[Cerberus_e]

I'm purchasing a laptop in the near future. Yes, I prefer normal personal computers, but it's out of necessity I have to get one and I can't get around it. I don't think it's fun either. But that's not the point of this thread.

At first, I wasn't that much against it, as I was thinking: "I'll buy a laptop with a cheap graphics card, along the lines of a Geforce FX 5500 or so, so I can play some classics and old games I've missed on during my blackout years."

I went to the shop today for some information, and what do I see there? Countless of widescreen laptops. The horror. The clerk said standard aspect ratio laptops don't get made anymore, it's all widescreen now, unless I search at the stock (That's a shop where they showcase a lot of things on wooden beams, and you can buy what you want. They sell things of all sorts so it isn't really ordened like in a normal shop. Most of the stuff they sell there is either already broken or it will break soon because it's second-hand). Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow I'm going to another shop for comparision info.

But if it's true about that widescreen tralala then my "classic gaming" plans fall completely in the water. Old first person shooters (Quake/Quake 2/Unreal era) are all made for aspect ratio 4:3, not 16:9 or something. Old games would look completely stretched out.

I don't want to buy an expensive laptop with a good graphics card for new games in widescreen, as it's not as enjoyable to play on a laptop compared to a real computer. Also because an expensive graphics card would be money thrown away as I have a decent-to-good graphics card on my real computer (which I'm sitting on now and not doing away with). That's why I initially thought to get a laptop with a cheap graphics card, so I can play some classic games when I'm on my laptop, and then wait until I'm on my PC again to play new games. Well, if all new laptops are going to be widescreen, it's useless to have an old graphics card since old games aren't compatible with 16:9 anyway (and even if they are, I still prefer 4:3 or 5:4, but they probably aren't). If it's widescreen I think I can forget it as well to play old DOS games in DOSBOX or ScummVM, because it would look equally stretched out in fullscreen. ScummVM may support an option to not stretch out the game, but then you leave two huge borders to the sides which isn't a pleasant view.

Just forgetting about gaming on my laptop and buy a laptop without gaming possibilities is not an option either, as the laptop is going to be the only thing I have for full weeks sometimes. I'm not addicted to games... but... it's even more useless to purposely isolate myself from them

Another problem that arises is that it's going to be tough to find a powerful laptop for normal working (1024 MB RAM, decent processor, ...) but still a budget priced graphics card like the Geforce FX series.

Normally I would post such problems on the 3D Realms Forums but now I can't for obvious reasons (And I don't want to sign up either as that's not fun, I'd have to hide who I really am, and people are really suspicious from what I've seen, but that's another story I want to keep out of this thread, at least until my problem is solved). People helped me out greatly there in the past when I was having similar problems with computer related dilemmas. I could post this on the Steampowered forums, as there are many users there who respond very fast, and some of them are very savvy when it's about hardware, I've been helped out greatly as well there in the past. But I thought I'd post my problem first to the people I trust more.

Thank you for doing the effort to read my whole post, replying is the second part (These words of thanks don't apply if you've been skimming through my post, or only been reading this sentence )

Anyone has recommendations? Thoughts? Remarks? Fan-mail? Ideas? Similar experiences? Criticism? Questions? Solutions?

[avatar_58]

Cerberus_e, on Aug 8 2006, 08:21 PM, said:

But if it's true about that widescreen tralala then my "classic gaming" plans fall completely in the water. Old first person shooters (Quake/Quake 2/Unreal era) are all made for aspect ratio 4:3, not 16:9 or something. Old games would look completely stretched out.

Depends how anal you are I can play shooters fine in widescreen some natively support it, but the older games like doom and duke3d don't look that stretched. Its a little, but would you rather play with borders? You can set your drivers not to stretch (least with Nvidia) but I just ignore it and let the game go fullscreen.

[Cerberus_e]

Yes, I'm very sensitive towards stretching. You know how precise I am (refusing to play with ports altough I'm playing Monkey Island in ScummVM, refusing to install HD packs etc...). I can't help it, some people don't mind, others hate it. It's like an allergy

I don't mind playing games in 1024*768 on my 5:4 monitor though, but I can imagine the stretching on a widescreen monitor is... worse In lack of funny dysphemism.

As for those two black borders, you can only do that in some cases. I can't even do that on my current monitor (unless it's hacked into the software, like ScummVM) because it's a VGA monitor, not DVI. The nView display settings aren't even visible on my control panel. I'll make sure I'm able to do that when I purchase my laptop, though, and fearing "out of range" errors, there is also another problem: I heard the image looks distorted when using the black borders. Your cousin told me and so do the people over at the widescreen gaming forums. Un,less you center it to the middle of the screen, but that's even uglier because it's too small then

[avatar_58]

Well basically you are answering your own questions here Either it bothers you and you won't use it, or you can live with it and use it. Its up to you.

[Cerberus_e]

In fact my question was if you have experience with the black borders, and if it's true it looks distorted (whatever I have to imagine when I hear that word...) They say the image looks "distorted", but I have no idea what it means Well, it probably means not crystal clear, but I wonder to what extend, how it looks then

[avatar_58]

I thought we were talking about aspect ratios? Are you referring to the blurring caused on LCDs when you aren't using the native resolution? If so then it depends on what games/resolutions you are attempting. Otherwise using those borders just stops stretching the aspect ratio, nothing more.

I've used dosbox on my mother's laptop and it IS stretched sideways, but I don't mind it so much. On FPS it looks fine, hardly that big of a deal. Certain games look terrible to me, but since I'm away from my PC I don't really care.

So really it all depends on which games you play and at which resolutions.

[Cerberus_e]

I've never noticed blurring when I don't use my native resolution on my TFT (which is the same as LCD, right? I'm not at home in monitors ) so I guess there won't be a problem for me, then Or it's just a good monitor I have now.

I'll make sure my laptop has an nVidia card, the monitor on my laptop is connected via DVI, then everything has to be in order, right?

Are all laptops their monitors connected with DVI, or is it something I have to look into? Because system specs don't seem to mention it specifically.

[Kristian Joensen]

http://en.wikipedia....film_transistor

http://en.wikipedia....crystal_display

Wikipedia is your friend.

I am in a similar situation as you in that I also need to get a new laptop. I haven't heard about people having any problem palying games on them until now. Surely if I buy a good enough laptop I can enjoy games like Prey and Quake 4, right ?

Will the experience be degraded much otherwise ?

[Cerberus_e]

Depends on the size of your monitor. Keep in mind a laptop running Quake 4 at the same quality of a PC is more expensive than a PC that does the same.
You'll also want to buy a keyboard and a mouse. The keyboard on a laptop is very unhandy, you can't really "press" keys, you "click" them, and also the position is very inconvenient. It's like pressing keys right in front of your monitor.

VERY IMPORTANT! Make sure you've seen the monitor before buying a laptop. For example, I hate reflective screens, I don't want to see a mirrored image of myself constantly.

[Kristian Joensen]

Cerb, I think you might be misunderstanding me a bit. I already own a laptop. It just sucks both overall and for games in particular. It shuts itself down all the time for one thing, it is also 4 years old with a integrated SIs graphics. The keys are starting to fall off the keyboard and what not.

I am currently looking to get a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi 1546.

[Cerberus_e]

Kristian Joensen, on Aug 20 2006, 11:25 PM, said:

The keys are starting to fall off the keyboard and what not.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hahaha

I found a laptop with an nVidia Geforce go 7200 for 999 euros. How good is that graphics card? with what nVidia card for a normal PC can you compare it with? I don't need a very good graphics card (I already have a PC), I just want to have some perspective on what I'm buying. The internet isn't helpful, I searched on google but I can't find comparisions and benchmarks with other graphics cards for normal PCs.

[Micki!]

I'm not sure, but i don't think that graphics card is so bad...

But, i'm not sure...

[Cerberus_e]

That's a bit relative

[Hugo]

Cerberus_e, on Aug 21 2006, 02:42 PM, said:

That's a bit relative
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I play all my games on my Apple PowerBook. Because it's just a lot faster
then my old desktop PC. And I also play a lot of classic (pc) games on it.

But please note that if you start an old game, for example Duke Nukem 3D,
which I play alot. It doens't use the widescreen. It uses the normal res,
and the 'extra' spaces are just black bars.

[Cerberus_e]

What graphics card do you have in your laptop? and I take it you enabled the option for black borders? that it isn't something that goes automatically.
EDIT: Sorry, just realised you have an Apple notebook, so the situation is different for you.

[Hugo]

Cerberus_e, on Aug 23 2006, 09:14 PM, said:

What graphics card do you have in your laptop? and I take it you enabled the option for black borders? that it isn't something that goes automatically.
EDIT: Sorry, just realised you have an Apple notebook, so the situation is different for you.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's possible for windows too! goes automatically, and I don't know
how to undo the blackborders, simply because I never had a problem
with them! (so I never searched or tried to undo them) it works great

[Cerberus_e]

Like Kristian Joensen was the supposed to be the last person on Earth to get a blog, I was supposed to be the last person on earth to buy a laptop...



...and here am I posting with my laptop I got today!

I'm satisfied with the purchase. OK, it's by far not as good as a personal computer, but everything I wanted for a laptop is present... and even too much! For a decent price (much cheaper than another laptop I normally wanted, but was sold out, and they don't manufacture those anymore... but the laptop I found now is cheaper and better!)
I was lucky because this laptop was the last one they had in stock!

It's an Acer Aspire 5601A WLMi.
Intel Core Duo processor T2050 (1.6 GHz, 553 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2 Cache
15.4" WXGA LCD
ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 up to 512 MB HyperMemory (= 64 MB or 128 MB or something on the card, and if a game needs more it leeches of the system memory )
80 GB HDD (read: 70 GB)
1 GB DDR2 RAM
DVD-super bablabla
support for normal LANs, wireless LANs, modems, ...
Webcam + Microphone

And that for 999 euro! That's a good buy, the other laptops I found were 1099 (sold out) or 1199 (that's 200 euros more expensive for the same laptop basically, but it was an nVidia card!)
Like you know originally I wanted the black border trick and nVidia was supposed to be best for that, and not all ATI cards support that.
However, I didn't want to pay 200 euros to get black borders so I went with the laptop with this ATI card.
The good news is... the black border trick works fine! I just tried it with Doom 3
Man, this is my lucky day... and I even got a webcam and microphone, something I don't even need. They are just some extras you get for a cheaper price
Originally I'd have bought a laptop with nVidia card for 1099 euros without webcam and microphone, and at first I was sad it was sold out, so I had to pay 100 euros more for the laptop of 1199 euros with a weaker graphics card but with an useless webcam and micophone addition. But now I'm happy it was sold out otherwise I wouldn't have searched further, and I wouldn't have found this one, which is as good as the one for 1199 euros in that other shop, just 200 euros cheaper, and an ATI card instead (which isn't that bad now the black border trick works, I hope the card doesn't give me problems with drivers etc...).
As you can see, I'm really lucky... and this one was the last one in stock too!

EDIT: the biggest thing I will have to get used to is the lack of numpad key, and how the page up/down, home, insert, ... keys are thrown around at diferent places

[Kristian Joensen]

You could also buy a seperate numpad. Anyway congratulations with your purchase. I have also decided to purchase a laptop it is a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi 1546, the 2.0 Ghz version.

[Cerberus_e]

Kristian Joensen, on Sep 12 2006, 12:14 AM, said:

You could also buy a seperate numpad.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll probably plugin a keyboard.

[Cerberus_e]

This laptop has a cool little future... I can setup a partition that's hidden, until I press "open personal safety disk". Then I have to enter my password and then I can access this partition I can even choose from which partition this protected partition leeches (C or D or so) and how big it is. Currently it's set to 2048 MB.
It's great to put very personal files on it so no one else can access them when they use or steal my laptop.

[Cerberus_e]

My HD or ventilator (not sure which one of the two) is making an abnormal amount of noise

[Micki!]

Perhaps it needs to be cleaned..?
I recently got my PC cleaned, lot's of dust got removed...

Gan't say if that helped though, because it didn't makes noises before i cleaned it either...

[ZaphodB]

I just cleaned my PCs yesterday, had tons of dust, and 3 fans weren't turning (one on the PSU). I peeled the stickers off the fans, repacked them with grease, used my vacuum to get the fans to spin till they spun freely, reattached them, and they're running just fine now (usually do this about every 6 months).

[Cerberus_e]

I got my laptop back from repair... it doesn't make noise anymore BUT THEY REPLACED THE HD WITHOUT PUTTING MY PREVIOUS FILES BACK god damn it.