Gaming Laptop for Realmworks and Herolab

[ItsMerts]

Not sure if this is the best place to ask this, but people seem very helpful here, so what the heck.

I'm thinking of purchasing an inexpensive laptop mainly for using with tabletop rpgs. I was looking at some of the low end ones offered at Best Buy and Amazon and saw the they start at 2 GB of memory and then the next tier up is 4 GB of memory. Would 2 GB of memory be enough to have both Realmworks and Hero Lab up and running with quick response, or do you think I would need to go with a 4 GB model?

They don't seem like they would be intensive programs, but I don't want to purchase a laptop just to find it would run at a crawl with both programs going.

[EightBitz]

If you scroll to near the bottom of this link:

http://www.wolflair.com/realmworks/f...m-requirements

You'll find that for RW, 2 GB is required, but 4 GB is recommended.

For Hero Lab:
http://www.wolflair.com/index.php?co...m_requirements

128 MB is required. 256 is recommended.

So it sounds like 2 GB will get you by ... but wouldn't be ideal. If it's going to take food off your table, stick with the 2GB. If you're not going to hurt for it, go with the 4GB.

[Parody]

Generally it's better to get more RAM and base storage. It may be cheaper to buy the version with the least RAM and upgrade the RAM separately, as that's an easy upgrade that anyone can do if the device allows. You may also find it more useful to get a tablet or convertible rather than a pure laptop, depending on what else you want to do with the device.

My Anecdote: I have a Transformer Book TF100ta, which is a low-end tablet with keyboard dock. It's got 2 GB of RAM, 64 GB of flash storage, and has been upgraded to Windows 10 (Home 32-bit).

It runs Hero Lab and Realm Works at the same time fine, but I don't use either to the fullest extent. I only use Hero Lab as a player and I'm not running any campaigns with Realm Works, so I don't have large complex files to use for testing.

[Toblakai]

One other thing I would recommend is a 13 inch laptop. Table space as a GM is at a premium, I wish I would not have went with a 14 inch laptop. I have friends that game with 17 inch laptops and all I see is a wall of laptop screens.

[Pollution]

Deleted

[Viking2054]

Personally, I wouldn't go less then a 15 inch laptop with 8GB of RAM. You can also get a hybrid drive in some laptops that will save you a little money as it gives you a decent sized HD with some built in SSD memory to speed loading of things that are needed often. I picked one up as a gift for under $800 from ASUS.

[adzling]

I run windows 10 in a virtual environment (Parallels under MacOS El Capitan) with the below config.

It all runs pretty much flawlessly and my Realmworks realm is MASSIVE with large numbers of high res images et al.

And thats under emulation!

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)
500 GB Flash drive
2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB

[Toblakai]

Originally Posted by Viking2054

Personally, I wouldn't go less then a 15 inch laptop with 8GB of RAM. You can also get a hybrid drive in some laptops that will save you a little money as it gives you a decent sized HD with some built in SSD memory to speed loading of things that are needed often. I picked one up as a gift for under $800 from ASUS.

Here I disagree, have you played a game with 6 players with 15+ inch laptops? All you see is laptops and not people.

Now for my video gaming laptop, I went 17 inch.

[wurzel]

Originally Posted by Toblakai

have you played a game with 6 players with 15+ inch laptops? All you see is laptops and not people.

That's why I don't allow laptops at the gaming table. The only laptop used during play is mine, to show maps and pictures. And it is just as high as the DM screen so I can always see the players.

[Zaphod Beebledoc]

Originally Posted by wurzel

The only laptop used during play is mine, to show maps and pictures.

See, I almost forgot which forum I was on and suggested you get Realm Works...