Unreal Development Kit - Laptop Needed

KingBoogle

I really want to start playing around with the Unreal Development Kit and since both my computers are mac's I need to get a new (windows) laptop.

Epic give the following recommended specs:

Windows Vista 64 SP2
2.0+ GHz multi-core processor
8 GB System RAM
NVIDIA 8000 series or higher graphics card
Plenty of HDD space.

Can anyone point me in the direction of some laptops that would fulfill the requirements?

All advice gratefully received.

challengemaster

You probably could just use bootcamp for OS X and use it that way? If your macs aren't as old as the hills they should be capable for it.

_Kaiser_

KingBoogle wrote: »

I really want to start playing around with the Unreal Development Kit and since both my computers are mac's I need to get a new (windows) laptop.

Epic give the following recommended specs:

Windows Vista 64 SP2
2.0+ GHz multi-core processor
8 GB System RAM
NVIDIA 8000 series or higher graphics card
Plenty of HDD space.

Can anyone point me in the direction of some laptops that would fulfill the requirements?

All advice gratefully received.

I'd have to ask, why a laptop? One with that spec (as well as pretty hard to find) will cost you a fortune!

A desktop would be a lot cheaper, more upgradable and probably better for doing the type of work you want to on it?

KingBoogle

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

I'd have to ask, why a laptop? One with that spec (as well as pretty hard to find) will cost you a fortune!

A desktop would be a lot cheaper, more upgradable and probably better for doing the type of work you want to on it?

I realise that the desktop is the easy answer but thats not the solution I am looking for hence my posting looking for advice. If I was going looking for a desktop in this spec I wouldnt have needed to post looking for help.

_Kaiser_

KingBoogle wrote: »

I realise that the desktop is the easy answer but thats not the solution I am looking for hence my posting looking for advice. If I was going looking for a desktop in this spec I wouldnt have needed to post looking for help.

Fair enough.. only trying to help!

Cuddlesworth

KingBoogle wrote: »

I realise that the desktop is the easy answer but thats not the solution I am looking for hence my posting looking for advice. If I was going looking for a desktop in this spec I wouldnt have needed to post looking for help.

Your looking at about 2k-2.5k new for the laptop. You will want a extended warranty because heat failures will be much more common then on a normal laptop model. Any top of the range block of a gaming laptop will do, you could start with Alienware. Second hand will be difficult because of the worry of failure rates, the huge cost of sourcing parts for repair outside of warranty and the scarcity of these types of machines in the first place.

Desktop would be about 600-1k.

Like.......

KingBoogle

Thanks Cuddles, didn't think of the heating problems. Well pointed out.

As regards Alienware, I have looked at them, and while i would dearly love to get one. I am trying to find a more reasonable alternative. Though from what I have seen I keep coming back to alienware.

PS Have you seen the weight of the M17x holy crap! Not exactly portable. Though it still kicks ass.

demanufactured

go with windows 7 if you can , vista is a pc's worst nightmare...

KingBoogle

demanufactured wrote: »

go with windows 7 if you can , vista is a pc's worst nightmare...

Trust me I know it was the reason I went down the mac route

VenomIreland

I'm going to say what everyone else said, go down the desktop route.

You will have a lot of trouble finding a laptop with more than 4GB of RAM and even then, it will be much more expensive than it's desktop equivalent.

Cuddlesworth

KingBoogle wrote: »

PS Have you seen the weight of the M17x holy crap! Not exactly portable. Though it still kicks ass.

Because its full of desktop parts. You see you want pure power in a laptop and the first thing that laptops do is cut power to save space, heat, energy and cost. You will get processors that are the same model number as a desktop minus about 20-40% of the power, graphics cards with the M afterwords which should really say underpowered crap because of the severe downclocking of current desktop generation cards to allow it to work.

KingBoogle

Can you guys give me your opinions on this ?

Looks good to me, but I am no hardware expert.

Cheers once again for all your input btw

Cuddlesworth

Looks good, cpu is great, graphics card is good for what you want and ram will help.