I'm looking for advice on choosing a decent laptop that can allow me to run fs2004 without issues. I had planned on upgrading my desktop to a better desktop so I could finally run that copy of FSX that's been collecting dust on my shelf, but I'm heading back to school and I'm going to have to compromise for now. So a laptop is essential. My question is what kinds of things should I be looking for in a laptop that can give me the best performance for my buck (fs2004 or FSX). Let's say something that I could walk out of Best Buy with tomorrow. Regards

look here for gaming laptops...www.newegg.com What you need is a dedicated video card by either ATI or Nvidia with at least512mb of dedicated VRAM, not shared. Bestbuy generally carries only laptops with Intel GMA's which won't work well with FS9 or any game for that matter. Also find something faster than 2ghz CPU wise at the bare minimum. If you don't know which manufacturer or size you want just go to bestbuy and take a peak.

look here for gaming laptops...www.newegg.com What you need is a dedicated video card by either ATI or Nvidia with at least512mb of dedicated VRAM, not shared. Bestbuy generally carries only laptops with Intel GMA's which won't work well with FS9 or any game for that matter. Also find something faster than 2ghz CPU wise at the bare minimum. If you don't know which manufacturer or size you want just go to bestbuy and take a peak.

Thanks Veeray. I have looked at that site before. I will definitely check it out again.

What about something like this for fs9?:Acer TravelMate TimelineX TM8572G-7787 Notebook Intel Core i5 560M(2.66GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M

Definetly will run FS9 no problem.... It'll run FSX easily as well just not at very high slider settings.

Acer TravelMate TimelineX TM8572G-7787 Notebook Intel Core i5 560M(2.66GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M

That's a lot better than mine! My Toshiba Satellite L305D-S5934 is well past the end of it's performance life and recently has been running hotter than normal (avg. core temp: 68C to 78C. avg. core temp now: 80C to 103C. The chip is rated to 105C.)

That's a lot better than mine! My Toshiba Satellite L305D-S5934 is well past the end of it's performance life and recently has been running hotter than normal (avg. core temp: 68C to 78C. avg. core temp now: 80C to 103C. The chip is rated to 105C.)

I was looking at the Toshiba Satellite also because it is one of the few other laptops on newegg that has decent specs for under $1,000. I'm assuming yours is older though. The Acer is still the best I can find.

I have the Acer Aspire myself... awesome laptop. I can't speak for the Timeline but my system is ultra cool given the CPU and GPU power requirements. But that is the catch about gaming laptops they suck up a lot of juice very quickly.

I was looking at the Toshiba Satellite also because it is one of the few other laptops on newegg that has decent specs for under $1,000. I'm assuming yours is older though. The Acer is still the best I can find.

Toshiba has a good support site, but their computers run really hot and are not well ventilated. I got my Toshiba back in february of '09.

I swapped the RAM around and the CPU temp dropped 40 degrees! From idle 100C to 60C and now I rarely see the temp above 70C. I think I just added two more years to this thing's performance life.

that's good to hear.. I know a lot of people complain about their "hot" laptops...