NWN & Laptop Thoughts

[Lance Goodman]

Hey everyone,

Long time no see! I'm in the process of moving around for my last year of school, and I think I'll have a little downtime here and there to log in to Avlis. I'm also looking into a new laptop for potential rounds/clinic/general use. Here's a quick list of needs/wants:

1. Battery life: probably the most important thing; 8 hours or so is preferable (using EMR's/general web usage) and/or a "fast charge" ability with the battery.
2. Windows compatibility: Required. No Chromebooks (although I like some of the things they can do!)
3. HDD: Probably solid-state if I can swing it; doesn't need to be giant (64-128 GB would do), and I could probably swap out from a traditional HDD if the price is right.
4. Gaming/misc: I don't play much, but NWN would be my go-to. As long as could run NWN and maybe a background mp3 player/online radio, I'd be happy. Bonus points if it can run single instances of anything like PhotoShop/GIMP, InDesign, etc.
5. Price point: $400-ish at the top end. This is a primarily work computer with a little old gaming potential built in.

Right now I'm looking for something around the 11-12 inch range (13 gets into UltraBook territory, which is way above my price point). To hit #1 above, it looks like maybe an Atom processor or equivalent would be the way to go? Some of the finer points (SSD, RAM) could be tweaked by me as long as they're easily interchangeable. If it needs a soldering iron, I'm out.

Any thoughts/comments/ideas would be appreciated. Hope to see you all in-game from time to time!

[Ronan]

I use a laptop, but mine won't meet your requirements (too big, too expensive, too short of a battery life)

A word of warning: I have been using laptops for the last 8 years or longer, be sure you get one that won't overheat when playing nwn. I've had two laptops that got warm enough to cause burns (and one of them occasionally powered itself off when it got too hot.) My current computer doesn't seem to have these issues, but it is a gaming computer.

[silverfields2]

I'm set up on a MacBook Pro with Parallels Desktop to run Windows NWN, but my husband did all the setup and I know nothing. He bought it used from his prior place of employment. So far my only complaint is- there are some very specific sounds that are missing that I can't figure out. I don't hear the voice-sets or any spell casting noise effects anymore. I am getting use to it.

I use to run on a even older Mac laptop with the Mac version of NWN but it was getting too hard to do updates to the other programs I use, as it was no longer supported.

This information probably helps you very little, haha.

[Nighthawk4]

My laptop plays NWN fine.

The only problem is that the fan outflow gets very hot. Unfortunately, I am left-handed, so the airflow blows onto my hand whilst using the mouse