Whats running your civ gameplay?

[mackoti]

Indeed desktop its very nice to have.

[Gaspar]

I'm probably due for a new rig, I currently run an Alienware the wife bought me for my birthday 4 years ago:

AMD 64 Dual Core 5200+ 2.6 GHz
4GB RAM
and a lousy NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT card

Obviously runs Civ fine, and pretty much anything else I care to play, but other than dabbling in MMOs here and there, I'm not the sort of guy to play Awesome Graphics FPS 3000 or whatever.

Anyway, mostly just chiming in to say I'd never run a laptop as a primary computer for the reasons T-hawk mentions, not to mention the fact that you pay a premium for that portability that I'd rather sink in components/upgrades. Just easier to use a netbook/tablet for portable needs. I'd also not run a Mac, even if I use a lot of other Apple products simply because even these days there's a decent bit of stuff that requires way too much workaround effort to get to work when you can largely just sit down and play on a PC.

[SleepingMoogle]

I put together this PC at the start of the year:

Intel i7 950 Quad Core
6 GB of DDR3 RAM
GeForce GTX 570

Granted, it's was aimed at playing more modern games without a hitch.

[Adlain]

this system was built for ~£550, i kept my old Monitor, Keybord/ Mouse, Speakers, Hard Drives and Disk Drives and Transfered them over from my old system (they all worked fine so why spend more )

• AMD Athlon II X3 440 3.0GHz 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 Retail Box Processor
  
• Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator and Fan Socket LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA775, AM3, AM2+, AM2 CPU Cooler
  
• Asrock M3A770DE 770 Socket AM3 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
  
• Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 700W Modular PSU
  
• Crucial 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1066Mhz Memory Kit CL7 1.5V Unbuffered Non-ECC
  
• Crucial 2GB DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Memory CL9 1.5V
  
• Zotac GTS250 512MB DDR3 DVI VGA HDMI Out PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics Card
  
• NZXT 200MM 11 Blade Rifle Bearing Fan FS-200RB
  
• NZXT Phantom Black Full Tower Case
  
• Antec TrueQuiet 140 - Case fan - 140 mm
  

Its no world Beater, but works well enough, its only really the Graphics card that holds it back imho.

[Hesmyrr]

I also use macbook pro, but use Bootcamp exclusively for my games (such as CIV IV), especially since I primarily play FFH. Still I'm not sure the Apple is the best way to go if you are looking for game-focused laptop.

[DaveV]

I'm running on an i5 Toshiba laptop, cost under $600. The CPU chip has integrated graphics, and it runs a lot faster than my old laptop that had a dedicated graphics card.

My two cents on the laptop/desktop debate: no question that you get more bang for the buck on a desktop, and it's a lot easier to upgrade, but if you need portability the laptop is worth the premium. I travel sometimes for work, and it's pretty easy to haul my laptop along so I can play in the hotel room.

[Pegasus]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I ended up getting:

• I7 3.4 Ghz Quad Core, 8 Processers
  
• 8GB Memory
  
• Radeon 6900 Dedicated Graphics
  

Oh and a nice snazzy 27" monitor for half the price of an imac

[TheMeInTeam]

AMD Athlon II X2 2.9 ghz
4 GB RAM
1 GB Graphics card (Radeon of some sort I forget)
Linux Mint 11 Katya 2.6.38-8

No trouble with civ IV at all. It can run V well but turn times are slow outside strategic view.