What specs for simpleish games??

I have a list of games I will be playing on my new laptop:
BFII, CS, Left 4 Dead, Diablo III, COD 5, America's Army.

None of these seem so high spec required...

So when I was browsing around looking at various companies like Alienware, Toshiba and Clevo products, and I was doing some of the customizing, the prices kept rising a bit too high for my liking. I think i was being greedy because I would always go for the highest GPU and the highest CPU available.

Would my system be ok if I were to just stick to around a Core 2 Duo 2.53Ghz and a a single Graphics card unit like for example ATI 3870 or 9800M GT? Like, I know laptops dont last too long with the rate at which technology changes, but i was hoping that with this, my system would last maybe 3-4 years, if i continue to play the same old games?

If not, which graphics card should I be looking at even if I stick to the same spec games for the next few years? Or should I just get the highest Graphics card available?

 

Thats way more that enough for those games listed.

 

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a 9800M GT is a high end GPU and will be enough for all of those games you mentioned and much more. I think you should just get the best you can afford because you will only end up buying a new GPU or laptop later on.

 

If you can afford that notebook, get it! No point in getting an 8600m GT when you can get a 9800m even though it may cost a few hundred $$$ less.

 

the only reason to get an 8600m gt would be if the kind of laptop you are getting has a chassis thats only big enough to take an 8600m gt for portability's sake.

go for the 9800m, thats fine. or get an ati 4870 if you can, thats a bit better.

 

I would have to recommend you pick up a Sager NP5973 from XoticPC.com. While the 9800GTS isn't as powerful at the 9800GT, it should max the games you specified, so long as you pair it up with the 2.5GHz cpu. The 9800 GTS also overclocks very well, so when those future games come out, you can still scale with them for a bit. For the price of the system, and the games you are looking to play, you should be just fine with that system.

If you want to go all out, get the Sager NP5797 with the 3.5GHz X9100 CPU or the 3GHz QX9300, and the insanely powerful GTX280M, paired with 4GB DDR3.

 

my 9650m GT can play those games at max (or close to max) settings at 1280x800, so the 9800 will be able to play them easily.

 

What about if I could get a Quad Core 2.00GHz for the same price?

Would it be worth the upgrade much??

 

Eh, the Q9000 is clocked a fair bit too low to be good with gaming in anything other than fully quad core optimized games. If you plan on running a lot of multi-threaded apps, its a decent cpu.

 

One could always take a look at the W90vp-A1 and take advantage of the built in overclocking, though. It brings the Q9000 up to a "nothing to sneeze at" clock I would imagine. Although, there's no confirmation on that yet.