Help deciding on midrange gaming laptop

Hello all,

I am considering buying a new laptop with the help of my tax return. My budget is $850 or less so I am looking at a few mid-range options. I want it to be able to play most games decently as well as have a decent cpu for multitasking. I don't care if I have to drop detail settings to medium or even low on demanding games.

I have narrowed it down to 2 laptops on newegg, but I am not quite sure which one would be the better choice and I hope some of you can give me your opinions.

They are:

HP DV6-2144NR
Newegg.com - HP Pavilion DV6-2144NR NoteBook AMD Turion II M520(2.3GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 - Laptops / Notebooks

and

Lenovo Y550p
Newegg.com - lenovo IdeaPad Y550p(324158U) NoteBook Intel Core i3 330M(2.13GHz) 15.6" Wide XGA 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm Dual layer DVD Burner NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M - Laptops / Notebooks


I know that the HP has a better graphics card, but the Lenovo has a better CPU, hard drive, and ram (ddr2 vs ddr3).

My main question is: Is sacrificing graphics performance worth the extras the Lenovo has?


Any advice would be welcome.

Thanks,

Josh

The difficulty with your question is that there's really no such thing as a mid-range gaming laptop.

There are plus and minuses to each machine, and there are things that balance each other out.

Obviously, the Intel cpu would be better, but as far as the RAM goes, there's really no discernible difference between DD2 800 and DDR3 1066. The type of RAM isn't what matters, DDR2 or DDR3, it's the frequency, 800MHz vs 1066MHz, and in that respect, there's really little to no difference at all... in fact, if the 800MHz RAM is timed tighter, it will turn out to run games faster.

As for the hard drives: yes, the 320GB 7200rpm drive is a bit faster, but it sacrifices 150GB's over the 5400rpm drive. Since games only use the hard drive to load maps/levels, they're really a non-factor when it comes to actual gaming, per se.

As for the gpu, which is the most important factor, then the 240 > 4650, but again, neither card is intended for gaming.

As long as you realize going into the deal that you're going to have to play most, if not all, games on low, then either machine is fine. Personally, if a gaming machine is your primary concern, then I'd build one. With prices so cheap, you could probably get something very nice for just about the same price.

How about this one?:

Newegg.com - ASUS X83VP-A1 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo P8700(2.53GHz) 14.1" Wide XGA 4GB Memory DDR2 800 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 - Laptops / Notebooks

Almost as good CPU as the Lenovo but with a Radeon 4650 (some say its a 4670 downclocked).

Here is friendly tip : If you want a laptop for gaming, you'll have to pay for a high-end one. 2000$ +.

95% of laptops has a 5400rpm drive which decreases performance a bit.
75% of laptops has a shared-memory graphic card which HEAVILY decrease performance.
20% of laptop possess a low-end graphic card such as the GeForce 8400 GT (a step below mine).

If you really want a gaming laptop, head here :
Alienware Gaming Laptops | Dell

I don't really want it exclusively for gaming. As I mentioned in my original post, I want it to play most games decently at low or medium settings as well as be able to do other multi-tasking well. My budget is no more than $850, so I wanted to know which of these laptops would be the best pick since they are my only real options to pick from.

I am basically asking, if YOU had to pick from these, which would you pick?

I decided to go with the Lenovo Y550p after a friend recommended Lenovo for their reputation of superior quality and reliability as well as good customer support when compared to HP.

He also mentioned as Asus being superior quality compared to HP but I liked the larger screen of the Lenovo.

Thanks all for your input.

Josh