In the market for a laptop but...

[Howlingmoon]

I'm thinking about getting a laptop but, I know almost nothing about
how much they can do or what to look for when it comes to laptops.
I've always worked with desktops before. Does anyone have any
suggestions or recommendations ? I'm limited on how much I can spend.
I want to be able to check my email, log on to GC.com, and other
websites/forums, as well as at least be able to log in to an online
game I play (EverQuest 2). The minimum specs required by the game are
1 ghz processor and 1 gig of ram. Any and all help will be greatly
appreciated.

Thank you,

[jclaudii]

Howlingmoon, until you mentioned Evercrack, you could have used any old computer, even a panasonic toughbook off of ebay. But, depending on how well you like your game experience, you should look at the System Recomendations instead of the minimum requirements.

Recommended: Windows® 2000/XP/Vista, Pentium® 4 2 Ghz or greater, 1 GB RAM, DirectX 9 Compatible video card. Pixel shader and vertex shader compatible hardware with 128MB of texture memory or greater, DirectSound compatible audio hardware, Broadband Internet Connection, 16x DVD-ROM, 10GB Hard Drive Space.

With that, I'll post a link to dells "scratch and dent" store :) Save hundrends possibly thousands of dollars off High End computers. http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSale ... l=en&s=dfh (http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/topics/global.aspx/arb/online/en/InventorySearch?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh)

The most important thing to look for when playing games is a dedicated video card in the laptop. This is the one thing that a very nice new laptop costing $800 may be missing because the video memory is being shared with the RAM. I would personally look for one that had at least 256MB of video memory and 2 gigs of system memory. Hard drive space should be at or above 80. Check the above site out and see if you can find a great deal on a very nice laptop. I'm sure other makers offer something similar if you can find it.

jclaudii

[Howlingmoon]

rofl So you're familiar with EverCrack, eh ? grins I didn't necessarily want to go out and hunt in the game, mainly just be able to log in at the minimum. I will check out the link you posted. Thank you!

[Howlingmoon]

Looks like there's only one laptop at the above link for under $500 that doesn't have an integrated video card, and tis a 128meg video card. I doubt my husband would even let me spend $500. He thinks a laptop for $300-350 would suffice. Maybe I should forget about being able to even login to EQ2. :(

[Howlingmoon]

I just bought an Acer AMD Athlon 64, 3 gig ram, 160 gig hard drive, 1.6 ghz processor for $400! And it came with a bag and mouse. I think I will be happy with tis laptop, and should be able to at least log in to EQ2 as well as everything else I wanted to be able to do! Thank you for your help!

[jclaudii]

Sounds like a great deal! Sorry for the addiction of your game. AT least your posting on another forum besides the ones strictly for mages & elves, so your not as addicted as some are. I've been MMORPG free for a long time and didn't know I had so much time to do stuff.

It is a fun game, Those AMD processors sure are nice. Have fun moonie.

[Howlingmoon]

ROFL I don' work, so I have ALL the time in the world to do almost everything. I am an Apprentice Guide on one of the EQ2 servers. grins And I have 12 T6+ crafters that I have been working on for the last year plus.

[pipeinator]

Get you one of those netbooks, 10 hour battery life, solid state memory instead of a hard drive, wifi, and strong enough to probably run your GPS software depending on what your using (Might not be able to do much else) and at the price tag of 250 to 350 with a total weight of 2.5 pounds great for a carry along on the trip then when you pull into a McD's or anywhere else with wifi easy to log on and update. Just my suggestion