Gaming laptops....

My GF is wanting a gaming laptop. The budget is not much more than $600, so
we’re settling on a refurbished model. I know what’s recommended is a Duo Core processor, at least 1 GB DDR & 100 GB HD. What about video cards? And what brand laptops in general are good for gaming? She has a range of old games (like DOOM & Torment) and new games (like Fable & Thief III) which she wants to be able to play, so the system would have to support a wide range of games.

I was looking at HP Pavilions but the battery drain reputation is a drawback.

Be careful–make sure you do your research. Some games, such as EverQuest II don’t play nice with some processors, namely the Core2Duo, under some operating systems (XP I’m looking at you).