Help me build a mobile gaming rig.

Sonar

And by mobile, I mean the definition.

I have embarked on a career as an over the road truck driver. While I sit at truck stops waiting for haul orders, I can either go back to my gaming roots or entertain the local prostitutes. Since I'm not big on cheating on the girlfriend and venerial disease I'm going to try to put together a gaming rig.

I'm starting from square one. I need a decent gaming laptop and a way to have an Internet connection that is stable enough to game over anywhere in the country.

Any advice appreciated.

Dark Shroud

For internet you might want to look at a MiFi.

http://www.engadget.com/tag/mifi/

ender wiggin

Also consider SSD drivers because the platters in a typical harddrive may be destroyed over time by the vibrations of a truck. Also they use less power and energy which means more game time. On my Macbook pro switching to SSD I've seen about 20% more battery life.

yalborap

I assume the option of grabbing yourself a DS and/or PSP, and possibly a mifi-esque device if you want online play, has been ruled out for various reasons already?

If not, that might work better for you.

Dark Shroud

Here's the thing, if you want a strong laptop you're going to pay $1k+ for it. You can build a small tower that you can lug around with for much cheaper.

This is just a rough start until you give us some needed info.

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154094

CPU & Mobo:
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.246589 <- not threaded
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.246576 <- threaded

Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231180

ronya

You need to say what games you intend to play on it, so we can spec for appropriate performance.

1ddqd

Or get the X58 chipset Shuttle - if you can do $1300, you can get a complete rig.

However, if your cab is like most I've been in (uncle is a cross-country driver) then you *need* a laptop, no matter what.

All I can say is good luck - look for something with a HIGH-END mobile graphics processor. Does your truck have an available plug or do you have to run off inverters?

Phoenix Smasher

I've been behind the wheel of a big rig for the last 2 and a half years. I keep a DS and PSP handy, laptops just get too hot and drain the batteries on the truck when I could be using it to keep the food cold in my fridge. For my laptop I have one of these:

I pay $60 a month for unlimited and as long as I'm near an interstate or a decent sized town I get broadband speeds on it.

Daedalus

Dark Shroud wrote: »

Here's the thing, if you want a strong laptop you're going to pay $1k+ for it. You can build a small tower that you can lug around with for much cheaper.

This is just a rough start until you give us some needed info.

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154094

CPU & Mobo:
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.246589 <- not threaded
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.246576 <- threaded

Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231180

You could also go with a MicroATX motherboard and case, since space is an issue. They make MicroATX boards with very capable chipsets these days; it's not as bad as it once was. There's a whole bunch of P55 (Intel i5) boards in that size, for instance.

Sonar

Thanks for the replies.

I definatly want to go laptop. I have considered strapping my pc on foam cushions but the power supply itself pulls 900 watts. I don't think the truck can handle that.

Game wise, it needs to handle modern games playably. Minimum TF2 but that's a bottom barrel spec. I want to play stuff like Arma 2, Total War: Napolean, and other high processor games.

Ive never heard of mifi, I've been looking for a few weeks and never come across it. I'll look for it.

Concerning SSD: would it be better to wait for the new drives
with the memory trimming protocals to come out or is the gain in speed negligable. Games tend to need to read the hard drives faster than other uses. But with the expense should I go ahead and wait? After all, the laptop is going to have enough damagble parts vunerable to shocks, like fans and disk drives, is a spinning platter going to add that much risk?

Projected budget: including mounting hard ware and all odds and ends is 2.5k

Dark Shroud

If you're set on a laptop then I would suggest just getting a dell XPS/Alienware with a Quad Core and at least 4 gigs of ram. Blu-ray might be something to look into, if you do make sure the screen can do full 1080p video.

WraithXt1

Get yourself a Clevo D900f! AKA the Sager 9820. It sports a desktop class i7 of your choice, I have the 920, up to 12 gigs of ddr3, has THREE drive bays, and comes stock with a 280m graphics card.

I love mine to death, it's blazing fast and tears through anything I throw at it!

bobmyknob

Also look at Asus' high-end laptops. Similar specs to a lot of the Alienware stuff but a lot cheaper.

corky842

Quick link to your other thread.

Sonar

Yeah I remade the thread given the time difference between them.

From that thread the o ly thing I can really comment on is the trackball whic does work well, I have the very same model, but it's not USB and is older than dirt.

How about this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220550

if that looks good, is there a better place to look for price?

corky842

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5019774&CatId=2289

$1650
+ smaller
+ $550 cheaper
+ This one is actually in stock. :P

- less RAM (4GB vs 6GB), and 4gb is the max for that laptop
- no blu-ray reader, but were you really planning on watching blu-rays?
- smaller battery (6-cell vs 8-cell), not that it really matters with a laptop that power-hungry
- lower resolution (1900x1080 vs 1900x1200)
- no backpack, but good laptop cases are under $100

I would get that one and spend the rest on a trackball (if you want a USB model) and a good set of headphones (possibly an amp too).

Sonar

I'll take a look, thanks! I'd really like to knock off around 500$ off what I spend, this might be what I'm looking for.

Oh, in this case smaller is not a plus. It won't move out of the truck so it can be fairly large.

Feldorn

careful of the new i7 procs, they really suck the battery.

Sonar

I'm looking at that tiger direct laptop and I'm tempted but I've got two sticking points.

First is the 15 inch display. I don't think thats two much of a problem as it has an HDMI port I can just grab one of my 19 inch displays and mount it in the truck.

Second however is the amount of ram. I expect to game with his for at least two years. Is 4 gigs going to be enough?