Need a laptop for ~$1000-1200 that can play games well.

Getting rid of my new MacBook Pro because I want to be able to play games when I’m on travel on the built in Intel graphics chip just isn’t letting that happen. So I figure I need a windows laptop that has a discrete graphics card with, what, 512? 1GB video ram? I’m not to smart on this.

Important things that I’m not terribly flexible on:

13 inch screen, MAYBE 14. For me portability in my carryon is more important than a large screen.

Decent battery life.

Other than that I don’t care.

I’ve poked around best buy but they have a whole lot of stuff and I’m not sure what to get and feel like I may be able to get a laptop from some online vendor for a lot cheaper that is more capable.

Can anyone try to point a brother in the right direction?

FYI I’m not looking for super awesome mega graphics, but would prefer something near Xbox 360 caliber at least.

Dell or Lenovo.

You should look for something with a dedicated graphics card (the more powerful the better) that doesn’t share system and graphics memory. I like using newegg’s advanced search options to filter results and find the best product.

$1,200 should be more than enough for a competent gaming laptop–I purchased a decent Toshiba laptop last year for around around $800. If I was purchasing right now, for myself, I would go with ASUS.

Will the Intel Core i5 play games alright? Pretty big price difference between the i5 and i7.

Dell has a 14 inch Alienware gaming laptop which starts at $1100 (here’s a review), but if you wait till the refurbished Alienware laptops go on sale, which happens from time to time, you can get a pretty good deal.

UPDATE:

Spousal unit pulled an 11th hour veto and rejected the idea of me selling the MacBook because she likes it.:eek:

She doesn’t even use it…

So much for gaming on the go.

I guess the thread can be locked unless it would be useful for someone else.

Thanks guys!