I'm currently just about to start a 11x11, that's what my laptop can handle with 400 dwarves(Not counting animals).
What laptop is this? what is your FPS at when you do it?
I think I'm going shopping
FPS seems to stabilise around a solid 45-60 after I get 100+ dwarves and stays there up to 300 dwarves, then it starts going down a little bit, but it should be noted that I try to do almost every FPS improving thing I know of(Pet limit, hunting all wild animals to extinction, efficient hallways and dwarf managing, stone clearing..etc)
As for the laptop, I've gone shopping just a few days ago, and it's amazing how fast technology goes. I'm afraid I don't care about names and brands, but it says Asus on it, so I'm pretty sure that's the brand,
But some of the things: Dual core(At least I think it was that), a video card for games(This one was especially important with the graphics of the newer games, useless to DF though), 4000-something of memory, and a CPU that, according to the store clerk, only came out recently, and windows 7(Which apparently works better with DF for some reason). The screen is wider then my body, so I'd say it qualifies as widescreen.(And it has a numpad, a must for playing DF, but sadly forgotten with most laptops)
Cost wasn't that bad, it was on sale and ended up being just 950 euro, I got the last in stock because with what I listed they just can't not be popular.
And rereading my post after writing shows how little I know of it, I should write that stuff down after buying a laptop
..Ah well, big embarks can be more of a curse then a blessing anyway, on one hand, more resources, but do I really want my dwarves moving that far away, only to turn back for a drink halfway there?
I've had it gen a 2500 year world today, took just 15 minutes, and all the elves got conquered, if that isn't a good omen then I don't know what is.