PROCESSOR - Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache)

OPERATING SYSTEM -Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1

DISPLAY - Glossy, high contrast, widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440 x 900)

VIDEO CARD - 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT

MEMORY - 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz


increasing memory would not be a problem.....i want to run crysis(medium settings) and similar games.

I'm not sure what that system is going to set you back, but if you're into gaming you should really be looking at the Gateway system with the 8800 GTS in it... it's just a bit over $1200 I think and that's DOUBLE the GPU muscle... 8800 GTS = Two 8600 GT.

i have searched for gateway laptop with 8800 GTS but it comes for $1400(with taxes).i was hoping for a decent gaming laptop for like $1200. and i am not a hardcore games either.

i think the GTS would be able to give a bit more performance than 2 8600GT's! but seriously, the 8600 is not good for gaming. it's barely faster than the 7600GT. it seems to me like you're looking at the dell 17 inch inspiron. dell doesn't offer anything reasonably priced that can play games (in laptops at least). as rodney said, look into a gateway.

that 8600m will handle low settings at native res, but give up on even med settings

yes i was pointing towards dell. anyways can you suggest me a good website that offers gateway laptops . cause i have not come across many websites offering gateway.

thank you for your reply

http://www.gateway.com/home/index.php

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008 [...] teway.html

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3273

Be patient and wait for a good deal. The links I gave are a few months old but you should be able to find a good deal if your patient. In another month or so the back to school deals will start and you should be able to find a great deal then.

I don't know how you feel about E-Bay but
http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Gateway-P- [...] dZViewItem

If the price difference is only around $200 + taxes then I would rather pay that extra amount so that the laptop would last me longer for gaming purposes.

Any 8600 will be considered a value card and Crysis is not a very forgiving game (hardware wise).

Heck no - my Geforce Go 7950GTX struggles with Crysis on medium (it can pull it at that res, but barely). An 8600 would be hopeless. Go for the Gateway with the 8800 gts if you want a cheap gaming capable laptop.