I'm looking to get a fairly cheap laptop that will be able to play STO, and I was wondering if anyone currently has something similar and what their experiences have been. The laptop isn't going to get a lot of use, so I'm having a hard time rationalizing spending more than $400-$500 on it. I just need something that will get the job done, even if the settings are on the low end, but can still get at least 20-30 FPS or so.
Since I'm unlikely to find a laptop with a dedicated video card in that price range I'm limited to integrated graphics. So the quandary is this: do I go with an AMD chip that has a slower CPU but faster IGP, or an Intel chip that has a faster CPU but slower IGP?
I'm not sure, but, without a dedicated graphics card youre going to have some heat issues.
My laptop is no powerhouse but it was semi gaming capable out of the box. 2 years old now so probably outdated already. But it get really hot after an hour and a half two hours.
And I'm using a cooling pad as well.
If the internal temp gets to a certain degree ill get dc automatically.
I play on low to med graphics settings (still very nice looking tho).
If I were you I'd look at refurbished alienware laptops.
was looking for the same thing a while back, my sister had a decent and fairly new laptop and offered to sell it 150 pound to me for it a while ago. sufficed to say, it can play any game i got but it tends to fill the air up with a lot of hot air if pushed. otherwise its been very useful to the needs. was searching for 2 years upto that point as i never had the money to get one brand new.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
I am currently playing STO on an old HP G72 with an Intel chipset and integrated graphics. Bought it used for US $100. Upgraded the RAM and added a cooling pad. Big change from my house 'puter but I wanted portability and this works nicely. It does get hot if I am not using the pad, which is USB powered. Also, I wanted a personal personal computer. Which I didn't have to share. I've never been very good at sharing, lol.
You'll need to spend some time thinking about just much you are willing to compromise on how complete you want the graphics to run. Half res is just too painful to use. It is misnamed as well. It should be called quarter resolution. I went to a Ground map and then adjusted each graphics setting one at a time until the screen just started to lag , then I backed off from that setting about ten percent.
So a non gaming laptop with integrated graphics will play STO just fine. As long as you are willing to adjust the graphics downward a bit. I was surprised at the amount of downward adjustments I made. They were a lot less than I expected.
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
Any new-ish laptio with an intel iSeries processor should be able to play it on low-mid graphics.
Aim for an i7, and, if you can either haswell or ivy-bridge (4th/3rd gen respectively), as these have the latest intel HD graphics on them that should be of benefit.
As for RAM, if the machine only comes with 2 or 4 GB, see if you can save some money and make it 8GB, and buy a cooling stand and that should be set (cooling stands approx $30, and the same again for an extra 4gb ram) so aim for a laptop for $400-440.
Personally, id go ASUS or Acer for the cash, as ive had appauling customer service from HP on both personal and business fronts.
Failing that, keep an eye out on the Dell outlet (there not too shabby now) and their twitter feed do some offers/voucher codes every now and again.
Good CPU speed, Intel 4000 graphics (which aren't too bad), only 4 GBs of RAM but has a second slot so it can be upgraded, gigabit ethernet (surprisingly something a lot of low end laptops don't seem to have, which I find very odd). Not crazy about the low resolution, but 1920x1080 laptops are much more expensive. No blu-ray drive which is another bummer, but meh, not necessary. Also no USB 3.0, which is also not necessary, but disappointing.
But for the price it's a steal, and should play the game fairly well on low/med settings I would think.
Comments
My laptop is no powerhouse but it was semi gaming capable out of the box. 2 years old now so probably outdated already. But it get really hot after an hour and a half two hours.
And I'm using a cooling pad as well.
If the internal temp gets to a certain degree ill get dc automatically.
I play on low to med graphics settings (still very nice looking tho).
If I were you I'd look at refurbished alienware laptops.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
You'll need to spend some time thinking about just much you are willing to compromise on how complete you want the graphics to run. Half res is just too painful to use. It is misnamed as well. It should be called quarter resolution. I went to a Ground map and then adjusted each graphics setting one at a time until the screen just started to lag , then I backed off from that setting about ten percent.
So a non gaming laptop with integrated graphics will play STO just fine. As long as you are willing to adjust the graphics downward a bit. I was surprised at the amount of downward adjustments I made. They were a lot less than I expected.
Aim for an i7, and, if you can either haswell or ivy-bridge (4th/3rd gen respectively), as these have the latest intel HD graphics on them that should be of benefit.
As for RAM, if the machine only comes with 2 or 4 GB, see if you can save some money and make it 8GB, and buy a cooling stand and that should be set (cooling stands approx $30, and the same again for an extra 4gb ram) so aim for a laptop for $400-440.
Personally, id go ASUS or Acer for the cash, as ive had appauling customer service from HP on both personal and business fronts.
Failing that, keep an eye out on the Dell outlet (there not too shabby now) and their twitter feed do some offers/voucher codes every now and again.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314243
Good CPU speed, Intel 4000 graphics (which aren't too bad), only 4 GBs of RAM but has a second slot so it can be upgraded, gigabit ethernet (surprisingly something a lot of low end laptops don't seem to have, which I find very odd). Not crazy about the low resolution, but 1920x1080 laptops are much more expensive. No blu-ray drive which is another bummer, but meh, not necessary. Also no USB 3.0, which is also not necessary, but disappointing.
But for the price it's a steal, and should play the game fairly well on low/med settings I would think.