A Portable Civ 5 Only Machine--A Civ "Gameboy"

[zeraldonith]

I want a portable machine designed to do only one thing: run Sid Meier's Civilization V---that's it. I have been scouring the internet for months trying to find a way to build a portable machine that's only purpose is to run civ 5. I don't want a full-fledged laptop because that has too many unneeded items such a full keyboard and software I won't ever use. Plus, the power to cost ratio isn't good enough to justify a purchase. Something like a tablet with usb ports would be perfect, but those lack the power I want for the price I need. I'd love to put it together myself because I have some experience building desktops, but I lack the knowledge on how I'd build something portable and am unfamiliar with electronics beyond the simplicity of assembling a tower. Is it at all possible to achieve my "Civ Gameboy" dream, or is it just fantasy?

 

[AdviserKulikov]

Civilization supports windows tablets, just get one of those...

This is the lowest cost one that looks like it should be able to run it, but that's just looking at microsoft's store.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/ASUS-VivoTab-8-M81C-B1-MSBK-Signature-Edition-Tablet/productID.307626900


(I actually have this one, you can put a keyboard with trackpad on it via usb, it's not terrible...)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8800140&CatId=6845

 

[jaguarskx]

Here's Civ 5 running on the 8" Dell Venue 8 Pro which basically has the same Atom CPU as the above linked Asus tablet. Note that it is early in the game with very few cities. As the game progresses and more cities are founded expect the time for the AI to make it's moves will increase.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjCpvlnY5ig

 

[jaguarskx]

The release of tablets using the Cherry Trail generation Atom CPU should be immanent. The recently leased 10" Surface 3 is the 1st Windows tablet to use this new Atom CPU; but at $500 it is not exactly inexpensive. The good news is that tablets using the current generation Bay Trail CPU are currently discounted (like the Asus tablet).

Cherry Trail Atom CPUs basically have the same performance as Bay Trail Atom CPUs, but graphics performance is much improved. At least according to synthetic benchmarks the graphics performance is doubled, but actual game performance increase will likely be lower than that.