Hey Guys I recently got a job and I was planning on purchasing a laptop. I will be browsing the internet but my main intentions are games.

 

I would want a pretty good laptop for up to a 800$ (you can go a bit over that if it's really good). Size, weight and battery life do not matter, I can sacrifice that for the price of

 

+ Fast performance

 

+ Pretty good graphics (they don't have to be great as long as the games run)

 

+ Good wireless internet connection (for MMorgs)

 

 

 

I was planning on playing this, please tell me if it can support the following:

 

 

 

- World of Warcraft

 

- Guild Wars

 

(these are the main ones but I would also like to play the following:

 

 

 

- Battle for Middle Earth

 

- Sims 2

 

- Age of Mythology

 

- Warcraft III

 

- Counter Strike

 

- Halo 1 & 2.

 

- Empire earth.

 

 

 

 

 

I Know I'm asking for a lot but just share your knowledge, and I could always buy more expensive computer but used on craigslist or ebay.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you very much in advance!

Why not a desktop?

The desktop I got cost me $800, and it has the following specs, which will run those games nicely(self built, I'd recommend a better card though):

 

 

 

17" Flatron monitor

 

Logitech speakers w/ Subwoofer, cheap one

 

Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse

 

 

 

CPU specs:

 

-NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 512 MB RAM(friend sold it to me for $20, he was upgrading, and I will be upgrading to a 9600 in a few days time)

 

-2GB RAM

 

-Core 2 Duo processor E4600 @2.66Ghz

 

-SATA 250 GB Harddrive

 

-Fan cooler(liquid is better, but costs about $20 more)

Basically it's hard to say. Look on newegg.com. Buy the most expensive thing you are willing to pay for. Just make sure it doesn't have things you don't want. ;) That would really drive up the cost.

For the price range you specified, you're not going to find a lot of meaty gaming laptops. You can find some decent ones, but if you mean hardcore games -- not gonna happen on that budget.

 

 

 

Since I can't find you a lappy in those constraints, I'll just give you some tips.

 

 

 

• [*:r4rvl306]Dual or Tri-Core processors are the way to go. It goes without saying that a dual-core 1.9GHz processor will outperform a standard 1.9GHz processor.
   
  [*:r4rvl306]Find a dedicated graphics card. You can't use anything that's embedded if you want to play games in some decent glory.
   
  [*:r4rvl306]Windows XP > * in your case. None of the games you've listed neither use nor require DX10, so find a laptop package that lets you downgrade, and soon -- XP won't be available (legally) past the 30th.
   
  [*:r4rvl306]3GB is your maximum for XP. I'll explain why -- XP Professional x64 isn't available to consumers (so it's an illegal copy). That means that your 32-bit OS won't be able to see the entire 4GB of RAM. Besides that, the games you've listed I do believe are more reliable in 32-bit than they would be in 64-bit, but I haven't gamed in years.

 

 

 

Just so you know, the laptop I'm using right now would almost qualify as a gaming rig, except that I put Linux on here instead, and games do make the machine run hotter than I feel is comfortable. I have 2GB of RAM, a nVidia 7000M graphics card, and an Athlon X2 processor running at 1.9GHz (runs at 800MHz idle; gotta save those watts). Found it all under $600.

 

 

 

I do wish you good luck with your gaming laptop for such a price. If you can find one, let us know.

Just throwing in, I picked up a Lenovo notebook in Australia for $700 and had a 1.6ghz dual core, 1 gb RAM (upgraded to 2gb) and a Nvidia Geforce GO 7300. It's quite good.

 

 

 

I can say from experience, a 7300 will run CSS on high with 50+ fps, CoD4 will run smoothly, at bare minimum. Halo 2 runs alright, I had it on low and it was playable. CoD2 runs fine, Team Fortress 2 runs average, it's playable. So, anything with a 7300 or above Nvidia wise should game fairly well for the games you mentioned. Try finding a notebook with an 8400GS or an 8600GS. They should game fairly well.

 

 

 

Don't expect maxed settings on every game with awesome frames from a laptop that price though, but low-mediums smoothly, yes.