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Dell's World of Warcraft Laptop
Psychor writes "Dell has released a high specification new laptop complete with World of Warcraft branding (Horde and Alliance versions available). With a starting price of $4,499 it's not cheap, but does feature SLI graphics and AGEIA PhysX technology (a laptop first). RAID and solid state storage are also options." Unfortunately for purchasers, the laptop won't boot on tuesday mornings until early afternoon, and some days you just won't be able to log in.
Given that World of Warcraft used to run just fine on my old P4 2.0ghz with 512 RAM and a Geforce 4, why on earth would I want to spend such a ludicrous sum of money on a laptop to play it with? I know that Burning Crusade was a little harder on systems than the original game and that Lich King is likely to be slightly more so, but we're still not talking about a game on the cutting edge of technology here. Even cheap, off-the-peg PCs bought in the last two or three years should be able to run it just fine. World of Warcraft relies more on design than technology for its visual appeal.
Crysis? Sure, I can see that people could need an expensive upgrade to play that (I know I would - although after playing the first 2 hours, I'm not convinced the game is worth it)... but not World of Warcraft.
That said, I can see some redeeming value here, provided they design it so that the Horde laptop randomly crashes and reboots, mysteriously formats your hard drive at regular intervals, sends filthy e-mails to your mother and electrocutes your dog.
For that price it should come with a lifetime subscription. Actually, it might just be cheaper to switch to meth.
Wow plays fine on my current machine, and it would be nice to play it on a laptop, but for $4500.00 I can pay a sherpa to carry my desktop where ever I go.
~Liberalism Is A Mental Disorder~
LEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY'S laptop!
(click here if you didn't get it)
Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
"I'm going to die broke, and a virgin!"
It's the Internet, and your crappy ad-farm doesn't own the news story. Don't be so butthurt.
Unfortunately for purchasers, the laptop won't boot on tuesday mornings until early afternoon, and some days you just won't be able to log in.
That was great.
I agree with RogueWon, this is insane overkill. I play World of Warcraft all the time, in end game raids with 25 people easy. This laptop is definitely not worth the cost. The laptop is nice but if you wait 6 months the same laptop will be half the price. This is a situation where it's like someone paying $5000 for a purse just because it's made by Gucci.
There's no reason other than bragging rights and honestly in computer games, It doesn't matter at all.
Given that it basically comes with both collectors editions (either of which can fetch upwards of 1200-1500$ on ebay), as well as a beta ticket for upcoming betas, this is a pretty good deal. I wish I could afford it. Not just for WoW either, with a physics accelerator and the SLI'd graphics this a pretty beastly desktop replacement.
Anyone know what sort of battery life this thing gets? : p
This guy's the limit!
I know plenty of gamers that play WoW and other games. Its aimed for those people who need more than what can run WoW to run newer games. Just a gimick to try to sell more gaming laptops even though playing games on laptops is horrible.
Egads, this is getting rediculous. Eventually they'll start selling the Warcraft car, the Warcraft home, and even the Warcraft refrigerator, so you never have to give up your Warcraft addition for pesky things like driving to the grocery store or having a life.
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
Are you kidding me? I like Dell's cheap machines and love Warcraft, but if you wanted to sell a lot of them, they wouldn't price them so high. You're trying to sell these to gamers not investment bankers. Way overpriced.
I think it boils down to which battery was used. Sony batteries are obviously from the goblins.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
As noted above, no ad-whoring hardware news site owns the internet. I happened to hear of this on Engadget. Considering the site you linked just posted the story this morning, I doubt the submitter actually saw it there first.
Your brand new Dell laptop comes pre-installed with Blizzard's very own spyware.
WoW runs fine on my p4 with 768meg of ram, running Ubuntu Gutsy and wine...
Costs as much as an epic flying mount, fer chrissakes!
So, I run WoW on my MacBook Pro CoreDuo (not the Core 2 Duo), and it's graphics are all maxed out in options, and I still pull around 39fps. My laptop only cost me a $3,000.
Seriously, fully spec'd, that Dell WoW lappy maxes out at around $6400! WTF?
OK, this might be an in-joke for you WOW players, but, honestly
Strange random stuff shows up in summaries, but this is probably one of the more arcane ones.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Does it come with a WOW mouse? I guess it would look something like a hedgehog on steroids...
threadeds blog
Surely the countless hours you are going to spend playing the game should be spent on a desktop computer, not huddled round a laptop with a tiny mouse and keyboard?
Rather than just raid 0 drives, they also have an option for a 64GB Flash drive, and 200GB second hard drive. This looks like an interesting idea. Get the speed and power savings of a flash drive, and the second drive can spin up and store more when you need it to, then go back to sleep.
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
...they should have just released a WoW Special Edition P4 2.0ghz with 512 RAM and a Geforce 4 instead.
Makes perfect sense.
- Toby
Great, now WoW has people goldfarming IRL for this thing.
You're thinking of the Richard Stallman model.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Don't click the links in the parent - they redirect to a shock site that spawns a load of windows.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
the Sword of a Thousand Truths?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
The last challenge after getting any number of characters to level 70 for an old school RPG/CRPG/MMORPGer like myself is multiboxing. For the most part WOW is pretty dead easy. Its designed to be that way, very much like the original CRPGs.
The thing with multiboxing is that you can put together a team of two or more characters and run your own team; just like the old CRPG days. The challenge becomes in cooridination and reacting. Learning the ins and outs of the script and macro languages. Even learning how to get all your hardware to work together.
there are some who run ten at a time. I currently run three on an iMac just fine. Its loads of fun and learning to coordinate three completely different characters is quite the challenge.
Still, this notebook is really just a big buy in to future BETA testing. See that one little note buried in the features?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Dell has a Vostro for around $800 US right now which would play WoW very well.
Go here;
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/vostronb_1500?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~tab=bundlestab
Select the smart buy unit and customize the video card & select the 8600GT with 256MB of RAM. Bare in mind this is the DDR2 and not the DDR3 version, so it's not a super quick 8600GT but it's plenty fast for WoW.
The normal site has it for $729 right now. Corporate customers can get a better deal.
Take it to a 2.0Ghz dual core, 2GB RAM standard, the 7200 120MB HD, BlueTooth and the webcam -- a better gaming build, and you are just under $1000.
That's one hell of a deal for decent casual (not extreme) gaming machine..
One unfortunate customer reports that their WoW PvP laptop was smashed to bits by an enemy version that had removed all of its branding. The enemy unit was 'steathed' waiting at a local Starbucks.
Dell has announced that there will be no refunds, but users are encouraged to purchase another laptop and return the favor.
Blizzard has been dutifully deleting all posts on their forums that address this matter. Officially they have yet to comment.
I have never actually played WoW, but I have seen others playing it, and the graphics didn't look like they were all that intensive.. Does WoW really need the high end SLI graphics capabilities?
On that Dell laptop, what accounts for the ridiculous cost? The basic specs didn't look like anything exotic.. 160GB 7200RPM drive, 2GB RAM, 2.2GHz Core2Duo, not exactly pushing the limits with that.
The only exotic pieces were the SLI video, and the "physics accelerator". Would those two things really add $2,500 on to the price of a laptop?
How much does the damn thing weigh? I can't see that spec listed anywhere, but to have RAID, SLi cards (and their cooling requirements), etc can't make the thing portable. For a fraction of the cost of that, why not build a microATX PC in a case with a handle? With the remaining $4000 in difference, you can buy as many monitors and keyboards to leave anywhere you'd want to bring the thing.
today is spelling optional day.
So for Horde fans in this thread, is getting modded Troll a complement?
bye bye karma!
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
Right! We need physics acceleration for a game that doesn't even have hit-box collision... I think I'll keep playing on my dinosaur PC, thank you very much.
I can run WoW in 1680x1050/8xAA with *everything* turned on max and not drop a frame under 60fps for 99% of the game - worst I ever saw was 47 fps flying through a particularly dense part of Shattrath. My rig is a Q6600 (of which WoW will only use one core) and a single 8800GT - this laptop is more powerful than my system by a fair chunk, and on mine the fan never even comes on on the graphics card while playing it.
I wish they did more branding than just the cover though, seems a bit lame.
I just bought a laptop with the same specs (without SLI or PhysX) and it cost $1000... Does PhysX and SLI really warrant an additional investment of $3500?
games journalism blog
Yes there are much cheaper machines that can play WoW very well. But they aren't WoW 'branded'.
It's the same reason people pay 200+ dollars for a shirt, 500+ dollars for shoes.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Can someone with a little more hardware knowledge (which is everyone) tell me the price of an equivalent laptop without the WOW branding (if there is one)? How about if this was a desk top rather than a laptop?
I personally wouldn't blame EQ1 for the fault of someone dropping out of college 2 weeks before graduating. That is the fault of the person not having his/her head on straight in the first place. An MMO is no different then anything else people do in life for leisure, as anything can be taken to far if you don't know where to draw the line and keep control.
...where the real money from the game is made. World of Warcraft the T-shirt, World of Warcraft the Coloring Book, World of Warcraft the Lunch box, World of Warcraft the Breakfast Cereal, World of Warcraft the Flame Thrower... the kids love this one!
We'll make great pets
Dell XPS Laptop I customized to be as close as possible: $3,458.
Differences:
1. XPS has 400 GBs of space because basic is 120, WoW laptop is 160, and there was no middle ground.
2. WoW laptop has a "AGEIA(TM) PhysX(TM) Physics Accelerator", XPS has a "AGEIA PhysX(TM) 100M Processor".
3. XPS has a free recycling kit.
All in all, pretty darn close, specs-wise, considering that everything else is identical. The XPS actually pulls ahead in HD space.
So what do you get for your $1041? 17" HD widescreen notebook complete with World of Warcraft backpack
Illuminated speaker grills and faction specific Honor Badges
Back-lit keyboard stays awake as long as you can
Track your stats with the world's first built-in notebook Logitech® GamePanelTM LCD
Enhanced graphics with NVIDIA® SLITM technology and AGEIA PhysXTM Mobile TechnologyTM
Pre-loaded with World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade and all major game patches
Golden Ticket for a custom FigurePrintTM of your actual in-game World of Warcraft character with your actual armor and weapons
World of Warcraft Beta Club Key Card with a key to future World of Warcraft beta tests
World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade Collector's Edition Account Upgrade Certificates
Exclusive desktop background artwork and screensavers
Additional loot like a behind the scenes DVD, soundtrack, Warcraft novels, strategy guides, trading cards, etc Some paint, $50 of software, a "making-of" DVD + a gift package ($50 in books/cards, maybe?), a backpack, no idea what the figureprint is, a beta code, and, ooh, a screensaver!
Notably, you can cut off another ~$500 from the XPS if you don't bother getting adobe and "Ultimate" Vista (Home edition is included in price). There are a whole slew of other options you can cut that a real gaming machine doesn't necessarily need, the option to remove these isn't really available with the WoW laptop.
Sure you all can drive to work in your Ford Pintos, but I will drive my Nissan 350z. Both cars run, stop, haul your butt to work, basically accomplish the same task, but one of them looks a whole-hell-of-a-lot cooler. Oh and one is much faster too :)
WoW is so old that it doesn't take advantage of most new gaming PC technologies. Dual-core "support" was just added in the last patch, allowing about 10% of the second core to be used. SLI gives no tangible benefit in WoW at all, and actually degrades performance for some people.
Also, many people with decent PC's are reporting abysmal framerates in newer WoW content, while people with mediocre Macs have no performance problems at all. I'm forced to conclude that if you want a really good laptop for WoW, you should buy a Mac.
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
Would you blame the drug dealer for selling the cocaine that killed the student? It's a 2 way street.
Slashdot is too nerdy for me.
No one mentioned the custom Figurine. This done by figureprints.com with a 3d printer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUvqT4M1zNI
I saw this youtube video that seems to point out what it looks like. How much does this cost? I have to say this makes the deal to me. I don't even play WoW. But for someone super hard core, it'd be neat. Going to the FigurePrints.com says that they open Dec 11.
How exactly do you have 2 SLI video cards, and a RAID array in a laptop? Is it 4.5'' thick?
(-1, Night Elf)
Your mind is clear / The things that you fear / Will fade with how much you / Believe what you hear
---- what I meant to say was
My home system is an Athlonxp 2200, with a 6600GT. It's somewhat old, but was pretty much Just Fine when I was running at ~1024x768 resolution. I could get most graphical effects, shader stuff, and a good range of "vision". Last December, my family bought me a 24" widescreen LCD. Holy cow. I cannot play at lower than native resolutions. It's physically possible, but it's an assault on my eyes. Thus, I play at full resolution, but absolutely bare minimum graphical settings.
While this laptop is surely overkill (and I'm sure any recent laptop would do Just Fine), there's a reason to have all the bells and whistles.
Hence, SLI and PhysX. (I didn't know WoW could even use PhysX?)
a specially-branded "second life" E-machine desktop.
/lol, /rude )
(
Gonna' have to disagree with you there. EVE Online is pretty hard on the resources, especially with the expansion patch that is being rolled out today. The creators of EVE realize that their player-base isn't going to come close to WOW (I think they have only 200,000 registered accounts right now), so the experience is what they go in for. The release going out today, called Trinity, is a completely revemped graphics engine.
Trinity Homepage: http://www.eve-online.com/trinity/index.html.
Now I know somebody's gonna' say "EVE is nothing like WOW or LOTRO!". True, is caters to the Sci-Fi fan and not the fantasy fan, it is an incredibly beautiful game, requires a lot of patience, has the biggest virtual universe of any other MMO and the average player-age is 27. Not 15.
But it's still an MMO and the creators still rely on the monthly subscriptions from their player-base. So they make the game player-friendly, while at the same time push the limits of many machines vid cards & ram.
I gave up religion for Lent.
Can you let me out now anyway ? I'm nearly 38 now.
--
your son
I spotted a Toshiba docking station in a store last night that appeared to only connect via a single USB but offered a plethora of ports including VGA out. Over USB it's not going to be very high performance but the idea has made it to product form.
Give it a faster interconnect (proprietary or a new standard) and you might get something that can do 3D at a reasonable frame rate.
"Algebraical symbols are used when you don't know what you are talking about" - BCS
In other news, Randy Marsh was quoted as saying:
"This is the best laptop in the world..... of Warcraft."
I lol'd, but unfortunately for you somebody who doesn't play WoW decided to use their mods points in a WoW article's comments.
FigurePrint Demo
This blog says that you'll also get a special in-game pet. Those who don't play WoW don't understand how much value people put on such things. Many people buy blizzcon tickets ($100) each year just to collect the in-game pet from that year.
Free unix account: freeshell.org
Jeez, If I am going to spend that much on a laptop, at least give me a unique in-game reward that lets me show off to the other fan boys. Like maybe a full set of S3 arena gear!
...But I digress. TREMBLE PUNY HUMANS!ONE DAY MY SPECIES WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!
I have several systems at home including two which have dual 8800 768MB cards, 4 gigs of ram and are pretty much decked out all around. One I built myself and the other is a first generation Dell H2C. Sure I can run WoW on the others and it's not half bad but nothing beats the frame rates and overall experience I get out of those two beasts. I'm able to go all out at resolution, texture, shading and everything on a 24" widescreen giving me a much better experience when compared to standard machines. Also, I've never had to worry about my FPS when killing Gruul and other large raids.
It's certainly not necessary but I consider those systems luxury items much like tricked out a cars, boats and other hobby items. In terms of selling or buying such a system solely for WoW, at a glance it does sound silly but I wonder how many people have purchased high-end machines at this price level simply for the ultimate WoW experience? I mean c'mon haven't you ever heard of someone doing something silly for or because of WoW? I personally know of 3 in the past 6 months that bought high-end Alienware or Falcon Northwest laptops solely for WoW. Granted the cost and portability was at least in part so they could hide it from their wives but WoW was still the primary driver.
That's just my POV... no more, no less.
Hehe, "As low as $135 a month".
I think they mean $149.95 a month".
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
It always amazes me that in "World of Warcraft" so many "inventions" have "ultra-safe" in their titles but are anything but that. If I saw an "Ultra-Safe Laptop Battery", I'd be scrambling for the bubble hearth.
Specs are pretty much double of what is needed to actually play the game. "Graphics so cartoonish, you'll think you're reading a comic book." Seems like they should of marketed it as a Crysis computer or something.
Who has $4500 to spend on a laptop, and is so obsessed with a computer game that they want it stamped all over their computer???
Whoever you are... when I grow up, I do NOT want to be like you!!!
My bicyles
See subject. How about I sell you a set of sparkplugs for your diesel car as well!
Would you blame Comcast, Comedy Central, HBO, Cartoon Network & the studios that pump out TV show DVD box sets for the lazy sack of crap that fails out of college because he'd rather sit on his duff watching TV than go to classes or study?
Likening cocaine to video games is a ridiculous comparison. In cases where someone drops out of school 2 weeks before graduation because they'd rather play a video game, it is most definitely NOT a 2-way street - 100% of the blame lies on the kid, not the game.
Just once I'd like someone to call me 'Sir' without adding 'You're making a scene.'
...lunchbox. Next?
Plus the largest demographic of players are housewives.
Quite frankly, who wants to spend there life at a job?
Interesting. I remember when a WoW player tried to steal a guild I created from me, using gkick to kick everyone out and trying to trick me into making him GM, and using his officer ability to take 1 gold from the guild bank. Then, he said "If you can't win at WoW, you'll never win at life."
It's a game, people. If you can level to 70 in six days, you have no life.
Meanwhile, in the real world, people actually do things, not just play games.
But, online at night, it does seem to be a lot of housewives.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I made that mistake when i bought 2 7500GTX's last year. WOW is right, 500$ wasted on a second nic that doesnt help WOW at all.
If you play on a PVP server and get ganked, your laptop dies.
(I didn't know WoW could even use PhysX?)
Cool! I can't wait to see how awesome it will look when I explode the catapults now.
World of Relative Hostility Craft has such low system requirements that a $4k priced pc is just so ridiculous sounding. I'm not a fan of FPS...but they tend to be the games that require a lot more from one's video card and processor and it would have made more sense to pick whatever FPS has the latest and popular'est engine right now. But of course what am I saying, it's Dell and their target audience is consumers who know that little johnny likes WoW and that their office has a bunch of Dell systems - so Dell must know what is best for me - right?
Ave Molech Setting
1. Mac Mini with higher scale monitor at educational discount - $600 plus $249.
2. Full install of all WoW expansions by a techie friend or servatron at the U Bookstore - $50 or free (depends).
3. Purchasing a 3D snowglobe of your WoW character from an obsessive biochem grad student - $100 or free (depends).
4. Realizing you have $4000 or more to pay goldfarmers and jerks who loot guild vaults so you have the twinkiest WoW experience - PRICELESS.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
That the WoW laptop includes an Ageia physics solution specifically for a game that doesn't support Ageia physics.
This is indeed a fine mechanism to separate the rich from their money.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
Gnomes, you mean.
Goblin Engineering fails less often.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
yay, hooray for hilarious summary writers!
Boo! to dell for fleecing rich people with too much spare time. well whatever, i guess if it's good for their stock, they can do it...
I think a lot of WoW players would be tricked by that hard drive option...
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
Self-absorbed hedonists like you are the reason the world's a mess. Try choosing to spend your non-essential income helping the disadvantaged and stop justifying your excess by comparing your luxury expenses to the addictive need of a "crackhead".
When goblin devices do fail however, they tend to go boom. None of my devices have ever killed me directly. I've been shrunk at inoportune moments, or my transporter has beamed me a couple hundred feet in the air and i didnt have my parachute cloak equipped, but its not like reloading a goblin mortar.
As a side note, i wonder what percentage of slashdotters who play have engineering as their profession despite it being a complete money sink.
And what i wouldnt give for an epic [Engineer's belt of the Bat], with like 3 extra useable trinket slots...
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Just add one of these babies http://tinyurl.com/mdryu (Verizon Wireless)and presto you can play WoW at your children's graduations, weddings, sports events and at work, during sex, meals, funerals...
Thanks to eating disorders most chicks are reasonably good looking these days.
Think of the gnome soccer! :D
(I play alliance, but even I crack up at that idea.)
The backfire effects from goblin engineering deal damage to you.
The backfire from gnomish devices can kill you instantly. No damage.
provided you have any bandages or potions or some other ability to heal yourself, you can survive any backfire from goblin engineering.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
I am really big into LAN gaming. I havent been able to find a Laptop suitable for hardcore pc gaming. Maybe this is the one for hardcore pc gamers. I hope to see the new Dell Pc at the huge Lan party in my city at the end of decemeber http://www.extremelankc.com/
Wish I had kids...
http://www.gamertex.com/ and other gold selling sites have already announced that they will be giving these away to customers as soon as they can get their hands on them. Match made in heaven for marketers!