Hello, I'm looking to buy a new laptop, because currently the one I have doesn't suit my gaming needs . I can spend up to $1000 and hoping to get somewhere around these specs:

3-4gb ram DDR2 (2 would be fine, since I can always upgrade)
Dual core 2ghz or more(AMD or Intel, don't quite know the difference except they are different brands)
nVida GeForce 8800GTS
120gb of space or more

Also for some features on the laptop, I wouldn't mind having some music buttons to control music, since I just can't sit at my laptop and listen to nothing .
Anyways, Vista 64bit would be awesome too, but am I going too far here? Any suggestions would be great.

Thank You!

I have a Dell Vostro 1500

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/vostronb_1500?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~tab=bundlestab
You can check out the other vostro series, but I happen to be using the 1500

I have all of what you listed, except for the memory; I only have 1GB but the only games I play are Starcraft and sometimes counter-strike so I don't really need much RAM. When I got this, it was only a standard package or something and it was like under $700. Upgrading the RAM won't cost too much either

What does this mean (1.4GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache). I know it's the processor, but I've never seen GHZ/MHZ combined like that along with FSB??

Also the gfx card isn't nVidia. D: (EDIT: I saw the customize button, going over $1k x.X)

Thanks for the suggestion though!

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 20 2008, 4:08 pm by NexY.

Going to 3GB of RAM and adding the 8600M GT makes it cost 971. Adding Vista Ultimate would make it 1021.

The processor stats don't matter much to you. It's 1.4Ghz for your purposes. The FSB is necessary if you want to upgrade the RAM manually, and the cache size is just like a tiny bit of memory on the processor.

Why not just change parts on your current laptop?
Then you can have parts to sell or use later .It would save you a lot of money.

It would be better to build a gaming pc and use an older laptop for playing older games.

What Yoshi said. Do not buy a gaming laptop. The best gaming laptop is an average gaming PC. For 1000$, I recently bought a new high end gaming computer with a Q6600, 8800GT, and 4GB RAM.

There is no way your gonna get a laptop with an 8800 with $1000
My Inspiron 1520 has a 8600 and 1680x1050 screen 2gb ram and core2duo@2.0ghz it cost me about $1500

IIRC, the 8800 GTS is a low end graphics card. The 8600GT is better than it (if that's what your laptop has). I'm not completely sure, I'd have to look everything up again.
Actually scratch what I said.

I would so make my own pc, if I knew how and had a bigger desk. But there is no way I can get a desk bigger than what I have right now. Also, as I mentioned, I have no idea how . You said to upgrade my laptop, I had asked around how to, the responses I got were I can't upgrade onboard things in a laptop except the ram.

About the gfx card, It doesn't need to be 8800, just to run a game like Timeshift(just an example) on high settings with no FPS lag. Unfortunately, there is no way I can get a desktop. o.o

yeah...its going to be very unlikely to get a good gaming laptop with just $1000 dollars..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000032+103980226&Description=geforce+8400m&name=15%22+-+15.4%22
that is a search for 15.4" laptops with geforce 8400...only the ones with low end processors cost under $1000

Thank You everyone, *thinks it over*

Inferior to a customized Vostro 1500, and $10 more.

Well, If I was to spend up to $1500, how would this be:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/load_configuration.do?destination=review&config_id=1017454

I can't use NewEgg, since it's Retail only.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on May 23 2008, 5:22 am by NexY.

You probably don't need to spend the extra money for Vista Ultimate. And you certainly don't need 3 gigs of ram.
The biggest problem is if you want to play modern games, you'll want a better video card. See if you can find a laptop that has at least an 8600.

Cutting back on Ultimate and ram should give you enough room to find a better video card equipped laptop.

Know any places where they let you customize?

My friend has a Dell with an 8600 I think.

I know you said 1000$ but for 1200$, this is quite the beast.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220308

Laptops arent really my thing, but this one looks like a steal. Core 2 Duo T8300 (2.40GHz), 4GB RAM and an amazing GeForce 9500M GS.

Have a look. I didnt check out the earlier reccomended Dell (because i hate and refuse to buy them.).

Edit: Was looking and they did this:
2GB x 2
Note: 4GB physical memory installed. Due to 32bit OS limitation, system will only detect and show 3GB only

If you 'acquire' *Wink wink nudge nudge* a 64bit copy of Vista, you can just wipe the HDD and install that, which i reccomend doing anyway since according to the reviews it comes with a lot of trial/bundle software.

how does one hate dell...they offer like really awesome laptops with like the best resolution..
the vostro 1500 looks so...plain but its still a good deal..

I'm sorry, but I find it very annoying when people put the $ sign on the right of dollar amounts. It goes on the left, like so: $1000. It most certainly does not go 1000$ because that looks retarded.

And umm, what yoshi said. He's good with computers.