Gaming on a work laptop

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mfost21

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Got a question for your collective expertise. My work laptop was recently replaced with a Dell Latitude E6420: Intel i7-2620 @ 2.7, 4GB RAM, Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics, 14 in. screen @ 1366x768. Corporate IT doesn't trust us engineers and has these things locked down so I can't (shouldn't) install any programs without their permission (thankfully I can still get to the [H] forums while at work!)

I have a bunch of travel coming up and will me away from my home desktop I use for gaming quite a bit. I'm thinking of picking up a spare hard drive for the laptop that I could swap out in the evening so I could do some gaming while on the road. Basically carry the spare harddrive to use the laptop hardware as my own machine. I don't have any experience with gaming on a laptop or integrated graphics for that matter and am wondering if it would even be worth it.

I did a few google searches to see if I could run any games with the machine and am having doubts. I'm used to running games with all the bells and whistles turned on with my desktop but I know thats not a possibility. Do you folks think I would be even able to acceptably run the following games (trying to remember my steam backlog) at the lowest settings with that laptop:

- Skyrim (going on a limb on that one)
- Orcs Must Die
- Dungeon Defenders
- Torchlight
- Fallout New Vegas
- Civ 5
- SC2

Not sure if this was the right place to post this or if it should have gone in the hardware section. Sorry if in the wrong area. Thanks as always for the input. I don't post much but am always reading posts.
 
I'd double check the gpu drivers on your laptop. THe E6420's at my work have drivers for both the Intel Intregrated and Nvidia NVS gpus. I think one runs on higher power, run runs on lower power. Your laptop may be a different configuration though (ours are only Intel I5's, not I7s), but it's worth it to take another look.
 
Unfortunately, everything I can access on the machine shows no trace that anything but the intel integrated is present. Here are a few more details:

Intel(R) HD Graphics 3000

Report Date: 11/16/2011
Report Time[hr:mm:ss]: 13:30:27
Driver Version: 8.15.10.2347
Operating System: Windows 7 (6.1.7600)
Default Language: English (United States)
DirectX* Version: 10.1
Physical Memory: 3240 MB
Minimum Graphics Memory: 64 MB
Maximum Graphics Memory: 1428 MB
Graphics Memory in Use: 120 MB
Processor: x86 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
Processor Speed: 2693 MHz
Vendor ID: 8086
Device ID: 0126
Device Revision: 09
 
Another fine example of why it pays to have a friend in IT. Admin rights, lol. I have steam on my laptop and do a bit of gaming on the road. Dell Precision M6500 w/ i7 and FX3800. It performs well on modest settings. Tell IT your intentions, maybe they'll free up your laptop to you.
 
Thanks for the link Majinhoju. Certainly looks like I should be able to get at least some gaming in. Hard drives are cheap anyway so it's worth the effort.

cmadki4 - I'm friend with our local IT guy but he is nervous about his boss. I'd feel bad asking him to allow me admin rights.
 
Personally, gaming on a work PC is a no-no. Even if traveling. I'd either not game and go explore where ever you are traveling to or I would bring my own laptop. I do both, depending on where I am traveling.
 
This is a bad idea. Don't mess with the hardware on your work laptop without getting specific permission from IT. Firing people for breaching corporate IT policy sucks, but probably not as bad as actually getting fired does.

Why not just buy your own laptop for your personal activities? Then you can get one with a real GPU in it.
 
You guys are probably right; doubtful I'd get fired but still. Wife would absolutely kill me if that happened! I've thought of getting a personal laptop but don't like the idea of travelling through the airports with two.
 
i've been in your exact situation (i'm even an engineer), but my IT guy is pretty laid back and told me to install whatever i wanted. along with the link Majinhoju provided, it's useful to go to youtube and search something like "Civ 5 on HD 3000 integrated". it's a good way to gauge how well a game will run.

i've taken a few work trips that spanned 2 weeks and it's nice to have some creature comforts from home like video games. i stocked up on games like BF1942 + expansions, Half Life, COD1, etc. just for that reason.
 
Maybe your buddy can partition you out a small space to allow you to install a "personal" version of windows 7. That way you load up steam and games on the 2nd partition, boot into the 1st for work. My bro was thinking about doing the same thing for his work laptop and I told him to name his computer on the 2nd partition "mullet" since it's business in the front and party in the back lol
 
Engineer here too with Dell M6600 (quadro equivalent to GTX 460M)

I did a bunch of gaming, IT just lets me have admin privilege :-P

I ended up installing a second SSD and just booting my own custom clean install there when I want to game/personal stuff at home. This laptop supports 2-3 internal drives.
 
Just ask first. Let them know you won't be doing anything illegal or in bad taste. But don't be surprised if they say no. I would definitely go the get your own laptop route. They're cheap these days. ASUS is a popular bang for your buck gaming laptop. Even if you just crashed your work laptop, what would that effect have? :eek:
 
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