I'm looking for a recommendation to buy a laptop so I can run FS, 2004 and up while I'm on the road flying a B1900, but under $1,000.
Printable View
I'm looking for a recommendation to buy a laptop so I can run FS, 2004 and up while I'm on the road flying a B1900, but under $1,000.
Some of the higher-end Core i5 laptops are quite nice for gaming. The budget is going to be a major limiter. You need something with a decent mobile video chipset, not just crappy Intel graphics. Both ATI and nVidia make good mobile video chipsets these days.
Look at Toshiba's new range - there's some nice machines in that - and (although it carries a price premium) Sony Vaio. I have a newer Vaio with Core i7 and while it would likely be outside your price range, they do some Core i5 machines with serious grunt. If going Intel (and you probably should do, IMHO, at the moment), look for the Turbo range as a guide. Most of the mobile CPUs clock at relatively low speeds (<2GHz) unloaded, but they can ramp up to serious speed when loaded on a single core, as with FS. For example, mine goes from 1.8GHz stock to 2.93GHz turbo on a single core. Quite a jump.
Alternatively, Dell have some nice models in the XPS range. They get a lot of stick from some quarters, and they're not the most pretty machines out there, but you can configure them to suit your power needs and the price is pretty good if you buy direct. If you call them they can probably even get rid of the horrible 'artistic' designs they put on the lid for a nice plain one ;)
Failing that, look at second-hand stuff on eBay etc. You might pick up a previous-generation big beast laptop for less than your budget but still in great condition. Core2 mobile chips at 2.5GHz+ should run FS pretty well, provided again you have a decent graphics chipset.
Even my older Vaio runs FS2004 pretty well, and it's got a Core Duo (basically a mobile Pentium-D) at 1.8GHz coupled with decent nVidia graphics. I wouldn't want to run FSX on it - it would be clunky - but FS9 run like a dream.
Hope any of that helps.
NH
I had a MacBook which I used BootCamp to dual boot with windows XP. The Macbook had a 2ghz Core2Duo cpu and 2gb of Ram. It ran fs2004 'better' on the macbook than any other pc i've seen run it before. The graphics are amazing, quick and with high frame rates. I wouldn't rule out a macbook for FS use at all. You can get a 2nd hand Macbook quite cheap these days, plus they hold their value until the day you sell it, and these little macs wont ever breakdown on ya! I had mine for 2 years without a single problem and with 4 hours of battery life on a single charge!
Just my 2 cents!