Need help buying a good gaming laptop

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MasterAwesome

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Hi, I'm trying to buy a decent gaming laptop capable of running games like warhammer online. I've tried doing some research on laptops but I really have no idea what to look for in one. If anyone could give me some suggestions or links to some decently priced gaming laptops (perhaps under 1000 dollars) I'd really appreciate the help. Thanks a lot.
 
Go here.
Click customize. Upgrade to Vista 64 ($0), set the memory to 4 gb, upgrade the video card to geforce 9600m, upgrade the hard drive to 320gb. At that point it will be $780 + tax, so you can probably upgrade the cpu/battery/whatever else a bit. Should run all modern games fine. See here for approximate benchmarks. Also use coupon code SV2132 for $30 off. There might be better deals but I just found this quickly.
 
[quote name='crystalklear64']9600m : /[/QUOTE]
If you look at the benchmarks you could see that it can run CoD4 at 1440x990 at maximum settings with a very reasonable frame rate, so what are you crying about? You can't afford the best video card with $1000.
 
I see that the 9600 is a big improvement over the 8600 which is usually not the case. Looks like you will be fine with it, especially when I noticed that the display size is 15.4 inches where high resolutions don't matter as much.

However, CoD4 is not being run at maximum settings. The guy himself says its a mix of medium and high. No AA is being used on any of the games being bench marked, and from my point of view as a desktop user, that is unacceptable. x2 should be standard if not x4. Especially on lower resolutions where AA makes the biggest impact.

Again, for 780$, in a laptop, that is fantastic, but saying it can run these things at max settings is a bit of a stretch.

You will probably do great with this laptop, but in order to get results similar to that guy's benchmarks, you better have at least what he has.

The processor you'll want to up at least to the core 2 duo, I'd personally go with the P7350, but its a hefty jump.
 
I would go with the HP here as well. I have been looking to get a laptop with some gaming capacity, and this is the one I can come up with. If I were to buy one now, this may probably be it (with the recommendation listed by crystalkear64).

There are other brands out there that are probably cheaper, but I am not familiar with them (Asus, MSI, Sager), so I can't really recommend them to others.

And there's 25% cashback when using Live.
 
For under $1k you want to scavenge Dell the XPS models. I was lucky over the summer and picked up:
Dell EPP: XPS m1530 Laptop Core 2 Duo T8300 (Penryn) 2.4 GHz, 4GB DDR2, 160GB HDD, DVDRW, Intel WiFi N, nVidia 8600M GT, 15.4" WSXGA+ Wide LCD, Webcam, Fingerprint, Vista Home Premium for about $900

I'm very satisfied with my laptop. If you want to spend a little more money and have an investment, keep your eye out for any deals on the Gateway P-6860FX or preferably the P-171XL FX
 
I remember a Gateway 17" that had an 8800 for under $1500: it was ugly as sin but was a killer deal.

9600M isn't bad, especially at that price. You can definitely run most modern games at medium settings.
 
I really appreciate everyone's help. Is that Asus Best Buy deal better than the previous customizable one at the HP website? I've totaled it up, and the price of the HP laptop with 4 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, windows vista 64-bit, Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P7350 (2.0GHz), and 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT video card as well as a High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery comes out to be around 970 dollars with tax. Also, is the Intel Centrino 2 Processor better than the one I mentioned with the HP? (intel core 2 duo P7350) Again, thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate all the help. I probably would have ended up paying about the same for a laptop half as good if I didn't have your help.
 
The 9600m GS in the Asus is worse than the 9600m GT in the HP (maybe 80% as fast) but the processor in the Asus is roughly 15% faster. It's pretty much a draw depending on what you want to do.
 
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