NIC and Modem Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Labels Windows XP™
Processor Branding Intel Celeron Label

 

[AThousandYoung]

Please help! I need a computer that can handle Marathon, Huge games if possible.

I won't bump this thread again.

 

[Quintillus]

PRODUCTIVITY Microsoft Office 2007 Basic edit

Just making sure you need Office on this and are getting the version you want. Office Basic has Word, Excel, and Outlook. Office Home and Student has Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. I know you can get Home and Student at the store, but haven't seen Office Basic there, not that I've been looking for either.

Memory is adequate for Civ Huge maps, and that's the main thing. I run XP Home with 1 gig RAM, and I'm pretty sure Civ is a bit shy of maxing it out in the mid-1800s.

Processor should be fine. Celeron M isn't a speed demon relative to the competition, but you should be under 1 minute wait times even on huge maps even at the end of the game.

Just curious, which model are you speccing? I can't find a Celeron on any Dell, but the online backup means it must be a Dell.

 

[AThousandYoung]

I think I used "build it" on the Dell site. I think it came out to a little over 1k but I'm not sure.

 

[AThousandYoung]

The Vostro 1500 can come with a Celeron.

Is a Celeron good enough?

 

[hotstuffjsn]

Celerons are junk. I used to work Dell Customer Support btw. If you want XP, I would still go with a business notebook rather then get Vista. I cannot tell you how many people called in to rap on how crappy the OS was. Anyhow...Pentium M are great processors. I have one as well, if i remember correctly you add about 1.2 ghz on top of what the pentium m is and that's a pentium 4 equilvelant. I'm running an old school pentium m 1.6 with a GeForce 6800 256 video card at 1900x1200 resolution playing a large map and never had longer then 20 sec turn times. I have not played huge yet. Just to give you an idea

 

[Comraddict]

Dell Business machines still offer XP.
Try this Vostro 1500: http://bensbargains.net/redirect/34796

And this Dell Inspiron 1501 seems to offer XP:
http://bensbargains.net/link.php?threadid=34751&linkid=1

I have the Inspiron 1505 with an Intel Core duo processor and an ATI x1150 graphics. It runs Civ4 without problems.

You mean you have 1501?

That is notebook with integrated graphics, I don't think it is too great for Civ IV.