Atomic Systems

Im going to buy a Laptop that needs to be able to run TS. Who runs TS on a laptop without issue and what specs would you advise?

Thanks.

This is what i have my eye on.....

Chassis & Display SkyFire Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU) Intel® CoreTMi7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4910MQ (2.90GHz) 8MB

Memory (RAM) 16GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)

Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 970M - 3.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

1st Hard Disk 500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)

Memory Card Reader Integrated 2 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC)

Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING

Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack

Wireless/Wired Networking GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD + BT 3.0 (RTL8723BE)

USB Options 3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD

Battery SkyFire Series 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

Power Cable 1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor

Why does it have to be a laptop ?

Cheerz. Transport Steve.

Those specs look highly capable (if not slight overkill!).

My only thoughts are:

- Have you considered an SSD?

- Will the cooling be adequate for continuous usage, particularly for the graphics card? The CPU shouldn't get too close to its TDP of 47W running TS on one-and-a-bit cores (or less), but the GPU is estimated at around 100W TDP and may well pull most of that if you choose to run high detail settings and framerate.

That laptop spec will certainly have no problems running ts2015. Ttjph concern about heat should definatly be heeded. This wont be a cheap laptop so protect your investment and definatly purchase a decent laptop cooler to enhance cooling. Make sure you get one suitable for 17" laptops and with one or two large fans. The larger the fan, the quieter the laptop cooler will be. Cheap laptop coolers are more likey to use smaller fans and will be noisier.

Agreed SSD Vital these days also helps to keep the heat down.

In my eyes, laptops never have and never will be made for 'gaming' like a desktop can - my advice is not to get a laptop.

But that's me.

thetrainfan wrote:In my eyes, laptops never have and never will be made for 'gaming' like a desktop can - my advice is not to get a laptop.

But that's me.

Cracking 'advice' if the question had been, What should I buy to run TS, a laptop or a desktop?....................................

Incidentally that machine will run TS2015 with no problems, but as has already been said, make cooling that GPU a priority!

Hi, that slow hard drive might cause a few slow downs though. A SSD or faster spinner would be better.

Defo for the SSD , had a look at the options in pcspecialist and they offer
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD SATA 6Gb/s (uptp 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW

Two of those instead of a single 500 would be my choice, they are the same as I have and because TS bashes six bells out the HD I like to put the heavy use stuff on one while keeping the operating system and simple stuff on the other

SSD will fail just like a HD but a lot better life, much less power, less heat, and most important really good read and write times
No brainer - worth the extra

thetrainfan wrote:In my eyes, laptops never have and never will be made for 'gaming' like a desktop can - my advice is not to get a laptop.

But that's me.

I hear this advice all the time - and have a chuckle - have been running games on laptops since the mid 90's and yes in that century, the advice would ring true... But in the past decade, top end laptops have been more than capable of handling games... I am running a top end MSI brand and have TS 2015 with graphics maxed out - only problem is the loading stuttering - I didn't get a large enough SSD to hold all of my TS install but the stuttering isn't game stopping.

On the road with my consulting for about 6 months every year so a desktop would be a waste.... In fact my last desktop has a Pentium 4 .....

thetrainfan wrote:In my eyes, laptops never have and never will be made for 'gaming' like a desktop can - my advice is not to get a laptop.

But that's me.

You must never of heard of gaming laptops then, the cost is the biggest reason I've never got one but they are more than capable of playing high end games (hence the high end price tag!) and such laptops wouldn't even break a sweat playing ts2015.

Certainly cheaper going down the desktop route though that's for sure but for someone who wants to play ts on a laptop, high end gaming laptops are more than capable.


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smartie38 wrote:

thetrainfan wrote:In my eyes, laptops never have and never will be made for 'gaming' like a desktop can - my advice is not to get a laptop.

But that's me.

You must never of heard of gaming laptops then, the cost is the biggest reason I've never got one but they are more than capable of playing high end games (hence the high end price tag!) and such laptops wouldn't even break a sweat playing ts2015.

Certainly cheaper going down the desktop route though that's for sure but for someone who wants to play ts on a laptop, high end gaming laptops are more than capable.


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I'm currently running TS on an Alienware 17 with 2x SSDs + mSATA SSD, and have great framerates and fast load times; I have everything I want with this - performance and portability.

I've got Win7x64 on the 256gb SSD primary drive, TS2015 is on the 256gb (soon to be replaced by a 512gb) mSATA which is dedicated to that purpose, and FSX and everything else is on the 512gb SSD.

I do use an external 24 inch monitor (going to get a 30 inch Apple Cinema display if I can find a mint condition one at the right price!!).

While a bit on the expensive side compared with desktops, IMHO the Alienware laptops (and I'm on my second one) are very competent and there is (on my AW17R1) also the capability to upgrade the drives, Ram, CPU and GPU, although on the latest R2 models the options are limited as the GPU/CPU are soldered to the MoBo.

I think it is vaild to bring up the laptop / desktop point here.
Desktop pc's are more suited to gaming. Unless portability is required a desktop is more suitable than a laptop especially for gaming.

- A desktop on computer desk is more comfortable / ergonomic for long computing sessions ie 7 hours as opposed to a laptop on sofa.

-there is still a large performance difference between top end pc's and top end laptops.

-laptop components have premium price tags compared to dektop equivelents.

-performance laptops are less reliable than performance desktops. High end components shoehorned into small a chassis cooled with smaller fans make them inhierently more likey to fail earlier. Hence I recommend a good laptop cooler.

Desktop graphics adaptors tend to have much better driver support than the mobile versions.

Desktops are easier and cheaper to fix when they break. Desktops are less likely to break since they are fixed installations.

There are many advantages to a desktop over laptops. A laptop should only be bought if portability is required and well worth mentioning in case the OP and others reading this are not aware.

msmith4000 wrote:I think it is vaild to bring up the laptop / desktop point here.
Desktop pc's are more suited to gaming. Unless portability is required a desktop is more suitable than a laptop especially for gaming.

- A desktop on computer desk is more comfortable / ergonomic for long computing sessions ie 7 hours as opposed to a laptop on sofa.

-there is still a large performance difference between top end pc's and top end laptops.

-laptop components have premium price tags compared to dektop equivelents.

-performance laptops are less reliable than performance desktops. High end components shoehorned into small a chassis cooled with smaller fans make them inhierently more likey to fail earlier. Hence I recommend a good laptop cooler.

Desktop graphics adaptors tend to have much better driver support than the mobile versions.

Desktops are easier and cheaper to fix when they break. Desktops are less likely to break since they are fixed installations.

There are many advantages to a desktop over laptops. A laptop should only be bought if portability is required and well worth mentioning in case the OP and others reading this are not aware.

Some of your points aren't really valid,

-It's a lot more comfy sitting on a sofa with a laptop than it is sitting at a desk for hours, especially when using a cushion cooling pad for the laptop.

-regarding the large performance difference between laptops and desktops, as long as you can hit 60fps or close to it then what does it matter that desktop video cards could push 100+ but a laptop may only hit around 60. This is even more irrelevant with ts2015 where the sim plays smoothly with just 25-30fps for example.

-components used in laptops are specifically designed for the purpose, they can take the extra heat of being in a cramped laptop body. It's also been my experience that the average pc desktop user doesn't even bother maintaining their tower case very well, they end up clogged up with dust and users end up having trouble making them no more reliable than a laptop, my own personal experience of sorting out peoples desktops prove this to be the case. I hardly ever have to look at someone's laptop, desktops on the other hand are a different story! As for myself I use expensive demciflex filters especially designed for the case I use, I only clean it out every 6 months or so and when I open the case up there's hardly any dust to clear out.

-Not sure about amd but nvidia support their laptop gpus just the same as their desktop cards, every driver they bring out is released for both mobile & desktop gpus.



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