A Few Questions About Getting a HP dv5t Laptop

I am considering buying a new laptop and the dv5t is looking like a pretty nice fit for me. I am happy with the prices and the device seems like a pretty solid overall laptop. So far I am pretty sure about getting the Intel Core2Duo T5800 2.0GHz and free 3gb ram upgrade, but I had a few questions and am looking for a bit of help before I move forward.

Firstly, I was wondering about a graphics card. I have heard it is a wise decision to go with a dedicated graphics card in general as well as for any gaming and certain HD usage. I intend to do some gaming occasionally, but I don't consider myself a "hardcore gamer". If a game comes up that looks really appealing to me, I may try it out, but I am not one to pick up every new game and attempt to max out its settings. I mostly stick to FPS games and in general and I may be interested in things similar to and including Left4Dead, COD4, maybe COD5, BioShock, TF2, HL2, RA3, and maybe a few potential games that come out in the future that I am not aware of yet. I don't necessarily need to run these games at maximum and perfect settings - I just want to be able to run and play them. I have grown accustomed to low settings across the board from my past computer and even with that, I have had fairly poor performance, so any upgrade would be great, but I'm pretty sure I can get by as long as it works. I also intend to do some HD video watching and all, but I am not sure just how much that comes into the equation.

So with that, I am somewhat torn between the 4500MHD and the 9200M graphics cards - the 9600 seems a bit overkill for me so I'm not really looking at that one. I have no problem upgrading to the 9200, but just wanted to check into it first. While having the 9200M dedicated may be a better future investment as well as a better gaming card, I don't want to be making a major sacrifice in battery life and laptop temperature for this upgrade. How much would these two areas change? Is the trade-off worth it? What kind of temperature increase can be expected from the 4500 to the 9200 - I don't want to be burning my lap if I move from the desk to the couch? Also, I wouldn't really do any intense tasks (like gaming, HD movies) while unplugged, but for just general use, would battery life still be affected by much? Anything else I should know?

Secondly, I have heard HP is pretty bad at customer service. I know all companies have their good and bad moments, but it seems like in general HP end up lower on the scales. Do you think it is safe to assume that really it's just a coinflip with whatever company I choose to go with? I'm not sure how much to weigh this in my decision process.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I haven't bought a computer in quite some time so I'm fairly rusty and unclear - just want to make sure I do what's right. Thanks a lot.

 

Yeah if you really dont want to even play those mentioned games at medium-high settings then the 9200M GS would be a good option...4500MHD is out of question as it will surely struggle with fps games.but be warned that 9200M GS is a mobile GPU with 64-bit memory bus and it definitely struggle with upcoming DirectX 10 games. 4500MHD is an onboard solution from Intel and will run significantly cooler than the dedicated 9200M GS. If you are going to carry it around frequently, then go with the 9200M GS. But,if you intend to use it as a desktop replacement get the 9600M GT,you are in for a treat!.
Also btw,playing games by keeping your laptop on your lap is not recommended...

 

Their customer service is fine. Almost no trouble at all with them and they have 24/7 support.

I'd say you have to go for 9200M GS minimal if you want to game... but i'd seriously consider the 9600M GT, it's a big step up from the 9200M GS and definitely worth it if you want to play your games. The 9200M GS still struggles with the games you want to play, even at low settings.