Tahquitz

I can see that for content I'm playing through the first time (I want to read stuff when the rest of the team is bickering that the timer for the Gold Badge is running out), but all the same there are plenty out there that agree with you.

I'm an introvert as well. I'm actually terrible with people. There's a medical reason for that, but I don't want to go into it. I'm fine, but I want to keep it to myself as to why. I'll leave it at that.

I don't agree with Software being akin to medicine, a product wholly owned by the creator of it, with specific proscribed uses and any deviation of that resulting in adverse side effects (if not criminal charges or quite simply death.)

I consider licensed software closer to a tool you don't own. You're borrowing a socket set from your older brother to work on your bicycle. The Garage Door to get your bicycle hasn't been opened for a while and it's got sand in the tracks. So you grab the longest, thickest wrench you have in the set, wedge it under the door and carefully use it as a lever to open the door. Luckily, the wheels give and start moving, lifting the door.

As long as you have permission in the first place to use the software, if it's useful for another purpose (and you're careful to avoid certain foreseeable consequences, like bending the bottom panel of the garage door so it doesn't close evenly, or break the wrench itself) then there's nothing wrong with your 'unintended use' of the given tools.

City of Heroes could crack down on Vidiot Maps for making a modification of the client, but they don't. Paragon Studios could grow a wild hair up a lower orifice (pick one) about Titan Network's existence, and decide to change their client to lock out Sentinel completely and make future client fixes to reinforce their exile, but they haven't. Whoever is the General Manager these days (Brian Clayton, unless I'm mistaken) could have an all-hands meeting to discuss Freedom being designed around queues for Trials, Raids and Task Forces only, dropping all missions, newspapers, radios and contacts from the game... then put in a draconian timer for 1 hour which players must find a team to run a TF/Raid/Trial, chat in a channel with no emotes or avatars (just a queue, like on Quake Tournament) or get kicked for 24 hours for not getting on a team (you know, to remove solo players completely from the equation). But they haven't.

I'm an Introvert. I play alone a LOT. Mostly from my own proclivities, secondly because I'm not a min-max kind of guy. Partly from being not interested in the Incarnate system. That limits my teaming to: anyone in the Sewers, friends who hop on for certain needs on teams through Ventrilo (which is mostly done for the year because the Holidays are over, other galactic MMOs, and it's not Summer yet) or in the case of tonight, a Triumph Watch message told me of a Mothership Raid from a ex-City Scoop Chief of Staff who I teamed with a lot in 2008 but doesn't remember me (which is fine, I wouldn't remember me either if I was him.) I do team, but I love the game for the fact that I don't HAVE to. and you don't have to team with people like me. I agree wholly with Generic Past above, there are many shards, many zones, and many mission doors. If you don't want to team with people like me, as soon as figure it out, leave at the end of the current mission/TF and leave a Note on my global name to avoid me in the future. Take the team with you, or get bold and kick me from the team with no explanation. Or Global Ignore me. You have the tools to fix this yourself if you like.

And until a higher up from Paragon Studios says that they're throwing RP'ers, Soloists and non-Incarnate players under the bus on the next issue, it's unfair to insinuate that recent design choices mean their intent. There's a difference between being forgotten (which is fine... that's what "QOL" issues are for, and the "Leets only or GTFO" types will lament it's release until the next issue neglects us edge-cases once more)... and being marginalized. I'll wait until Melissa Bianco, Matt Miller, or whoever's at the Programming "Turntables" this year gets on the mic and says "Alright, Soloists, RPers, and anyone who was in Icon all night, time to go home, the rest of the night's for teams only. Repeat, TEAMS ONLY."

But they haven't said that yet. And I don't remember them saying "we don't want players to run solo" anywhere. I do know they prefer players to TEAM, you know, being an MMO and all. And that's fine if they design parts to make missions easier with teams than on solo players. I'll just do other things as long as they're there.

Or until they actually say "if you solo, get lost" in a press conference or on this site. But if it's all the same to you, I'll wait for them to say it. If it's not, don't talk to me. It's pretty simple.

So far so good...

And for nightfall, it's fixed for the most part.

So much for using NVidia drivers. Hope the old ASUS driver doesn't break my other games. Thanks guys!

[QR]Driver Sweeper swept, no files left. Reinstalled Verde, reboot, and still doing it. FML, off to bed. I'll cry about it tomorrow.
Sept. 2009 driver at the top of the list. For now, sleep.

WTF? I thought Turbo Gear was the Power Management program. What's a VGA Driver doing there? Never looked into this the last three years I've had this machine. Good tip, thanks!

Cranked open MSCONFIG, hid MS Services and deselected everything. Processes, anything from ASUS I've disabled, left the rest alone.

While that's made my frame rate much more stable, the "rogue texture" still appears. You're right, it IS only at night when it appears (daylight may be simply covering it?) I don't believe it's the client doing this: it passes verification (both after a patch, and when I trigger it by right-clicking COH on the NCLauncher), and I've had this problem when I had to reinstall Windows throughout the years. (Did it the first time I installed on purchase, did it just today three reinstallations of Windows 7 later... as I said, I dabble in other OSes, and sometimes they eat the MBR when they go.)

Alas, it still happens. On Performance settings:


I'll try removing the NVidia driver, flushing with Driver Sweeper and reinstalling, I'll report back.

Otherwise, I'm out of ideas... I DO live in a desert. Maybe it got too hot one summer day and I had no idea.

Soft bump, still watching. No replies in a week, I understand.

Same as above. Comment away below!

Reserved for Future Expansion.

Guide to City of Heroes: Freedom-Friendly Laptops - Issue 21/Jan 2012 Updated
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=283133

I moved my prior guide to a new forum since there was no space to expand my original entry. Now there is. And I violated rule #1: Put the word "Guide" in the title. Two birds worth killing, so I threw the stone.

Extra Credit: Finer Details
So, you're in. A Gaming Laptop is right for you. You want to play City of Heroes somewhere other than home, or all over your home. Here's more to think about.

-- BRAND LOYALTY/TECH SUPPORT vs. NEWEGG DARLINGS/"GO IT ON YOUR OWN":
You're going to pay more for a laptop than gaining similar or superior performance on a cheaper desktop IF YOU CHOOSE A KNOWN BRAND (HP/Lenovo/Sony/Dell). Evidence: you've got $1,200 and have a choice between a laptop or a desktop, both from HP. The premium is that you can play on the go, simple as that, but you'll be playing on the go with a slower (not markedly, but noticeable) GPU on the laptop, and a major drop in CPU power for that same amount of money. But you may be able to mitigate that sacrifice with no problem. If you need to be able to send a PC to decent warranty service (and with that, for every testimonial, there's two horror stories about that same company) then go with the big four.

If you are not afraid of doing your own tech support, consider brands like ASUS, Acer/Gateway (they're the same) and MSI instead. Just know what you're getting into, and should something go south, you may overclock a $1,000 pizza box straight into the trash can if you get too froggy. Temp controls have improved dramatically since the 2004 Dark Ages of Overclocking, but it still happens.


-- WHY LAPTOPS ARE STILL PROFITABLE, EVEN IN A RECESSION:
Laptops are not upgradeable. Well, they're upgradeable insomuch as you can get bigger memory or a hard drive, you can even swap out keyboards on some models, but changing CPU's or graphic cards is mostly undocumented and warranty-breaking territory. If one of these two PC components fail or gets outdated in a desktop, 2 out of 3 you can change it to something that works or works better. If a laptop CPU or GPU fails from eventual wear/overheating, the pizza box is either mostly dead with each error making it progressively worse, or it's completely dead (and then there's only one thing left to do: you go through it's pockets and search for loose change). Your recourse is to buy another laptop in most cases.

Even if not, consider future games and their needs: your state-of-the-art in two years will be excluded by riskier developers (re: Crysis), and in three years will barely run the new bleeding-edge titles. With a Desktop, you can squeeze a few more years out with upgrades and replace a whole system once every five years or longer if you're not worried about top-of-the-line parts. But with gaming laptops, once they're ready for that Unreal Tournament in the sky, you'll basically Craigslist your current one to buy your next one. Anyone who buys computers can tell you they never appreciate in value, no matter how much you paid for it. (Car manufacturers would LOVE this rate of churn, if you haven't guessed.)

There has been efforts made towards upgradeable laptops (Read Engadget's Shuttle SPA article: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/08/s...ndards-launche), but usually different manufacturers couldn't find common ground on a single standard and let progress on such initiatives die. It's not likely to happen in the next ten years, so the best advice: buy the most powerful one you can AFFORD. Where a difference between a Core i3 2.53 GHz and 2.6 GHz is largely splitting hairs, a Core i3 2.6 GHz and Core i7 1.8 GHz is a big difference worth considering. (The Core i7 is the winner in case you were curious: particularly if the Core i7 is a quad-core model.) And again, if all you have is $700, it's not worth skipping on the electric bill for that $150 difference between two machines. If it's bugging you that much, just wait.


-- DATES OF INTEREST:
If you are an enthusiast, price is not an object, and you want the best technology, buy your laptop in Spring/Early Summer. Why? Most OEMs make new product announcements in Q1 Winter yearly just after the holiday season (Intel, AMD, NVidia, among others). The first models with the new technology come out around Spring/Summer as manufacturers can turn them out. For example, as of this writing in January 2012, this is a "tick" year for Intel, so new Processors are going to be released in April 2012 based on Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge architecture and 22nm manufacturing processes (compared to 32nm processors in vogue now) where in 2013, it's a "tock" year and the Haswell Architecture will exist to further enhance the 22nm process on the way to 14nm. AMD will release Virgo and Comal (A-Series Architectures) as part of their Piledriver Manufacturing Run in the First half of 2012 (dates as of yet unknown, usually announcement is made late Spring.) NVidia GeForce 600 GPUs (Codenamed "Kepler") is coming out before Q2 2012, and AMD's Radeon 7000 series based on the Southern Islands chipset is available right now (as of January 9th).

By the way, all of this information on new parts is thanks to little searches here and there on Wikipedia. You can do this too. You can be an enthusiast just like me! Find the retail dates of products you're interested in, and when it's close to the street date (one-to-two weeks before, of course) search for new systems announced online (blogs, PR releases, launch parties, etc.) from manufacturers to coalesce around said desired technology, and you'll find the laptop you're hunting for.

If you are a bargain-hunter, almost any time of the year is good depending on what you're looking for, but the Holidays/New Year are particularly good to buy a laptop. Why? After first adopters have had their crack at new parts, manufacturers want to clear their stock out before the next year breakthroughs & new manufacturing runs. That means the Holidays/first thing in January is the time for overstock liquidation on last year's must-have tech. When new announcements are made in winter, prices on old technology doesn't really drop dramatically since the margins on Motherboards, Processors and Video Cards are fairly tight. The bottom of the range lands around the holidays, if there's still a large count of a model past Spring, they just send it back to the manufacturer for Outlet Sales (Read: Government/Education/Small Business Contracts).

If you're a student, replace the Holidays with August... but I wish you good luck finding decent laptops for gaming, since most of the "Back to School" specials are the lowest cost, lowest spec priced-to-move laptops (see above paragraph on models left past Spring from a prior year). You likely won't run City of Heroes on any sub-$400 laptop sold during the Summer. Not that I expect people to know this, just something to help explain when a relative who doesn't understand computers tells you there's back to school sales and they don't understand why it's not a good deal for you.


-- ONLINE SHOPPING LOCATIONS:
The offering online is broader than in brick-and-mortar stores. In fact, if you want a Gaming laptop, online is pretty much the final frontier. Specialist laptops such as Gaming, Mil 810F Spec, and Engineering models just aren't sold in stores. There's too few buyers out there except in niche markets: Los Angeles residents will have more availability than let's just say, Amboy, California, where the population is less than 10 and you're too far to shop from LA County easily. (You can, but it's a bit of a trip.) Extreme case, I know. Isolation is out there, your market might be different.

So, thankfully with a shipping charge and enough wait time, online retailers are standing by to serve your needs. Here's a good list of places to look for the uninitiated:

-- NewEgg
Straight outta City of Industry, CA, NewEgg is sung in praises for a reason: it's unusually helpful. Their searches are in multiple categories, and specific to the product line you're looking at: you're not going to search gigahertz on a remote control, so it's not there. If you want multiple categories, you got them. Made a mistake and got 0 results? Click the X next to a category you'd like to eliminate to broaden your search. Even now, online retailers have a LOT to learn from their setup.

Selection? TigerDirect is similar. Product diversity? Amazon has them beat with a much larger spread. But NewEgg still has the best search, the most detail in product specifications, and in my opinion, the best New-In-Box photos of computer parts. NewEgg neglected to share how many watts your new Power Supply can hold on a 12 volt rail? Find a picure of the label-side of the Power Supply in their result page, zoom in with the tools provided, and read it for yourself!

-- Best Buy
Best Buy's laptops in the Gaming Category take much of the guesswork out of shopping. Odds on, any of their Gaming Models will run City of Heroes and for good reason: they only sell new/refurbished products. If it's more than 2 years or closed out, it's not there. Can't argue with that.

Their pricing isn't very generous, and that's to be said from eliminating Circuit City as a competitor, but even if you're not interested in their lineup, it's a good baseline to see how much a particular laptop brand, class and size is going for. Also, there's probably a location close to you. If you're scoping out a middle-range laptop, odds are you can go see it for yourself.

-- TigerDirect, CompUSA (and Circuit City Online)
Under the oh-so-consumer-friendly name SysteMax, TigerDirect has a lot of faces these days, but they're still one of the best Refurbish/Closeout PC Retailers out there.

The only caution: TigerDirect has frequent mistakes in their listings. If you can snake a part number out of them and hop to a manufacturer website to fish out better descriptions, it's recommended when they mention a laptop with a next-generation "AMD Celeron Quad-Core" processor. (When the actual processor is Athlon. Celeron belongs to Intel.)

-- Fry's Electronics
Being in Southern California, Fry's Electronics is my Wally World. Making the pilgrimage to Anaheim is worth it to me for the fact it's the only Brick-and-Mortar that sells Processors and Motherboards with 14-day returns and online price matching. Get that from a hole-in-the-wall PC Repair joint. Their online store has a fairly good selection, and serves as a good comparison site. Some articles are more expensive than others, while certain items are that extra-special "Big Lots" kind of affordable.

Extra Credit: Laptop Video Card Spec Hunting
Recommended laptop specs for gaming on City of Heroes:

-- Processor, Memory, Hard Disk, Sound Cards, viles of Cheetah's Blood used for liquid cooling, etc.:
I won't go into depth on these, since FatherXMas wrote better guides than I have for the core specs of a PC. Since I don't want to plagiarize their hard work, I suggest heading there.
BillZBubba's Final Performance guide: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=115082
FatherXMas' hardware guide: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=124080

-- Video:
Right now, I'll share what I DO know about: Video Cards.

Here's how to decipher the Swahili of Video Cards offered for laptops. For all the examples and stats, I'll use the desktop versions of the cards. Laptop versions are all across the board reduced in speed for it's core, shader and memory clocks to reduce power draw and heat. But the comparison between two laptops is proportionally the same.

Also, I don't list the OpenGL versions of each family of cards... they change radically between individual cards and in some cases are hard to generalize between families. Also, in most cases, the OpenGL line is usually very backwards compatible, so it's irrelevant. DirectX versions are very specific to particular versions of Windows, so I share those.

Before we begin: Finding out what Video Card you're trying to find.
Let's say you're on Amazon.com looking for a video card for a laptop they sell.
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-G71GX-RX0...806537&sr=1-24
ASUS G71GX Refurbished -- Description page doesn't say what the video card is. You could look at Customer Reviews, but let's assume they're lying for our sake. (You know how the internet is. You trust me, right?) Parts of this search will fail on purpose, I'm just sharing my process with you. Adapt as needed.
1. Find the Item model number in the description. This is the number assigned by ASUS, not Amazon, in order to identify that specific computer. Unless you're seeking support for a system you own, you don't need a serial number for this info.
2. Find ASUS's website. On Google, typing in ASUS leads to asus.com. (This sounds banal, but not all manufacturers are obvious. MSI. I said enough.) Go to their support section. On usa.asus.com, it's under Services > Support.
3. Enter in the model number. Apparently ASUS dropped their information about the product... hmmm. Odd.
4. Go to Google and do a search for ASUS G71GX-RX05. Newegg is one of the first results, let's try them. Beware of search bombs when doing this kind of lookup: look at the address of the result you're about to click on. If the address is a blog (wordpress.com, blogspot.com) or if the product title in in a subdomain of an unrelated site (asus-g71gx-rx05.prescripsforfree.net), it's most likely a search affiliate looking for ad money or a silly malware site with no information about your product. Also look out for eHow, Mahalo, and other sites with nonsense articles designed to drop you into an ad-filled site for their benefit. They have no idea of what you're looking for. Watch what you click.
5. Newegg reports this item as deactivated. ASUS must have discontinued this model from age, since G73 and G74 models exist. Fortunately, Newegg does keep specs on it after deactivation (Look under "Details" tab): according to them, the laptop has a GeForce GTX 260M.

Other good sites for Laptop Information: Cnet Reviews, and Notebook Review. Tom's Hardware is good, but they only had a news story for this specific model.

Now you have the Card Name and Model, what does it mean? Read on...

NVidia Only: There will be two number systems, each card falls under one or the other.
If the card name is the following--

GeForce XXXX GTX

(*GTX can be substituted with any letters: G, GS, GT, GSO, GTS, GTX. These are feature codes, and while they indicate better provisioned cards, they are not critical unless comparing two exactly numbered ones. The graphic card number is a better indicator of output than these codes anyway. Rule of thumbs: the more letters the better. GSO, GTS, GTX always trump GS, GT, which beats G. G is as cheap as it gets. Letters after these like E, M, Go don't really matter.)

--then it was made from 2003-2008, and the following applies.

Thousands Digit: Series,
Hundreds Digit: Class,
Tens Digit: Major Revision, used as a tie-breaker.
Ones Digit: Minor revision, unimportant, usually 0 unless in certain cases.

Series:
6000-7000 - Unless refurbished or used, you can't find these anymore. Even if you do, don't consider them unless you want Bejewelled 2 at full frame rate.
8000- Made for Direct X 10 systems, came out in 2007 along with Windows Vista.
9000- Made for Direct X 10 systems, faster and stronger. Last of these came out in 2008.

If the Card Name looks like this

GeForce GTX XXX
(* see note above under Geforce XXXX GTX)

-- then it was made during or after 2009, and the place value changes:

Hundreds Digit: Series,
Tens Digit: Class,
Ones Digit: Revision

Series (Post 2009 changes)
100- Built-in for laptops/motherboards only, all entries are Budget/Entry class regardless of number.
200- Made for Direct X 10 and 11 systems, came out in 2009. (If there's a codename for it, I don't remember it.)
300- Same as 100's, models released on notebooks only for some reason.
400- Made for Direct X 11 systems, to launch March 2010 onward. (Codenamed Fermi)
500- Same as 400's, March 2011.
600- Upcoming 'state of the art' in 2012. (Codenamed Kepler)
700/800- Past 2012 (Codename Maxwell)

It's safe so far to assume future numbers that start with an odd digit will be entry level or on-board cards, and even numbers to be enthusiast/professional grade cards. In 2012, we'll be looking at 600 series cards. Past then, If we're not all dead according to Roland Emmerich, 700 or 800 series cards.

Regardless of year made, the classes didn't really change at all with NVidia. Again, if it was made before 2009 (6000-9000), it's the 100's digit. If in 2009 or after (G 100-G 900), it's the 10's digit.

Classes for either group:
0-2- Budget class
3-4- Entry class
5-6- Enthusiast class
7-9- Professional class

(With the understanding that the built-in cards are limited to the first two categories of class: G 300 series Integrated processors in a motherboard will never be called a GeForce G 380, for example.)

How the numbering works, let's say you see the following cards on the shelves:
NVidia GeForce 9300
NVidia GeForce 9350
NVidia GeForce G 210
NVidia GeForce GT 210
NVidia GeForce GTX 295
NVidia GeForce 6200 LE (on Clearance)
NVidia GeForce 7800
NVidia Geforce GTX 260
NVidia Geforce 7150

On a store shelf, this is confusing, but if we put them in order of Pixel Fill Rates:
NVidia GeForce GTX 295 16.128 GP x2
NVidia Geforce GTX 260 16.128 GP
NVidia GeForce GT 210 1 GP
NVidia GeForce G 210 1 GP
NVidia GeForce 7800 6880 MP
NVidia GeForce 9350 2200 MP
NVidia GeForce 9300 2200 MP
NVidia GeForce 6200 LE 1400 MP
NVidia Geforce 7150 700 MP

You can see how the 100's digits indicating their performance class affect their placement in the list: the 1,000's digit is less important, but still a factor considering the 7000's were all current in the Windows XP era. Also, a clear break between the 1,000's line and the three-digit line: even the lowest end GeForce G2XX cards fill-in 1 GP/sec. While not 2X the fill rate of the 7800, it's a dramatic improvement over the 9000's on the shelf.

(MP = Mega Pixel, GP = Giga Pixel, GTX 295 has two graphic cards running side to side in one slot)

Mind you, that's one standard of measurement, there are many standards, and by changing which metric you wish to use, the line up will change dramatically. I feel this is the most fair metric to compare the card's actual ability in the shortest amount of time, so I use it. Opinion varies. Share it if yours does.

ATI Radeon Only --
I'm less familiar with ATI's family, but fortunately for me, they are much more forgiving when shopping for them... HD 2XXX/3XXX/4XXX and now 5XXX use a similar scheme by class that NVidia uses:

Thousands Digit: Series
Hundreds Digit: Class
Tens/Ones Digits: Revision (ATI actually uses BOTH)

Series:
HD 2000- Windows Vista released cards, DirectX 10.
HD 3000- Windows Vista released cards, only more powerful. DirectX 10.
HD 4000- Windows Vista released cards, DirectX 10/11
HD 5000- Windows 7 released cards, Direct X 11
HD 6000- Windows 7 released cards, Direct X 11, coming out during 2012.


Class:
0-4 Budget/Value class
5-7 Mainstream class
8-9 Enthusiast/High Performance class

So, sorting these:
Radeon HD 5970
Radeon HD 5450
Radeon HD 4870
Radeon HD 4850
Radeon HD 4350
Radeon HD 3650

Would stack out to the following Pixel Fill Rates:
Radeon HD 5970 46.4 GP
Radeon HD 4870 12 GP X2
Radeon HD 4850 10 GP
Radeon HD 3650 2.9 GP
Radeon HD 5450 2.6 GP
Radeon HD 4350 2.3 GP

Notice how neatly the 100's digit cascades from 9 all the way down to 3. Again, not fully indicative of what the card does, just gives you an idea.

Extra Credit: Video Card Resources
The Raw Stats from Volunteers:
Wikipedia: Comparison of AMD graphics processing units -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...on_R600_series

Wikipedia: Comparison of NVidia graphics processing units -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...ocessing_units

Side-by-side comparisons:
Notebookcheck --
Comparison into Tiers of Cards:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Compari...rds.130.0.html
Comparison by Game Frame Rates: (most of these are speculation, this is only for BROAD comparative purposes, not as a compatibility guide: games reported not to work may in fact be okay on your card.)
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Compute...s.13849.0.html

Tom's Hardware --
High Quality: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/g...hmarks,70.html
Mainstream: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/g...hmarks,69.html

Extra Credit: Mobile Internet
Particularly for this game, you need to answer how you will get the laptop online. You have choices, of course...

AT THE HOME
----> Wired Access. If you like the superior transmission rates of a wired connection, you'll need a Router to plug your laptop into. More often than not, if you have your laptop in one fixed location all of the time with a wired connection, it'll defeat the purpose of this guide. (Go buy a desktop, you're doing it wrong! ) My only advice: buy what you need. If you don't plan on using Wireless, get a wired-only router... they're cheaper.

You can still keep your laptop's portability and NOT use Wi-Fi: get a powerline adapter for your internet connection. This allows you to run one ethernet plug into a wall socket with one adapter box, then you can plug the other adapter box anywhere else in the house and connect that adapter to your laptop. Powerline Ethernet Adapters carry anywhere from 85-200MBps of bandwidth in the same house and are dirt simple to use. If you live in a multi-dwelling property (apartment, condo, duplex), this is not secure: an unscrupulous neighbor can plug into the same network and use your bandwidth/resources. Consider another answer if this is the case.

Powerline networks stop at the breaker box, or your power company's Point-of-Entry of your dwelling, so you may be safe if your place has it's own electric meter that is not shared/banked with another tenant's connection. Ask your landlord/super to learn more. If you're in a single home, you should be fine.

----> Wireless Access. This is the most popular route: you can get a router to deliver internet to your laptop's wireless card, or use a public hotspot at another business or your workplace (again, check if this is cool or not to do.) Wireless Adapters deliver anywhere from 11MB all the way to 150MBps, and unlike wired routers can handle more than 4 devices without breaking a sweat.

One consideration: it's in the nature of Radio to be half-duplex. This means your wireless card is designed to send a signal or receive one, not both at the same time, your thoroughput on wireless gaming will be typically half of your advertised network speed from your ISP (Exception: if you use MIMO/802.11n wireless adapter/router pairings, then you're using two or more frequencies at once - MIMO = Multiple Input, Multiple Output). You can also expect ingame rubberbanding, timeouts, and disconnects if your wireless card loses association with your Router frequently. This comes with the territory of radio and you may need help with configuring your network properly, relocating your router, or reducing/removing interference sources if you're not technically inclined.

How can you eliminate wireless as a culprit? Consider running ethernet cable temporarily to where you frequently game, or bring your laptop to the router (shut Wi-Fi off) and jack into it to see if it's your network that's causing the issues. If wired ethernet resolves the problem, you need to rethink your wireless setup.

ABROAD
----> Modem. Well, it's fine for backup internet access. For City of Heroes, you can sign on with terrible speeds, decent latency (much better than Satellite anyway), and maybe run a mission on a small team as long as noise doesn't disconnect you. (I've used one from 2008-2009 waiting for High Speed Microwave to hit my area.) That's about it. If cost is why you're using Dial-Up, check out Virgin Mobile's Broadband2Go program (write up below) before writing off City of Heroes play altogether.

----> Cellular Access. You can use a cellular USB or Expresscard adapter to connect using your cellular network. Average speeds range from 1MBps-3MBps, which doesn't sound like a lot compared to home access. The advantage of Cellular is that you get a signal from anywhere your phone works. The disadvantages? Cellular data access is a 2-year contract with most providers, charging a hefty ETF if you change your mind midway through. Your signal may change due to weather, drift, fresnel-zone radiation (stronger radio sources between you and the Cell Tower, even if they don't block line of sight... mainly trucks with overpowered CB/FM Radios) or other factors. Currently the big four providers (Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T) limit total down/uploads (YES, sending data counts against this total) to 2GB a month maximum on the lowest tier. Exceeding this will cause you to be charged per MB.

Cellular Access is just fine for casual play, but consider your plan limit: if it's 2GB, you can waste ALL of it in a month on casual play and end up spending another $20-30 for more bandwidth, or waiting for your monthly bill to land. If it's 4GB-5GB, you can make it last a month on casual without counting MB spent everytime you sign on. If you play regularly, consider 10GB (yes, it's $50-100 a month. That's what AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile were after the last two years. Isn't tiered access just wonderful?!)

WiMax: (US Customers) If you want to start Clear 4G service (or by extension, use Sprint 4G since they share networks), I would strongly recommend you read some online reviews. The advertised speeds vary greatly than the actual service, customer support is terrible (if non-existant), and there's plenty of horror stories of customers getting billed for roaming use, as well as their billing system reactivating auto-pay on closed accounts with no path for a refund. To wit, Clear is also in the process of working with Sprint to rollover to 4G LTE service as their going-forward effort with data service, so even if Clear resolved their customer problems the future of WiMax expansion has hit a brick wall if you don't have service (Why invest in a fledgling network when you're building another more popular one with better support?) WiMax 2 service is probably not going to happen in America. "Know what you're paying for" for is the best way I can put it. And EVEN if that doesn't dissuade you from 4G service, consider the following.

4G: Ignoring the CTIA/ITU tiff on what 4G actually means, more speed from 4G service compared to 3G service means typically that you'll use up the allotment you're paying for faster than with 3G service. RIGHT NOW (January 2012), there is no particular advantage between 3G and 4G networks to care as a gamer thanks to tiered service. 3G's speed caps slows down how much you consume over time, and the 2GB you get on 3G service and the 2GB you get on 4G service COSTS THE SAME AMOUNT on all cellular providers (Conscious Parallelism, anyone?) There's really no advantage here, and City of Heroes (like most MMORPG's) is not a bandwidth hog. A 768k DSL modem more than serves the demands of this game, considering radio technology is half-duplex, 1.4MB/s is all the speed you need (even that's a lot), which 3G more than provides. Anything past that is excess. If the salesperson is pressuring you into 4G, unless they offer 4GB-5GB around $30 (Verizon's holiday deal, for example), insist on 3G and don't let up.

And if you don't live in a Metro area, 4G right now is a joke and will continue to be one for another couple of years. Besides, 3G networks aren't going away in the next 2-3 years, so it's still safe to get a 2 year 3G contract with little or no consequence. In 2013, 2014, OTOH, all bets are off.

----> Special Note: WalMart Virgin Mobile (US Customers) -- Specific to City of Heroes, there is one thing worth mentioning on mobile gaming if you intend to do it only occasionally: Virgin Mobile does have a Prepaid 3G Broadband Service at WalMart. Granted it is more expensive up front since you have to buy a $100-150 adapter to use it (not subsidized, since it's prepaid). And the cost is more expensive than contract service per month: nothing offered from Virgin Mobile competes with $30 for 2 GB of use. (Virgin Mobile charges $50 for "Unlimited" access, but after 2.5GB, you're throttled to 1XRTT speed, which will NOT carry a City of Heroes session. You've been warned.)

I know what you're asking: Why WalMart on this one? Virgin Mobile's plan is typically $20 for 500MB or 30 days use, but in WalMart, devices purchased there are offered $20 for 1 GB or 30 days use. (Understandably, not an enormous deal: after paying $20 three times in a month, you may as well own postpaid service.) There is one decided advantage: if you don't want to use it for a long period, simply enough, don't pay for it. You can put in money any time you want to play with no obligation to keep it on; your device is activated for a year at a time (after a year, your price plan may change to something worse, so it's wise to fire it up once per 12 months to keep the going rate alive). Using their service, I can play City of Heroes for 4-6 hours over a 10 day period and use up all 250MB for $10 a pop (faster with longer sessions over fewer days) which will give you an idea of how long it lasts. Especially for casual use, it's great.

TAHQ'S LAPTOP SHOPPING GUIDE - 2012
This guide covers PC's, Windows, and the like. If you're a "Think Differently" kinda person, check out this guide instead for advice on Mac OS X and City of Heroes.

INTRODUCTION

Conventional wisdom the last four years have been turned on it's head. Ask anyone around the first half of City of Heroes' existence and they'd laugh you off the forums if you asked a simple question:

Quote:

"What laptops play City of Heroes?"

The reason why it was a terrible idea:
-- Laptops offered smaller LCD resolutions than their desktop counterparts, which had bigger LCD displays, or power and space hogging CRT displays that despite their faults can switch-hit between higher resolutions like a champ.
-- Underwhelming access speeds: low FSB MT rates, lower speed memory, smaller 2.5" HDD's that were lower capacity or lower speed than the current state of art IDE/SATA hard disks.
-- The kingpin: terrible graphics. Most laptop video went to the VESA specification and stopped right there. Video memory was often shared, or if not, as low as 16-32MB. Video modes... well, there was two: CUI 80x25 for boot-up, then Super VGA or at most XGA resolution.

But anymore, the conversation has changed. The first salvos were fired in the mid 2000's with companies like Alienware and Voodoo setting the bar. Then others followed: laptop screens come in 16:9 resolutions, access speeds comparable or on par with desktops with widespread SATA adoption and equivalent motherboards, and most importantly, while ATI and NVidia made mobile cards for years before they came out, the ATI Mobility Radeon series and NVidia GeForce Go series opened up a whole new reason to get yourself a new electronic pizza box.

Now is a great time to consider mobile gaming with a laptop. But it's not for everybody.

POINTS TO CONSIDER

Why?
A page from "Just because you can doesn't mean you should." Do you REALLY see yourself playing COH outside of home? The answer of yes does make sense for a few occupations: Business Execs, Volunteers, Field Workers (all three who spend more time in Hotels than home), the Military (You'd be surprised who you find at 3am playing on a laptop from Afghanistan), Hobbyists, etc. (a.k.a.: you have enough money to try it).

If you are expecting your Laptop to replace your desktop PC and are not doing it for lifestyle/professional reasons, again, the reason "Why" will affect your play. If you buy a large laptop, consider the fact that you'll be setting yourself up in the living room for 10-12 minutes each time vs. a desktop where you hit a power button and can get started as soon as Windows boots. If a small laptop, you're not going to play in Ultra Mode. In fact, settings above Recommended may lock your machine up entirely.

What You Expect
Ah, Ultra Mode brings up a good point; if you want performance over value, your Laptop will most likely be huge. It's a reality of the industry: gaming laptops have bigger power requirements, bigger heat dissipation needs to consider, and most often bigger screen sizes. There's a few laptops with "enthusiast" level gaming capabilities that are 15-16", but they're certainly not cheap.

If you don't mind Minimum or Performance mode, there's a lot more choices out there for you. If you don't mind Minimum settings, you can spend as little as $650 and get an acceptable performance out of it (for the love of cake, please turn Particle Count above 1000 so you can see your own powers at least. )

Price Range
Tied into the above two points: if you want a similar experience to your desktop expect to pay $1,000+. Simply enough, this kind of laptop is at a premium because like the rest of the segment, Laptop computers are dealing with DC power input, small form-factor placement (compared to a PC counterpart) and different construction standards due to the fact that a laptop poses greater physical risk than a PC would encounter (Laptops face drops as a reality; your desktop can safely ignore that as a manufacturing consideration). You can't equal a desktop computer at the same price-point for a laptop. It just doesn't work.

More reasons as to why: Consider the Intel Core i-Series processors. Core i3 processors are all dual core (well dual physical core, anyways), which is paralleled by both laptop and desktop versions (with obvious differences in wattage and speed). We'll ignore those for now while I get to my point: Core i5 processors are a blend between Core i7 variants and Core i3 until you consider the difference between Desktop and Laptop varieties: some of the desktop Core i5 processors are dual-core, others desktop Core i5 processors are quad-core. For the laptop Core i5's, all of them are dual-core, no matter the price. You can't have a quad-core laptop until you consider a Core i7 processor, and even with that, quad-core is the best you can do. Core i7 desktops are either quad-core, or six-core. Just because a laptop and a desktop share a processor name DOES NOT mean they are comparable in performance. Just in price points.

The same is true for AMD's lineup, as well as past processors. This is good to keep in mind when considering the discontinued gaming laptops at Tigerdirect or Fry's Electronics: even if it's Core 2 Duo, it's most likely not as fast as the Core 2 Duo or Quad processor sitting on your desk.

In a nutshell: On a gaming laptop, the processor type and speed is used to argue it's worth, but essentially you are buying the Graphics Card. A specification that brick and mortar stores are intentionally vague on sharing. Why? To sell more computers. The pitch? "Of course your new laptop can't play City of Heroes. You need a new desktop for that. (wink)" Retail is concerned with selling more products. The right machine doesn't matter to a salesman who is doing their job if they can get a customer to buy two for more than what one could do for less. Caveat emptor.

Diminished Returns (Why is this more expensive than my desktop with higher specs?):
The same spec graphic card/processor on a laptop WILL PERFORM SLOWER than it's desktop counterpart. FatherXMas talked about the downclocking of the GTX200 lineup in another thread and I can attest to this: the prior desktop GTX 260 cards ran 700MHz+, whereas most gaming laptops are downclocked to 500MHz with their mobile counterpart of the same card, the GTX 260M (okay, XMas was discussing later run desktop cards being downclocked and not laptops. I took some liberty on that one. :P) This sounds insipid, but there is a very good couple of reasons why this is:

----> Heat Dissipation: Desktop PC's can have fans, cooling assemblies (heat-pipes, waterblocks, etc.) and a bigger interior to mitigate temperatures with. Laptops have a lot of demanding components in a small body. Laptops usually get 1-2 fans and a single exhaust port. This affects things- the cooler your GPU, the less errors it gets (if any) and the smoother frame rates and texture fills run.

----> Power Requirements: Desktop cards can accept more power through a single or multiple cable input direct from the power supply, which may carry 30-40 amps for the card on a single 12 Volt rail of a 600 Watt power supply. Laptops get a huge power brick, but a tiny cord of DC delivering around 20 Volts, but 7 Amps on a decent gaming laptop that it has to share with a processor, motherboard and IO/USB components. A desktop will have typically three times as much power available.

A laptop GTX 260M will run ultra mode, on it's LOWEST CHOICES (some Ambient Occlusion, some Shadowing above the lowest/off, some Env. Reflections). It'll run great with a lot of settings turned above recommended, but it won't compare blow for blow to the Desktop GTX 260. A GTX 260M Laptop will still royally beat the pants off of a GT 240 or 220 desktop card, however.

About Battery Life:
Disregard it, no matter what the price. You're going to run on AC power, like it or not, to get your processor running at full speed. If you're at Burning Man, do you really want to drag a gaming laptop there anyway? And even if you did, it wouldn't matter. An upgrade to an eight-cell or twelve-cell battery doesn't make sense. If you try to game on any battery, expect about 45-60 minutes before the lights go out. Not kidding.

I'll even go as far to say that playing CoH on battery is irresponsible. Drawing a big load from your battery to keep your game running (even if Intel/AMD scale your processor 30% beneath it's advertised speed) adds unnecessary heat to your laptop. In the middle of the hottest part of summer (depending on where you live: August-September for North America, January-February for Aussies.) If it's a Desktop Replacement/Gaming Class machine, this is not only a great way to shorten it's overall battery life, you can damage it royally.

THE LINEUP

So, one more time, what kind of Laptop are you looking for? There's three useable groups that come to my mind, priced from highest to lowest (yeah, I wrote five categories for laptops, I know, read it anyway):

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Professional Gaming Laptops
WORTH CONSIDERATION
$1,000 and higher. Really. Top of the heap is around $3K.

This kind of category makes me ill having less that $200 a month to spend on myself, so I'll recommend such types to visit Alienware (part of Dell). Their Area 51 Laptops are very powerful, even at their 'bargain bin' sub $1,500 price. The only kind of laptop I've seen them sell is "big", but their website assures me indeed that they do sell 15" laptops.

If the fact that you can customize a Desktop PC to cost $24,000 for a single machine makes you as ill as it does me, there's other manufacturers out there: eBuyPower, and the brick-and-mortar-free Newegg and TigerDirect offer high end models as well. Gaming PC's come in all shapes and sizes. If you can afford these, you probably won't need my help at all: everything that's been out in the gaming category since 2009 is more than good gravy for CoH.

Product lines to consider: Alienware (and it's cheaper little brother: Dell XPS... Dell owns Alienware), ASUS Republic of Gamers (ASUS G-Series Laptops), Gateway FX (silently being discontinued, but you might find discontinued models out there, and they do perform well compared to the rest of Acer/Gateway's offerings), Lenovo Y Series laptops, Toshiba Qosmio, iBuyPower. HP Envy (SOME models, be careful, if netbook is anywhere in the title or "Worlds thinnest/lightest", avoid. I really wish HP would resurrect the Voodoo line, but it looks like it's dead on arrival.)

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Desktop Replacement
WORTH CONSIDERATION
Costs $800 - $1,400 depending on how it's equipped.

Almost all laptop manufacturers offer desktop replacement models. Desktop Replacement models aren't explicitly designed for gaming (i.e.: 2.0 Audio, non-backlit keys, USB ports may be in front or close to palm rests, etc.) but are cheaper than Gaming laptops anyday. These are types of laptops, not solid rules, and there are exceptions of course. All of them, Gaming and Desktop Replacement types, have the same "CON": not portable enough to throw into a backpack and run, they take 5-10 minutes to into their comparatively snug-cases compared to a 12"-15" laptop (good luck finding a "roomy" 17" laptop bag by the way) and they're certainly not light. But they are portable enough that you can take it to a hotel room, set it up on the little table they give you, and not skip a beat from being away from home. Most Mac's fall inbetween Desktop Replacement and Notebook, particularly MacBook Pro. But that's not my guide (scroll to the top.)

Due to the large size to handle the cooling requirements and bigger screen real-estate (16" or bigger) expect the machine to run on a table. The positioning of the vent ports require a solid surface. Playing CoH on your lap or a hotel bed will block the vents without a lap-desk (or a flat flank of wood I find works.) Ultra Mode is easily possible, but at reduced settings if you want to keep the heat draw and driver errors down. On both, I'd recommend a "chill mat" to place under the laptop to give it extra cooling to squeeze an extra 5-10 FPS out of them while gaming.

Product lines to consider: Dell Precision and HP EliteBook models are examples of this type of laptop, but any Gaming laptop really fits this category easily. While being cheaper, they're not affordable: you'll still need to give up around a grand for one of these. If you're on a budget, read on.

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Notebook/Subnotebook-class
WORTH CONSIDERATION
Costs ballpark $600-800.

May be mid-range, may be entry level, depends on the overall cost of the machine and it's physical size. (But be warned: +$1,000 laptops that are less than 16" do exist with no graphic card at all... this confuses the hell out of me too.) In this category, INSIST ON Discrete Graphics Cards. Even if they claim that Intel Core i-Series and AMD Vision doesn't need one, it doesn't matter: you need one. (Intel laptop models with Radeon graphics DO exist; the same for AMD models with NVidia graphics.) If the salesperson can't answer if it has a discrete Graphics Card or not, they don't want to sell the laptop that badly. Move on.

These machines are Mid-sized, ranging from 11-16 inches, and since less heat draw is made they can be played on your lap easily but gets warm after extended periods. Subnotebooks will not come with optical media drives or extra ports, limiting the roles the computer can take when exchanging data is necessary: buy an external optical drive to play CD/DVD media (when possible) for less than $80. You can run CoH, but you can forget about Ultra Mode with these. Recommended or Performance settings are more than possible on these machines at 30 FPS. If you have a budget to consider, you need to shop them thoroughly, but with the right amount of research you will come out alright.

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The Doldrums: This isn't a category, but an omen-- READ ANYWAY!!
AVOID
Business-class/school-ready laptops that cost anywhere from $300-700.

They may or may not contain graphic cards, but if they do, most of them are intended to boost Windows 7 performance at best. There is one salvageable point of contention: ones with Intel MHD4500 WILL play CoH, but they deliver no graphic options, no antialiasing, shading, or anisotropic filtering, and does weird glitching at points (particularly bases). Their performance is comparable to a GeForce 6200 with overall better FPS (CoH at release in 2004 recommended this card).

Since Intel/AMD are getting into the "Graphics Card on the Processor Die" setup with the Intel Core i-Series and AMD Vision computers, graphics capabilities are harder to gauge than before when walking through a store checking them out. (Again, this is on purpose: ideally, a store would like you to buy both a desktop for gaming, and a laptop for mobile use.)

You can expect the lowest priced Intel Core i-3 laptops (under the guise of Intel HD Graphics) and AMD E-Series processors (called AMD Vision on the case sticker) to run City of Heroes on Minimum settings at 15 frames per second or better in low traffic areas (if you're in Atlas Park, get ready for stop-frame animation).

If it's an Intel Core i7 processor or AMD Vision laptop with an A-Series processor, you'll fare a little better: A-Series processors deliver around the Radeon HD 6400-6600 level of output, which places it above budget class, but beneath enthusiast class. Regular frame rates above 25-30 are expected in low-traffic areas and 10-15 FPS in crowds. Core i7 processors have a version of Intel HD Graphics that make gameplay possible on City of Heroes around 20-25 FPS, but with good cause, Intel is not known for it's graphics card quality. In fact, it's the lowest quality for the price compared to NVidia and Radeon counterparts.

But I digress: most laptops in this group with integrated graphics will NOT play CoH well or at all. If it's costs $400-600, be skeptical of it until you know what card it uses, or until you can try it yourself. Most integrated chipsets will not play games like COH with very FEW exceptions; that's why they're affordable.

On this note: terrible places to buy Laptops that run CoH -- anything offered at Staples, Office Depot, OfficeMax, WalMart (any variety) and Sam's Club, Sears, and by extension K-Mart (or any K-Mart conjugation: Super, Big, or Mega), RadioShack. Take Costco with a grain of salt (closeout models = no control of what spec or class of laptop they receive.) Online, Amazon may as well be Sears. Except for the customer reviews, you're on your own.

Protip: Even most Best Buy floor models fall in this category, so SHOP CAREFULLY. Fortunately, Best Buy does store-received shipping on online ordered Gaming Laptops from their website vs. NewEgg/TigerDirect's shipping options. It's not immediate or overnight delivery, but a shorter wait than UPS/FedEx, and much easier to return/service.

So, in short, if they don't mention the graphic card in the ad, it's called integrated graphics, or if it's Intel GMA (except MHD4500) or VIA S3, AVOID AT ANY PRICE. If it's Core i-3, i-5 or AMD VISION E-Series and says integrated graphics, take it with a grain of salt; it may work, it may not. If it's a Intel Core i7, AMD A-Series, the integrated graphics make gameplay possible, but at low to medium settings at best. If you want better performance, consider a laptop with a DEDICATED (DISCRETE) Graphics Processor.

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Netbooks/Low-End Subnotebooks
AVOID
Costs below $500, smallest laptop form factor.

Two years ago, I recommended a short list of Netbooks to play COH on at Minimum Settings only. Now I feel a need to recant my testimony based on a few developments:

-- Intel insists on making Integrated Graphics part of the Processor die.
-- NVidia is getting out of the chipset business.
-- AMD never really played this category with any serious hardware offerings to begin with.

NVidia used to make a chipset called ION, which married low-end enthusiast graphics with a small form-factor netbook processor. Intel had a virtual monopoly with the Netbook lineup which was almost all unabashedly the same specs (1.0 GHz, single core, 1GB RAM, GMA 950 Graphics Chips). Intel tried suing NVidia for dipping into it's Kool-Aid, and they settled out of court. In the end, Intel moved forward with removing Integrated Graphics chips off of the motherboard and embedding it into the processor instead, thereby cutting NVidia out of the motherboard business. If you want an NVidia or Radeon Graphics Card on your motherboard, it's either Discrete, or nothing.

Intel's on-die graphics implementations are famous for being about video rendering rather than 3D performance, and in the Netbook category, it's even more so. 3D performance on Atom chips with integrated graphics are TERRIBLE. NVidia gently killed off the ION after trying to rebrand it as Optimus, the effort largely died after settling with Intel. NVidia is considering Tegra it's sole mobile effort (and that GPU chip isn't touching netbooks). NVidia discontinued their motherboard/laptop mainboard lineup and is sticking to discrete/dedicated graphics only going forward for consumer video cards.

For these reasons above, I cannot recommend a brand new Netbook for City of Heroes. If you can find a NVidia ION, ION II or ASUS N630 netbook left, go for it if you feel compelled to buy it. Otherwise, with the decline of netbook sales, I doubt anyone's going to mourn this loss.

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Anything Else
(Hopefully you know this, but it needs to be said. We were all innocent at one point.)
IMPOSSIBLE
Tablets, Consoles, ChromeBooks, E-readers, Nettops, Fridges with touch displays, Smart TV's, etc.

Pass. None of these will play City of Heroes. Ever.

CONCLUSION

Consider the following points when shopping:
-- Mobile Gaming has to be the purpose. Another computer at home may as well be another desktop.
-- All the good laptops are going to be big. Expect a size over 16" if you're getting a gaming laptop. If lugging this around doesn't sound fun, you may want a subnotebook or reconsider getting one at all.
-- They are a potpourri of slots and ports: pick the right one for your peripherals.
-- Gaming-class laptops are not a good idea to impress co-workers... unless you work in the entertainment industry. (Few do.) Goofy case-designs, less than useable battery life, and giant brick of a power supply = Not recommended for your primary "work" laptop.
-- A choice you'll need to make early on: do you want tech support (go for HP/Lenovo/Dell/Sony) or do you want a good deal and self-support? (ASUS, Acer/Gateway, MSI, etc.
-- Laptops are generally not upgradeable beyond Memory, Hard Disk and accessories. Processor and Graphic Card is mostly set in stone once it's bought.
-- Consider how you will go online, and prepare accordingly.
-- Your graphic card will not match it's desktop card equivalent blow for blow. This is due to heat dissipation, limited voltage, and should be expected.
-- Nevermind the battery life. You're gaming, and long battery life is sacrificial to your cause and pocket book.
-- Laptops have a variety of form factors and builds to consider. Make the call based on your desired capabilities, physical needs, and overall budget.

THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM YOU NEED TO KNOW
-- Processor is largely irrelevant; multi-core processors are widespread, even in the Celeron-Pentium/E-Series tier. If it's single core and on-sale at Best Buy, you're either holding a Atom-based netbook, or a unicorn. As long as the processor is over 1.2 GHz, City of Heroes will try to run on it.
-- Video Card - Get the highest numbered one you can afford. If it's a tie between two, read on:
NVidia - GeForce The critical digit is the hundreds digit (tens digit if it's 3 numbers long): if it's 4 or higher, it'll run CoH well. The higher the better.
ATI - Radeon - the critical digit is the hundreds digit: if it's 4 or higher, it'll run CoH well.
If they don't advertise the Video Card number, or if it's Intel, assume it's Integrated and keep hunting.
-- Display - Any resolution is fine as long as it's at least 1366x768 (typical on 11" and 12" form factors.) 1280x1024 and lower has left the arena in new laptops, so UI real-estate isn't a consideration anymore.

Now go shop.

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Well, that's the end of the main guide. This is all you need to go shopping with. If you're not a nerd, avoid the next post. It'll save you from ripping out your hair.