Guide to City of Heroes: Freedom-Friendly Laptops
By
Cracked,
Posted on: 2012-01-28 17:23 in Player Guides
Extra Credit: Finer Details
So, you're in. A Gaming Laptop is right for you. You want to play City of Heroes somewhere other than home, or all over your home. Here's more to think about.
-- BRAND LOYALTY/TECH SUPPORT vs. NEWEGG DARLINGS/"GO IT ON YOUR OWN":
You're going to pay more for a laptop than gaining similar or superior performance on a cheaper desktop IF YOU CHOOSE A KNOWN BRAND (HP/Lenovo/Sony/Dell). Evidence: you've got $1,200 and have a choice between a laptop or a desktop, both from HP. The premium is that you can play on the go, simple as that, but you'll be playing on the go with a slower (not markedly, but noticeable) GPU on the laptop, and a major drop in CPU power for that same amount of money. But you may be able to mitigate that sacrifice with no problem. If you need to be able to send a PC to decent warranty service (and with that, for every testimonial, there's two horror stories about that same company) then go with the big four.
If you are not afraid of doing your own tech support, consider brands like ASUS, Acer/Gateway (they're the same) and MSI instead. Just know what you're getting into, and should something go south, you may overclock a $1,000 pizza box straight into the trash can if you get too froggy. Temp controls have improved dramatically since the 2004 Dark Ages of Overclocking, but it still happens.
-- WHY LAPTOPS ARE STILL PROFITABLE, EVEN IN A RECESSION:
Laptops are not upgradeable. Well, they're upgradeable insomuch as you can get bigger memory or a hard drive, you can even swap out keyboards on some models, but changing CPU's or graphic cards is mostly undocumented and warranty-breaking territory. If one of these two PC components fail or gets outdated in a desktop, 2 out of 3 you can change it to something that works or works better. If a laptop CPU or GPU fails from eventual wear/overheating, the pizza box is either mostly dead with each error making it progressively worse, or it's completely dead (and then there's only one thing left to do: you go through it's pockets and search for loose change). Your recourse is to buy another laptop in most cases.
Even if not, consider future games and their needs: your state-of-the-art in two years will be excluded by riskier developers (re: Crysis), and in three years will barely run the new bleeding-edge titles. With a Desktop, you can squeeze a few more years out with upgrades and replace a whole system once every five years or longer if you're not worried about top-of-the-line parts. But with gaming laptops, once they're ready for that Unreal Tournament in the sky, you'll basically Craigslist your current one to buy your next one. Anyone who buys computers can tell you they never appreciate in value, no matter how much you paid for it. (Car manufacturers would LOVE this rate of churn, if you haven't guessed.)
There has been efforts made towards upgradeable laptops (Read Engadget's Shuttle SPA article: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/08/s...ndards-launche), but usually different manufacturers couldn't find common ground on a single standard and let progress on such initiatives die. It's not likely to happen in the next ten years, so the best advice: buy the most powerful one you can AFFORD. Where a difference between a Core i3 2.53 GHz and 2.6 GHz is largely splitting hairs, a Core i3 2.6 GHz and Core i7 1.8 GHz is a big difference worth considering. (The Core i7 is the winner in case you were curious: particularly if the Core i7 is a quad-core model.) And again, if all you have is $700, it's not worth skipping on the electric bill for that $150 difference between two machines. If it's bugging you that much, just wait.
-- DATES OF INTEREST:
If you are an enthusiast, price is not an object, and you want the best technology, buy your laptop in Spring/Early Summer. Why? Most OEMs make new product announcements in Q1 Winter yearly just after the holiday season (Intel, AMD, NVidia, among others). The first models with the new technology come out around Spring/Summer as manufacturers can turn them out. For example, as of this writing in January 2012, this is a "tick" year for Intel, so new Processors are going to be released in April 2012 based on Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge architecture and 22nm manufacturing processes (compared to 32nm processors in vogue now) where in 2013, it's a "tock" year and the Haswell Architecture will exist to further enhance the 22nm process on the way to 14nm. AMD will release Virgo and Comal (A-Series Architectures) as part of their Piledriver Manufacturing Run in the First half of 2012 (dates as of yet unknown, usually announcement is made late Spring.) NVidia GeForce 600 GPUs (Codenamed "Kepler") is coming out before Q2 2012, and AMD's Radeon 7000 series based on the Southern Islands chipset is available right now (as of January 9th).
By the way, all of this information on new parts is thanks to little searches here and there on Wikipedia. You can do this too. You can be an enthusiast just like me! Find the retail dates of products you're interested in, and when it's close to the street date (one-to-two weeks before, of course) search for new systems announced online (blogs, PR releases, launch parties, etc.) from manufacturers to coalesce around said desired technology, and you'll find the laptop you're hunting for.
If you are a bargain-hunter, almost any time of the year is good depending on what you're looking for, but the Holidays/New Year are particularly good to buy a laptop. Why? After first adopters have had their crack at new parts, manufacturers want to clear their stock out before the next year breakthroughs & new manufacturing runs. That means the Holidays/first thing in January is the time for overstock liquidation on last year's must-have tech. When new announcements are made in winter, prices on old technology doesn't really drop dramatically since the margins on Motherboards, Processors and Video Cards are fairly tight. The bottom of the range lands around the holidays, if there's still a large count of a model past Spring, they just send it back to the manufacturer for Outlet Sales (Read: Government/Education/Small Business Contracts).
If you're a student, replace the Holidays with August... but I wish you good luck finding decent laptops for gaming, since most of the "Back to School" specials are the lowest cost, lowest spec priced-to-move laptops (see above paragraph on models left past Spring from a prior year). You likely won't run City of Heroes on any sub-$400 laptop sold during the Summer. Not that I expect people to know this, just something to help explain when a relative who doesn't understand computers tells you there's back to school sales and they don't understand why it's not a good deal for you.
-- ONLINE SHOPPING LOCATIONS:
The offering online is broader than in brick-and-mortar stores. In fact, if you want a Gaming laptop, online is pretty much the final frontier. Specialist laptops such as Gaming, Mil 810F Spec, and Engineering models just aren't sold in stores. There's too few buyers out there except in niche markets: Los Angeles residents will have more availability than let's just say, Amboy, California, where the population is less than 10 and you're too far to shop from LA County easily. (You can, but it's a bit of a trip.) Extreme case, I know. Isolation is out there, your market might be different.
So, thankfully with a shipping charge and enough wait time, online retailers are standing by to serve your needs. Here's a good list of places to look for the uninitiated:
-- NewEgg
Straight outta City of Industry, CA, NewEgg is sung in praises for a reason: it's unusually helpful. Their searches are in multiple categories, and specific to the product line you're looking at: you're not going to search gigahertz on a remote control, so it's not there. If you want multiple categories, you got them. Made a mistake and got 0 results? Click the X next to a category you'd like to eliminate to broaden your search. Even now, online retailers have a LOT to learn from their setup.
Selection? TigerDirect is similar. Product diversity? Amazon has them beat with a much larger spread. But NewEgg still has the best search, the most detail in product specifications, and in my opinion, the best New-In-Box photos of computer parts. NewEgg neglected to share how many watts your new Power Supply can hold on a 12 volt rail? Find a picure of the label-side of the Power Supply in their result page, zoom in with the tools provided, and read it for yourself!
-- Best Buy
Best Buy's laptops in the Gaming Category take much of the guesswork out of shopping. Odds on, any of their Gaming Models will run City of Heroes and for good reason: they only sell new/refurbished products. If it's more than 2 years or closed out, it's not there. Can't argue with that.
Their pricing isn't very generous, and that's to be said from eliminating Circuit City as a competitor, but even if you're not interested in their lineup, it's a good baseline to see how much a particular laptop brand, class and size is going for. Also, there's probably a location close to you. If you're scoping out a middle-range laptop, odds are you can go see it for yourself.
-- TigerDirect, CompUSA (and Circuit City Online)
Under the oh-so-consumer-friendly name SysteMax, TigerDirect has a lot of faces these days, but they're still one of the best Refurbish/Closeout PC Retailers out there.
The only caution: TigerDirect has frequent mistakes in their listings. If you can snake a part number out of them and hop to a manufacturer website to fish out better descriptions, it's recommended when they mention a laptop with a next-generation "AMD Celeron Quad-Core" processor. (When the actual processor is Athlon. Celeron belongs to Intel.)
-- Fry's Electronics
Being in Southern California, Fry's Electronics is my Wally World. Making the pilgrimage to Anaheim is worth it to me for the fact it's the only Brick-and-Mortar that sells Processors and Motherboards with 14-day returns and online price matching. Get that from a hole-in-the-wall PC Repair joint. Their online store has a fairly good selection, and serves as a good comparison site. Some articles are more expensive than others, while certain items are that extra-special "Big Lots" kind of affordable.
Extra Credit: Laptop Video Card Spec Hunting
Recommended laptop specs for gaming on City of Heroes:
-- Processor, Memory, Hard Disk, Sound Cards, viles of Cheetah's Blood used for liquid cooling, etc.:
I won't go into depth on these, since FatherXMas wrote better guides than I have for the core specs of a PC. Since I don't want to plagiarize their hard work, I suggest heading there.
BillZBubba's Final Performance guide: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=115082
FatherXMas' hardware guide: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=124080
-- Video:
Right now, I'll share what I DO know about: Video Cards.
Here's how to decipher the Swahili of Video Cards offered for laptops. For all the examples and stats, I'll use the desktop versions of the cards. Laptop versions are all across the board reduced in speed for it's core, shader and memory clocks to reduce power draw and heat. But the comparison between two laptops is proportionally the same.
Also, I don't list the OpenGL versions of each family of cards... they change radically between individual cards and in some cases are hard to generalize between families. Also, in most cases, the OpenGL line is usually very backwards compatible, so it's irrelevant. DirectX versions are very specific to particular versions of Windows, so I share those.
Before we begin: Finding out what Video Card you're trying to find.
Let's say you're on Amazon.com looking for a video card for a laptop they sell.
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-G71GX-RX0...806537&sr=1-24
ASUS G71GX Refurbished -- Description page doesn't say what the video card is. You could look at Customer Reviews, but let's assume they're lying for our sake. (You know how the internet is. You trust me, right?) Parts of this search will fail on purpose, I'm just sharing my process with you. Adapt as needed.
1. Find the Item model number in the description. This is the number assigned by ASUS, not Amazon, in order to identify that specific computer. Unless you're seeking support for a system you own, you don't need a serial number for this info.
2. Find ASUS's website. On Google, typing in ASUS leads to asus.com. (This sounds banal, but not all manufacturers are obvious. MSI. I said enough.) Go to their support section. On usa.asus.com, it's under Services > Support.
3. Enter in the model number. Apparently ASUS dropped their information about the product... hmmm. Odd.
4. Go to Google and do a search for ASUS G71GX-RX05. Newegg is one of the first results, let's try them. Beware of search bombs when doing this kind of lookup: look at the address of the result you're about to click on. If the address is a blog (wordpress.com, blogspot.com) or if the product title in in a subdomain of an unrelated site (asus-g71gx-rx05.prescripsforfree.net), it's most likely a search affiliate looking for ad money or a silly malware site with no information about your product. Also look out for eHow, Mahalo, and other sites with nonsense articles designed to drop you into an ad-filled site for their benefit. They have no idea of what you're looking for. Watch what you click.
5. Newegg reports this item as deactivated. ASUS must have discontinued this model from age, since G73 and G74 models exist. Fortunately, Newegg does keep specs on it after deactivation (Look under "Details" tab): according to them, the laptop has a GeForce GTX 260M.
Other good sites for Laptop Information: Cnet Reviews, and Notebook Review. Tom's Hardware is good, but they only had a news story for this specific model.
Now you have the Card Name and Model, what does it mean? Read on...
NVidia Only: There will be two number systems, each card falls under one or the other.
If the card name is the following--
GeForce XXXX GTX
(*GTX can be substituted with any letters: G, GS, GT, GSO, GTS, GTX. These are feature codes, and while they indicate better provisioned cards, they are not critical unless comparing two exactly numbered ones. The graphic card number is a better indicator of output than these codes anyway. Rule of thumbs: the more letters the better. GSO, GTS, GTX always trump GS, GT, which beats G. G is as cheap as it gets. Letters after these like E, M, Go don't really matter.)
--then it was made from 2003-2008, and the following applies.
Thousands Digit: Series,
Hundreds Digit: Class,
Tens Digit: Major Revision, used as a tie-breaker.
Ones Digit: Minor revision, unimportant, usually 0 unless in certain cases.
Series:
6000-7000 - Unless refurbished or used, you can't find these anymore. Even if you do, don't consider them unless you want Bejewelled 2 at full frame rate.
8000- Made for Direct X 10 systems, came out in 2007 along with Windows Vista.
9000- Made for Direct X 10 systems, faster and stronger. Last of these came out in 2008.
If the Card Name looks like this
GeForce GTX XXX
(* see note above under Geforce XXXX GTX)
-- then it was made during or after 2009, and the place value changes:
Hundreds Digit: Series,
Tens Digit: Class,
Ones Digit: Revision
Series (Post 2009 changes)
100- Built-in for laptops/motherboards only, all entries are Budget/Entry class regardless of number.
200- Made for Direct X 10 and 11 systems, came out in 2009. (If there's a codename for it, I don't remember it.)
300- Same as 100's, models released on notebooks only for some reason.
400- Made for Direct X 11 systems, to launch March 2010 onward. (Codenamed Fermi)
500- Same as 400's, March 2011.
600- Upcoming 'state of the art' in 2012. (Codenamed Kepler)
700/800- Past 2012 (Codename Maxwell)
It's safe so far to assume future numbers that start with an odd digit will be entry level or on-board cards, and even numbers to be enthusiast/professional grade cards. In 2012, we'll be looking at 600 series cards. Past then, If we're not all dead according to Roland Emmerich, 700 or 800 series cards.
Regardless of year made, the classes didn't really change at all with NVidia. Again, if it was made before 2009 (6000-9000), it's the 100's digit. If in 2009 or after (G 100-G 900), it's the 10's digit.
Classes for either group:
0-2- Budget class
3-4- Entry class
5-6- Enthusiast class
7-9- Professional class
(With the understanding that the built-in cards are limited to the first two categories of class: G 300 series Integrated processors in a motherboard will never be called a GeForce G 380, for example.)
How the numbering works, let's say you see the following cards on the shelves:
NVidia GeForce 9300
NVidia GeForce 9350
NVidia GeForce G 210
NVidia GeForce GT 210
NVidia GeForce GTX 295
NVidia GeForce 6200 LE (on Clearance)
NVidia GeForce 7800
NVidia Geforce GTX 260
NVidia Geforce 7150
On a store shelf, this is confusing, but if we put them in order of Pixel Fill Rates:
NVidia GeForce GTX 295 16.128 GP x2
NVidia Geforce GTX 260 16.128 GP
NVidia GeForce GT 210 1 GP
NVidia GeForce G 210 1 GP
NVidia GeForce 7800 6880 MP
NVidia GeForce 9350 2200 MP
NVidia GeForce 9300 2200 MP
NVidia GeForce 6200 LE 1400 MP
NVidia Geforce 7150 700 MP
You can see how the 100's digits indicating their performance class affect their placement in the list: the 1,000's digit is less important, but still a factor considering the 7000's were all current in the Windows XP era. Also, a clear break between the 1,000's line and the three-digit line: even the lowest end GeForce G2XX cards fill-in 1 GP/sec. While not 2X the fill rate of the 7800, it's a dramatic improvement over the 9000's on the shelf.
(MP = Mega Pixel, GP = Giga Pixel, GTX 295 has two graphic cards running side to side in one slot)
Mind you, that's one standard of measurement, there are many standards, and by changing which metric you wish to use, the line up will change dramatically. I feel this is the most fair metric to compare the card's actual ability in the shortest amount of time, so I use it. Opinion varies. Share it if yours does.
ATI Radeon Only --
I'm less familiar with ATI's family, but fortunately for me, they are much more forgiving when shopping for them... HD 2XXX/3XXX/4XXX and now 5XXX use a similar scheme by class that NVidia uses:
Thousands Digit: Series
Hundreds Digit: Class
Tens/Ones Digits: Revision (ATI actually uses BOTH)
Series:
HD 2000- Windows Vista released cards, DirectX 10.
HD 3000- Windows Vista released cards, only more powerful. DirectX 10.
HD 4000- Windows Vista released cards, DirectX 10/11
HD 5000- Windows 7 released cards, Direct X 11
HD 6000- Windows 7 released cards, Direct X 11, coming out during 2012.
Class:
0-4 Budget/Value class
5-7 Mainstream class
8-9 Enthusiast/High Performance class
So, sorting these:
Radeon HD 5970
Radeon HD 5450
Radeon HD 4870
Radeon HD 4850
Radeon HD 4350
Radeon HD 3650
Would stack out to the following Pixel Fill Rates:
Radeon HD 5970 46.4 GP
Radeon HD 4870 12 GP X2
Radeon HD 4850 10 GP
Radeon HD 3650 2.9 GP
Radeon HD 5450 2.6 GP
Radeon HD 4350 2.3 GP
Notice how neatly the 100's digit cascades from 9 all the way down to 3. Again, not fully indicative of what the card does, just gives you an idea.
Extra Credit: Video Card Resources
The Raw Stats from Volunteers:
Wikipedia: Comparison of AMD graphics processing units -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...on_R600_series
Wikipedia: Comparison of NVidia graphics processing units -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...ocessing_units
Side-by-side comparisons:
Notebookcheck --
Comparison into Tiers of Cards:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Compari...rds.130.0.html
Comparison by Game Frame Rates: (most of these are speculation, this is only for BROAD comparative purposes, not as a compatibility guide: games reported not to work may in fact be okay on your card.)
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Compute...s.13849.0.html
Tom's Hardware --
High Quality: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/g...hmarks,70.html
Mainstream: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/g...hmarks,69.html
Extra Credit: Mobile Internet
Particularly for this game, you need to answer how you will get the laptop online. You have choices, of course...
AT THE HOME
----> Wired Access. If you like the superior transmission rates of a wired connection, you'll need a Router to plug your laptop into. More often than not, if you have your laptop in one fixed location all of the time with a wired connection, it'll defeat the purpose of this guide. (Go buy a desktop, you're doing it wrong! 
) My only advice: buy what you need. If you don't plan on using Wireless, get a wired-only router... they're cheaper.
You can still keep your laptop's portability and NOT use Wi-Fi: get a powerline adapter for your internet connection. This allows you to run one ethernet plug into a wall socket with one adapter box, then you can plug the other adapter box anywhere else in the house and connect that adapter to your laptop. Powerline Ethernet Adapters carry anywhere from 85-200MBps of bandwidth in the same house and are dirt simple to use. If you live in a multi-dwelling property (apartment, condo, duplex), this is not secure: an unscrupulous neighbor can plug into the same network and use your bandwidth/resources. Consider another answer if this is the case.
Powerline networks stop at the breaker box, or your power company's Point-of-Entry of your dwelling, so you may be safe if your place has it's own electric meter that is not shared/banked with another tenant's connection. Ask your landlord/super to learn more. If you're in a single home, you should be fine.
----> Wireless Access. This is the most popular route: you can get a router to deliver internet to your laptop's wireless card, or use a public hotspot at another business or your workplace (again, check if this is cool or not to do.) Wireless Adapters deliver anywhere from 11MB all the way to 150MBps, and unlike wired routers can handle more than 4 devices without breaking a sweat.
One consideration: it's in the nature of Radio to be half-duplex. This means your wireless card is designed to send a signal or receive one, not both at the same time, your thoroughput on wireless gaming will be typically half of your advertised network speed from your ISP (Exception: if you use MIMO/802.11n wireless adapter/router pairings, then you're using two or more frequencies at once - MIMO = Multiple Input, Multiple Output). You can also expect ingame rubberbanding, timeouts, and disconnects if your wireless card loses association with your Router frequently. This comes with the territory of radio and you may need help with configuring your network properly, relocating your router, or reducing/removing interference sources if you're not technically inclined.
How can you eliminate wireless as a culprit? Consider running ethernet cable temporarily to where you frequently game, or bring your laptop to the router (shut Wi-Fi off) and jack into it to see if it's your network that's causing the issues. If wired ethernet resolves the problem, you need to rethink your wireless setup.
ABROAD
----> Modem. Well, it's fine for backup internet access. For City of Heroes, you can sign on with terrible speeds, decent latency (much better than Satellite anyway), and maybe run a mission on a small team as long as noise doesn't disconnect you. (I've used one from 2008-2009 waiting for High Speed Microwave to hit my area.) That's about it. If cost is why you're using Dial-Up, check out Virgin Mobile's Broadband2Go program (write up below) before writing off City of Heroes play altogether.
----> Cellular Access. You can use a cellular USB or Expresscard adapter to connect using your cellular network. Average speeds range from 1MBps-3MBps, which doesn't sound like a lot compared to home access. The advantage of Cellular is that you get a signal from anywhere your phone works. The disadvantages? Cellular data access is a 2-year contract with most providers, charging a hefty ETF if you change your mind midway through. Your signal may change due to weather, drift, fresnel-zone radiation (stronger radio sources between you and the Cell Tower, even if they don't block line of sight... mainly trucks with overpowered CB/FM Radios) or other factors. Currently the big four providers (Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T) limit total down/uploads (YES, sending data counts against this total) to 2GB a month maximum on the lowest tier. Exceeding this will cause you to be charged per MB.
Cellular Access is just fine for casual play, but consider your plan limit: if it's 2GB, you can waste ALL of it in a month on casual play and end up spending another $20-30 for more bandwidth, or waiting for your monthly bill to land. If it's 4GB-5GB, you can make it last a month on casual without counting MB spent everytime you sign on. If you play regularly, consider 10GB (yes, it's $50-100 a month. That's what AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile were after the last two years. Isn't tiered access just wonderful?!)
WiMax: (US Customers) If you want to start Clear 4G service (or by extension, use Sprint 4G since they share networks), I would strongly recommend you read some online reviews. The advertised speeds vary greatly than the actual service, customer support is terrible (if non-existant), and there's plenty of horror stories of customers getting billed for roaming use, as well as their billing system reactivating auto-pay on closed accounts with no path for a refund. To wit, Clear is also in the process of working with Sprint to rollover to 4G LTE service as their going-forward effort with data service, so even if Clear resolved their customer problems the future of WiMax expansion has hit a brick wall if you don't have service (Why invest in a fledgling network when you're building another more popular one with better support?) WiMax 2 service is probably not going to happen in America. "Know what you're paying for" for is the best way I can put it. And EVEN if that doesn't dissuade you from 4G service, consider the following.
4G: Ignoring the CTIA/ITU tiff on what 4G actually means, more speed from 4G service compared to 3G service means typically that you'll use up the allotment you're paying for faster than with 3G service. RIGHT NOW (January 2012), there is no particular advantage between 3G and 4G networks to care as a gamer thanks to tiered service. 3G's speed caps slows down how much you consume over time, and the 2GB you get on 3G service and the 2GB you get on 4G service COSTS THE SAME AMOUNT on all cellular providers (Conscious Parallelism, anyone?) There's really no advantage here, and City of Heroes (like most MMORPG's) is not a bandwidth hog. A 768k DSL modem more than serves the demands of this game, considering radio technology is half-duplex, 1.4MB/s is all the speed you need (even that's a lot), which 3G more than provides. Anything past that is excess. If the salesperson is pressuring you into 4G, unless they offer 4GB-5GB around $30 (Verizon's holiday deal, for example), insist on 3G and don't let up.
And if you don't live in a Metro area, 4G right now is a joke and will continue to be one for another couple of years. Besides, 3G networks aren't going away in the next 2-3 years, so it's still safe to get a 2 year 3G contract with little or no consequence. In 2013, 2014, OTOH, all bets are off.
----> Special Note: WalMart Virgin Mobile (US Customers) -- Specific to City of Heroes, there is one thing worth mentioning on mobile gaming if you intend to do it only occasionally: Virgin Mobile does have a Prepaid 3G Broadband Service at WalMart. Granted it is more expensive up front since you have to buy a $100-150 adapter to use it (not subsidized, since it's prepaid). And the cost is more expensive than contract service per month: nothing offered from Virgin Mobile competes with $30 for 2 GB of use. (Virgin Mobile charges $50 for "Unlimited" access, but after 2.5GB, you're throttled to 1XRTT speed, which will NOT carry a City of Heroes session. You've been warned.)
I know what you're asking: Why WalMart on this one? Virgin Mobile's plan is typically $20 for 500MB or 30 days use, but in WalMart, devices purchased there are offered $20 for 1 GB or 30 days use. (Understandably, not an enormous deal: after paying $20 three times in a month, you may as well own postpaid service.) There is one decided advantage: if you don't want to use it for a long period, simply enough, don't pay for it. You can put in money any time you want to play with no obligation to keep it on; your device is activated for a year at a time (after a year, your price plan may change to something worse, so it's wise to fire it up once per 12 months to keep the going rate alive). Using their service, I can play City of Heroes for 4-6 hours over a 10 day period and use up all 250MB for $10 a pop (faster with longer sessions over fewer days) which will give you an idea of how long it lasts. Especially for casual use, it's great.
Reserved for Future Expansion.
Same as above. Comment away below!
Any ideas on how Ultrabooks will run COH?
I am probably going to pick one up in the fall when Windows 8 and Ivy bridge Ultrabooks are released.
50's
Darth Keiv DM/Reg, Crack'ed Justice BS/Reg, Crack'ling Cage Fire/Rad,
Crack'ed Earth SS/Stone, Crack'ed Brawler DM/WP, Crack'ed Legend Axe/WP,
Crack'ed Current SS/Elec,Crack'ed Ice Ice/Kin, Crack'ed Cacophony Son/Son,
Crack'ed Widow SOA, Crack'ed Bully Thugs/Dark, Broil-O Fire/Kin, iCrack'ed DB/WP.
I picked up a decent laptop for $450 that runs Ultra mode beautifully. It's a Quad-core 15 inch laptop running Win 7 64 bit, 5000 series Radeon HD and 4gb of RAM currently. I can run the game in Ultra mode for hours and hours with my cooling setup as long as I'm not base editing. Once I enter the editor, heat can become an issue if I edit for more than an 3-4 hours. That being said, this kind of performance blew me away at the price. The screen is smaller but the graphics are still amazing. The color could be a little better but it's a tiny issue. I chose it over a desktop because I wanted to be able to move the pc to other parts of the house daily with no major moving. (I play on the sofa, the table, out back on the porch, and in bed occasionally)
All in all, it is possible to find a decent laptop to run CoH Ultra Mode under $600. But it did take me a few months to find this deal and it went fast.
Additionally: Upgrading and budget considerations
While laptops aren't anywhere in the same galactic cluster as dekstops in terms of upgradability, there are still some portions that can be improved:
Some things are simply NOT realistically upgradeable:
- CPU
- GPU (Graphics)
- Monitor
- Wireless (On some machines it's all integrated, on others' it's a swappable module about the size of a "stick" of laptop memory.)
- Memory
- Hard Drive
You can ALWAYS do with less RAM and Drive space up front. Then, when budget allows, upgrade.
What wins?
RAM/HD vs CPU? CPU!
RAM/HD vs GPU? GPU!
RAM/HD vs Monitor? Monitor!
This way, down the road, the laptop will remain usable longer, and has some definite upgrade paths to increase performance as your budget allows.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
TAHQ'S LAPTOP SHOPPING GUIDE - 2012
This guide covers PC's, Windows, and the like. If you're a "Think Differently" kinda person, check out this guide instead for advice on Mac OS X and City of Heroes.
INTRODUCTION