Going to be buying one soon I'm not all too sure on what I should be looking for with the specs either so some help there would be nice.

As anyone got any suggestions on which I should buy or avoid and how much I would be paying for a decent one.

Yea I don't understand much about computers total newb at it.

The most important thing to remember when shopping for a gaming laptop is: don't buy a gaming laptop. None of the benefits of a laptop, but all the disadvantages, and massively more expensive than a desktop with equal gaming power.

A gaming desktop + cheap portable computer costs less than one powerful laptop, has more power, and more portability.

Asus G74

Just a heads up, most everyone in this thread is going to tell you to get a desktop. I am a student right now and don't have the option of using a desktop, so I had to get a gaming laptop as well. My http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Gaming_Powerhouse/G74SX/ just came yesterday, and it's been able to run everything I've thrown at it so far very easily. It's very powerful and well worth the money if getting a desktop is not an option for you. Good luck!

Thanks I'll have a look at it.

Yea if I could get a desktop I would but I travel a lot so its pointless getting one.

Biggest issue I see with getting a gaming Laptop is the fact that your always going to have to get a new one. As games advance, so are the requirements for said games, and laptops are not the easiest thing to upgrade and havent the options a desktop has. If you have the capital to drop a grand or two to keep up every time the games progress, more power to you, but desktops are just cheaper, more powerful and smarter. I bought a gaming laptop not to long ago and still decided to invest in a desktop.

With a laptop you need to look at two things.

1. The CPU.
2. The GPU.

First you don't want something with a 1.6GHz CPU in it. That's what we call a netbook. It's probably slower than your cellphone. Now days most any Intel i5 or even i3 will be able to handle video games and daily tasks, and the newer SandyBridge are basically top of the heap right now for that. They have numbers like i5-2520M on them, while last gen look like i5-500.

Then the GPU, and that's where your options dwindle. Basically if you see the word "Intel" or "Integrated" run far away, because that's not what you want. You need a dedicated GPU inside the laptop. That ASUS G74SX for example has an NVIDIA GTX 560M in it, which is a dedicated graphics card. My Lenovo X220 on the other hand has literally "Intel HD Graphics Family", which translates to "not a real video card".

So long as it has those two things, it'll play games. It's up to you to worry about screen size and battery life after that.

One final note: You will see a lot of HP laptops on the market. This is wrong. Do not buy any of them.

Thanks for the info steampunk.

Anyone mind telling me if this is a decent one. http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/asus-n55sf-15-6-laptop-black-11428472-pdt.html

It should work well, the 555m is a solid mid range card. My card (2000m) is roughly equal to a 555m and it plays battlefield 3 on medium fine.

Yea im not looking for anything thats going to have super graphics medium is fine with me.

Would the one i linked above also play skyrim?

Number 3 seems to be overlooked a lot and it's sad how many "gaming" laptops with top of the line cards have low-res screens. You definitely want a 1080p or 1200p screen at 17".

See I think resolution and screen size are pure preference. Particularly I'm not convinced for the outright need to have 1080p when 720p (or rather 768p) is just as good. Sure, 12" would be too small for gaming and you'd end up straining your eyes, but there's nothing wrong with 15" screens.

Even when I had a desktop I never really went above a standard 1280x1028 resolution, hell sometimes you still end up needing to lower the resolution to those "sub HD" values to get better performance.

I don't see Skyrim requiring more than BF3, so theoretically yes. Other than that I have no idea.