Intel 4500HD, i3 processor okay to watch HD videos?

I built a HTPC two years ago with the integrated Radeon HD 4200 and an AMD duel 2.8GHz processor and it plays HD. Based on the reviews I read it was pretty close to the minimum you could buy to play back blu-ray discs and other HD media without having issues.

I'm not 100% sure which Intel graphics chip you are talking about. I googled the Intel 4500HD and it leads me to believe it is the mobile equivalent of the GMA X4500, but I'm not really sure. If it is, then based on the Tomshardware graphical hierarchy charts it won't cut it since it is the mobile version of a graphics chip that is 4 tiers down.

However, I really thought the mobile i3's came with either GMA HD or HD Graphics 3000. The former might be capable, the latter would definitely be capable.

You should be able to play HD video with no issues, that is not that bad of a video card for movies. Would not play many games on it past low settings though.

Why not buy a laptop using the 2nd generation Core i3 CPU (Sandy Bridge) like the i3-2410m? It comes with a graphics core that is built into the CPU called the Intel HD 3000. It is slightly more powerful than the desktop Radeon HD 5450 (about 2x more powerful than the old Intel GMA 4500M).