Everquest 2 (EQ2) on a M11x

I have a decked out desktop that runs EQ2 at pretty much maxed out settings just great, but was looking at the m11x because I'll be away from my desktop for the summer. I was wondering if anyone here has experienced EQ2 on the m11x? Of course I know I wont be able to max out the settings, but does a balanced graphic setting run alright, or is it necessary turn all the settings down to make the game playable? Below are the specs of the build I'm looking at:

PROCESSOR Overclockable Intel® Core™2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz (3MB Cache)
MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 800MHz
HARD DRIVE 250GB SATAII 7,200RPM
LCD PANEL 11.6-inch WideHD 1366x768 (720p) WLED
VIDEO CARD 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 335M

It's a pretty minimal build for the M11x, but with my companies employee purchase program it's only costing $700, and that's about all I'd like to spend.

Thanks,
Scott

 

If its any help at all, I will tell you this...

I purchased my Dell XPS M1710 when it was new around 4 years ago with the explicit purpose of running EQ 2 and Vanguard while being able to be mobile. It had a Geforce 7950 GTX. It ran EQ2 on balanced, really well.

The M11xR1 has a proc that is around the same performance when you consider the fact it is toned down for power saving. The video card quite definitely has better performance than the one on the M1710, so I would feel confident that with an appropriate amount of RAM (4GB or more) that it would run it fine on balanced to high. In a 24 man raid, that will of course not be the same case, but all in all, it should be well suited for your EQ2 needs.

I'm playing DDO at the moment, got tired of most other MMO's, otherwise I would load it up and check it out for you.

 

I have the Core i7 (overclocked to 160, so ~1.7ghz I think) M11x and it run EQ2 wonderfully. I turned down things like water and spell particle effects a little, scaled back the clipping (how far to the horizon scenes get rendered fully) and tweaked some of the textures. Plus I dialed back AA to about 2-4x and turned off v-sync. This may seem like a lot, but as you know in the graphics setting in eq2 there are a TON of stuff you can fiddle with. I basically left everything else on high or very high when soloing or in a small group. Dungeons group runs get a little less effects, water, shadows/lighting, some textures, etc. I haven't been on a raid since getting my M11x- I'm just coming back after over a year off EQ2-, but judging what I had to scale back on my desktop, I think I'll probably be turning things down to medium across the board to make it simple. BTW, my desktop had a faster CPU but it was a C2Duo and GPU was older NVidia 8800 series, also less ram and 32bit WinVista, so maybe the m11x will do better

As for your build, I would think it should be about the same with you having the same GPU and 4GB ram (2 things EQ2 loves to beat up, lol). Your (and mine probably) CPU is the only think holding back high settings in all situations. I would think you could find some nice deals on at leat a core i5 model now that the r3's are out. Might be worth shopping around. A Core 'i' would help future proof a little.

Also, GET A LAPTOP COOLER , lol. The fans in my M11x and Macbook Pro- listed in my sig, start to scream immediately when playing EQ2 and heat was most likelyt the cause on some lock-ups before I started properly ventilating.

Hope this helps and have fun in Norrath!