How much would you invest on a poker latpop?

Poker software is generally pretty basic to look at but I am finding clients are becoming more and more CPU intensive. Does you machine struggle running multiple games?

Probably not too much since i use some cheap used laptop for playing poker sometimes and i believe it cost less than my tablet haha

Originally Posted by Risto234

Probably not too much since i use some cheap used laptop for playing poker sometimes and i believe it cost less than my tablet haha

This is whats odd. They make the clients so lightwieght on mobile devices and tablets yet so hungry on computers.

It depends on whether, apart from playing poker and basic tasks such as browsing the internet, watching movies, using the office suite, you will need this laptop. If you will need it only for this tasks laptop for 300$ - 400$ is enough to run smoothly.


You can buy on banggood or aliexpres to get the best quality/price ratio for example laptop from one of this companies Teclast/CHUWI/Xiaomi should be good and price will be ok too

poker laptop does not require a lot of investment, unless you are playing 10 tables at the same time

Originally Posted by kamciono5

It depends on whether, apart from playing poker and basic tasks such as browsing the internet, watching movies, using the office suite, you will need this laptop. If you will need it only for this tasks laptop for 300$ - 400$ is enough to run smoothly.


You can buy on banggood or aliexpres to get the best quality/price ratio for example laptop from one of this companies Teclast/CHUWI/Xiaomi should be good and price will be ok too

Thanks, may look. Was going to go for a very expensive one, would possibly watch movies, but then 4k tv's are much cheaper for that. But was using a laptop that was only a few years old i5, 8k RAM and kept noticing Party use quite a lot of bandwidth.

Originally Posted by pjokay

Thanks, may look. Was going to go for a very expensive one, would possibly watch movies, but then 4k tv's are much cheaper for that. But was using a laptop that was only a few years old i5, 8k RAM and kept noticing Party use quite a lot of bandwidth.

I noticed that pokerstars too, and funny thing is ps really much puts a heavy strain on the graphics card. If you would like to spend some more money on laptop you can take a look for example on new asus zenbook or surface laptop 3.

I tried playing on a laptop and didnt really like it much,

I invested around $500 in a poker laptop and I had to buy one only for poker because most poker rooms don’t offer a Mac version to play on my personal laptop, only pokerstars and BCP.

My laptop is a normal model and when I play poker at 3 or 4 tables, it works very well. I don't think you need a very expensive laptop to play poker.

Originally Posted by pjokay

How much would you invest on a poker latpop?

Poker software is generally pretty basic to look at but I am finding clients are becoming more and more CPU intensive. Does you machine struggle running multiple games?

Cheap used (relatively modern) laptop.

$150 US - not much more

Beat it up. Take it everywhere you want.

Lose it? Spill coffee on it? No big deal. Buy another.

Mine has a small screen so that I have longer battery life.

If I want a bigger screen when I am home then plug it into a larger desktop screen/monitor.

300€ should be really enough.

I would be careful going for the bottom end of the market now. There was a time when online poker had very low system requirements but things have changed recently and the sites are making it so you can't really dial down the system requirements. Having tried the new pokerstars aurora on a basic laptop even with everything dialled down I find it will randomly crash if I'm doing anything else.

i5 is fine from experience, make sure you get plenty of RAM. I mostly use a i5 10th gen with 16GB and SSD, only intel graphics and it works perfectly well. New laptop prices seem to have increased here recently, and the new ones I've seen only have 14 inch display.

In my opinion you don't to invest to much. All you need is a working laptop that does not lag and has good internet connection.

Definitely you don’t need to invest much on a laptop. I have 200$ worth laptop and work very well. Sometimes I play on 4 different poker clients and 4-8 tournaments at a same time, and runs pretty well.

Originally Posted by pjokay

How much would you invest on a poker latpop?

Poker software is generally pretty basic to look at but I am finding clients are becoming more and more CPU intensive. Does you machine struggle running multiple games?

Since I'm a streamer I'm happy to invest a couple of thousand $ into a laptop, but obviously the demands I have of my laptop are much higher than those of other people.

I think if you are willing to invest even $1000 you can get a laptop that can run pokertracker, multi gaming clients, and multiple tables. What else do you need?

This is a great brand of inexpensive laptops if you want performance and aren't picky on design

You Tube

hope that helps!

Originally Posted by kamciono5

It depends on whether, apart from playing poker and basic tasks such as browsing the internet, watching movies, using the office suite, you will need this laptop. If you will need it only for this tasks laptop for 300$ - 400$ is enough to run smoothly.


You can buy on banggood or aliexpres to get the best quality/price ratio for example laptop from one of this companies Teclast/CHUWI/Xiaomi should be good and price will be ok too

thanks for mentioning these other brands, I didn't know they existed!

Always nice to be able to find a great deal online!

Originally Posted by Evan Jarvis

thanks for mentioning these other brands, I didn't know they existed!

Always nice to be able to find a great deal online!

No problem . This are Chinese brands, but quality to price ratio is the best in them

All poker platforms don't any special high requirements and that's so you don't have to invest a lot. If you intend to play last games on the market, you have to pay some good cash for your laptop

I picked up a Lenovo S145 on clearance at shoppers this spring for $239. I can play 5 tables at a time on 888 no problem and surf with google. I think the secret is the solid state hard drive, and while this one is small, its FAST!

It's up to my bank account. Right now my mac fulfill my needs.

Originally Posted by mkdrummey

I would be careful going for the bottom end of the market now. There was a time when online poker had very low system requirements but things have changed recently and the sites are making it so you can't really dial down the system requirements. Having tried the new pokerstars aurora on a basic laptop even with everything dialled down I find it will randomly crash if I'm doing anything else.

i5 is fine from experience, make sure you get plenty of RAM. I mostly use a i5 10th gen with 16GB and SSD, only intel graphics and it works perfectly well. New laptop prices seem to have increased here recently, and the new ones I've seen only have 14 inch display.

This is what I am finding, if you play with things like Aurora turned on the client can crash on laptops only a few years old. It' surprising when you compare it to other games that may be able to run off the spec. As mentioned I was running an i5 only a few old that was struggling multi-table and had to turn Aurora off. Got another temporary newer laptop that may do the trick for the time being. Had been looking at Razer but they are v expensive and unnecessary for the moment but the jump up in requirements has shot up exponentially in poker the last couple of years.

Even the throwing gimmicks added to sites like Party prob increase it.

What is funny is the graphics on PKR 8 years ago seemed was more impressive and immersive yet required far less power to run.

Originally Posted by Evan Jarvis

Since I'm a streamer I'm happy to invest a couple of thousand $ into a laptop, but obviously the demands I have of my laptop are much higher than those of other people.

I think if you are willing to invest even $1000 you can get a laptop that can run pokertracker, multi gaming clients, and multiple tables. What else do you need?

This is a great brand of inexpensive laptops if you want performance and aren't picky on design https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFyka8Vp62Y

hope that helps!

Oooh interesting video, thanks Evan. Will have to go through that again when not as tired. For the moment I have managed to get my hands on a laptop with 8th gen i5 processor which may keep me going for the time being and is faring better.

Was looking at the Razer brand for a bit, really nice and easily upgradable but very expensive. Trying to justify the cost and thought maybe if I did other gaming on it might be worthwhile. However while I use to love general gaming 20 years ago haven't really done it since college and poker is so time consuming on top of work anyway.

But this Tongfang brand sounds like a good thing to research for a bit more bang for your buck. Just need to see if the one I am currently using will now go a bit further but never tried any of the poker tools except PT4 but know there are other ones I have never used like Pio (if that's how you spell it) can be very demanding.

This is well worth a look at though, thanks for the tip.

Pj

Originally Posted by kamciono5

It depends on whether, apart from playing poker and basic tasks such as browsing the internet, watching movies, using the office suite, you will need this laptop. If you will need it only for this tasks laptop for 300$ - 400$ is enough to run smoothly.


You can buy on banggood or aliexpres to get the best quality/price ratio for example laptop from one of this companies Teclast/CHUWI/Xiaomi should be good and price will be ok too

Many thanks, got a possible temporary laptop for the moment that seems to be doing okay but certainly not high end but will have a look at your suggestions along with the ones Evan pointed out or keep this running a bit and look then look at these suggested brands. The temp one I am using is coping a lot better though but there is nothing worse in a poker tournament than losing if your hardware crashes!

Thanks for the tip :-)

Nothing. It is my birthday today and I got a brand new one.. Kappa.

Nah I think it should stick to your income. Don't spent more than u can effort.

If you're buying NEW, it will be good enough. But if you're into playing a lot of volume, I'd recommend your budget goes as much to your monitors. Even using a laptop, it is worth hooking up to separate screens if you're going to multi-table your evening away.
You should be able to get away with $500 or even less. IN the Uk, where I live 300GBP is plenty for a poker laptop.

That said, if you have a lot of additional software you want to run (HUD, ICMizer, etc.) then it can start to grind. Get an i5 chip or Rizen or newer. Go for extra RAM. you cannot go wrong putting 16GB in your laptop.

Make sure you get a solid state hard drive. Solid state is so much faster than traditional HDD. The difference is night and day.

Other than that, spend your money on a comfortalble chair, or better still, a sit-stand desk. Poker can be long and gruelling and hard on the body if you're not m,oving.

But alas, I'm now heading completely off topic so will stop here!

Regards,
ObbleeXY

Are you planning to multi-table? You may need to invest in a bigger screen. Otherwise, anything basic will work.

I spent about $ 250 buying a MeizuPro7 Plus smartphone and a power bank 20000 mA + two SIM cards from different operators to switch the Internet in emergency cases operators and this is enough for me to play poker without interruption in different circumstances!

Originally Posted by ObbleeXY

If you're buying NEW, it will be good enough. But if you're into playing a lot of volume, I'd recommend your budget goes as much to your monitors. Even using a laptop, it is worth hooking up to separate screens if you're going to multi-table your evening away.
You should be able to get away with $500 or even less. IN the Uk, where I live 300GBP is plenty for a poker laptop.

That said, if you have a lot of additional software you want to run (HUD, ICMizer, etc.) then it can start to grind. Get an i5 chip or Rizen or newer. Go for extra RAM. you cannot go wrong putting 16GB in your laptop.

Make sure you get a solid state hard drive. Solid state is so much faster than traditional HDD. The difference is night and day.

Other than that, spend your money on a comfortalble chair, or better still, a sit-stand desk. Poker can be long and gruelling and hard on the body if you're not m,oving.

But alas, I'm now heading completely off topic so will stop here!

Regards,
ObbleeXY

Still need to try tools like Icmizer, heard they are hungry tools. Got the SD, but only 8 Gig of RAM but getting by on minor upgrade at the moment. Invested a lot on a chair, shame it dosen't provide a massage while playing ;-) A standing desk would be good, might look at the ones you put on top of the desk. Poker is not very healthy and after a day sitting at work it can be a long grind for maybe over 10 hours more in another chair!

Thanks for the tips. :-)

Hello. Intel7. 64gb ddr4. 250gb or more. Research the video for what's best and definitely dual monitors.
Dan'O

I say from 200 to 400. When you win as much as you spent , it will feel good.

I dont think you need to spend money on laptop, build a bankroll first and then splurge. A regular old laptop or phone will be fine

Since I like to play computer games, I know a little about hardware and software. For a simple application like Pokerstars, you don't really need anything special. I could well imagine that you already have a poker laptop but are just not happy with it. In that case I would recommend you to simply reset it. (Don't forget to back up your data beforehand.) If you don't have one yet, a used laptop will certainly do. To be honest, that's enough for playing poker and for office tasks or surfing. If you really want a fixed laptop, make sure that it has an SSD and at least one i5 processor. 4+ GB of RAM should also be sufficient. Of course, more is always possible. A laptop with such konfigs should not cost you 400 €. Probably even uses half.

This year I updated my hardware, the old laptop served faithfully for almost 9 years, now I use a desktop computer with a huge monitor, everything works.

I paid 400 euros and got myself new pretty decent one.

Originally Posted by pjokay

A standing desk would be good, might look at the ones you put on top of the desk. Poker is not very healthy and after a day sitting at work it can be a long grind for maybe over 10 hours more in another chair!
:-)

I highly recommend the Varidesk 48" (I am in no way affiliated with that company)... but I've tried three different sit/stand desks and they're the bomb. It sits on top of your desk. Has an elevated bit for your monitors (2 x 28" fit easily) and is so easy to raise/lower. Hard to go wrong. (But take it slowly. You need to build up stamina).

But definitely good for poker. Especially if you're getting tired. Standing up is refreshing and then you can lean in a bit closer to the screens.

Pics are rubbish, but you get the gist...

Regards,
ObbleeXY

If you're serious investing in a machine, build a desktop for 500-700$( or you can spend an extra 100-200 for a prebuilt) It will last much longer, be better bang for your buck, be easier to maintain, fix, upgrade, and be easier to set up multiple monitors. Plus you now have a dedicated space for playing and getting in the zone.

I know you asked about a laptop specifically which is why I would like to mention that on a laptop you might play 4 tables max. If you're only going to be playing two or less get a good smart phone and install team viewer and you will be able to play two tables wherever you want no problem via connecting to your desktop.

If you reallyyy want the laptop, and good quality, you're going to really have to hunt for a deal if you want the same power as a 700$ desktop, because you'll generally be paying 400-500 more for the same level and quality of machine.

If I were to invest in a laptop for poker alone, and I wouldn't, I would probably spend around $500 or try to get a used one for less.

I think it might be important to mention what country we are referring to when suggesting HOW MUCH does it cost (because this will fluctuate significantly).
Instead, how about "What system requirements are needed these days from a computer if we're hoping to use it for poker" (and then can expand on that to include what else we might have running on our computers at same time... ie. PokerTracker/HEM, etc.).

For myself, I need a computer that will run multiple sites at the same time with up to ~18tables running & PokerTracker. (I like to play on 3 to 5 different sites at the same time when playing MTT's). PokerTracker has always seemed like a pretty significant resource hog for me.

Also, these days it's difficult to say if Pokerstars is one of the sites you're playing on. AuroraGraphics seem to be messing with a lot of player's computer setups... even those who are running fairly modern machines with stuff like i5 CPU, 16GB Ram, and decent GPU's too. Personally I've never needed a dedicated graphics card for playing online poker... but now with Aurora I think it's a must .. sigh

My laptop is an £800 one with dedicated graphics card and decent cpu. I don't think it is necessary to have a laptop like this for playing poker, unless you will be running renders or editing photo or videos.
Pokerstars does seem to be quite intensive for what it is, but still not worth a dedicated gpu or particularly beefy cpu.

Originally Posted by ObbleeXY

I highly recommend the Varidesk 48" (I am in no way affiliated with that company)... but I've tried three different sit/stand desks and they're the bomb. It sits on top of your desk. Has an elevated bit for your monitors (2 x 28" fit easily) and is so easy to raise/lower. Hard to go wrong. (But take it slowly. You need to build up stamina).

But definitely good for poker. Especially if you're getting tired. Standing up is refreshing and then you can lean in a bit closer to the screens.

Pics are rubbish, but you get the gist...

Regards,
ObbleeXY

Looks like a good setup. They are expensive, but Kate, one of the pro's on the site has also highly recommended standing desks. I was reading an article and it did not really promote calorie loss but did say it was quite good for posture but of course it is quite easy to pace back and forth to get some form of exercise with a standing setup. Also as you say if you are getting tired this also really helps. The model you have recommended is about £350 in the UK. I spent a lot on a good chair not long ago but going to keep this on my radar.

Thanks again

Pjokay

Originally Posted by bstubens

If you're serious investing in a machine, build a desktop for 500-700$( or you can spend an extra 100-200 for a prebuilt) It will last much longer, be better bang for your buck, be easier to maintain, fix, upgrade, and be easier to set up multiple monitors. Plus you now have a dedicated space for playing and getting in the zone.

I know you asked about a laptop specifically which is why I would like to mention that on a laptop you might play 4 tables max. If you're only going to be playing two or less get a good smart phone and install team viewer and you will be able to play two tables wherever you want no problem via connecting to your desktop.

If you reallyyy want the laptop, and good quality, you're going to really have to hunt for a deal if you want the same power as a 700$ desktop, because you'll generally be paying 400-500 more for the same level and quality of machine.

If I were to invest in a laptop for poker alone, and I wouldn't, I would probably spend around $500 or try to get a used one for less.

I know what you mean about upgradability although modern laptops come now with such high end CPU's, good separate graphics cards and normally up to 64 Gig RAM they should last long time. If I had a stationary setup I would go for a desktop PC but sometimes house sit my folks place or like the extra mobility with a laptop taking it elsewhere. When I am mine I dual screen in addition to my laptop screen. But as you say it is a lot more for the same spec latop.

Originally Posted by Poker Orifice

I think it might be important to mention what country we are referring to when suggesting HOW MUCH does it cost (because this will fluctuate significantly).
Instead, how about "What system requirements are needed these days from a computer if we're hoping to use it for poker" (and then can expand on that to include what else we might have running on our computers at same time... ie. PokerTracker/HEM, etc.).

For myself, I need a computer that will run multiple sites at the same time with up to ~18tables running & PokerTracker. (I like to play on 3 to 5 different sites at the same time when playing MTT's). PokerTracker has always seemed like a pretty significant resource hog for me.

Also, these days it's difficult to say if Pokerstars is one of the sites you're playing on. AuroraGraphics seem to be messing with a lot of player's computer setups... even those who are running fairly modern machines with stuff like i5 CPU, 16GB Ram, and decent GPU's too. Personally I've never needed a dedicated graphics card for playing online poker... but now with Aurora I think it's a must .. sigh

Indeed specs is a much better criteria, but think I was partly trying to justify to myself the expense of an expensive laptop. Nothing worse tan a laptop or PC crashing in a game. I was running an old i7 but that was struggling. I now have a newer 8th gen i5 that is coping better so now waiting to see how that copes but if purchasing a new one will go with at least a 9th gen i7 processor as minimum.

Wow 18 tables is a massive feat! I struggle with 4. I find it hard to follow all the hands everyone is playing and hand actions when going much over this. Does this amount not affect your ability to make more complex decisions in hands? Do you play multiple buyins levels when playing this money or to lower ones where its a more ABC? Obv this goes off my original question and please ignore if you find it intrusive, just interested in the affect and of playing that many at once as I cannot. Wish I could as touneys are so long and great way to get the volume in.

Good luck at the tables.

i have a touch screen dell lapper, i am on it now, it cost around 1k

It depends on if you're going to multi table and how many tables you play at a time.

Originally Posted by Northnorth123

i have a touch screen dell lapper, i am on it now, it cost around 1k

Yeah one thousand if dollars or pounds is quite a bit. That's the kind of range or above I was looking at. But you pay a lot more for small jumps in graphics cards. I am have currently got a slightly newer laptop that is fairing a lot better but have not have been playing that many tables recently. Need to give t a proper push. But noticed the poker clients have got hungrier and hungrier. I think the cheaper end laptops will have a lot less lifespan for these games.

Most online poker programs do not require too much in the way of computing power. Just get a real low cost laptop and put the extra in your bankroll!! Lol

Z

Stay Safe

I spend about 100$ in online poker, but then i won 400$ and played them. and sometimes i won in freerolls some money

for mine I paid 750 $, works perfectly fine for several years now

why throw in big money to open a poker client, and several tables, I think you don't need a computer of the latest model !!!

I would invest a lot more why I like to play games and the laptop should be a strong powerful fast