Sawdbuster Posted September 29, 2014 Report Share Posted September 29, 2014 Hey guys, I haven't been around here in a while, mainly because my laptop's disc drive burnt before I put Emergency on it. So I've been playing like GTA SA from steam, and honestly that's it. Now that computer is dying, slowly but it's dying. And I'm looking on getting a new one. Ideally I'd like another laptop, my family moves around a lot during the summer and winter, so I like the mobility. I'd like something small, so I'm looking at an Asus Netbook, I'll leave the link below. I looked over the specs, but me and my little knowledge about the mechanics of computers are still uncertain if this can run what I want it to run. Stuff I'd like it to run: (Really want with Stars)-Emergency 4*-Emergency 5*-GTA SA* -SAPD:FR v2.5 (http://www.gtagarage.com/mods/show.php?id=18613) -iCEnhancer V3 (http://www.gtagarage.com/mods/show.php?id=18916) Would be nice to maintain this level from my old dell latitude -Multitheft auto-Counter Strike GO I know finding a small laptop would be a stretch to run these games. But then again, these are some old games and I can run them all off my cell phone now. If anyone with any tech knowledge could help me out, that's be great. I'd just like to stay with 11.6" screen. Also, this would be the disk drive to be using to get everything: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136261 If I'm a complete idiot, could you help me out? I'm just assuming because Emergency is pretty low maintenance and GTA SA is pretty outdated and low too, even though sometimes it has a hard time rendering on my current laptop, which is just giving up on itself lately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terrow Posted September 30, 2014 Report Share Posted September 30, 2014 Emergency is not low maintenance. It takes a lot more to run the emergency games then GTA SA. I can play GTA SA at 130 FPS (With mods) and EM4 at 10 FPS (without mods) on my newest laptop (AMD A4-Quad Core / 8GB Ram). You'll probably shell out 800+ if you want to play those games comfortably and have that small of a laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyPI Posted September 30, 2014 Report Share Posted September 30, 2014 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-750gb-hard-drive-gray/5661041.p?id=1219146761966&skuId=5661041&st=categoryid$pcmcat247400050000&cp=1&lp=3 That above would be my suggestion to comfortably play most games well enough, esp em4 (which is demanding as stated above) without a high cost. IF you cannot afford a legit video card, be forewarned you will have to reduce graphical settings and expect to experience performance loss with an intel or amd integrated chipset. Getting a computer with an integrated chipset will reduce the price from around 750 to around 550usd for a decent little computer. A "netbook" is not suitable for gaming at all, they have limited power and ram specifically because they were designed to surf the web, after you take into account the OS requirements that doesnt leave much for the programs you wish to run. A lower end notebook (I have a satellite) can play most games well, but the AMD chipset hates shadows/dynamic lighting and partcle effects. EM4 makes heavy use of both so it is not ideal for the game at all. The Satellite series from toshiba, the HP notebooks, the dells (I had an XPS) arent bad computers, but without a video card, either Nvidia or ATI that are not integrated, gaming is rather tough to do on a notebook. My notebook that was very good at gaming came in at a cost of around 1k usd but could play GTAIV as well as, if not better than most desktops on the market. You do get what you pay for, and if you're going to go cheap you have to either look into refurbished, or lesser brands for a decent computer that has the non-integrated chipset. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawdbuster Posted September 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2014 So what if I drop the GTA SA and just want to run Emergency 3-5? EDIT: I never linked the laptop I was looking at....... here it is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terrow Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 So what if I drop the GTA SA and just want to run Emergency 3-5? EDIT: I never linked the laptop I was looking at....... here it isTough to say, I have a 1.5 Ghz processor and it lags really bad for me on just emergency 4. I doubt that will be able to run emergency 5 at all. It can play GTA SA, remember the PS2 could play GTA SA so pretty almost any laptop out there can play it. Go look at the specifications for the games you want to play and compare them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyPI Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 The asus machine is not at all suited to gaming in any way what so ever. It apparently has 1 gig of memory that must be able to be used by the OS (win8) and the video card because it's an intel integrated graphics card. So that won't leave much memory for applications and the video card to run. You really have to if you can only afford an integrated chipset look for a machine that has 4+ gb of ram, that would be available to the machine and it's OS, the applications you run, and the graphics card too.. Ideal for gaming is a standalone graphics card but on average the price jumps 250-300 for that feature alone. Some examples of decent cheaper notebooks (note most of these would require settings lowered):http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/463717/HP-Pavilion-TouchSmart-Laptop-Computer-With/http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/473950/Toshiba-Satellite-L55-Laptop-Computer-With/http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/703765/Dell-Inspiron-15-Laptop-Computer-With/(^NO DVD/CD Drive)http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/998543/Dell-Inspiron-M531R-i5335-2684sLV-Laptop/ For older games all of these will work on med to low settings, games with alot of smoke and dynamic lighting will struggle unless you turn off those settings. It's kind of hit and miss on these integrated chipsets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawdbuster Posted October 1, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 Yeah I know it's not suited for gaming, this wouldn't be a gaming computer, I'd use it for school, videos, the internet, itunes, writing, gta v editor, etc. I just wanted to know If I could pop emergency on there too for shits and giggles. This would be in no way a gaming computer, but I would at least want one to run emergency (3-5) on decent settings. I'm not big into games, but I'd like to have those at my disposal. I also need to look at this market because of the money, the cheaper the better. Thanks for the input and seriously thanks for the research for me. EDIT: Does anyone know the specs for Em5 anyways? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicalByte Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 Even if the computer's main use is not geared towards gaming, when you DO game, it's not going to run that well (if at all) on those specs. The latest spec requirements I've seen for Emergency 5 are here: http://www.emergency-forum.de/board1-news/board44-newstime/59327-emergency-5-systemvoraussetzungen/Based on those (assuming they're final), Emergency 5 would not be able to run on the laptop you're suggesting, based on the graphics capabilities alone. If you can go up in screen size a little, you might take a look at a laptop like this one: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9152163I had a laptop with less specs than that one, and it was able to run Emergency 4 (and most) mods fairly decently. Huge fires/lots of particles weren't nice to it, but it still ran. This laptop is technically better than what I had though, so it might not have any problem there. It may not be able to handle Em5, but it should be able to run Emergency 4 fairly well. No guarantees, but that's my take on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawdbuster Posted October 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 Yeah, I hate to say it, but I really don't want to go up on the screen size. I have a chromebook for school now and its very slick to have a small computer. I'll keep looking, but yeah I'm really not looking for anything bigger for convenience's sake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyPI Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 Unfortunately when you're in netbook territory you usually just have enough resources to run light apps/movies and browse the web, the suggestions I gave you are more in line with a weaker multimedia computer that can do older games fairly decent. I understand size constraints being an issue, imo a 15 inch screen isnt too big to where it's not portable in a proper case anyway. My computer is a satellite, it only weighs around 5 pounds and at 15 inch screen is rather portable without much effort.. Just have to watch mine b/c it's a touch screen (they can be broken with alot less force than a normal screen). You can pickup a decent normal low-end notebook around 350-500 bucks that can do some gaming (even though that's not what you use it for most). Realize that video cards are really the bread and butter of gaming, especially on older games that don't have a great deal of graphical customization options. The less you can alter in the settings, the less quality you can tweak for your particular card's weaknesses. Having a 3 ghz processor but a weak video card will result in much the same performance as a much slower/weaker machine. In your price point you're pretty much going to get an integrated chipset from any decent brand, but some of them are able to do things like em4 fairly well. My integrated chip lets me play games like STALKER so that goes to show you that they arent too bad sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawdbuster Posted October 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 Yeah, I mean other than wanting to get back into Emergency, I am not a gamer at all. I have San Andreas on my family's desktop if I want it. And I just figured out how to change models inn GTA V on the ps3, so I'm good with other games for a while. But yeah, I know I'd need a video card, what if it was an external one? And I'm looking @ 15" screens now too, but I'd really like to exhaust all 11" options if it's possible And again thanks for the input, I didn't figure I'd get so much assistance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyPI Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 You really have exhausted the 11" options I'm sorry to say, most of those class of computers are pretty much just netbooks, meaning can run the OS and do some light apps like surf the web, outside of that they lack the power (in some cases the actual software) to do much else. They are mostly meant as a cheap option to tote around for travel and on-the-go surfing ability.. That way you aint losing a 1k investment if someone damages it while traveling or steals it. In the 15 inch realm you have alot more options as to what you want/need. Figure at the lower price points you will end up with either an Intel or AMD video card depending on the processor brand, in those cases more ram is a good thing since the card uses it instead of having its own dedicated ram available. Odds are tall that you'd find an ATI or Nvidia card within a notebook at under 500 new. In the end if all you want to do is play EM4 only and don't mind having reduced settings on the game, any 400ish laptop would suffice except on the most demanding mods. High particles (smoke) and dynamic lights/shadows are a problem for the intel/amd chipsets for the most part. Cheaper end notebooks you can get one as low as 350-400, a decent little one at around 500. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawdbuster Posted October 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 yeah, and after seeing this topic, I'm gonna move up and keep browsing. Idk, I need to browse and go over the options, including the ones y'all posted (thanks again btw), and figure it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmC-Unit Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 Glad to see old friendly faces. Welcome back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawdbuster Posted October 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2014 Good to be back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
