Need laptop advice

Hey guys, I have been looking at laptops as I need one for uni this October, and had the good fortune to stumble across your excellent forum.

I need one that does basic things like internet, msn, word, spreadsheets, powerpoint.... you get the picture... but I also want to be able to play music and perhaps watch films... Now as far as I can tell pretty much any will do these things, but the real issue is games. I don't really think I will want to game very much on this laptop but if possible I wouldlike to be able to play some games on reasonable/high settings e.g. counterstrike, and similar, old games like red alert2 (I assume this one would be no problem as it is very old), and maybe even Battlefield 2142. The ultimate is really playing Oblivion, even on medium settings, but I realise that for my budget (probably £600 maximum) this might not be possible.

Basically, what is the lowest graphics card that will play these reasonably well (excluding Oblivion), and what would be needed to play Oblivion? I have found the 3D mark benchmarks for various laptop cards, and also the gpu comparisons thread on this forum, but neither tells me what the different cards will actually be able to do in real terms.

Also, I have found that most laptops within the price range come with a good enough processor (mostly core 2 duos) but either have a (better) graphics card and 1GB RAM, or no/worse graphics card and 2MB RAM.. does this matter, i.e. would 1GB be good enough to do these things when I will be running Vista (I have heard it needs a lot)?

Cheers guys/

 

def get a 2gb ram machine..... what screen size do u need

 

It doesn't really matter that much, but I was thinking of 14" or 15" as that will make it lighter and (I think) need less power to get the same graphics performance.

 

The dell XPS 1330 is the best choice for you.

 

Thanks, but it's over my budget, even more so if you add the extra stuff to give it 2gb ram and graphics.

 

Check my sig. I purchased this system for $1070 with Tax. It may be a bit more now (my friend just bought one 2 weeks ago for $1140 w/ Tax). That should be right around your budget, maybe a little more, but you can't beat it for this $. Moving up would cost you another $1000.

 

Thanks for the help guys. That inspiron you have there kewl guy, looks fantastic deal, shame that it is just out of reach at £700-£800, depending on which options I choose.