Solved! Moderate Gaming Laptop $600-700

[Orlandonev13]

1. What is your budget?
600-700$ can go a little higher if it will make a big difference.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Least 15 inches. The bigger the better but of course I want the best bank for my buck.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Best possible at this price range.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable

5. How much battery life do you need?
Least a few hours. Not too important as I will usually have it plugged in.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Want to be able to play SC2, Left 4 dead 2, and in the future MW3 and Diablo 3. Hope to be able to play in medium settings at least but low will be okay as long as it runs smoothly. Also a question, what would a high settings laptop price be around?

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Watch movies, download stuff, surf the web, webcam would be a plus.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Least 500GB

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
newegg.com

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
3+ years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
dvd reader/burner

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
Anything reliable.

13. What country do you live in?
USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I am just looking for a laptop to play games at my friends house and school work. I already have a gaming desktop at home so I will only be using this laptop when I am on the go or laying on my bed. Also a back light for the keyboard is a must.

Did a little research and found these two laptops. What do you guys think about them?
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152264

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246156

Thank you

 

[WR2]

Look at the Lenovo Y570 @ $729
Core i5 2410M & GeForce GT 555M

No backlit keyboards in your primary budget range.

A Core i5 2410M / GT 540M is just about enough to let you play SC2 on high settings. Although to get fluid frame rates you might have to adjust settings to medium for intense games.

To get a backlit keyboard you'd need something like Dell XPS 15 15.6-inch "Sandy Bridge" Laptop
Core i5 2410M CPU and GT 540M graphics card upgrade would run about $750 before taxes.
The $650 GT 525M model should get you SC2 on solid medium settings.
MW3, Diablo 3 and BF3 probably need the GT 540M to stay on medium.

 

[WR2]

Want to be able to play SC2, Left 4 dead 2, and in the future MW3 and Diablo 3. Hope to be able to play in medium settings at least but low will be okay as long as it runs smoothly. Also a question, what would a high settings laptop price be around?

It's really tough to say what new games will need for high settings BEFORE they're released and tested.

The GT 555M graphics card is roughly equal to a $60 desktop HD 5760.
If the D3 wiki is right the GT 540M or GT 555M just meets the "recommended" GPU performance.

 

[Orlandonev13]

Look at the Lenovo Y570 @ $729
Core i5 2410M & GeForce GT 555M

No backlit keyboards in your primary budget range.

A Core i5 2410M / GT 540M is just about enough to let you play SC2 on high settings. Although to get fluid frame rates you might have to adjust settings to medium for intense games.

To get a backlit keyboard you'd need something like Dell XPS 15 15.6-inch "Sandy Bridge" Laptop
Core i5 2410M CPU and GT 540M graphics card upgrade would run about $750 before taxes.
The $650 GT 525M model should get you SC2 on solid medium settings.
MW3, Diablo 3 and BF3 probably need the GT 540M to stay on medium.

Looked at the Y570 and it looks promising. Did a little browsing and found the same model but with 2 gigs less of ram for $50 cheaper. You think it would make much of a difference if I went with that one? And do you think getting extended warranty is worth it? First time buying a laptop so I'm unsure.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246153

 

[WR2]

4GB RAM is plenty, and $50 lower price is a great deal IMO.

Most of the time we don't recommend the extended warranties. And if you do want one - get it from Lenovo and not through another company.
You can hold off making a decision and upgrade the warranty coverage period later.

 

[Orlandonev13]

So I did a little more research before I committed to buying and I found a lot of posts about people saying 1366 x 768 resolution is terrible for gaming and pretty much doing anything on the pc. What are your thoughts on that? And are there any other decent laptops with better resolution around the same price and specs?

 

[WR2]

I do prefer the larger resolutions - 1600x900 or 1920x1080.
And that means a 17" standard 1600x900 or the optional 1920x1080 LCD ($100-$150 option) in the 15" models.

Dell has a good deal on the XPS 17" Core i5 / GT 550M @ $694
Core i5-2410M 2.3GHz, 17.3" HD+ 900p WLED LCD w/ NVIDIA GeForce GT 550M 1GB,
4GB DDR3, 500GB 7200RPM HDD in a pretty nice package.

 

[WR2]

Forgot to mention - you can order the optional backlit keyboard on the XPS 17 @ $40
An upgrade to 1920x1080 LCD is an extra $100.