Re: Small Talk
Business management? Would you have a need for a full-sized keyboard? The one I just bought has a Numpad, but I can't recommend that one for games.
Lets see... 512 MB of RAM is sufficent for Windows XP, not Vista. That parts okay. Integrated graphics uses 128 MB of system memory. I'd recommend a minimum of 256 MB for Windows, despite Microsoft's recommendation of 128. So that would leave 128 MBs free for other programs to use. You could probably manage Heroes IV, Starcraft, Dom3, Civ3, and the Gimp. For sanity's sake, though, I'd recommend settling for no less than a gigabyte RAM. If you let say, compusa handle it, you can get an extra gigabyte of ram for $69. That's not my style, but no need for me to get in a rant about retailers, least not here.
Heroes V will require 512 Megabytes of RAM free. Starcraft 3? I don't know, but I doubt it. Civ 4, to my surprise, asks for 512 MB.
The integrated graphics here will do some work, but I have to say no on that. It's an irrelevant brand(for gamers, at least), with some performance issues. If you were pinching pennies with integrated graphics, I'd look for the name ATI or Nvidia somewhere on the graphics, which are know for designing graphics architectures. A separate graphics card may still be best, but with ATI and Nvidia, you can get good performance and quality for most (read not First Person Shooters or Supreme Commander) games.
The lithium-ion is a good thing to have in a battery. The wireless networking is built in, which is very good, since it's one less thing to break/lose/haul around. Wireless b/g is a pretty common format, so that's good.
I will say this in that systems favor- off the top of my head, looking at the brand names only (VIA), I have to guess that system will have a significantly above average battery life.
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