Work/Light Gaming Laptop Around 650$

[boonb]

What is your budget?
600-650$

What country will you be buying this in?
USA

What size notebook do you prefer?
Thin and Light (13 - 14-inch screen)

What brands do you like or dislike?
Like: None
Dislike: None

Would you consider a refurbished laptop?
No

What are the primary tasks you need this notebook for?
Web Surfing, Office and Productivity Software, Listening to Music, Movie Streaming and Viewing, Graphic Intense 3D Gaming

It needs to have a place where i can lock it (i.e. combination lock slot)

What games will you be playing?
WOW, CS Source, SC2, maybe Skyrim

Where will you be using this laptop?
Will stay on desk

How many hours of battery life do you need?
3

Will you be buying online or in store?
online

Which OS do you prefer?
Windows 7

List the screen resolutions that interest you:
Standard Resolution (1366 x 768)
High Resolution (1600 x 900)

Do you prefer a glossy or matte screen?
Glossy is fine

Is the laptops design important to you?
No

Approximately what date will you be buying this laptop?
Around 05/05/2012

How long do you want this laptop to last?
5 years

How much storage capacity do you need?
250 GB

Are you interested in SSD for storage?
No

Do you want a built-in optical drive, what type?
DVD Burner

By the way, not sure if a Intel HD 300 is an ok graphics card or not.

Also, it needs a place to lock it (i.e. combination lock).

[WCFire]

The lock you're talking about is a Kensington lock.

Intel HD 3000 is an integrated GPU and will not likely run the games you listed very well.

Intel HD 4000, on the other hand, just might play them well at low or medium settings. This might be hard to find since it was just released in the Ivy Bridge processors less than a week ago.

It's not easy finding computers around this price range with dedicated graphics cards. Here's a couple with Kensington locks:
Newegg.com - lenovo IdeaPad Z575 (12992PU) Notebook AMD A-Series A6-3420M(1.5GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW AMD Radeon HD 6650M

Newegg.com - Acer Aspire AS7739G-6676 Notebook Intel Core i5 480M(2.66GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory DDR3 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 610M

If one is sold out, try looking for it on other sites like Amazon.

[boonb]

I was looking at that lenovo but was unsure about the amd processors.

[boonb]

Newegg.com - SONY VAIO EG Series VPCEG3BFX/L Notebook Intel Core i5 2450M(2.50GHz) 14" 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce GT 410M

How about this one, slightly more expensive, has the 410 graphics card, any thoughts?

[Karamazovmm]

with your budget there isnt much you can do, and from what you described the amd apu should suit you fine

[WCFire]

The Geforce 410M card is rather weak. I'm not sure how happy you would be with that card. It could only play SC2 smoothly on low settings, for example. It depends on just how "light" of a gamer you are. If you really don't play that many games or if you don't play the newest games, then you might be okay with it. It is just barely a step above the Intel HD 3000.

Of the machines listed so far, it seems the Lenovo is the best bet even with its AMD processor. AMD processors are fine for what you're doing and cheaper than Intel ones so more money is likely going to the graphics card. It has the most powerful card of the three computers we've seen for this budget and can play SC2 up to medium settings, although even still it might struggle with Skyrim on low settings

Here's a thread with some more suggestions:
~$500 laptop
The only issue I've seen with the computers mentioned in that thread is that none of them are certain that they have the Kensington lock you need. There are some good ones in there though. The HP is very powerful for the price, although that is refurbished.

[boonb]

The lock you're talking about is a Kensington lock.

Intel HD 3000 is an integrated GPU and will not likely run the games you listed very well.

Intel HD 4000, on the other hand, just might play them well at low or medium settings. This might be hard to find since it was just released in the Ivy Bridge processors less than a week ago.

It's not easy finding computers around this price range with dedicated graphics cards. Here's a couple with Kensington locks:
Newegg.com - lenovo IdeaPad Z575 (12992PU) Notebook AMD A-Series A6-3420M(1.5GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW AMD Radeon HD 6650M

Newegg.com - Acer Aspire AS7739G-6676 Notebook Intel Core i5 480M(2.66GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory DDR3 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 610M

If one is sold out, try looking for it on other sites like Amazon.

Dang I was just about to get that one... out of stock....

[junky77]

Well, I would suggest to options:
1. Wait. new gpus and cpus are coming out now.
2. Try to find another 50$ and get the [cut-down] Lenovo Y570 with Intel I5-2430M cpu, GT 555M gpu, 6GB DDR3 memory and 750GD HDD for 700$ link
you have more options, like the HP dv6t
you can configure it with a radeon 7690M. With the 30$ discount coupon you can find on the web right now it will be about 650$.

[boonb]

How about this: Lenovo Outlet - IdeaPad Y570 Refurbished - Discounted Laptops, Cheap Laptops, Refurbished Laptops, Discounted Desktops, Cheap Desktops, Refurbished Desktops

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM (2.20GHz, 6MB L3, 1333MHz FSB)
Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 - English
Hard Drive: 500GB, 5400RPM Serial ATA 2.5" Hard Drive
Total Memory: 8GB (2 X 4GB) PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM SODIMM Memory
Display: 15.6” HD WXGA (1366 X 768) LED, W/ 2.0 MP Camera
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® 555M
Optical Device: DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer
Keyboard/Pointing Device: Industry Standard Touchpad

[Stormyy]

There you go, nice and perfect, both the specs and the price.

Newegg.com - Acer Aspire AS5755G-6841 Notebook Intel Core i5 2450M(2.50GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M