Laptop for linux gaming

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ardnut · Post by **ardnut** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 8:44 am

I live in the UK, I'm thinking of buying a new laptop.

Any suggestions on a laptop (preferably under £800) that works well with linux and has a decent nvidia card so I can use it for gaming?

ChojinDSL · Post by **ChojinDSL** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 10:37 am

Yeah, uh, get a laptop that works with linux and has an nvidia gfx card.

Just kidding.
Actually, when it comes to laptop and linux support, it really comes down to the components.
In particular things that might cause trouble are integrated modem, lan, wlan adaptors. In laptops, most integrated modems are winmodems, which range from minimal fuss installation to "are you frickin' kidding me?".

Same could be for wlan and lan. If you can, try and find out exactly which components a certain laptop has before you decide to buy.
Some pages on the net might help you in that respect.
Generally just go to google and search for "linux laptop" and you should find some pages with good references.

Off the top off my head, I think I recall that someone said that ibm thinkpads are good for linux. But I think that in the end it really depends on the particular model, regardless which vendor.

ardnut · Post by **ardnut** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 12:25 pm

I've looked around and supprisingly I'm finding it difficult to find a decently priced laptop that has a nvidia card it in. So far most either have ati cards or onboard graphics.

Arker · Post by **Arker** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 12:55 pm

Avoid the "shared video memory" that is common with laptops, and avoid Celeron type chips that are also common. I have a laptop with both of these "features" and it has pitiful performance compared to my desktop that has half the power according to the numbers on the side of the box.

Even compiling with it is a dog. But it works great (all features) with Linux. It's an HP Pavilion ze5610ca.

I'm not sure a laptop dedicated to gaming is realistic given what is available, depending on what games you want to play. Laptops aren't typically made with "gaming specs" for the most part due to heat and power consumption issues I presume. Not to mention cheap manufacturers. As far as components are concerned, it was difficult to determine exactly what came in this HP since HP doesn't publish detailed specs that I could find. Lots of pages say "256MB RAM" and "ATI 3D Graphics", but that's as detailed as they got. I needed to install Linux and do an lspci to decipher what I had.

Cheers,
~djc

wolf31o2 · Post by **wolf31o2** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 6:30 pm

Personally, I went with an older model Dell machine. I picked up the Dell Latitude C840, with a 64MB nVidia GeForce4 440 Go in it and 1GB of RAM. It is a 2.4 P4 machine and pretty decent for gaming. I can even run Doom 3 on it. I got it for about $1100US, so it fits in your budget, too. The Latitude 840 is also sold under the Inspiron name as the Inspiron 8200.

ardnut · Post by **ardnut** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 7:06 pm

wolf31o2 wrote:Personally, I went with an older model Dell machine. I picked up the Dell Latitude C840, with a 64MB nVidia GeForce4 440 Go in it and 1GB of RAM. It is a 2.4 P4 machine and pretty decent for gaming. I can even run Doom 3 on it. I got it for about $1100US, so it fits in your budget, too. The Latitude 840 is also sold under the Inspiron name as the Inspiron 8200.

ok thanks, I'll have a look at the dell range.

PZoned · Post by **PZoned** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 12:32 am

is it true that most HP/Compaq laptops have poor linux acpi support and causes the battery life to be really short?

Need4Speed · Post by **Need4Speed** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 3:20 am

I too will be soon looking for a laptop for linux + a little gaming. It seems that ATI dominates mobile graphics, and nvidia cards are only found in large bulky notebooks. Since my laptop will be for college I want something small and thin, but so far haven't been able to find anything.

Nvidia's mobile 6800 looks VERY nice, it is based on a small removable card which would allow a user to use any video card they wan with their laptop, and of course has amazing performance!

but currently it is only in a few expensive, large desktop replacement notebooks

dawizman · Post by **dawizman** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 4:08 am

Well, I quite happy with my Dell 600m. Although it has an ATI radeon 9000 in it, I am able to use xorgs 3D acceleration and can still play most games via cedega, albiet at reduced visual settings because the card is not the greatest.

Malek · Post by **Malek** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 7:16 pm

PZoned wrote:is it true that most HP/Compaq laptops have poor linux acpi support and causes the battery life to be really short?

I too would like to know this as I've been constantly looking at this NVidiaFX Go Laptop by HP that has dropped about 500 dollars in the past few months.

And as far as I know concerning Laptops with NVidia Cards... HP, Sony, and sometimes Alienware is they're in season for sure. I can't confirm the rest.

Angrybob · Post by **Angrybob** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 11:55 pm

I got myself a dell inspiron 8600 recently for about £970 I think... great computer, everything is supported under linux. I bought it on purpose becuase it has an nvidia FX 5200Go

I've even got the silly multimedia keys setup to do volume changing and forward/backward in xmms

I didn't think it was going to be that good but now I've stopped using my desktop totally, even completed halflife2 on it when that came out