Will Sony Viao N38 play civ?

[GinandTonic]

Given Civ is about my only gaming "need" and Im looking at getting a new laptop will a Viao n38 play it?

http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/sto...d&tm=undefined&sku=218560&category_oid=-31797

Do people have a better suggestion around the price point?

TBH apart from Civ this will be a media pc. Perhaps the odd game, but not really that bothered. Last dell died and kind of down on them, esp with their awful screens.

Cheers

 

[taper]

There's a bunch of stuff up in the Civ4 Tech Support threads. Some reading there should tell you if your parts are good enough. I'm a little wary about this particular deal.

an impressive 1GB memory (RAM) which is enough to run Vista without any performance issues

Vista will run on 1GB, but I can guarantee Aero will *not* work between that and the Intel 950. It also has a Core Duo instead of a Core2 Duo, which again will work, but is a little outdated. The 950 is pretty low end, from the Civ4 tech pages it looks like it will run, but barely. As a media PC, yes, as a gamer PC, no.

 

[mdwh]

Vista will run on 1GB, but I can guarantee Aero will *not* work between that and the Intel 950.

Yes it will - at least I've seen it running fine with that.

 

[taper]

Yes it will - at least I've seen it running fine with that.

Aero runs on a low end integrated graphics chip? Sure it meets MS minimum requirements, but I really doubt Aero can be practically used on that. Some guys from Germany got XP running on 20MB RAM and an 8MHz processor, doesn't mean it was usable. A guy I work with has Vista on his laptop with 1GB and some integrated video, and while Vista works fine, Aero doesn't stand a chance, and his machine scored a 1/5 on the Vista Experience.

 

[mdwh]

Aero runs on a low end integrated graphics chip? Sure it meets MS minimum requirements, but I really doubt Aero can be practically used on that. Some guys from Germany got XP running on 20MB RAM and an 8MHz processor, doesn't mean it was usable.

That's just being silly - the Intel GMA 950 may be poor when it comes to any recent games, but it's not completely hopeless, and nowhere near the same level as that kind of hardware. 20MB RAM is way below the minimum requirements of XP anyway. It's a DirectX 9 chipset, and is quite capable of running Aero, as well as older games (e.g., Morrowind). Maybe there are some nifty 3D Areo effects that it has problems with that I don't know about, but general operation had no problem.

A guy I work with has Vista on his laptop with 1GB and some integrated video

What integrated video? There's more than 1 integrated video chipset.

 

[taper]

I don't know all the specs of my coworkers laptop, it's about a year old IBM, decent hardware for software development. My point still is, a 950 barely runs Civ4, which was part of the OP's question, barely runs Aero, which may or may not be important, and buying the bare minimum hardware for a new system will probably lead to troubles later.

 

[mdwh]

The problem is that most laptops have crappy graphics, so it's not really "bare minimum". If the OP wants a gaming laptop, he needs to spend quite a bit more (at least last time I checked laptop prices). If he wants to run Aero, buying an expensive gaming laptop for that is madness. I can't comment how well it runs Civ 4, but I suspect that, if anything, will be the possible problem, not Aero (have you seen Civ 4 in action on an Intel 950? You seem to be basing your experience on an coworker's laptop running an unknown chipset...)

GinandTonic: How much are you able to spend?

 

[GinandTonic]

Situation is that I live in a house without a TV. MP3's are my only source of music etc - man it will be good to get the caddied HD useable again. In the main this laptop would be for watching DVD's, powering the sterio and surfing the net. Civ 4 is needed, but Im not too bothered about having all the graphics settings cranked up. Not bothered about playing the latest games apart from Civ, happy to accept whatever old entertainments it can run.

I was looking at the HP 17"ers around the 530 mark, but I hear lots of bad things about the brand. Screen quality and/or size are key, bulk is irelivant.

Pricewise the lower the price the sooner I can get my grubby paws on the thing. I was hoping around the 500 mark, could slide to the 600.

 

[Toxitalk]

Given Civ is about my only gaming "need" and Im looking at getting a new laptop will a Viao n38 play it?

http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/sto...d&tm=undefined&sku=218560&category_oid=-31797

Do people have a better suggestion around the price point?

TBH apart from Civ this will be a media pc. Perhaps the odd game, but not really that bothered. Last dell died and kind of down on them, esp with their awful screens.

Cheers

Why not be eco friendly and not burn the planet in the name of CIV, try Freeciv of civ3

 

[taper]

If you want to feel a little better about having a computer, I invite all of you to join CFC's Folding@Home team. You can use your computer's spare processor cycles to help out research that is trying to find a cure for cancer, Alzheimer's, and other diseases. There's a link in my sig to our current thread.