What laptop to get in order to play older XP & Vista games?

[rhino415]

Hi, I am in need of purchasing a new laptop soon. Ideally a MSI or ASUS gaming laptop such as this:

http/www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OBQ5950?psc=1

Since I dont want to risk an expensive laptop like this being stolen when I go to the library I am planning on getting a work computer too. A buddy owes me a laptop for the mountain bike I hooked him up with. Here are the games I would like to run on the work laptop with DVD/CD drive:

Pool of Radiance Ruins of Myth Drannor
Supported OS: Windows 95/98/Me

Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition
Supported OS: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP

Warhammer 40K Dawn of War Platinum Edition
Supported OS: Windows 2000/XP

Sins of a Solar Empire Game of the year Edition
Supported OS: Windows Vista/XP sp2

Question is what work laptop and which OS will let me play the games? Any help/thoughts appreciated.

 

[PsyhoMir]

I think that the best would be check minimum system requirements for these games. This way You will find out what minimum specs Your laptop need to have.

 

[das_stig]

Sins of a Solar Empire is the most demanding, the rest just need a system capable of besting WinXP.

CPU : Intel i5
O/S : Windows 7
Ram : 4GB
GPU : DX9c Pixel Shader 3, AMD HD3000 / nVidia 8000 series or later

 

[PsyhoMir]

So it looks that in this case the best OS will be Win7. Minimum specs You already know.

 

[rhino415]

Sins of a Solar Empire is the most demanding, the rest just need a system capable of besting WinXP.

CPU : Intel i5
O/S : Windows 7
Ram : 4GB
GPU : DX9c Pixel Shader 3, AMD HD3000 / nVidia 8000 series or later

 

[rhino415]

Awesome, this helps out alot thanks!

 

[rhino415]

I think that the best would be check minimum system requirements for these games. This way You will find out what minimum specs Your laptop need to have.

Thanks for responding, I'm off to hunt the work laptop down!

 

[jaguarskx]

Sins of a Solar Empire is the most demanding game of the ones you have listed. However, today's integrated graphics are fully capable of playing those games without any issues as long as they are compatible with more recent operating systems. For example, below is a video of Sins of a Solar Empire being played on a laptop with an Intel Pentium B940 CPU. Although the title states the Intle HD 3000 graphics core is being used, that CPU actually has Intel HD (Sandy Bridge) graphics core which is much less powerful than the Intel HD 3000.

https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnJriefoEGQ


Any $400 - $500 laptop will be able to play those games. The problem is the OS, since they are pretty old games you may not be able to play them with Windows 8 or 10. The exception is Neverwinter Nights which GOG.com has updated the game to be able to run on a modern OS. Warhammer 40k is another exception which is available on Steam, however, it is the Master Collection, not the Platinum Edition. If you already have those games and you do not feel like buying the updated versions, then you need to search the internet for possible ways to run them on a laptop with a more recent OS.

http/www.gog.com/game/neverwinter_nights_diamond_edition
http/store.steampowered.com/sub/30560/


I recommend that you buy a laptop with Windows 7. But that means you are more or less limited to a business laptop if you want to buy something that is new which can slightly increase the price. Perhaps Lenovo's ThinkPad E series will suffice. The 14" versions lacks a DVD drive so you will be looking at the 15.6" ThinkPad E555 (AMD) or the 15.6" ThinkPad E550 (Intel). They come standard with Windows 10, but you can customize it with a Windows 7 Pro downgrade option for $30.

http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/e-series/

 

[rhino415]

Sins of a Solar Empire is the most demanding game of the ones you have listed. However, today's integrated graphics are fully capable of playing those games without any issues as long as they are compatible with more recent operating systems. For example, below is a video of Sins of a Solar Empire being played on a laptop with an Intel Pentium B940 CPU. Although the title states the Intle HD 3000 graphics core is being used, that CPU actually has Intel HD (Sandy Bridge) graphics core which is much less powerful than the Intel HD 3000.

https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnJriefoEGQ


Any $400 - $500 laptop will be able to play those games. The problem is the OS, since they are pretty old games you may not be able to play them with Windows 8 or 10. The exception is Neverwinter Nights which GOG.com has updated the game to be able to run on a modern OS. Warhammer 40k is another exception which is available on Steam, however, it is the Master Collection, not the Platinum Edition. If you already have those games and you do not feel like buying the updated versions, then you need to search the internet for possible ways to run them on a laptop with a more recent OS.

http/www.gog.com/game/neverwinter_nights_diamond_edition
http/store.steampowered.com/sub/30560/


I recommend that you buy a laptop with Windows 7. But that means you are more or less limited to a business laptop if you want to buy something that is new which can slightly increase the price. Perhaps Lenovo's ThinkPad E series will suffice. The 14" versions lacks a DVD drive so you will be looking at the 15.6" ThinkPad E555 (AMD) or the 15.6" ThinkPad E550 (Intel). They come standard with Windows 10, but you can customize it with a Windows 7 Pro downgrade option for $30.

http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/e-series/

Hmm, my sister has an external optical drive....perhaps I could use that to upload the games to a 14" version laptop? If I went that route which two computers would you recommend? Also is it easy to upgrade the memory on a lenovo?

 

[jaguarskx]

Yes, it is pretty easy to upgrade the RAM in the ThinkPad E series. Just buy the following 4GB RAM stick for $24 which is a lot cheaper than the $80 Lenovo will charge you.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148813


Older games sold on CDs / DVDs generally requires the disc in the optical drive when play the game. If you buy the 14" version of the ThinkPad E series then you will need to carry around the external optical drive around with you which means the 15.6" version will end up being lighter so I recommend you by one of the 15.6" ThinkPad E.

Between the AMD (E555) and Intel (E550) versions, I prefer Intel even though it costs more because of better battery life which can make a difference if you are running around campus and do not want to carry the power brick around with you. The A6-7000 and the Core i3-4005u basically have the same CPU and GPU performance. The same can be said of the A6-7100 and the Core i3-5005u CPU. It basically boils down to if you want to pay extra for Intel's better battery life.