Is it advisable to play pc games on laptop?

Question

I noticed that everytime I play games on my laptop -- the whole unit heats up. Then sometimes the system would simply freeze after a few hours of playing games. I have a Pentium 4 3.07Ghz laptop with 384mb of RAM and an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 IGP Graphics Card. What do you think is wrong? Do I need to upgrade my Graphics card? Or should I just instead used a normal desktop computer to play those PC Games?

Answer 1

Games need intensive calculation process from CPU, GPU, Memory, HDD and sound card. When those peripherals are in a full working status, they draw lots of power and create lots of heat. So, it's normal that your laptop become hot.
Current laptop aren't only for working in word processor, spreadsheet and browsing internet, some of high-end laptop are manufactured to be able to play games on it.
Manufacturer never give an advice to not play games on laptop, you just need to know if your laptop specification fulfill the games requirements, that's all.

Laptop GPU are integrated in the mainboard, so there's no way that you'll be able to upgrade it. The most things that you can upgrade for laptop is Memory and HDD.

The result will be much better if you are playing games on desktop PC. But the bad news is, you'll loose you mobility since desktop are big and need lots of space and it's heavy to carry.

Answer 2

Could be you are blocking the ventilation with clothes or worse still using the laptop sat on the bed. Get one of those trays (around £6 from Wilkos) where it has a hard top and a scrunchy bean bag type bottom. Use that to put your laptop on. Only other way to cool things down is to start turning things off in BIOS and slowing the processor down by using SpeedStep (if it's an Intel, even if it is an Intel you can't use SpeedStep if it's a desktop style processor). When the unit gets warm check that the fan is kicking in properly.

Answer 3

if you are gaming nonstop for hours at a time (more than 3 or 4) then it could be a cause.

take a 15 minute break from your computer every hour. this means closing the game, and leaving just your desktop open.

actaully walk away and just leave it for 15 minutes.

then restart it. and carry on.

also, 384mb ram isnt much.

i see that by 384mb, you have 512mb ram installed, but 128mb is used for graphics. i personally would take out the 512mb ram, and install 2gb ram, with 2 1gb ram sticks, or more if possible, and set your graphics card to use 512mb of ram. leaving 1.5gb ram for your computer.

you will notice it is much much faster.

Answer 4

Your laptop is perfectly fine for playing games. The specifications you have noted are very good for most games. Laptops are definitely not just for doing work anymore. When it gets hot on the outside, that just means that the heat is getting sucked out from the inside...which is a good thing. If it bothers you, follow Jimmy H's advice and get an external cooling device for it. Otherwise, don't worry about it unless you start seeing performance problems with the computer such as lagging or rebooting itself on its own.

Answer 5

I play on my laptop all the time. But I play games that match my computer settings.

Answer 6

your laptop has a good specs but the problem was that laptop was not made for playing games, they're made for mobility. so if you want to play games longer than your usual playtime you should switch to desktop. desktop has better air flow and bigger fans compared to laptops

Answer 7

BUY A CHILLMAT its just a fan under the computer it should help

http://dealspl.us/Targus-Laptop-Chill-Mat-Cooling-Mat_18208
Targus Laptop Chill Mat - Cooling Mat

Answer 8

No... Laptop is for office works and serious stuff and not for gaming. You cannot upgrade its hardware specs because these are all built in.

Answer 9

desktop pcs can handle it.... more better fans... and cooling equipment.. and it can handle more..