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Linux - Laptop and Netbook Having a problem installing or configuring Linux on your laptop? Need help running Linux on your netbook? This forum is for you. This forum is for any topics relating to Linux and either traditional laptops or netbooks (such as the Asus EEE PC, Everex CloudBook or MSI Wind).

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Old 07-08-2004, 11:45 PM   #1
KNIVES
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Minimum specs for gaming laptop


I really really wanna laptop, and i currently have $1,670 saved up. Its going to be a dell, hopefully one from the XPS series. I was wondering what your opinions are about the minimum specs shuld be.
I want something along the lines of
Pentium 4 3.4 Ghz
80 Gb HDD
15"+ monitor
RADEON 9700 AGP

But that comes to almost, if not $3,000 because i have to upgrade slightly.
The main game i plan to run on it is <a href="www.guildwars.com">Guild Wars</a>
It ran good with jus a bit of lag, probably because of my connection, on my 2.8Ghz comp
Persay i wanted to run Unreal Tournament 2004. What (around) would be needed, if i did not lower the graphics settings?
Also, wuld it be better to partition it with windows and linux, windows solely for games, or just use a WINE app. I know theres one that's made specificly for games, just cant get the name of it...
 
Old 07-09-2004, 08:45 AM   #2
kenlin
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I don't think there is any hardware acceleration for the ATI Mobility chipsets in X yet. If you want to play games, windows is your best bet.
 
Old 07-09-2004, 09:20 AM   #3
rovitotv
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Dell 5150 Experience

I purchased a Dell 5150 with a 3.2 GHZ HT CPU and had nothing but trouble with it. Maybe Dell has fixed the heat problems, I don't know. The machine was sent back twice and for fan/CPU problems. The lessons I learned from the experience:
1) Weight is important for a Laptop/Notebook
2) Faster CPU speed leads to heat problems and low battery life. In my case playing a game would crank up the CPU which would make the system very hot and run the fan at full speed. Most of the time when I was playing a game I would run the CPU at 1.5 GHZ so the system would not heat up.

I have since sold the Dell 5150 and bought a much slower/cheaper/light weight IBM Thinkpad X23. You are probably going to use the Laptop for gaming which was not my primary application but keep in mind that it is doubtful you will want your new XPS system running at 3.4 GHZ for hours on end while you play games. At least with the 5150 you could only run the CPU for 2 hours at full speed. Be very careful before you purchase this system read all the reviews you can find and check the Dell Forums. Good luck
 
Old 07-09-2004, 01:52 PM   #4
KNIVES
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Ok. Thanx for the story and everything Havent thought about reading reviews yet
They say the XPS series is meant for gaming, and i know the laptop itself is quite large, or at least the base seems to be in the picture. But i will definitely see what i can find out about it.
 
Old 07-09-2004, 03:31 PM   #5
JaseP
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Location: Eastern PA, USA
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I have a Dell c640 and it's fine...
Specs:
2.0 GHz P4
512 MB RAM (shared with Video)
ATI Radeon 7500 Mobility
CD-RW/DVD-ROM

The machine runs fine with SuSE 9.1. Only Minor problems.

That said, If I had a choice, I would go with a Laptop armed with an nVidia Chipset rather than ATI. nVidia's are just better supported.

My desktop machine is a P4 2.4 GHz, w/ 512 MB RAM, CD-RW/DVD-ROM, nVidia GeForce4 MX 440 w/ 128 MB RAM, 80 GB HD & 20 GB HD. It also runs SuSE 9.1 and I also use WineX/Cedega.

WineX/Cedega also works fine on the laptop for most things. I couldn't get Knights of the Old Republic to display right, however.

I would also go with a Distro which uses the newer 2.6.x kernel. The 2.6 kernel has better power management support.
 
Old 07-09-2004, 05:16 PM   #6
KNIVES
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Well, i read 3 reviews about it, and i can say im quite amazed. From what i heard, its an awesome laptop. It can run UT2004 on highest specs, FarCry runs gr8 on medium settings. The only thing is im not sure about battery life. They never mentioned that in the reviews, but they never said it was bad .
I think i am going to leave XP on there (comes with it no matter what), and just partition like i did with Red Hat fedora core 1 on this computer. Or i might try another distro...im tempted to try Suse/Mandrake/slackware...
but not sure how to decided which i want ^_^
 
Old 07-12-2004, 05:58 PM   #7
Reefcrazed
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I would not totally blame the 5150 on the heat issues. You HAVE to keep the radiator clear on the 5150 model and if you do you will not have heat issues. I have the 8500 and had the same problem with cat hair and dust building up on the radiator, just keep it clean. On the 5150 it is a known issue but the end user needs to do a small amount of maintenance and all will be well.
 
Old 07-13-2004, 11:53 AM   #8
big_gie
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I have a Dell Inspiron 8500 and I tryed both Fedora Core 2 and Mandrake 10. I think FC2 look nicer than Mandrake 10, BUT, thats it FC2 isnt as nice as Mandrake! Look for an alternative mandrake theme and it is the way to go. FC2 has some nice feature, has some more recent packages, but is way too buggy. Be carefull with installing it. It can screw your windows partitions!!! Look at here for more info on this (stupid) bug...

I highly recommend Mandrake 10
 
  


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