New to Playing Games on Laptops

Hey, I don't play many games on my PC, but I'd like to. My computer just isn't good enough. Anyways, I was thinking about buying a laptop, but I had a few gaming-related questions. Firstly, will I be able to run many games on a decent laptop? Am I at a big disadvantage against a PC? Secondly, would you recommend XP or Vista if I was primarily going to be playing games? Lastly, if I was going to be playing games, should I be buying a mouse for the laptop?

I'd mainly be playing games such as Guild Wars, Counter Strike, Age of Mythology, and more.

 

In general, a laptop is more expensive than a PC when identically equipped. However, it's portable, so it's worth it if you need it. It's also not as easy, cheap, or possible to upgrade as a desktop is.

Unless you get a laptop with a strong DX10 capable GPU---like the 8800gts/gtx, I'd stick with XP and only "upgrade" to Vista if absolutely necessary, but that's more of a personal preference than a requirement.

You can run any game that you meet the requirements of, just as with a desktop.

I consider a mouse, even a basic one as essential to gaming on a laptop---gaming on a touchpad is a joke.

 

Thanks. What are some of the disadvantages of "upgrading to Vista". Would it just be slow? Or are there other problems as well?

 

But when you kill people in a FPS on a touchpad you sure get the bragging rights!

 

Completely off topic:

No. When you kill someone in Halo 3 with the Guitar Hero guitar, then you have bragging rights.

Hit him straight in the face...alright!

 

If you buy a laptop purely for gaming and you dont really need a laptop buy a PC. seriously you can build your self a quad core pc with a tuned 8800 GT for like 1000$ which will beat any game laptop with ease. a laptop getting close to this performance will easily cost 2500$ +


But if you really want a laptop for gaming at least buy a mouse like tony said hehe i would love to see you play counterstike with a touchpad

The Asus M50 and Dell XPS 1530 might be worth taking a look at they can play cod4/crysis with a decent frame rate. And i also advice XP but thats personal as long as there arnt any games out there that show me the advantage of DX10 i will refuse the most stupid OS ever made.

 

If you don't really need a laptop then don't buy one. Get a new PC instead. It'll be cheaper and more upgradeable (replace CPU and GPU down the road). If you want to take up less space. Look at the mini PC format like a Shuttle with a decent graphics card.

 

Vista is a more bloated OS than XP. Most games run slightly faster on an identical system with XP as the OS. I'd only get Vista if I wanted/needed DX10 or some other feature particular to Vista.

Most of Vista's other disadvantages are moot when talking about a newly built laptop/PC.

I'd recommended Vista if you have an 8800m or better as these GPU's are fast enough to play games capable of using a DX10 mode. With lesser GPUs, you're usually better off playing in DX9 mode, hence making XP the better OS (IMO) for any laptop so equipped.

Again, just my opinion.