Comfortable Laptop Gaming?

Yall

So my new laptop is lacking one key element in it's bid to become my default gaming rig: comfort.

What do you regular laptop gamers use as a setup? So far a desk and mouse seem to work fine, but they totally defeat the purpose of having a laptop. I'd like to game on my couch but it usually involves having the mouse on a magazine or putting a board across my lap to set the computer and mouse on. It's unwieldy and makes me want to go play my 360, when in reality I want to play a PC game.

So what do you do?

The Dude With Herpes

desk. I used to use the laptop keyboard with a wireless mouse but with my current setup my laptop is too far out of the way to use the keyboard on it so I had to get a new keyboard to attach to it. I did this because I use my laptop as my main gaming pc and I have it hooked up to my new 28in monitor.

It works well, more or less like a desktop PC that I can pick up and take to school or wherever with me.

I wouldn't fret too much about not doing it "right" with a laptop and gaming. It's really not ideal or comfortable to be sitting on a couch with a laptop in your lap for any remotely lengthy gaming sessions. I only do this if im in a situation where there's no table/desk like surface I can use.

The only times I use my lap for my "lap"top is when I am just doing something quick like e-mail or taking notes. With a gaming laptop they're actually not intended to be used on the lap, they're desktop replacements you can travel with.

slash000

I thought about this once.

They make little tables that you set on your lap for your laptop to go onto. But that might not be sufficient for keyboard+mouse gaming.

So I imagine that what I would do is set the laptop on my coffee table (which is right in front of my couch), and get a wireless keyboard and mouse, and use a laptop table and use the KBAM on that. Maybe.


What I have done a lot, though, is have my laptop hooked up to the TV and surround sound and used a PS2->USB connector to play it from my couch. But that's only ideal for games that work well with game pads (Assassin's Creed, DMC4, stuff like that I guess)

Something else I thought of was having the laptop hooked up to TV/Surround sound and then using the wireless KBAM I have, but having it set up on a little fold-up table (like for TV dinner scenarios) and use the KBAM on that from the couch. Haven't tried it though.

Khavall

Bwahahahahahahahaha.


Gaming
Laptop
Comfort.


The comfortable way of using a gaming laptop is using a desktop with a comfortable chair.

Look, one of the main reasons any time anyone is looking for a gaming laptop we try to steer them clear is because if a laptop is suitable for gaming, it's going to be exceptionally heavy, run really hot, and go obsolete really fast. There's a certain degree of comfort you're just not going to get with a "gaming laptop"

Yall

It almost seems as though the gaming gods are issuing me some type of challenge.

Hmmm...

edit: I understand what everyone seems to be saying and that isn't meant as an "FU", but I have to believe there is some solution.

slash000

Khavall wrote: »

Bwahahahahahahahaha.


Gaming
Laptop
Comfort.


The comfortable way of using a gaming laptop is using a desktop with a comfortable chair.

Look, one of the main reasons any time anyone is looking for a gaming laptop we try to steer them clear is because if a laptop is suitable for gaming, it's going to be exceptionally heavy, run really hot, and go obsolete really fast. There's a certain degree of comfort you're just not going to get with a "gaming laptop"

There are plenty of ways to make it comfortable. Some people need laptops, so if they get one, even low-end ones are perfectly capable of playing classic PC games, and even some semi-modern ones, at least all the way up to Unreal Engine 2.

I have a laptop that is almost a year and a half old. Dual Core, 2 gigs of fast ram, 256 meg videocard. Runs Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3 and Devil May Cry 4 and Ghost Recon Adv. Warfighter and Orange Box and BioShock and Spore and Bionic Commando and COD4 all just fine. I even played Assassin's Creed on it, although I had to run in medium quality settings.

The laptop has a 13" screen and is just under 5 pounds in weight. It has a 7 hour battery life on low power settings, 6 hours with screen dim and wifi on, and 5 hours with screen bright and wifi up. That's not playing games though of course but doing typical computer tasks. I always play games with the thing plugged into power outlets.


I game on this thing when I take breaks on the school campus. Between classes, have lunch, maybe an hour or two off, why not play a few rounds of Unreal Tournamen 3? Get through another assassination in A's Creed? Solve a few Portal puzzles? It's great.

At home, I often hook up the laptop to a 32" screen and surround sound. Very quick and easy to do with my setup. I have a wireless KBAM that I can play on a nearby table with the comfort of any regular KBAM setup.



I don't recommend laptop gaming because it gets expensive. Very expensive. But it's not impossible to have a portable yet capable machine with comfort.




Honestly, though, if someone HAS a laptop, and it's light and portable, at the very LEAST they can play classic / older PC games, because even mediocre spec'd machines can usually run all the way up to Unreal Engine 2 very easily, and even some more modern games. So no matter what kind of laptop you have, no matter what specs or how old, there are alway some ways to make it entertaining, even if you're not playing the latest bleeding edge stuff.

And for that reason thread questions like the OPs here are perfectly legit. If you had a laptop, wouldn't you put something fun on it, even if it didn't run brand new stuff?


Hm. I think I'll go reinstall Duke 3D on this one later today.. with the source port...

The Dude With Herpes

There is nothing wrong with gaming laptops despite khavall's unreasonable opinion. He's taking it upon himself to use the term "we" as if the forum is against the idea; when I think you'd find a large number of people with gaming laptops that think quite the opposite.

yes, they're more expensive, but not heavily so anymore; you're paying for the convenience of being able to take it anywhere.

And as I already said, the best way to use it is a desktop replacement that's also very portable. It's not actually meant to be used in the lap.

Rook

I just sit in bed and put it on my knees.

And really, 8600M GTs will play anything out there and they're very cheap.