Lappy for WoW

[c_olsen73]

Sorry to clog up a thread with a mindless question like mine, but this forum community is the best place I can turn for help with this kind of issue.

I'm looking into buying a use Compaq Presario v2000. Will this compy run World of Warcraft with relative ease? I'm going to be stuck behind a desk for hours at a time as a resident assistant at my college, so I'll need something to do. My choices include either playing Wow or learning how to knit from one of my buddies. I digress. Will I be able to enjoy my WoW experience with this compy?

(edit) Specs are as follows

• 1.6 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile processor
• 60 Gig hard drive
• 14" widescreen XGA display
• DVD +/- RW
• integrated memory card reader (SD•MS/Pro•MMC•SM•XD)
• internal Broadcom 54g 802.11 b/g WLAN
• 2 USB 2.0 Ports (one on each side)
• VGA-out
• S-Video-out
• 10/100 Ethernet LAN
• Integrated 56K Modem
• PC Card Slot
• Microphone-in
• Headphone-out
• Altec Lansing Speakers

[Tekraen]

Sorry to clog up a thread with a mindless question like mine, but this forum community is the best place I can turn for help with this kind of issue.

I'm looking into buying a use Compaq Presario v2000. Will this compy run World of Warcraft with relative ease? I'm going to be stuck behind a desk for hours at a time as a resident assistant at my college, so I'll need something to do. My choices include either playing Wow or learning how to knit from one of my buddies. I digress. Will I be able to enjoy my WoW experience with this compy?

(edit) Specs are as follows

• 1.6 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile processor
• 60 Gig hard drive
• 14" widescreen XGA display
• DVD +/- RW
• integrated memory card reader (SD•MS/Pro•MMC•SM•XD)
• internal Broadcom 54g 802.11 b/g WLAN
• 2 USB 2.0 Ports (one on each side)
• VGA-out
• S-Video-out
• 10/100 Ethernet LAN
• Integrated 56K Modem
• PC Card Slot
• Microphone-in
• Headphone-out
• Altec Lansing Speakers

Looks like it ought to. What're the specs on the RAM and the video card? I'd also suggest getting a USB mouse to use with it.

[Tormsskull]

Will I be able to enjoy my WoW experience with this compy?


I can go by my experience, which is with my laptop (Acer 1.6 (I think) Core Duo, 512 Ram/shared video card) that WOW is very choppy. Especially when in any of the major towns. I have a feeling if I upgraded to 1k RAM I might be alright, so if you don't have the 1k RAM that's what I'd advise.

[Tekraen]

I run a gig of ram on my home system and that does really help. Before I'd upgraded, a large concentration of people would turn it into a teleportation exercise.

[c_olsen73]

The specs I posted are all I know about the compy. From what I can tell, I'm not going to like it much either....

Does anyone have suggestions as to other laptops I might look into? Keep in mind that I'm a poor college kid, so budget will be very tight!

[Kraggi]

If you want a lappy in wow, just get a female night elf to /dance.

....I'm sorry. I had no choice. Eastasia has always been at war with Oceania.

[Erloas]

Unfortunately no one can really say how it will run since you didn't include the specs for the video card or the RAM, the two most important aspects of how well WoW will run.

It really depends on how tight of a budget you are on. For some people a tight budget for a PC is $300, for others its $600 and for others its $1500.

512MB RAM will run WoW but its not going to do it well. I would recommend at least 1GB (which is probably all you are going to find on a tight budget anyway).
And for the video card anything that isn't an integrated video card should do fine. The ATI Mobility or Nvidia GO series of cards should be fine (though there is a wide range of power available in either series, at least they aren't integrated). If you have to get one where the video memory is shared with system memory (which hurts performance but is done a lot in low end systems) then make sure you get 1GB of memory. If it has dedicated memory then you can get by with 512MB of system memory (though I still recommend more if your budget permites).

WoW will run on a lot of systems, and it will run on less then what I recommended, but its not going to run well. If you can post links to specific laptops you are looking at then we can tell you a bit more. A general price range would be nice too.

[c_olsen73]

In response to budget and other concerns...

I don't want to spend more than $1000. I don't, in fact, have that to spend, but maybe Christmas will be good to me. I'd like a PC, rather than an Apple, and the only real requirements are a good graphics card and a decent amount of RAM. Other than that, everything is completely open.

[Archonic Energy]

I can go by my experience, which is with my laptop (Acer 1.6 (I think) Core Duo, 512 Ram/shared video card) that WOW is very choppy. Especially when in any of the major towns. I have a feeling if I upgraded to 1k RAM I might be alright, so if you don't have the 1k RAM that's what I'd advise.
Emphasis mine.

*laughs*
*laughs some more*
*catches breath*
*laughs even more*
sorry i just found that funny

on subject: Erloas seems to have covered the basics there,
without knowing the specs for the Graphics controller or the RAM then it's hard to say how well it'll work.
if it has intergrated graphics with shared RAM then make sureyou have more than 1GB of Ram as some of this will be used by the Video controler as VRAM,
infact i'd go so far as to say stay away from anything with an intergrated video card. From personal experiance i can say that the NvidaGO series are just as good as their "Normal" graphics cards (Excluding the top end stuff naturally)

let me look around for laptops for $1000 or less that'll see you through...
*searches internet*

Alienware Area51 m5550 @ $999 (http://www.alienware.com/configurator_pages/area-51_m5550.aspx?syscode=PC-LT-AREA51M5550-R3&subcode=SKU-DEFAULT)

Dell Vostro 1400 @ $699 (http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=bqdwj7a&s=bsd)

[Tekraen]

If you want a lappy in wow, just get a female night elf to /dance.

....I'm sorry. I had no choice. Eastasia has always been at war with Oceania.

*summons the guards, points to Kraggi*

Room 101.

Also, don't knock the iBooks. The one I've got is around two years old and runs WoW just fine. It's a handmedown from the missus; I bought her a Macbook for Christmas.

[Tormsskull]

Emphasis mine.

*laughs*
*laughs some more*
*catches breath*
*laughs even more*
sorry i just found that funny


Bah. 1000 megabytes :smalltongue:

[Archonic Energy]

Bah. 1000 megabytes :smalltongue:

i knew what you meant... it's what you SAID i laughed at!
"1K"
*smirks*

[valadil]

Can you find out if there's any sort of video card, or was it not listed because it's integrated. If it's the latter, I wouldn't expect the machine to run WoW very well if at all.

This is more of a personal bias, but I can't recommend buying a Compaq or HP computer. At all. Ever. They have a bad habit of dying a couple hours after the warranty expires, and their tech support is downright pathetic. A used Compaq is especially bad since the warranty is probably already gone.

[c_olsen73]

Thanks Archonic Energy. That Dell site you gave me seems to be the way for me to go. Wish me luck!

[Archonic Energy]

Thanks Archonic Energy. That Dell site you gave me seems to be the way for me to go. Wish me luck!

Luck 10 char min

[Crispy Dave]

thanks for the link archonic

i need a laptop under $500 that can play wow it also neeeds to not be heavy ive seen some from a couple brands at that price i saw one at circut city for 350$ thats an acer and i think it will work but im not sure of the requirments for wow

[Archonic Energy]

if any owners of WOW can post the minimum specs i'll try to find as cheap a lappie as i can for C.Dave

as for the $350 lappie... i'd bet MY laptop on the fact that it'll have an intergrated graphics card with shared memory!

i'll see what i can find with as low a price as i can...

[nastyman]

as i recall from when i bought my laptop which is a slightly upgraded version of the one you have (mine is the compaq v6000) the v2000 has a total garbage video. in fact the v6000 is barely passable with an nvidia 6000 series GO. but the graphics is upgradable. memory for it is actually getting pretty cheap. and its very good on power ( mine is not good on batteries because its WS)


i got mine for around 900 dollars because i found a good deal. but the v2000 is so outdated if you pay more than 600 for it your getting ripped off. keep looking for a better piece of tech.

[Crispy Dave]

I also looked around and saw a dell for 500 at the cheapest im sure it will run it but i want at least a little smooth im not sure but some friends of mine probly have one sitting around that i could get a good deal on

Also if you like taking risks try ebay i cant but you can find a decent pc for about $100 if you bid good

[Jothki]

I've run WoW fine on a laptop with 512k RAM. It lagged when first walking into denser cities, but that's really not a major problem. Worst case, you can probably just turn down some graphics settings.

If you're having difficultly figuring out what kind of graphics card a particular laptop has, don't even dream of using it for gaming.

[Archonic Energy]

I've run WoW fine

i'll ask again...

what are the minimum / recomended specifications?

thanking you in advance

AE

[Mattarias, King.]

I just got a Dell latitude D630 and am planning to install WoW on it later today, and the trial version diskette (damned blizzard being tricksy.. can't use burning crusade with this thing..) gives the specs as:

(aaagh, my poor bespectacled eyes, tiny font..)


Windows 2000/XP, intel pentium III 800 MHz or AMD athlon 800 MHz
512 RAM
32 MB 3d graphics card with hardware transform and lighting, such as NVIDIA GeForce 2 class card or above
directX 9.0c (included) and latest video drivers
6.0 GB available HD space
4x DVD-ROM drive
Broadband internet connection

X.x; now if you'll excuse me, my eyes are bleeding..