Laptop for Poker...

Russh

Gonna change my Laptop...Just looking for some advice on what to get as replacement....Have an oldish Toshiba Equium..(sh1te..)...

It'll be used mostly for Poker...

Maybe there's a thread already knocking around....

Lads in PC World reckon I need a decent graphics card...(min. 512mb..)..

Help..!!

meathman 007

graphics card wont make much difference. Main things to look for in a poker laptop is a high resolution screen and to a lesser extend ram:

Go for one with a 1920x1200 resolution screen which will be great for multi-tabling and go for at least 3/4 gb of ram which will help if you are running multiple tables, holdem manager etc at the same time.

This laptop from Dell is decent, but you cant go wrong with most of the major brands.

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=ie&cs=iedhs1&kc=NRS15303&l=en&m_30=129878&oc=N12X5304&rbc=N12X5304&s=dhs

OilBeefHooked2

Russh wrote: »

Gonna change my Laptop...Just looking for some advice on what to get as replacement....Have an oldish Toshiba Equium..(sh1te..)...

It'll be used mostly for Poker...

Maybe there's a thread already knocking around....

Lads in PC World reckon I need a decent graphics card...(min. 512mb..)..

Help..!!

Not required... anything bogstandard will do the trick.

ocallagh

Not sure, but you might need a decent graphics card if u plan to have more than one external monitor. Also, screen resolution is important if you plan to multi. Try to get 1920X1200.

Dearg81

graphics card wont make much difference. Main things to look for in a poker laptop is a high resolution screen and to a lesser extend ram:

Go for one with a 1920x1200 resolution screen which will be great for multi-tabling and go for at least 3/4 gb of ram which will help if you are running multiple tables, holdem manager etc at the same time.

This laptop from Dell is decent, but you cant go wrong with most of the major brands.

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...N12X5304&s=dhs

Yep, go for a dell studio 15" or 17" with the 1920x1200 resolution screen and extra RAM. I'm upgrading too and buying the same.

Edit: You can get one of these for ~€850

Samba

Just get a laptop with any half decent card that supports decent resolutions.

Leave aside a budget for a good monitor and just use the monitor as your main screen, even if your laptop screen does not support a high res the seperate monitor will display what ever it and the gfx card are capable of.

Just make sure the laptop has a DVI or HDMI connections for ease of use and quality.

If you will be traveling often and playing, then obv. a laptop that displays a high res will be a huge advantage for multi-tabling. But if it's mainly going to sit at home on a desk, then I wouldn't bother going out and spending a fortune on laptop with a big screen that displays high resolutions.

Laptop dynamics are important here such as, how and where you will use it.

I've got a Dell XPS M1130 with a 13.5" screen that supports a max res of 1280 x 800, I just clone my desktop on to my 22" that does 1900 x 1200...... via HDMI.

Chucky the tree

I've 2gigs of RAM on my laptop and I can 24 table + run HEM with no lag, 3 to 4 is probaly a bit too excessive.

Samba

Just to add....

If you do go Dell, first priority should be to rid the laptop of its dirty Vista OS.

You'll need to slip stream a SATA driver for XP otherwise when you get to the installation screen your drives won't be listed for installation.

http://www.digitgeek.com/how-to-slipstream-sata-drivers-into-xp-cd/

This can be tricky, i had problems with Dell's listed XP drivers, the solution was to use a driver from another model (i.e Vostro) that had the same hardware.

You don't need more than 2 gig's of RAM really for XP too....

And for the love of god, STAY AWAY FROM PC WORLD

tipp86

Sorry to hijack the thread but can anyone explain what my laptop needs to be able to add an external monitor?

[nicK]

tipp86 wrote: »

Sorry to hijack the thread but can anyone explain what my laptop needs to be able to add an external monitor?

dvi is mostly standard atm, svideo is an older technology but still works fine for the pokers..

x in the city

512Mb to play poker, lol

do poker games need HW-T&L And DX10...? :rolleyes:

but I think a big screen would be a good choice....

Tar.Aldarion

Russh wrote: »

Gonna change my Laptop...Just looking for some advice on what to get as replacement....Have an oldish Toshiba Equium..(sh1te..)...

It'll be used mostly for Poker...

Maybe there's a thread already knocking around....

Lads in PC World reckon I need a decent graphics card...(min. 512mb..)..

Help..!!

ROFL. Lads in PC World reckon they see easy commission.

dannydiamond

Samba wrote: »

Just to add....

If you do go Dell, first priority should be to rid the laptop of its dirty Vista OS.

You'll need to slip stream a SATA driver for XP otherwise when you get to the installation screen your drives won't be listed for installation.

http://www.digitgeek.com/how-to-slipstream-sata-drivers-into-xp-cd/

This can be tricky, i had problems with Dell's listed XP drivers, the solution was to use a driver from another model (i.e Vostro) that had the same hardware.

You don't need more than 2 gig's of RAM really for XP too....

And for the love of god, STAY AWAY FROM PC WORLD

Hi samba,what's this about vista and xp?
Would this also apply to desktops?
My new pc(a dell xps red) will be arriving from dell after christmas and I know sweet fa about such matters.
Thanks in advance.

Tar.Aldarion

Nothing wrong with vista, I've used it since it was being tested. A lot of people prefer xp though, and it will utilize less ram. Vista will use a lot like linux.

WECpoker

x in the city wrote: »

512Mb to play poker, lol

do poker games need HW-T&L And DX10...? :rolleyes:

but I think a big screen would be a good choice....

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Nothing wrong with vista, I've used it since it was being tested. A lot of people prefer xp though, and it will utilize less ram. Vista will use a lot like linux.

I don't think you can even buy a new computer with 512 of RAM now... if you can DONT

I have just ordered a new Dell with the 17 inch screen which should be a great improvement over the 13.5 inch I currently have. New one has 3 gig...I will take it

Dell has several (but limited) models where you can order with the XP Installed and you can upgrade at any time to Vista. Although you can add about 10-15% extra for the computer with XP.

If you have older versions of word processing programs, spreadsheet, accounting, etc and you will not be buying the newer version of these programs, BE VERY CAREFUL of VISTA. The major problem with the program is many vendors did not patch their older versions to work with Vista, And make you buy their newer upgrades for the program to work. It is important to look into the major programs you use before you switch from XP to Vista, or be prepared to encounter a larger bill then you expected.

Samba

WECpoker wrote: »

I don't think you can even buy a new computer with 512 of RAM now... if you can DONT

Hehe, pretty standard for todays GFX cards, that's what they were referring to

Danny -

Hi samba,what's this about vista and xp?
Would this also apply to desktops?
My new pc(a dell xps red) will be arriving from dell after christmas and I know sweet fa about such matters.
Thanks in advance.

Yes, due to the type of disk drives that are now more or less standard, which is SATA as opposed to IDE Drives.

Windows XP was developed before SATA Drives were widely used and so does not have a built in SATA Driver on the OS, this is why you need to pre-load (slip stream) the driver for the SATA disk by creating a new copy of XP using that tutorial.

It's a fairly simple process, problems can arise using XP drivers on dell machines designed for Vista though.

Fire up vista and give it a whirl, as Tar says, there is nothing actually wrong with Vista, it's a personal thing, I just can't stand it

If you decide to install XP, you should find all drivers (reliable ones) just by googling your model and install/installing XP.

Plenty of step by step tutorials widely available.

Tar.Aldarion

WECpoker wrote: »

I don't think you can even buy a new computer with 512 of RAM now... if you can DONT

This RAM is seperate from system ram, it is on a card for a specific use, graphics. They suggested 512mb for a laptop(expensive) for poker, when gaming laptops don't even need that! PC world also happen to sell a very expensive 512mb card in a laptop I believe.

cuterob

just build a computer.. here's one i built earlier




just read the title.. laptop

ianmc38

i just bought a hp hdx18 and its super awesome, although im currently on a break from poker for a few months.

dannydiamond

Samba wrote: »

Danny -


Yes, due to the type of disk drives that are now more or less standard, which is SATA as opposed to IDE Drives.

Windows XP was developed before SATA Drives were widely used and so does not have a built in SATA Driver on the OS, this is why you need to pre-load (slip stream) the driver for the SATA disk by creating a new copy of XP using that tutorial.

It's a fairly simple process, problems can arise using XP drivers on dell machines designed for Vista though.

Fire up vista and give it a whirl, as Tar says, there is nothing actually wrong with Vista, it's a personal thing, I just can't stand it

If you decide to install XP, you should find all drivers (reliable ones) just by googling your model and install/installing XP.

Plenty of step by step tutorials widely available.

Thanks very much sir.

Amalgam

Sorry, this might sound obvious.. If you're buying in a store and have physical access to your potential purchase.

Make sure you're happy with the 'screen finish' on the laptop. Everyone has preferences.

Glossy screen. The screen might reflect light from the room back into your face, also, your face will most probably be looking back at you. The effect might be worse if you're sitting with your back to room lighting or a window. This could drive you to distraction if you don't like gloss.

Matt Screen. Again, personal choices, the laptop screen is matt. Light reflection is minimised, possibly at the expense of some sharpness. The screen will possibly have a 'granular' (grainy) look about it.

Keyboard. Do the keys have much 'travel' to them. Do the keys have any shape to them, are they just flat, is it hard to tell where your fingers are resting on the keyboard. Are you happy where the keys are, the size of them, the size of the Spacebar and Shift etc.

Russh

Thanks for the Advice...

Looks like it's a toss up between an Acer8930g and a HP Dv71000....

Theres a hell of a lot of Laptops to chooses from out there...

mocata

Speaking from bitter experience. HP support/turnaround time >>>>>> Acers.
I actually fell out with one of my mates cos i sold him a Acer and it took them so long to fix it. (3 months) Hp stuff we have sent back has been picked up and returned fixed within 3 days.

luckylucky

I was thinking of getting a high end laptop - I'll be using it at home and when I travel - I want a big resolution i.e. 1,920 x 1,200 and I want it to be able to support two 30" 2560x1600 external monitors,I'm trying to avoid Dell, the main reason being that I can only order it from the Portuguese Dell site and it's a nitemare site to navigate. I'm finding it difficult enough to find a monitor that has 1,920 x 1,200 resolution, never mind one that can support two external 30" monitors. Anyone know of such a model.

jimbling

luckylucky wrote: »

I was thinking of getting a high end laptop - I'll be using it at home and when I travel - I want a big resolution i.e. 1,920 x 1,200 and I want it to be able to support two 30" 2560x1600 external monitors,I'm trying to avoid Dell, the main reason being that I can only order it from the Portuguese Dell site and it's a nitemare site to navigate. I'm finding it difficult enough to find a monitor that has 1,920 x 1,200 resolution, never mind one that can support two external 30" monitors. Anyone know of such a model.

As SAMBA mentioned, the laptop itself having 1920x1200 is different to supporting it for external monitors.
In saying that, I'm also considering this option and wondering what is best to go for, so will be interested in responses.

fatguy

Looking around, it seems that 1920x1200 is rare and expensive. Cheapest I could find was £1k+. 1440x900 seems to be the sweet spot for price at the moment. Here's one for £523.97:

http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=5F0F&CategorySelectedId=11105&NavigationKey=11105,4294953475,22,378910000&InMerch=1

For Dell, the basic Studio 17 looks decent at ~€750. Can't seem to link it here though. Do a search on their site.

If you're looking for something high-end without ripping yourself off, this is a great deal:

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=5F9H&CategorySelectedId=11105&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11105,51220000,379050000

luckylucky

jimbling wrote: »

As SAMBA mentioned, the laptop itself having 1920x1200 is different to supporting it for external monitors.

Yeah I know. I read somewhere that HDMI can support a big monitor. So maybe a DVI-D connector plus a HDMI connector would do.

fatguy wrote: »

Looking around, it seems that 1920x1200 is rare and expensive. Cheapest I could find was £1k+. 1440x900 seems to be the sweet spot for price at the moment.

True but the whole point of the 1920x1200 is the ability to multi-table more smoothly. Specifically you can 4 table 4 full-sized tables with either little or no obverlap depending on whch site. For me the difference in cost is worth it, not to everyone I realise.

fatguy

True but the whole point of the 1920x1200 is the ability to multi-table more smoothly. Specifically you can 4 table 4 full-sized tables with either little or no obverlap depending on whch site. For me the difference in cost is worth it, not to everyone I realise.

Seems reasonable to me. That 2nd one I linked is about perfect so. A PC World salesman will try to talk you into spending €3k on one, but if you don't plan on playing Crysis or doing some heavy duty multi-tasking (by which I mean playing 12 tables while watching a movie, playing Civ and reading boards), that one will do fine.

luckylucky

fatguy wrote: »

Seems reasonable to me. That 2nd one I linked is about perfect so.

I just checked on that now. Thanks. That 2nd one has the resolution alright. It looks like it'd do the job alright. Though does it have a DVi port I can't see it in the spec - that'd be a deal breaker if it didn't I think. Of course the other issue for me too is getting things shipped to Portugal, only a few companies do that.

green123

i am half thinking about selling my 1900 x 1200, you interested in buying 2nd hand ?

luckylucky

green123 wrote: »

i am half thinking about selling my 1900 x 1200, you interested in buying 2nd hand ?

wouldn't rule it out - would need to know the spec and how old it is obviously. Prob best to pm me. The other problem is though I don't know when I'm coming back to Ireland next, so probably not practical for me I'd say.

fatguy

Though does it have a DVi port I can't see it in the spec - that'd be a deal breaker if it didn't I think.

It has HDMI and VGA, not DVI. As do all the other ones, it seems. I think Lenovo do DVI as an option, but at this point you're stretching my knowledge. You'd be better off asking in a proper hardware forum.

Here's a good place to look at it:

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=5&l2=74&l3=763&l4=0&model=2415&modelmenu=1

SuperHans

Will be getting a new laptop myself and may wish to use external monitors with it at some point. Is HDMI not enough for this or is DVI required too? What exactly is DVI and why is it needed on top of HDMI?

ITT-Pat

Can anyone recommend a cheapish laptop with high resolution and a decent amount of RAM?

green123

ITT-Pat wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a cheapish laptop with high resolution and a decent amount of RAM?

the high res are not cheap but

green123 wrote: »

i am half thinking about selling my 1900 x 1200, you interested in buying 2nd hand ?

fatguy wrote: »

Looking around, it seems that 1920x1200 is rare and expensive. Cheapest I could find was £1k+.

luckylucky wrote: »

the whole point of the 1920x1200 is the ability to multi-table more smoothly. Specifically you can 4 table 4 full-sized tables with either little or no obverlap depending on whch site. For me the difference in cost is worth it

jimbling

Hey guys. I'm thinking of buying one of the new Studio XPS 13 machines.
This seems to have a pretty high spec on it. I just want to make sure it will be capable of what I may (in the future) have as a set up.

Initially I will want to hook it up to a 32inch TV/Monitor (1920x1080). I doubt it will have any problem with this, but I may later on wish to hook it up to a further two 20inch monitors...either side.

Even though I work in the computer industry... I don't know that much about computers :rolleyes: and haven't a clue what I need to set that up.
The graphics cards (it has two ) are as follows:
NVIDIA® GeForce® 9400M G
NVIDIA® GeForce® 9500M - 256MB

The fact that it has two graphics cards would lead me to believe that it must be possible, but want to make sure.


Also, if any of ye know anything about the machine, I'd love to hear it. There are very few reviews on it as it's so new.

RedJoker

I ordered a new desktop over the weekend for poker. I'm going the self build route, it took a tonne of research because I'd never bought a computer before, let alone built one. Most of the stuff I'll recommend is going to be expensive since, if you're playing poker at anywhere above small stakes, you'll quickly recover the costs from not being stressed out due to your computer lagging or locking up. I know I get stressed out and tilted whenever it happens and I'm never able to put in long sessions, the improved hourly should easily cover the costs.

So here's some stuff you need to know:

Most computer enthusiasts are gaming enthusiasts, they're building computers to improve gaming performance. So if you ask a computer guy for recommendations they'll frequently recommend parts for an optimal gaming build that are bad for a poker build.

In a gaming pc the hard drive is the least important part of the computer, for poker it's the most important. I got two hard drives, the primary one is an Intel X25-M 80GB SSD, this is pretty new technology. It doesn't have the moving parts that a normal hard drive does so there's less wear and tear. Which means that you can put as many hands into HEM as you like and it should never slow down. HEM is bottlenecked by the CPU but the SSD should still give you twice the speed of a regular hard drive. I'm going to put the O/S and HEM onto this drive and everything else onto my secondary hard drive. There's a 160GB version of the X25-M which has recently been released, if you really feel like splurging.

For the secondary hard drive I'm getting a Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB. If you don't want to shell out on the SSD then you could just get 1 of these or maybe a VelociRaptor or some 1TB hard drive.

For gaming the most you'd ever need would be 4GB of RAM, on a poker pc the more RAM the better. I got 8GB of RAM, two of the G.Skill 4GB DDR2 1000, although any generic RAM will do.

For gaming a dual core processor is better than a quad core, for poker a quad core helps a tonne with lag. I got the Q6600, which will overclock to about 3.6ghz to improve your HEM write speeds. If you really wanted to get it even higher you could get Core2Duo E8500 which will overclock to about 4.5ghz. However, the quad core is better for lag and multitasking. There's also a Q9550 but there's very little performance increase compared to the Q6600 and it doesn't overclock any better so save your money.

The cooler I got was a Noctua NH-U12P which has a really sick heatsink and should be able to handle anything you can throw at it.

For a gaming pc you're going to want the best graphics card you can find, which afaik is the ASUS EAH4870X2 at the moment. For poker all you need is the cheapest card with two Dual-link DVI outputs, supporting 2560 x 1600 resolution. I got the ASUS EAH3650.

The mouse mat I got was the Razor Exactmat/Exactrest. If this let's you play even 10 minutes more a day and you have a decent hourly it'll be worth the cost in no time. If you really wanted to shell out you could get a razor destructor as well and use it with the rest. I got a Logitech Illuminated Keyboard as well.

I got Vista 64bit for system builders. If you're using less than 4GB of RAM then a 32bit will do fine but over that you'll need 64bit.

The rest of the parts aren't a huge deal for a poker pc, you can get more expensive ones but the money is better spent on other stuff like improved hard drive, RAM, monitors, chair, etc. The motherboard I got was the Gigabyte EP43-DS3L, I got an Antec P182 case and a Corsair HX520 poker supply.

It's also worth getting an anti-static wrist band as well. The risk of blowing one of the parts is a bit exaggerated, just grounding yourself every now and then should be enough, but for the sake of a tenner at most you might as well get it.

For those who aren't familiar with buying computer parts, you'll frequently see things like Retail/Boxed vs. OEM/Tray. The OEM/Tray parts are generally cheaper but they have a much shorter warranty and don't come with instructions. The retail will usually be a fiver or so more expensive but have much longer warranties and have instructions. If you're an experienced system builder than you can probably go OEM on everything. If not then you should get retail hardware. For software, like Vista, you can just go OEM though.

As I found out to my frustration newegg don't deliver outside the US. I checked the Building and Upgrading subforum on boards. The main retailers that deliver to Ireland are

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/home.jsp?lid=2

http://www.dabs.ie/

http://www.komplett.ie/k/k.aspx

http://elara.ie/

http://itdirect.com/

http://www2.computeruniverse.net/

There's been a few horror stories about some of them, I suggest reading the stickies in the forum first.

After checking prices I found that hardwareversand.de had the best prices although a lot of the horror stories were about them. They have a flat fee of 30 euro which is pretty nice if you're getting a lot of stuff but you can't use credit cards, bank transfer only. They didn't have everything though, the hard drives and vista I got from computeruniverse.net.

Hopefully, everything will arrive soon enough and I'll let you know how it went. The whole system, including shipping, cost about 1400 euro fwiw.

dangerousdavid

Thats some piece of kit, sir.

Did a bit of messing about building pc's when I was younger, not actually that difficult if you have some clue what your doing and works out alot cheaper.

digiman

@redjoker, how did that PC build of yours go?

My laptop is giving me trouble and I don't think its up to the demands of having HEM, 4 poker clients firefox all running anymore because it's starting to overheat and its out of warranty from Dell so thinking about buying a new one.

Did you find any desktops that would have been suitable on dell for poker?

Actually if you are on MSN will you give me a shout, ty

RedJoker

Hasn't arrived yet. The stuff I got from computer universe arrived but I'm still waiting on hardwareversand.de. The hard drives didn't have any cables with them though :mad:.

I didn't check dell tbh, I was pretty set on going the self build route.

RedJoker

Computer arrived last Wednesday, took a lot of time to build it. So much stuff went wrong, the SSD was too small for the hard drive holders so I ended up having to tape it down.

The heatsink I got had the wrong mounting on it, the version I got was for the new i7 processor from intel. So I had to use the stock heatsink instead, no harm really. I took the fans off the heatsink and screwed them into the case instead so at least I got some use out of it. If I ever upgrade then I could use the heatsink I suppose.

They didn't include any cd drive which I assumed would come with the case or vista or something. Had to go out and buy one.

Wires for the harddrives came with the motherboard so that was fine.

The keyboard has German lettering on it but most of it's fine and easy to use, just takes a little time to get used to.

Overall the system is really good; I had holdem manager importing, 8 or 9 files downloading and I was installing a program at the same time and I didn't notice any lag. Imported just over 3.5 million hands into holdem manager in a few hours, ~5-6 I think.

I was playing a session today and SpadeEye crashed on me a couple times and Party froze as well. I was doing a lot of datamining in the background though.

[nicK]

got the new 17" unibody macbook pro recently myself, the ssd drives are well worth the investment for poker players if you're messing around in you're holdem manager databases much.. shockingly fast..

digiman

Are you having any issues with Windows 64bit? I would like to get 8GB of RAM if I upgrade and I hear you need 64bit to run more than 4GB but I have also heard that there are a lot of compatibility issues with it and software that you run.

RedJoker

digiman wrote: »

Are you having any issues with Windows 64bit? I would like to get 8GB of RAM if I upgrade and I hear you need 64bit to run more than 4GB but I have also heard that there are a lot of compatibility issues with it and software that you run.

Yeah, you need 64bit if you want 8GB of RAM.

I'm having no troubles with it, everything's working perfectly so far.

digiman

RedJoker wrote: »

Yeah, you need 64bit if you want 8GB of RAM.

I'm having no troubles with it, everything's working perfectly so far.

Cheers, I took the plunge and splashed out on this today.

Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec) 1
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 64Bit - English 1
Microsoft® Works 9 - English 1
1Yr Premium Warranty Support 1
Display Not Included 1
1.2 TB (2x 640 GB) Serial ATA (7200 Rpm) Dual HDD Config Raid 0 Stripe 1
8192MB (4x1024,2x2048) 1067MHz DDR3 Dual Channel 1
512MB ATI® Radeon® 4850 Graphics card 1
Blu-Ray RW (Blu-ray, DVD, CD read & write) & DVD ROM (DVD, CD read) 1
Logitech MX3200 Cordless Keyboard and Laser Mouse - Leading edge design, one-touch media controls 1
No Mouse 1
English Documentation with UK/IRL Power Cord 1
D03SX04 1
XPS Desktop 430 Order - Ireland 1
1 Year Premium Warranty Support 1
No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English 1
Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio 1
No Speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system) 1
19-in-1 Media Card reader with Bluetooth 1
Internal Enhanced Wireless 802.11n PCIe Card - Europe 1
Resource DVD - (Diagnostics & Drivers) 1
No Accidental Damage Support 1

Bought a new 24" 1920x1200 monitor to match my existing one so looking forward to getting this setup, I just need to buy a set of speakers and I will be set!!

RedJoker

Nice, should be well worth the investment.

Yeah I didn't get speakers either, luckily I have a couple of headsets so there's no rush.

Tight Ted

Building computers sounds like good fun! But tricky.

Tar.Aldarion

Nah you just slot it together. Just make sure parts are compatable and then it's lego.

The above is not built, looks like a normal order.

digiman

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

The above is not built, looks like a normal order.

Yeah, I just ordered it from Dell.

72over

Get this badboy...



You can 12 table, browse the forums, watch porn and listen to your favourite tunes all @ the same time.

Grafter

Nah! Teeny little monitors and no fridge