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Showal
10-20-2010, 08:22 PM
I am in the market for a new computer but I don't do anything but use word and excel. I surf the internet a bit and play gs here and there. However, I'm interested in Civ V. Any netbooks powerful enough to handle this? If so, is it even worth it with the reduced screen size?
phantasm
10-20-2010, 08:53 PM
Here's what I came up with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115856
NocturnalRob
10-20-2010, 08:56 PM
Do you find that Acer produces quality laptops? I've never used one before. Just curious.
Showal
10-20-2010, 09:01 PM
[QUOTE=phantasm;1188969]Here's what I came up with:

[url]

I'll likely go for something a little nicer than that if I can not find a powerful enough netbook. Thank you though.

I am also interested in the quality of Acer products.
phantasm
10-20-2010, 10:18 PM
My ACER has been marvelous, perfect union of quality and price.

All laptops are manufactured in Taiwan then combined with a few little things like memory, harddrive, dvd drive and rebranded to dell, ibm, etc...

ACER spun off its manufacturing business awhile back but I imagine they still have pretty close ties and this is how they get such good quality components with great prices.
NocturnalRob
10-20-2010, 10:25 PM
For the price, it seems a much better deal than Dell or HP. Do you sacrifice quality (or customer service) to get that kind of deal?

In your opinion, obviously.
phantasm
10-20-2010, 10:34 PM
I've never had to call the customer service so I can't really say.
Showal
10-20-2010, 10:47 PM
I guess what I'm asking is whether or not the processors typically used in netbooks (such as the Intel Atom) are powerful enough to handle Civ V.
Gelston
10-20-2010, 10:58 PM
I got a Toshiba netbook, It couldn't run Civ 4 too well, so likely not 5
Bobmuhthol
10-20-2010, 11:24 PM
Did Civ 4 have a specific netbook settings option? Civ 5 does, and if it doesn't, some game that I have does and I am obviously confused...
BigWorm
10-21-2010, 12:14 AM
If you are going to play games on your netbook, you need to skip the crappy Intel graphics chipsets and get a netbook with an Ion/Ion2 chipset like this Asus 1201 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220760). You are going to pay a little bit more, but your gaming experience will be many many many times better. This has the added bonus of letting you play 1080p video and HDMI out.
Bobmuhthol
10-21-2010, 12:22 AM
1366x768 is 1920x1080 now?
BigWorm
10-21-2010, 12:59 AM
1366x768 is 1920x1080 now?

HDMI out
Bobmuhthol
10-21-2010, 01:01 AM
Do you know if the netbook's HDMI carries audio too? That would be something.
BigWorm
10-21-2010, 01:14 AM
Do you know if the netbook's HDMI carries audio too? That would be something.

My Ion nettop does HDMI audio out no problem in Linux, so I'd be really surprised if it didn't work on netbooks with Windows.

Also being able to play 1080p source files even on the limited resolution of the netbook is nice for people like me who are too lazy to re-encode shit. Especially since the Intel graphics on my eeepc can't even do 720p well which is basically as close to native resolution for a netbook as you will get for typical video files.
Showal
10-21-2010, 09:03 AM
If you are going to play games on your netbook, you need to skip the crappy Intel graphics chipsets and get a netbook with an Ion/Ion2 chipset like this Asus 1201 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220760). You are going to pay a little bit more, but your gaming experience will be many many many times better. This has the added bonus of letting you play 1080p video and HDMI out.

So, this is actually pretty awesome. This computer is just about everything I need and nothing I don't.

I'm actually looking at the ASUS 1215 (http://www.amazon.com/Seashell-1215N-PU17-SL-12-1-Inch-Netbook-Silver/dp/B0041G5XII/ref=pd_ybh_3?pf_rd_p=280800601&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_t=1501&pf_rd_i=ybh&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1X1AF3GB40GP4060JFYZ) which looks like the same thing, but with dedicated video memory.

So this really would play Civ V with little problem? Would it be worth upgrading the system memory to 4GB at some point in the future?
Showal
10-21-2010, 10:34 AM
Would the performance of something like this be worth the difference in money?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115880&cm_re=timeline-_-34-115-880-_-Product

It has the i5 processor, more system RAM, but no dedicated video card.
joehollywood
10-24-2010, 10:14 PM
my advice would be to just steer clear of civ5

it's an inferior product to civ4, and so far, the weakest and least "complete" civ game upon launch.

it's pretty, so if you're looking for eye candy, you can disreguard.

as for playability, the AI is beyond a joke and it's an overwhelmingly disapointing barf-fest.