Is this a good deal?

[King Xiao]

is this a good deal and how well will it be able to play Empire?

Display
15.4 INCH WIDESCREEN DISPLAY (1440 X 900) - GLARE & ANTI-REFLECTION
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile T9400 (2.53GHz) 1066MHz FSB/6MB L2 Cache
Memory (RAM)
4GB CORSAIR DDR3 1066MHz SODIMM -
Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64 bit Edition + SP1, CD & Licence (£82)

Graphics Card
512MB GEFORCE 9600GT + HDMI + D-SUB

£838

[SirVulf]

Personally, I'd stay away from notebooks for gaming. Period. Buy a desktop to game on.

I'd ask what the speed of the Hard Drive is since they tend to sell you slower hdd's to give you a better deal. I'd get nothing less than a 7200rpm hdd for a laptop. Especially if you want to game on it. Why? To have things load faster.

The processor is good, the RAM is great although I'm curious why DDR3? The 9600GT doesn't sound bad, but a lot of mobile gpu's are not endorsed by game developers as they do a majority of testing only on desktop systems.

You may also want to beware with ETW and a 64-bit OS. ETW was coded in 32-bit (poorly at that) and this is causing problems with some 64-bit based systems that have more than 3GB of memory. I bypassed all my CTD's by using MadBoris' 3GB fix which you can find on this forum.

[Laoch]

Personally, I'd stay away from notebooks for gaming. Period. Buy a desktop to game on.

I'd ask what the speed of the Hard Drive is since they tend to sell you slower hdd's to give you a better deal. I'd get nothing less than a 7200rpm hdd for a laptop. Especially if you want to game on it. Why? To have things load faster.

The processor is good, the RAM is great although I'm curious why DDR3? The 9600GT doesn't sound bad, but a lot of mobile gpu's are not endorsed by game developers as they do a majority of testing only on desktop systems.

You may also want to beware with ETW and a 64-bit OS. ETW was coded in 32-bit (poorly at that) and this is causing problems with some 64-bit based systems that have more than 3GB of memory. I bypassed all my CTD's by using MadBoris' 3GB fix which you can find on this forum.

Completely agree. Notebooks should never be purchased for the sole purpose of gaming.

[King Xiao]

Thank you for your responses. However, im not buying a laptop for the sole purpose of playing ETW. Im going to uni next year and so need a laptop, i just wanted to make sure i get a good one.

[SirVulf]

In that case it's a good price. Good RAM, Good Proc, the GPU is better than OK, the OS is good, although I'd wait until companies are going to be offering the free upgrade to Windows 7. Windows 7 should be released near the end of this year or early next year. Microsoft has already stated that they will offer free upgrades to Windows 7 with systems that come with Vista.

Oh almost forgot, if you can, take that advertisement, contact the maker of the notebook directly, quote them the price, they usually drop their price to match it, THEN ask for a better hard drive, one of the 7200rpm variety. They're not THAT much more expensive. Please be aware that they only come in 80 and 160GB sizes (I think). It's kind of like buying a performance 10K rpm drive for your desktop.

Basically, if you're intending the notebook to be your desktop replacement, the hard drive itself seems to be your only bottleneck. Most desktop hdd's are 7,200rpm drives by default. Most Notebook hdd's are 5400rpm drives by default, or slower (4600rpm?) depending on the "deal" you're getting. So, if you at least get a high performance 7,200 rpm drive, you won't get so pissed at the general computer slowness after about 6 months of use. At least the general sluggishness, every PC gets, won't be so apparent.

As far as the OS is concerned, all depends on how long you can wait.

[cracks2]

Some good points,

I'd say medium graphics, high if your lucky.

don't get a 32bit OS there's no benefit from it only limitations. The only reason you would want it is if you were going to reuse old software that wasn't 64bit compatible. The Memory problems are not limited to 64bit OS's.

Why is Empire affected by this issue?
Quite simply it uses a lot of memory and we are still in predominantly a 32 bit world. Addresses are limited and Vista and high memory video cards reserve and make addresses unavailable. CA chose not to utilize 64 bit safe coding practices OR natively support 64 bit so people with 64 bit OS's are also affected by this issue.
This is predominantly a 32 bit problem, as game assets grow then memory footprints grow. Also people with large video ram (>768) usually have no idea that they are cutting their available address space that video applications can use. It's why 1GB video RAM is not as common as one would think or is never fully utilized used by devs, because the operating system cannot handle really it due to limited addresses.

As for HDD yes the faster the better, there a many performance gains the better your HDD is. although personally if your going to buy a descent laptop I'd would seriously consider SSD (solid state drive)

The prices a getting much better and they are especially advised for laptops: EG, Lower power consumption, shock resistant, no noise and instant loading times. ( If its not such a quick SDD large file writing times can be slightly longer.)

[King Xiao]

Thanks for the responses guys. I thought a 64 bit operating system meant i could use more than 3.2gbs of ram though and people have said it delivers better performance than 32 bit systems. Is this right or am i thinking of the comparison between vista and xp?

Also, i managed to keep the price the same and this is the memory - hard disk

Memory - Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

Also, i have checked out SSD but the ones they offer are insanely expensive and go above my budget of £850

Memory - Hard Disk
60GB OCZ SOLID SERIES SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 155MB/sR | 90MB/sW)



This would have added another £100 to the price.

[Legionnaire151]

64-bit OS's do deliver more performance if the program you're using utilizes 64-bit memory. And also, depending on your main-board, it can also read over 3.5 GB of RAM.

[SirVulf]

64-bit OS's do deliver more performance if the program you're using utilizes 64-bit memory. And also, depending on your main-board, it can also read over 3.5 GB of RAM.

If the program you're using is "WRITTEN" for 64-bit processing... Not if it uses 64-bit memory

[Legionnaire151]

If the program you're using is "WRITTEN" for 64-bit processing... Not if it uses 64-bit memory

I stand corrected...I probably should get some coffee.