My Computer (plz help)

Soon, I will buy a Toshiba Satilite A500 and I will play STO on this. I was wondering, what are the good/bad things about playing on a laptop? (And plz nobody tell me it's worse that a PC, or to buy a PC lol) And what setting will STO be set on for the A500? (Min. Ok, Rec. or Max?)

Also: full specs are here: http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/satellite/A500/A505-S6992

Looks pretty solid should work fine, but vamp told me about canyourunit so once it get it try this page out to be sure. Or even better if they will let you test it at the store if its one of thoose display models.


http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/srtest/

Pro's you have to travel...you can still play.

Con's: expensive if it brakes, most of everything is intergrated on the mother board. If the graphix card fails to be up to par with STO you can not upgrade. No mouse. (unless you buy one.)

these are just a few.

laptops are good for gaming if they have big hard drives and they are good for portability

The only thing I can add is to get a mouse cause trying to play a game with the built on mouse pad sucks. Also that systemrequirementslab website is pretty damn useful.

Speaking as someone who has spent A LOT of time gaming on laptops, I'm going to recommend the following:

• Get a USB keyboard & mouse, because trying to play any kind of game with the built-in laptop keyboard and the touchpad is painful both physically and mentally. (Actually, a Nostromo would be even better than a USB keyboard because it's much less bulky and one only needs a handful of keys at one time to play a game anyway. If you haven't heard of a Nostromo before, I highly recommend googling it and if you decide to get one, be sure to remember that you have three color-shift modes that completely reprogram the key bindings of the device, depending on which one you switch to. It also comes with software that makes reprogramming hella easy.)
  
  
• Depending on how high you like to run your prettiness settings on Windows and how much multitasking you plan to do, it might be a good idea to get more RAM along with your shiny new computer. Again, it depends on what all you want to do with it, because if you only ever do one thing at a time (even with all the prettiness settings turned way-up) then it probably won't matter, but if you plan to be playing STO, having an open web browser, running Windows on the highest prettiness settings and running a bunch of other stuff running in the background, it would probably be a good idea to get at least two more GB of RAM.
  
  
• It might not be an issue right away, but GET A COOLING-PAD! Laptops are notorious for building up heat, which can cause BIG performance problems and $20 down at the Best Buy is totally worth it for not only keeping your computer performing optimally, but overheating can actually damage your computer very easily. A word of warning, however, if you use the cooling pad a lot or put a lot of physical stress on it, they break really easily. (Then again, I would rather have a cooling pad burn-out on me than a whole computer.)
  

That's about all I can think of for now, but feel free to ask if you have any more questions.

Kugis Borgir wrote:

Speaking as someone who has spent A LOT of time gaming on laptops, I'm going to recommend the following:

• Get a USB keyboard & mouse, because trying to play any kind of game with the built-in laptop keyboard and the touchpad is painful both physically and mentally. (Actually, a Nostromo would be even better than a USB keyboard because it's much less bulky and one only needs a handful of keys at one time to play a game anyway. If you haven't heard of a Nostromo before, I highly recommend googling it and if you decide to get one, be sure to remember that you have three color-shift modes that completely reprogram the key bindings of the device, depending on which one you switch to. It also comes with software that makes reprogramming hella easy.)
  
  
• Depending on how high you like to run your prettiness settings on Windows and how much multitasking you plan to do, it might be a good idea to get more RAM along with your shiny new computer. Again, it depends on what all you want to do with it, because if you only ever do one thing at a time (even with all the prettiness settings turned way-up) then it probably won't matter, but if you plan to be playing STO, having an open web browser, running Windows on the highest prettiness settings and running a bunch of other stuff running in the background, it would probably be a good idea to get at least two more GB of RAM.
  
  
• It might not be an issue right away, but GET A COOLING-PAD! Laptops are notorious for building up heat, which can cause BIG performance problems and $20 down at the Best Buy is totally worth it for not only keeping your computer performing optimally, but overheating can actually damage your computer very easily. A word of warning, however, if you use the cooling pad a lot or put a lot of physical stress on it, they break really easily. (Then again, I would rather have a cooling pad burn-out on me than a whole computer.)
  

That's about all I can think of for now, but feel free to ask if you have any more questions.

And don't forget an bottle of rum.

Jack_Sparrow wrote:

And don't forget an bottle of rum.

Well, that's a given, though I'll probably go with a case of beer, myself.

Kugis Borgir wrote:

Jack_Sparrow wrote:

And don't forget an bottle of rum.

Well, that's a given, though I'll probably go with a case of beer, myself.

Oh,and I forgot to say :
If u spill ur rum on ur laptop it's going to be realy,realy bad.
FU*K the laptop I am talking about wasted rum.

Jack_Sparrow wrote:

Kugis Borgir wrote:

Jack_Sparrow wrote:

And don't forget an bottle of rum.

Well, that's a given, though I'll probably go with a case of beer, myself.

Oh,and I forgot to say :
If u spill ur rum on ur laptop it's going to be realy,realy bad.
FU*K the laptop I am talking about wasted rum.

LOL

Spoken like a true pirate

Jack_Sparrow wrote:

Oh,and I forgot to say :
If u spill ur rum on ur laptop it's going to be realy,realy bad.
FU*K the laptop I am talking about wasted rum.

That's actually happened to a buddy of mine. It made the whole things sticky for months and stopped a few of the keys from working. I can't remember but I think he managed to fix it by taking the whole thing apart and cleaning the keyboard connections. It was never quite the same again, though.

I agree with Kugis Borgir and highly recomend a cooling pad. when i played games on my laptop (back before i built my PC) i noticed i had a low frame rate and poor system performance. when i got my cooling pad I noticed a significant improvement. frame rate more than doubled and my system ran much smoother. Because they cram a lot of stuff in such a small package most laptops have some difficulty getting the cooling they need thru the built in fan only (those suckers can get HOT). Good luck with your new system =P

Shadowfox1701 wrote:

I agree with Kugis Borgir and highly recomend a cooling pad. when i played games on my laptop (back before i built my PC) i noticed i had a low frame rate and poor system performance. when i got my cooling pad I noticed a significant improvement. frame rate more than doubled and my system ran much smoother. Because they cram a lot of stuff in such a small package most laptops have some difficulty getting the cooling they need thru the built in fan only (those suckers can get HOT). Good luck with your new system =P

Shortly :
Put ur laptop in fridge and play
It has many benefits because u can store few bottles of rum there too.

Keyboard, mouse, cooling pad would be a minimum for gaming with a laptop for me. It's doable and not a bad experience overall.

Thanks all, but I've decided to get a desktop PC.

Gopher777 wrote:

Thanks all, but I've decided to get a desktop PC.

Right on, do you plan on buying a pre-built computer or building it yourself? I highly recommend the latter over the former because the experience can be frustrating but it's also pretty fun and very rewarding when your done. You can also save 30%-50% of the total cost by the time your done (depending on where you get your components and depending on the vendor your comparing it to) and you end up learning a lot about computers in the process, especially if you google the parts as you install them.

EDIT: Also, it used to be a very complicated process, but these days building a computer is no harder than building a lego space ship. The only tricky part is making sure that the components you get will work together, but most vendors/websites offer a lot of help in that department. http://www.newegg.com for example, automatically lists compatible components on the same page as a specific component.

Kugis Borgir wrote:

Gopher777 wrote:

Thanks all, but I've decided to get a desktop PC.

Right on, do you plan on buying a pre-built computer or building it yourself? I highly recommend the latter over the former because the experience can be frustrating but it's also pretty fun and very rewarding when your done. You can also save 30%-50% of the total cost by the time your done (depending on where you get your components and depending on the vendor your comparing it to) and you end up learning a lot about computers in the process, especially if you google the parts as you install them.

EDIT: Also, it used to be a very complicated process, but these days building a computer is no harder than building a lego space ship. The only tricky part is making sure that the components you get will work together, but most vendors/websites offer a lot of help in that department. http://www.newegg.com for example, automatically lists compatible components on the same page as a specific component.

Pre-built.
Will these specs work with sto?
Processor Type: AMD Athlon II 215 Dual-Core Hard Drive Size: 500GB Processor - Clock Speed: 2.7 GHz Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit Monitor Size: 20'' Graphics Type: NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE Resolution: 1600 X 900 System Ram: 4GB Type: With Monitor Shipping Weight (in pounds):39.0 Product in Inches (L x W x H):23.13 x 19.5 x 16.63 Assembled in Country of Origin:USA and/or ImportedOrigin of Components:USA and/or ImportedWal-Mart No.:000561172

looks ok except your graphics card. See this article:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080830173547AAwuMVG

Latinumbar wrote:

looks ok except your graphics card. See this article:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080830173547AAwuMVG

Can I switch it out for a min. or recommended one? If so, where can I find a min or recommended card for $100 or less?

Gopher777 wrote:

Can I switch it out for a min. or recommended one? If so, where can I find a min or recommended card for $100 or less?

There are lots for under $100. Look here. Just make sure it's compatible, and that you have enough power supply.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130522

Thanks all.