Laptop for poker

I wouldn't ever play poker on a laptop screen unless I'm travelling/"on the road".

If you need more mobility (are you bringing laptop to uni, holidays, you name it?), then get a smaller. If you don't need mobility and your laptop will be more like a lean desktop-with-flexibility then the larger one is fine.

But... one way or the other, I find it pretty mandatory to plug a decent monitor to your laptop. Nowadays, at least a 23' - albeit a 19' already helps a lot. It's not that expensive, especially if you buy used. A used 19' monitor nowadays costs next to nothing, and with a laptop you can expand your working area across the two screens (i.e,. have 4 to 6 tables on the 19' and 2-4 more on the laptop screen).

Processor I don't find to be important at all. Any dual core should do for poker. Ram is good but you don't need tons - I have 4Gb and am very happy. The only thing I'd recommend if you have the extra buck is an SSD. This helps a lot, especially once you start to get a pretty large database.

You can't really tile 6 tables at a 17'' screen. Your eyes are going to get destroyed, especially if you are planning to play 8h per day. If you are going to stack them, then everything will be ok and the size of the screen won't really matter.

From these laptops you posted, I would choose the first. 3tb is such a waste and 8gb ram isn't even comparable to 4gb.

Imo, buy the first laptop and get an additional screen (anything above 17'' will be fine). Also, make sure that the laptop has a ssd drive, since hm2 and pt4 require a really fast drive.

SSD really doesn't matter. The main difference of an SSD is when launching programs from the hard disk. But with 8gb of ram most programs will load super quick.

The hands are pre loaded from HM2 anyway, from then on it's just recording new hands. SSD costs way more than it's worth

Originally posted by bennisboy
SSD really doesn't matter. The main difference of an SSD is when launching programs from the hard disk. But with 8gb of ram most programs will load super quick.

The hands are pre loaded from HM2 anyway, from then on it's just recording new hands. SSD costs way more than it's worth

I agree. Also, if the laptop is just for playing poker, really doesn't have to be super strong and expensive. Any average and decent laptop will bi fine because poker applications aren't that resource consuming as some other programs (e.g. games). 4 GB of RAM, some average dual core processor even 1.2 or such will be just fine for running HEM2 and poker applications.

Anyway, I would never buy laptop for playing poker. Rather some nice desktop computer with good and wide screen (I use 23 inched), or two screens if you want. If the mobility is important to you, it's another story.

Originally posted by bennisboy
SSD really doesn't matter. The main difference of an SSD is when launching programs from the hard disk. But with 8gb of ram most programs will load super quick.

The hands are pre loaded from HM2 anyway, from then on it's just recording new hands. SSD costs way more than it's worth

Interesting to know this. Have you tested it yourself? Because every report I had until now was that an SSD improved HM2's performance quite noticeably, especially when navigating through different reports etc. There is a member from the PT comu who uses HM2 and just got an SSD and he was quite astonished by how much faster HM2 was.

I can't speak for HM2 as I use PT4. For PT4, even with a database as small as some 200k, the performance difference I found was immense. Importing hands is twice as fast, the hud loads and works much faster (more noticeable in zoom/speed/rush), and navigating through the data and reports is so much faster. Before, it took several seconds to load a graph or a report with too many hands in it. With the SSD, it takes literally one or two seconds. All that not to mention database maintenance, cleanups, backups and whatnot - which with the SSD are silent and lightning fast.

Just to share my experience.

I have a dual 2.2ghz core laptop with 4gb ram and a 5400rpm hard disk.

For the hud I'm using HM2 since I'm playing speed poker but for the session reviews, the graphs etc I'm using HM1. The time that it takes for HM1 to do these things isn't even comparable to the time that HM2 takes. When I'm trying to load any graph or report on HM2 everything on my laptop starts to lag really bad, while with HM1 everything runs smoothly. As for PT4, I downloaded the trial and after about 10000 hands the hud just stopped working and generally the program was lagging so bad that it was impossible to use it anymore.

Is it just the screen size? There are bigger laptops with wider screens out there...you might struggle to see 6 tables but you can always hook it up to a nice wide screen where ever you are if that is available..

If you are just staying at home I wouldn't buy a laptop. Rather buy a proper computer in stead. It'll be hard to play 6 tables on a laptop. Well it's easy if you don't mind them overlapping each other.

If you really want a laptop and don't want the tables to overlap I guess you'll need an external screen.

Regards

RasTweet

I play on a laptop.. (only type of computer i own at the moment... desktop is forever broken).

I would suggest getting the biggest screen possible. Mine is 19" and i can barely see 4 tables on my screen at once lol...

I usually play on a laptop myself. Though mine was custom built and has a relatively large screen.

For me it is possible to play 6 tables on just my laptop, but it's quite difficult. Four tables is easy because my screen is relatively large, but I always prefer playing on my external monitor anyway if I'm playing more than 2 tables, because it's just so much easier to see everything.

If you want to multitable on a laptop, I think that's perfectly fine. But in that case, I think an external monitor is pretty much a requirement, as people before me have pointed out already. Playing too many tables on a relatively small screen can get you tired pretty quickly.

The best is to have exteronal monitor, at least 23 inch. Good to play 12 tables with no overlap.

I'm not that technical but buy the best computer you can afford with the largest screen. You don't want to be playing 8h a day on a tiny screen. Look for some ideas online and maybe you'll find what you want and can order it at a decent price. Hope this helps, good luck!

Does it have to be a laptop?

If you are running HM2 or PT4 get LOTS of RAM, and a quad core CPU.

Also, get an external monitor -- one that your computer's video hardware can run at the monitors native resolution.

If you are not tied to the laptop idea, then having an SSD for your HM2/PT4 database will really help speed things up.

Cheers,
--VS

I'll back having tons of RAM and SSD hard-drive for HEM2 and PT4. These two programs just take up so many resources. To much IMO.

Hi, I play on 17' laptop. I'm 6 tabling at Microgaming, but 6 tables are the maximum imo.

Poker does not need a powerful laptop. Suffice ACER CHROMEBOOK 15 CB5-571-C1DZ . It can be easy to play poker

Originally posted by vondes
Poker does not need a powerful laptop. Suffice ACER CHROMEBOOK 15 CB5-571-C1DZ . It can be easy to play poker

Is this a troll

I just bought a chromebook for my studies. But you can't play poker with it. It has Chrome OS so no support for poker clients or tracking software or anything.

Personally I would pick budget laptop + good monitor any day of the week over okey/great laptop. If you will be taking poker serious, starring at laptop screen all day you will have eye strain problems, blurry vision, teary eyes and all those other fun problems which come with grinding... I can speak from personal experience as I used both budget and high end gaming machines.