can x200t run starcraft 2?

Might be interested to know that NVidia Optimus works with Fermi desktop gpus since a X200/X201i has a Intel 4500MHD/HD IGPs. So can have a transparent, internal-LCD only DIY ViDock NVidia Fermi setup.

ATM the GTX460 is the cheapest Fermi part. It needs an ATX PSU so is not a portable solution. Need to wait for a 75W GTS4xx part released in the coming weeks to do a 12V/75W setup, like the 12V/80W HD5750 setup. Small enough to be carried around to LAN parties

REF: NVidia Optimus works for Fermi desktop GPUS - more performance + Internal LCD setup!! for an idea of what performance you'd get.

Ie: 3dmark06=8294 with Internal LCD setup. That's 5+ times faster than Intel HD so consider how much SCII FPS will improve.

 

your vidock thread scares me. I don't have an computing engineering background...

 

It's PNP on a X200.

1. Buy the US$300 GTX460 setup
2. Attach the GTX460 to the PE4L.
3. Attach power to the PE4L and GTX460.
4. Standby your system, attach expresscard slot, resume.
5. Install NVidia Optimus drivers.
6. Enjoy internal LCD gaming OR gaming to an external LCD.

The NVidia Optimus DIY ViDock setup gives crazy fast performance and is very easy to setup and enjoy

..but it won't do a 3 monitor setup.. need ATI Eyefinity for that but then get no NVidia Optimus internal LCD-only setup nor the very fast performance.

 

I'll get the 5870 eyefinity once the price fall below $200AUD AND when U2711 cost below $300 each. In the meantime, I'll just suffer through my 24" & a flicking U2711 : (

 

you will be waiting for a long time.

 

Those games don't do anything for me. I want some FPS.

 

don't worry, graphic card and monitors these days are no IBM Model M, they are two of the fastest components of a computer in term of depreciation, they are designed to be replaced and upgraded.
Remember how you said the price of dell monitors haven't budged in years, then a month later U2711 fell from $1200 to $679. I don't think I will have to wait more than three years.

 

i think the U2711 sale is just an once off event... it doesn't come up every month... according to one of the person that i spoke to, the price that Dell sold the U2711 was pretty much how much it costs them to produce them. Basically this was a loss leader, the coupon that you used for the U2711 was given was to the business/corporate customers. These people would usually purchase a few more products than just a LCD monitor. You will be hard pressed to source another U2711 brand new at 679 dollars.

Also, 27 inch H-IPS monitor is not very common, most companies focus on TN LCD, so the lack of competition within the market, means that Dell is not going to drop their price to 300 dollars within the foreseeable future.

The price of most electronics will decrease to a certain price level before leveling off, since the various material input costs will mostly remain the same or increase (due to scarcity of raw materials).

Regarding the Eyefinity edition 5870.... this is not a card that you can buy easily, it is a limited run card. You probably can wait for the next generation 6xxx which probably will use more of this multi display technology. But it is unlikely that you will get the Eyefinity Edition 5870 as a brand new card for 200 AUD in Australia.

You probably can find a normal 5870 card for 200 AUD when the next generation ATI 6xxx card is released.

 

I'm sorry, but that is not true. Now if you're referring to the graphics card, then yeah. Because any smart salesman would not recommend a 12 inch laptop for a gamer, because there is no 12 inch notebook that would suit the customer. You would be pissed no matter which 12 inch notebook you would have purchased. Now all other points of the sale, is over kill. Why let someone talk you into spending more for 8GB of ram, with the so called attitude of future proofing, when in the future it would be cheaper just to upgrade to 8GB if you then indeed need that much. The same goes just about for everything else on the computer. That is why it is important to know what you want when you do in fact go to purchase a laptop.

"Sir, this is going to be my only laptop and I want to game and be mobile." I see...then let me point you over here in this direction. Although the X200t is cute as a button, it's not for gamers. But we do have something that is mobile, that will be more compliant with your needs in the 14 inch range.

 

Also, Model M keyboard lives on in the Unicomp 101 keyboard which you can get for 69 USD.

One reason why the Model M keyboards did not get cheaper or more prevalent, is because the bubble cap type keyboard are far cheaper to produce, and most people don't understand the benefits of the mechanical keyboard (as most people don't type that many documents and the cheaper keyboard is good enough).

This is the same reason that prevents H-IPS LCD from getting extremely cheap, as people don't understand the technology behind H-IPS versus TN.... nor are people flocking to IPS LCD when people think a TN LCD could do the same thing at far cheaper price....

 

Not just that Legendary. If you want to have a better gaming experience no matter which card you have, then you must setup the notebook's graphic drivers for that. You should always set the performance for drivers to "high performance", if there is an option to turn verticle sync off, then do so. Those two actions alone will make a huge difference!

 

I understand where you're coming from.

I hope IPS and eyefinity technologies do not become niche product like buckling spring and Topre.

 

If they are to become a main stream product, then they have to be prevalent and widely marketed by many large electronic companies.

I think for the foreseeable future, IPS and other non-TN LCD is still going to remain in the niche segment of the market. OLED will probably make a bigger impact than what IPS have in the future.

Eyefinity is included in most ATI graphics card, and i think it is actually going to be more prevalent in the near future. Many people are nowadays running two LCD on their desktops, and adding a third or more seems to be a natural extension of that.

 

Here's one recommendation for a FPS game that should run okay on your X200: Half-Life 2. I play it on my X201 and it runs fine with high detail settings. It's a Steam game and there are several episodes you can buy and download fairly cheaply. Another one is Counter Strike: Source.

 

FPS is dead on pc, go get a ps3.

 

My brother plays SC2 on an HP tx2510US that uses a slow CPU and an ati 3200HD. Lower the settings and you should be OK.

 

Some older FPS titles that should run well:

Any Source-based game(I've even gotten TF2 to work pretty smoothly by forcing the game to use DirectX 8.1 shaders; it loses a good bit of the eye candy but it runs well)
Doom 3(Runs smoothly, just tone the detail down a bit)
UT 2004
Painkiller(one of my personal favorites)
Rainbow 6: Lockdown

Doing a Youtube search reveals people getting titles like COD4 to work on the integrated X4500, but one of my requirements for a game is to run smoothly at native resolution... I'd rather lose eye candy than have a fuzzy display; gives me a headache after an hour or two. I'm not sure if those'll run well at 1280x800.

For those interested in RPG-style titles, both Oblivion and NWN2 run pretty well on here... NWN2 at low settings and Oblivion on medium.