2 Questions about potential laptop.

1. Scale of 1-10, how well would this play games?

Processor Brand Intel® Core(TM)2 Duo Mobile
Processor Speed 2.0GHz
Display Type WSXGA+ widescreen TFT-LCD with ColorShine technology (1680 x 1050)
Screen Size 15.4"
System Bus 667MHz
Cache Memory 4MB on die Level 2
System Memory (RAM) 2gb
Type of Memory (RAM) PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive Type SATA (5400 rpm)
Hard Drive Size 160GB
Optical Drive DVD±RW/CD-RW
LightScribe Compatibility No
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce Go 7700
Video Memory 512MB (dedicated)
MPEG Yes
Modem 56 Kbps* ITU V.92 *Capable of receiving 56 Kbps downloads. However, current regulations limit download speed to 53 Kbps.
Networking Built-in 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)
Wireless Networking Built-in wireless networking (802.11a/b/g); Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
Audio Intel® High Definition Audio
Speakers Built-in
PCMCIA Slots 1 Type II



2. Can I play GW and other games on Windows Vista?

I'd say go with it, a GeForce Go 7700 is more than enough for GW i'd give it something around 7 or 8 out of 10. Personally, i have a Pentium M 1.63GHz, 512MB ram, and a GeForce Go 6600 128mb, and i get around 40 fps in towns and 50 to 60fps in explorable areas so yeah it'll run GW just fine. If you can get a 7200 rpm HD, go with it though it should somewhat improve performance.

You can play those games under windows vista, like you would play them under windows xp, using dx9.

1) I'd give that setup a 7 for gaming, i.e. not amazing but solid.
2) Yes, but I've heard about a lot of driver issues in Vista so be warned that you might have some problems early on as they are worked out.

I would say 7-7.5 I would like to know how much you are looking to spend and all. If you are interested I can suggest a couple of good forums strictly for laptops. Just send me a pm and I will let you knwo about them.

I'd break from the crowd here and give it an 8.5. By comparison, here's the stats on the Compaq NX9420 laptop that I use:

Intel P4 Dual Core 1.83
2GB system RAM
ATI x1600 256MB
17" widescreen 1680 x 1050
80GB 7200rpm SATA hard drive

With that setup, and a heapsize 1024000 switch, I run a constant 40+ fps on 1680 x 1050 fullscreen and a 20-30 fps in windowed mode.

If you want some advice, bump up the ram to 1GB+ and skip on Vista. MS never gets it's OS right on the initial release, which is not really a strike against them at all IMHO, and stick with XP Pro.

The only reason I gave it the 7.5 is I don't have much experience with the video card it comes with as I have a 7900gs in my laptop. I also agree with you on the XP Pro but a lot of systems are coming with vista out of the box.

A lot of the store-boughts, yeah. Vista is alright, but I'll delay my purchase of it by about a year or so they can work most of the bugs out of it. My Cisco/IT teacher has it on his desktop now and was part of the beta, and he tells my class that it's great for now, but still needs a lot of work.

Laptops bought from most online sites like HP and Dell should still offer XP, and it'll probably cost less now.

Deadly Bunny, the answer is yes. I am playing GW on an IBM ThinkPad R51e with a Celeron M 1.5 and built-in Radeon X200 video. i just boosted the ram to 2GB and the game runs sweetly.

GW is not a very intensive game, trust me. It will run with specs from the 2001 era even.

I didn't think the heapsize command worked anymore. If it still does, how do you do it?

With that setup (if you're still looking for opinions) you'll be able to run GW. Your laptop is really nice, really well balenced specs. Although intel isn't much for gaming, the core duo should do whatever you need it to. As for your 7700, that's a few models higher than mine... Although, I'm running duel 7300's in mine ^_^

2gb of system ram is nice, and the speed on it is great. Only thing I'm worried about is the FSB. It's not listed, so I'm hoping you're not getting boned with a mobo that's only gonna carry half the speed it looks like you're getting...