Laptops!

[Famous Mortimer]

I'm about to come into a few quid, so when I've paid off all my debts I'll have somewhere in the region of £800 to blow on a nice shiny new gaming laptop. I've had a scout round the usual net-places, but most sites just go "you must want this £1500 thing!" or just talk about bargain laptops that can't game.

So, I'm not asking anyone to do my shopping for me, but any recommendations of what you've used and the sort of games it's played smoothly would be lovely, or just talk about the old knackered-looking beast you installed Linux on and now couldn't live without (I did that with a very old Dell, Linux Mint, job done).

EDIT: It looks like it's difficult to get anything for under a grand, but still, if you're playing Skyrim or Fallout: New Vegas on your laptop and it looks nice, speak up.

[Winjer]

The current Intel and AMD mobile CPU's both have on chip graphics (Intel HD 3000 vs an AMD Radeon implementation).

For a gaming laptop you want a dedicated graphics card in the machine also so that it works in a dual-graphics card setup (CPU + graphics card in unison).

So you'd either have an (i3/i5/i7) Intel 3000 + Nvidia mobile card in what Nvidia would call an SLI setup.

Or AMD fusion (A4/A6/A8) CPU + a Radeon mobile card in what ATI would call a crossfire setup.

From what I've read the AMD A8 graphically outperforms the fastest Intel i7 by quite a margin, so combined with a decent graphics card it'll kick the arse out of an Intel based machine.

The AMD mobile CPU's are a bit cheaper too, leaving you more money to spend on graphics/RAM.

[Steve Lampkins]

Are you really sold on a laptop...? I wouldn't bother.

[Artemis]

I'm not really into gaming but I wanted a machine that could easily handle multiple applications like photoshop and porn video software. I recently bought this, which is in your budget and so far has proven a solid purchase.

[Famous Mortimer]

Are you really sold on a laptop...? I wouldn't bother.

I kind of am, I had a gaming laptop a few years ago and loved being able to take it places for LAN parties and so on - you've not lived til you've shared a medium-sized dining room with 10 unwashed dudes playing Starcraft and Left 4 Dead. Also, I have a perfectly decent desktop which is just no good for games.

Cheers for the link, Artemis, I've just tried to do a comparison on the graphics card it has, and the main website doesn't seem to bloody have it on there. Certainly seems like a decent deal though.

Dell Factory Outlet has this beauty for only £650, and it looks like the graphics card in it is pretty high end.

[chocky909]

Yeah, Dell Outlet is great for cheap gaming laptops. Do get one with a 1080p screen though, the 1600x900 ones aren't great. I got a Dell XPS L702x with 17" 1080p screen, i7 processor and GT555m GFX (google it) for £664 - refurbished but basically brand new.

[Famous Mortimer]

That's the one I saw and would have bought, had I had the pennies at the time. I'll keep an eye out.