What laptop? Help needed!

[SelfLoadingRifle]

Now that Vista has been replaced by Windows 7, I have decided that is high time I upgraded my laptop. Needless to say it is vital that the new machine is easily capable of running CMSF, the Theatre of War programs, plus any soon to be released products from Battlefront.com:)

I am hoping to spend about £350 to £450 on the upgrade, but will fork out more if needed:(

1) Is this a realistic amount?

2) What make and model of laptops would you recommend - and at what price?

3) Where can these be located and who has the best deals on at the moment?

I am a Brit who lives in the Greater London area. I am also a Combat Mission veteran who has been longing to get to grips with CMSF.

HELP URGENTLY REQUIRED HERE.

I look forward to hearing from you:)

SelfLoadingRifle.

[Schrullenhaft]

I'm not sure if £350 - 450 is enough for a laptop that can run 3D games well. While the original CMx1 series should probably work fine on almost any new laptop, CMSF, TOW series and newer CMx2 games will probably need a bit more 3D horsepower than what some laptops may offer.

Typically anything that just offers Intel integrated video will not be enough for TOW and will be a bit underpowered for CMSF and CMx2 games. For these you will want something that preferably has a dedicated video chip and dedicated video memory (rather than 'shared' video memory - a very common solution on laptops). These kind of requirements will probably increase the cost of the laptop beyond £450. You will probably want something with an ATI/AMD or Nvidia video chip, though some of these are 'shared memory' solutions too.

2-4GB of memory is enough for any of the games that Battlefront will be selling for awhile. So there is no need to upgrade to anything beyond 4GB of RAM (for gaming purposes).

A 64-bit version of Windows will let you see more memory if you have over 3GB of RAM installed. Some games have issues with 64-bit OSes (PT Boats and the first TOW game), but most of the other ones should run OK. You'll probably find that most laptops are offering Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium.

Regrading CPUs, most of the ones offered in laptops should be sufficient. Faster is almost always better. For the CM series, more CPU cores will NOT make a difference. Whereas a higher clock speed will make more of a difference. So picking between a Core i3 or i5 (quad cores) or a faster Core Duo (dual core), pick the Core Duo - if it has a significantly higher clock speed. Skip almost any Celeron offered - the lack of cache in these CPUs DOES have an effect on speed. Generally speaking, you can broadly compare the Intel CPUs based on clock speed and the size of the cache. Not a perfect comparison, but a somewhat usable one. Most of the AMD Turion offerings are not very powerful, but they would still work for most of the games we sell.

Unless someone comes up with a specific recommendation, you may want to shop around for whatever you think is in your price range. The big difference you'll want to watch for is the dedicated video offerings and a decent speed CPU. Of course there are other details about laptops to look for too, but regarding gaming, these two specifics will weed out quite a bit in your price range.

You can probably get us to vet some of your choices if you post them here.

[Sivodsi]

There's been quite a few threads on this topic actually. You might find this one useful.