Looking to get a gaming laptop

[AKinNC]

As my first post, I hope that I'm doing it in the right place...Mods, if I'm not, please move it to where it should be.

I am looking to buy a gaming notebook in the near future. I want something with very good graphics ability, and I will explain what games I am playing later on. I'm getting ready to go back to Iraq, and this machine will be my sanity in my downtime.

The games I am going to install are: Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights II, The Hereos of Might and Magic V series, and other older titles. I also want to install some older pinball games that I have had for years and still enjoy. Elder Scrolls IV is a graphics hog, and on my home PC, I have to run it on low graphics mode because my graphics card is not good enough. I did see a sneak preview of the graphics in high and ultra high mode, and it blew my mind. However, if I do that on my home PC, the frame rate is beyond abominable.

I am looking at an alienware system right now. It is a little expensive, but if it runs these programs well, it will be worth it. I am going to describe the specs of the system and hopefully all of you smart people out there can answer some questions based on my info.

Processor: AMD Turon 2.2 Ghz
Ram: 2 GB DDR
Hard Drive: 100 GB (7200 RPM, 8 MB cache)
Video Card: 2x512 MB NVida GeForce Go 7900 GS (SLI) (1 GB total)

1. Is the AMD chip good for gaming or should I be looking at an Intel set?
2. Is that video configuration good for my gaming wants?
3. Do I need more HD storage? (I was looking at speed)
4. Is that processor fast enough?
5. Installing and playing older games---will they run OK on newer and much faster systems than what they were designer for?

Sorry if any of the questions seem dumb. I know some things about computers, but not enough. I appreciate any help you all can give me, either on this thread or via PM.

Thanks again.

 

[freestyler105]

1 - That should be fine. If you really want to go all out, get a Core 2 Duo though.

2 - Hell yeah, that's awesome, especially for a laptop.

3 - Only if you think you'll use more storage. 100 gigs is a lot as long as your not saving a ton of DVDs, music, etc. on it.

4 - Yes.

5 - Yes, they will run fine.

 

[AKinNC]

1 - That should be fine. If you really want to go all out, get a Core 2 Duo though.

2 - Hell yeah, that's awesome, especially for a laptop.

3 - Only if you think you'll use more storage. 100 gigs is a lot as long as your not saving a ton of DVDs, music, etc. on it.

4 - Yes.

5 - Yes, they will run fine.

Thanks for the quick reply. Oblivion is playing horribly on my desktop. If I set the graphics to anything but very low, the frames pause seconds between movements. Not good for an action type game. My desktop has dual AMD Athlon 64 5000+ processor, 2 GB RAM, 320 GB HD, but the video card is an NVIDA GeForce 6150 LE, so I think that is what is slowing me down. I'm not sure what the memory capability is of the card off the top of my head. It is on an HP Pavilion Media Center running Windows Vista. I may just put in a better graphics card and see if that speeds up my frame rate, because Oblivion's graphics look out of this world on the ultra high detail mode.