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Gaming Laptop for Realmworks and Herolab

I

ItsMerts

New member
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.
 
If you scroll to near the bottom of this link:

http://www.wolflair.com/realmworks/features/realm-works-overview/#system-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?context=hero_lab&page=product_details#system_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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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
 
Viking2054 said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
Toblakai said:
have you played a game with 6 players with 15+ inch laptops? All you see is laptops and not people.
Click to expand...
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.
 
Few tips:

Get no less than 4GB ram, and if in your budget go 8GB.
Windows x64 is a must, I recommend Win 10, its here to stay, for a long time.
SSD main drive, if you can afford it, 256GB is a sweet spot.
15' and if you can space it, 17 is really nice.
Ensure you have DisplayPort out if you can. (can be converted to all other types)
Light as you can afford in that spec range.

Text can be a pain on smaller screens, so can multiple windows. 15' is your min here, and as suggested 17 is great. Also make sure you can connect external monitor, you may not have the budget to buy a new one, but so many have an old on laying around, it can be hugely useful.

Also a faster dual core will suit you better then a slower quad core here. Neither RW or HL are going to use all those cores. Do not go with 2GB of ram, trust me, this is too low no matter what is said, 4GB is your min and 8GB the sweet spot.

If lots Storage is a need, remember a USB 3.0 external HD is your friend. SSD's are still premium price, but worth it. Dollar for dollar no other item will give you anywhere near the same performance enhancement. My original OCZ Agility 60GB SSD just died few months ago, after a life in four of my main desktops and in my mothers laptop. Buy a solid brand, Samsung Pro series, Patriot, Adata, Kingston Hyper X, and Crucial is my go to brand. Be wary of budget lines and stay away from OCZ now, too many failures I have had all of them now fail or sold them in systems I got rid of.
 
Toblakai said:
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.
Click to expand...

When I play, there are usually 5 players plus the GM, so yes 6 people at the table. And I use a 17 inch laptop, even if I've had it for years now since it's an old core2duo. It's size hasn't been an issue for me since I fold the screen down just enough to see over the top and push it back up when I need to. But I also sit at two 8 foot folding tables set side by side so it can hold a gaming mat and plenty of room for peoples snacks, books and such.

Anyway, I see no issue with a 15 inch laptop. If it didn't sound like the guy was on a budget from the original post, I'd have recommended a 17 inch laptop. For brands, I really like Asus... been doing business with them for years and haven't had a problem with the the laptop I bought for myself or the one I bought for my brother and his family that were from Asus. Love their motherboards for the desktop also.
 
If your willing to spend a little.
You can get a nice Dell Inspiron 13 7000 series 2-in-1
Comes with 6th generation i7
12Gb ram
512 SSD
Windows 10

It's about 850 which it's very good
I use this for gaming and it works wonders.
I also open a lot of PDF files while running my pathfinder games since I have the books also in PDF format

I got mine last year,
8GB and only 256 SSD
 
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