What do I need to play ?

My OS is vista home premium 32 bit , 2GB Ram, 120 GB Hard Drive, Dual
Layer 8x DVD Burner. I'm considering to buy some pc games, particularly
Windows DVD games such as Crysis, Modern Warfare , Flight Sim. etc.
Being my first time for pc games, I'm not sure if my laptop has got
enough to play those games. I heard that it depends on my video card(?)
or my graphic card(?), and I have no idea where and how to look that
infos up. I have 65.3 GB left on C: , and 9.35 GB left on my D: drive.
Please explain to me what I need, if any , so I can upgrade my system
for the games. ALSO, please recommend a controller best for the games.
I'd like to use it as close as I did on my PS2( I know it's not the
same, and I'll still have to use the keyboard.) Thank you.


--
davidjchuang

"davidjchuang" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> My OS is vista home premium 32 bit , 2GB Ram, 120 GB Hard Drive, Dual
> Layer 8x DVD Burner. I'm considering to buy some pc games, particularly
> Windows DVD games such as Crysis, Modern Warfare , Flight Sim. etc.
> Being my first time for pc games, I'm not sure if my laptop has got
> enough to play those games. I heard that it depends on my video card(?)
> or my graphic card(?), and I have no idea where and how to look that
> infos up. I have 65.3 GB left on C: , and 9.35 GB left on my D: drive.
> Please explain to me what I need, if any , so I can upgrade my system
> for the games. ALSO, please recommend a controller best for the games.
> I'd like to use it as close as I did on my PS2( I know it's not the
> same, and I'll still have to use the keyboard.) Thank you.

Crysis on a laptop? Hmmm I'd re-think David, unless you have the dogs
danglies of laptops then it really will be a poor gaming experience, I have
said this so many times, if you want to game then buy a gaming machine and a
lapyop isn't that..I know this isn't the answer you are looking for but
hey...
--
VRG Scotty

www.vistareadygames.com
Register, it's free, and use the 'search for solution' tab for any problems

Your laptop probably doesn't have the horsepower to play Crysis, even at
poor settings.

However, to find out what video card you have you can right click the
desktop, go to Personalize. Click Display Settings, and it should say what
monitor and what video card you are running.

--

Dustin Harper

http://www.vistarip.com | Vista Resource & Information Page


"davidjchuang" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> My OS is vista home premium 32 bit , 2GB Ram, 120 GB Hard Drive, Dual
> Layer 8x DVD Burner. I'm considering to buy some pc games, particularly
> Windows DVD games such as Crysis, Modern Warfare , Flight Sim. etc.
> Being my first time for pc games, I'm not sure if my laptop has got
> enough to play those games. I heard that it depends on my video card(?)
> or my graphic card(?), and I have no idea where and how to look that
> infos up. I have 65.3 GB left on C: , and 9.35 GB left on my D: drive.
> Please explain to me what I need, if any , so I can upgrade my system
> for the games. ALSO, please recommend a controller best for the games.
> I'd like to use it as close as I did on my PS2( I know it's not the
> same, and I'll still have to use the keyboard.) Thank you.
>
>
> --
> davidjchuang

Mr. Dustin Harper, Questions :
1. Do you mean a LAPTOP won't have enough power, but a desktop might ?
2. The Display Settings are as follow :
Chip type Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
DAC tpe Internal
Adapyer String Mobile Intel(R) GMA x 3100
BIO Information Intel Video BIO
Total available Graphics Memory 359 MB
Dedicated Video Memory 0
System Video Memory 128 MB
Share System Memory 231 MB
Please tell me what those mean in layman language, if you can. Thank
you.


--
davidjchuang

Yes, that laptop won't run many games. The video card just isn't powerful
enough.

And yes, a desktop (depending on the video card) would be enough to play
those games. And the video card is upgradable (as is the CPU) on a desktop,
which makes it easier to get where you need to meet system requirements. A
laptop is pretty much set when you buy it as to the hardware specs and is
somewhat not upgradeable.

The second part means that the video card is an Intel video card (onboard to
the motherboard/chipset) and has 128 MB of video RAM, and is using 231 MB of
system RAM.

--

Dustin Harper

http://www.vistarip.com | Vista Resource & Information Page


"davidjchuang" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Mr. Dustin Harper, Questions :
> 1. Do you mean a LAPTOP won't have enough power, but a desktop might ?
> 2. The Display Settings are as follow :
> Chip type Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
> DAC tpe Internal
> Adapyer String Mobile Intel(R) GMA x 3100
> BIO Information Intel Video BIO
> Total available Graphics Memory 359 MB
> Dedicated Video Memory 0
> System Video Memory 128 MB
> Share System Memory 231 MB
> Please tell me what those mean in layman language, if you can. Thank
> you.
>
>
> --
> davidjchuang

Thank you for the explanation, Mr Harper. Should have bought a deskto
with 500GB dard drive, 3GB Ram. Maybe $100 more. Oh well ! Thank yo
anyway, you are most helpful

--
davidjchuang

"davidjchuang" <> wrote in message news:...
>
> Mr. Dustin Harper, Questions :
> 1. Do you mean a LAPTOP won't have enough power, but a desktop might ?
> 2. The Display Settings are as follow :
> Chip type Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
> DAC tpe Internal
> Adapyer String Mobile Intel(R) GMA x 3100
> BIO Information Intel Video BIO
> Total available Graphics Memory 359 MB
> Dedicated Video Memory 0
> System Video Memory 128 MB
> Share System Memory 231 MB
> Please tell me what those mean in layman language, if you can. Thank
> you.

This is what we call a "Business" Laptop, that is to say it's designed for work, not for play.

That's not to say you can't play casual games on it like Sudoku, Solitaire, etc. That should be no problem, but when you get into complex games like Quake 4, Half-Life 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2, World in Conflict, etc. You'll have to set the graphic settings as low as they will go and even then your experience will be less than stellar.

I won't even mention some of the newer games like Crysis, Call of Duty 4, Gears of War. Those games are even more recent and really need some decent horsepower to enjoy.

As everyone has said here, good luck.

I'll add that there are a TON of great games out there that'll run ok on your system and because they aren't really dependant on stuff like FRAMES PER SECOND, you can usually get a good gaming experience, even on a mid-range system.

The Sims 2 - In big houses the game will slow down, but it slows down on everyone's system, and it's a fun game on the road. (Try Woohoo'ing at a mile up)

Any Sid Mieyers game (Civilization, Alpha Centauri, Railroads, SimGolf, Pirates) - Sid makes some of the best strategy/Tycoon games out there. His tycoon games are so awesome, he doesn't even have to use the word Tycoon, he just slaps his name on the box. Remember, if the game has the word Tycoon in the title, it sucks. If it had Sid Mieyers (That's not how you spell his last name) in the title, it's awesome. Beware, some Civilization titles suck, Civ 4 is pretty amazing.

World of Warcraft - Runs on anything, including business notebooks.

Hope that helps a bit, If you bought this notebook with gaming in mind, or you were sold the notebook with the impression that you could play Crysis on it, get your money back.

There are gaming notebooks, most of them start around $2000, if you want one, talk to Dell, or Toshiba, they both have decent gaming notebooks. Gateway's notebooks kind of suck, imo.

-A.

Andy, thank you for the information. I'll look for those Sid Meier
games. No, I didn't buy the laptop with games in mind, just being abl
to take it anywhere was irresistible at the time. I have a PS2 gam
console but it's getting obsolete, which is why I thought about p
games. I didn't know what I was doing, as the last time I own a compute
was 18 yrs. ago when 128K RAM was a WOW! I had to throw the MS DOS awa
and learn/relearn everything. Well maybe Xbox 360 is on the wish list
Thanks again

--
davidjchuang

"davidjchuang" <> wrote in message news:...
>
> Andy, thank you for the information. I'll look for those Sid Meiers
> games. No, I didn't buy the laptop with games in mind, just being able
> to take it anywhere was irresistible at the time. I have a PS2 game
> console but it's getting obsolete, which is why I thought about pc
> games. I didn't know what I was doing, as the last time I own a computer
> was 18 yrs. ago when 128K RAM was a WOW! I had to throw the MS DOS away
> and learn/relearn everything. Well maybe Xbox 360 is on the wish list.
> Thanks again.

No sweat, My first system was an Atari 800 with 16k ram (later upgraded to 256k by soldering chips onto custom ram boards), I gamed the hell out of that system. I still have it. Added an SD card to it, my entire Atari 8-bit software library fits on one 1gig SD ram card. The system is wearing out though, I wish someone out there would start a company that's dedicated to re-making old computers. I'd give anything for a brand new Atari ST computer that hasn't been hacked to hell.

Yeah, Sid Meiers, thanks for the spelling lesson, makes games that you'll be sitting there, going, "OK, one more turn" for like 300 turns, so be careful they can suck you through a time vortex if you don't keep a clock close by.

-A.

"Andy [YaYa]" <> wrote in message
news:24D22C52-E5DA-4574-903F-...

>No sweat, My first system was an Atari 800 with 16k ram (later upgraded to
>256k by >soldering chips onto custom ram boards), I gamed the hell out of
>that system. I still >have it. Added an SD card to it, my entire Atari
>8-bit software library fits on one 1gig >SD ram card. The system is wearing
>out though, I wish someone out there would >start a company that's
>dedicated to re-making old computers. I'd give anything for a >brand new
>Atari ST computer that hasn't been hacked to hell.

hehe you'd hate it Andy, I had a play with an old ST that hasn't been
modded in any way and it was crap, infact it was beyond crap, found myself
playing and old snooker game I loved, jeez how I hated it, also had a play
with a ZX81(first machine I had) at work, man I love the way technology has
flown outta the dark ages. Shame we're gonna be dead when the really neat
stuff comes out in the future
--
Scotty©