Gaming capable laptop

Hi again all, a friend of mine (USA) is moving to dorms this year and needs a laptop that can run games decently, preferably from a USA based reputable online store.

The budget is $700 to $900 USD, it can be raised to $1100 but preferably not. I have been out of the hardware loop lately and was wondering what everyones opinion on this would be, whats the best reliable laptop within that budget capable of gaming (league of legends, minecraft and similar titles at least)?

 

I hope this is the right section this place looks different now, thanks.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+ENVY+Sleekbook+15.6%26%2334%3B+Laptop+-+6GB+Memory+-+750GB+Hard+Drive+-+Modern+Silver/9268048.p?id=1219007786107&skuId=9268048

http://www.xoticpc.com/forcemsi-16f3-22001-670m-msi-gt60-barebones-p-4346.html

you can also customize the specs on it its based off an msi laptop and by default it has a 670m and a core i3 which for gaming is pretty impresive.

Things you need to know before choosing a gaming laptop is that it's always best to spend as much as you can.  The problem with gaming laptop are that they are not upgradeable.  So what you get now is what you will always have.  You can upgrade ram and hdd but nothing more.  

So I will list a few laptops at different price points and you can choose the best one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312438 $999  This is over your perfered price but it's a solid laptop.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152393 $929 This is a little over budget but you get a pretty darn good gpu for the price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834126035 $829 This one isn't a gaming beast but it is capable playing games.  The graphics card is pretty weak but it fits into the budget.  The i7 would be nice to have.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312440 $1099 This one fit's into the max budget but it'll deffinitely be your best bet.  Newegg doesn't charge tax in most states.  

Gaming laptops are expensive! It would help to know what games your friend is into.  If he plays games like WoW he doesn't need more the a $800 laptop, but if he wants to play bf3 he needs to pony up some dough

Thanks for the replies, going to look into this now.

 

EDIT: She plays league of legends, minecraft and games of that era, I think the real goal here is to get as much gpu/cpu power for this budget then tweak game settings as needed. Not really targeting any specific game I suppose.

The thing with gaming laptops is the cpu is usually more powerful then the gpu needs and that is what can lead to bad price to performace.  The one I listed above is good because of the fact that it has a i3 and a 670m.  So the money that would have been put into an i7 is now put into getting a 670m.  There are some out there you just gotta find them.  For gaming I would reccomend a 660m or hd7850m or higher at just bellow $1000.  The cpu will generally be a i5 or i7 anyways so don't worry about that look at the gpu.

I read this as barebones but if I'm correct all it needs is an operating system yes?

ya and for like $90 you can have it include that but if you have a desktop or laptop form a retailer install the same version of windows it has and use the code on it they have multiple activations if not infinate.

Right, thanks for the help here. This looks pretty good, gonna weigh all these options now.

  What Ragingh4vok said is correct.  It's better to just focus on GPU don't worry about cpu to much. In most games the GPU handles about 70% of the gaming load.  Really no point in getting a mobile i5 over a Mobile i3.  Only different is the mobile i5 has hyperthreading and the i3 does not, both are dual cores.  Games don't take advantage of the hyperthreading,  so there will be no gain in having it.   Try to avoid AMD cpu's just because they don't have the IPC that the Intel cpu's provide.  Those games you did mention won't really need a 670m, but if you can find a laptop in your price range with one then deffinitely get it!   It's always good to aim higher with laptop then what you need, because whatever the laptop comes with you are stuck with it forever.

I'd invest in a new haswell laptop right now. Btw I could play league of legends, minecraft, left 4 dead 2 on my T61p from 2008, they were playable on max at 1280x800 (or even 1680x1050) on a quadro  fx 570m (8600m gt equivalent w/ ddr3) and a t7700 2.4ghz core 2 duo merom. Trying the same thing I got worse results on an i3 first gen 2.4 ghz and a gt540m (an acer laptop).

Why haswell? It's very low power consumption and decent graphics (similar to a low-mid range card today) will most likely satisfy you for light gaming. Keep in mind the integrated graphics is better than on a desktop i7.

I have one that I am about to put up for sale for 200 - 300 USD. It's a Lenovo Y580 with a bad battery.

Specs:

i7 - 3610QM

GTX 660m

750GB HDD

15.6" screen

Full and back lit keyboard

Oh my god what a price. I'm melting with envy for you americans, with decent prices on computers and faultless RMAs.