Would a £1200 laptop be...
 

..good enough to play games on?
Mate has a budget of between £1200-1300 for a laptop and wants to be able to play Counterstrike Source and BF2 etc on it.
His flat isn't very big hence he hasn't got the space for a PC. Shame really cause that budget could get him something pretty speedy I'd imagine!

Cheers

I would suspect so yes, they make some pretty damn powerfull laptops in that price range. Not too clued up on the technology to be honest but a look on www.tomshardware.com should fill you in.

cheers matey

No, I wouldn't expect it to be able to play games like BF2 etc at that price. It would be ok with the older stuff, but the new stuff would likely be slow.

You really need to look out for one with a decent gfx chipset (6800 ultra for example), and that puts the price up. I know I have a 3.2Ghz Alienware laptop at home with a Radeon 9700 gfx chipset in it, and that struggles with a lot of the new games. My Dell laptop (2.1ghz centino processor with a 6800 ultra gfx chipset), runs stuff much quicker.

I'd expect to pay more in the £1800-£2000 range for one of those...

Hmm he'll have to make some space for a desktop PC instead then!!

Depends, just saying a laptop is £1200 doesn't mean **** capability wise tbh. At that price you can get a desktop replacement, ultra portable, tablet, all same price but specs will differ hugely.

It's doable for 1200, maybe a tiny tiny bit over.

http://www.rockdirect.com/notebooks/xtremext_cons.htm for example.

I know that's over but I've seen them within budget before, just need to hunt around.

I've tried a couple of those cheaper ones though. The old saying "you get what you pay for" certainly applied. The specs looked good, but the machines were bad / cheaply made. I'd certainly want to try beore buying.

Personally I think that if you just want it for games and are not worried about portability, a desktop would be a much better, more upgradable, and more value for money option...

Oops didn't even bother seeing who the original poster was, Matt you poof sell him yours for 1200 :)

And my point wasn't that for 1200 you'll get a great machine etc, merely that within the tight budget it is possible to get the specs you want i.e. playing games, build quality wasn't discussed.

As it was also going to be a home/desk based machien rather than carted about everywhere that was less of an issue anyway.

I priced up a desktop for him that was around £1050. I think he'll go for that instead.
I did think about selling him mine ;) but I don't have the funds to make anything decent.