Build a PC for Rome 2 / Hardware Recommendations and Advice Thread

[Blarni]

Anyone bought a middling (as in not the top über expensive kind) price laptop recently that plays RTW2 well? Doesn't need to be ultra.

I gather that SLI is still incompatible?

Thanks

PS: I know desktops are much better. It just needs to be a laptop.

Thnx

[alQamar]

hey Blarni,

please give me some information:

your country
your most likely shop / retailer
your budget and used currency

my NSA request on that failed, so I hope you can share it to me

SLI still don't work for Rome 2, but it is not an option for laptops anyway.

[Blarni]

hey Blarni,

please give me some information:

your country
your most likely shop / retailer
your budget and used currency

my NSA request on that failed, so I hope you can share it to me

SLI still don't work for Rome 2, but it is not an option for laptops anyway.

Hello and thanks, to answer your question:
Denmark
There are many mostly online retailers I'm looking at as this country's main chains 'FONA' 'Elgiganten' tend to be much higher in price.
Budget is basically the 5000 - 6000 Danish Kroner mark (€670 - €800) with a willingness to bump it up another €130 odd if it really makes a difference.
I also need a fairly all round laptop, I don't know if these dedicated gaming ones (MSI etc) are good for other things like Skype, office etc.
Much appreciated

[alQamar]

I once calculated a PC for someone from Denmark and we found out that computers are very expensive. Would you mind to buy the laptop from amazon.de or co.uk or basically ouside Denmark?

[Blarni]

Yep, everything is expensive here... though using sites like this http://www.edbpriser.dk you can often find comparable prices to outside of DK.

I wouldn't mind amazon.de - with co.uk there is sometimes the risk that the order will go through the Channel Islands which is technically not EU, which in Denmark means killer import taxes. And thanks again for your efforts.

How 'bout Lenovo y510p? I was being put off by the SLI thing, but sometimes the specs don't mention that, I don't know if that's an emission or they simply don't all have it.

[alQamar]

Give me some time to have a look what is suitable I will return with some suggestions here.

[Blarni]

Give me some time to have a look what is suitable I will return with some suggestions here.

That would be awesome, thanks!

[alQamar]

This weekend I am completely booked out. Hope to have the chance next week. hopefully you can wait some time.

[Blarni]

Any help would just be awesome. Right now I'm leaning towards the Acer Aspire V3-772G-747A8G1TMakk ( i7, Nividia Geforce GT 750m). As well as looking good on paper, I've found private reviews that it handles the game well and it's a doable price (by Danish standards).

[SamueleD]

Any help would just be awesome. Right now I'm leaning towards the Acer Aspire V3-772G-747A8G1TMakk ( i7, Nividia Geforce GT 750m). As well as looking good on paper, I've found private reviews that it handles the game well and it's a doable price (by Danish standards).

Sorry to step in mate, but alQ is kind of busy so I though I'd give you a hand, if that's OK.
Take a look at these ones I spotted on your website http://www.edbpriser.dk/baerbar/medi...d-7356439.aspx http://www.edbpriser.dk/baerbar/medi...d-7356440.aspx http://www.edbpriser.dk/baerbar/medi...d-7205478.aspx http://www.edbpriser.dk/baerbar/medi...d-7193080.aspx their 670MX would disintegrate the 750M and some of them have a 1080p monitor, you can take a look directly at their website http://www.medion.com/dk/welcome, they have some pretty badass notebooks for the price (at least by Denmark standards), though we'll have to investigate further about the build quality.

Edit: OK, from what I've read these Medion offer really good price/performance, but at the cost of really heavy laptops, kind of noisy when under load (though that can be true for most laptops) and hard-drives. So if you are after brute performance for the price they are what you are looking for, if you want something more balanced (less noisy, less heavy, but less powerful, for that price) we'll have to look further.

The Acer you picked seems pretty nice, being only 1600x900 the 750M shouldn't have many problems.

You can take a look on amazon.de http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=sr_st?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85Z%C3%95%C3%91&qid=1391423024&rh=n%3A340843031%2Cn%3A!428379031%2Cn%3A!428380031%2Cn%3A3496492031%2Cn%3A3496497031%2Cp_6%3AA3JWKAKR8XB7XF&sort=price for gaming laptops.
Since you want to play TW you should look for an i7 processor (quad core) coupled with the strongest GPU you can find within your price range 765M>760M>755M>750M (but 755M is just an overclocked 750M and 765M is just an overclocked 760M) both these new acer and lenovo seem to do pretty well.

[Blarni]

Wow, when I posted here I never expected this level of effort, so thanks very much.
I had considered Medion - was there a particular model you had in mind? The 6000-ish mark would be preferable. I'm not fussed with heavy, though I know from experience that exceptionally noisy can be a pain. I'm assuming that even 'gamer' laptops do the basics of word and Skype, right?

[SamueleD]

Wow, when I posted here I never expected this level of effort, so thanks very much.
I had considered Medion - was there a particular model you had in mind? The 6000-ish mark would be preferable. I'm not fussed with heavy, though I know from experience that exceptionally noisy can be a pain. I'm assuming that even 'gamer' laptops do the basics of word and Skype, right?

Yep, gamer laptops are usually the most powerful laptops, so thay can hanlde Skype, Word, etc. no problem. If you are ok with carrying around ~4Kg of laptop this http://www.edbpriser.dk/baerbar/medi...d-7356440.aspx would seem to be the "best-bang for your buck" option, 1080p monitor, i7-3630QM, 8GB of 1600MHz RAM, and a GTX 670MX, for little more than 6000 Kr, I don't think we can best that. The hard disk seems kind of crap, though it should be possible to replace it later on or even add an mSATA ssd later on.
Take a look at the reviews https://www.google.ch/search?q=MEDIO...JYPE7Ab554C4Cw and see if there's anything you don't like.

[Blarni]

Yep that Medion looks really good - my only concern is Medion seems to really have its haters (as all brands do of course).You even get one dude over at toms hardware claiming to be a retailer and warning everyone to avoid Medion like the plague (probably works for HP).

What's the issue with the hard disk?

[SamueleD]

Yep that Medion looks really good - my only concern is Medion seems to really have its haters (as all brands do of course).You even get one dude over at toms hardware claiming to be a retailer and warning everyone to avoid Medion like the plague (probably works for HP).

What's the issue with the hard disk?

I wouldn't worry about haters, they are anecdotal at best, as long as reviewers don't tell you that it breaks down, or that it overheats constantly, etc. it's ok.
As for the hard disk, in a modern laptop you would want an SSD, which is faster and safer in a mobile environment, but if there is something that it's easy to replace in laptops, it's usually the hard drives and the RAM, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.
Read the reviews done by professionals (not the "costumer" reviews, which are usually either done by fanboys or the random hater who's had the misfortune of having a defective part) and see if, among the cons they list, there's something that worries you particularly and you can't accept, in which case buy another one, if what they say seems ok to you, then buy it, knowing that it has probably the best price/performance you can get in a laptop.
My only concerns would be weight (if you have to carry it around often), battery life (if you need it), and heat, laptops tend to heat up a lot, and apart from high end gaming laptops they usually don't have great cooling systems, so they tend to be noisy, look for these things in reviews (plus whatever particular concern you might have).

[Blarni]

I wouldn't worry about haters, they are anecdotal at best, as long as reviewers don't tell you that it breaks down, or that it overheats constantly, etc. it's ok.
As for the hard disk, in a modern laptop you would want an SSD, which is faster and safer in a mobile environment, but if there is something that it's easy to replace in laptops, it's usually the hard drives and the RAM, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.
Read the reviews done by professionals (not the "costumer" reviews, which are usually either done by fanboys or the random hater who's had the misfortune of having a defective part) and see if, among the cons they list, there's something that worries you particularly and you can't accept, in which case buy another one, if what they say seems ok to you, then buy it, knowing that it has probably the best price/performance you can get in a laptop.
My only concerns would be weight (if you have to carry it around often), battery life (if you need it), and heat, laptops tend to heat up a lot, and apart from high end gaming laptops they usually don't have great cooling systems, so they tend to be noisy, look for these things in reviews (plus whatever particular concern you might have).

Thanks again - ah decisions, decisions. I'm very taken with the Medion, though may go for the 15.6" screen just for a little more compactness (same specs at a glance).

[SamueleD]

Thanks again - ah decisions, decisions. I'm very taken with the Medion, though may go for the 15.6" screen just for a little more compactness (same specs at a glance).

Just make sure you wouldn't get a much lower screen resolution, otherwise the 670MX is wasted.

[chris10]

Yep that Medion looks really good - my only concern is Medion seems to really have its haters (as all brands do of course).You even get one dude over at toms hardware claiming to be a retailer and warning everyone to avoid Medion like the plague (probably works for HP).

What's the issue with the hard disk?

Ok..I have a Medion desktop...was great price and all...you get a decent rig for relatively low budget...but:
After exactly 12 1/2 months de HD died,
4 months later the graphics card and
2 months later the power pack...so this can happen but I still have the rig.
What is really great about Medion though (at least in Germany) you get a fully working Windows disk with
which you can perform full OS installs (in case your HD dies) and not only recoverys. That has a lot of merit.
After install OS to new HD you go online and it re-activates automatically...no hassle whatsoever

[Jarlaxe]

i posted in the basement about a new pc build and just found this thread too,can someone help there too
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...lding-a-new-PC
all the info about the budget and some parts are in there, the build is for rome2 and modding

[alQamar]

thanks for joining Sam. I am really too busy these times, we had a hacker attack yesterday that kept me busy for 4 hours Sorry Blarni.

[Blarni]

thanks for joining Sam. I am really too busy these times, we had a hacker attack yesterday that kept me busy for 4 hours Sorry Blarni.

That's perfectly understandable, SamueleD's taken good care of me in your stead.