I need to find a budget gaming laptop

My wife and I both have HP Pavilion TX2500 tablet laptops. The touch screen and pivotable screen that folds down over the keyboard to make a tablet were fun novelties but we never really used those features except for a couple times when I read E-Books in bed with it. They are definatly underpowered for EU though and we both have alot of overheating issues. A toddler has also taken its toll on esp my wifes laptop which is now missing a few keys and is just tired.

Since hers is in worse shape she will get the first one, then later in the year when we can budget it in I will get one.

What she needs/wants;
1. smallish, she is used to the small 14.x inch (i think) screen and doesnt want a huge thing that would take up an entire table. (id say 14-17 inch maybe)
2. Webcam is a must for video chats with family.
3. DVD drive, dont really want to mess with an external drive.
4. All the normal usb and sd card reader stuff for cameras and random electronic crap to plug into it.
5 Needs to play EU well, its been 2.5 years since we got these so would be nice to play on better than safe/med settings. (we dont need very high, just be able to do med efficiently)
6. Our baby pulls on cords alot, so it would be nice to have a type that doesnt get damaged easily, or has cheap replacement cords. We have been going through a cord every couple of months between our two laptops it seems.
7. Dont need any of the touchscreen or tablet features.

Amazon would be ideal for us with free shipping, but I am open to any suggestions in the US, as long as shipping costs to Alaska are taken into consideration.

Hopefully someone here has a good knowledge of these things and can lead me in the right direction, or at least let me know which processors and video cards i should be looking for in a new laptop.

Thanks for your help,
narfi

 

Amazon.com: Dell Inspiron iM501R-2272MRB 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mars Black): Computer & Accessories

This one seems to meet all of the requirements I am looking for.

Its not top of the line, but when working with a budget you have to make sacrifices.

I guess the two main concerns are how the processer and the gfx card will compare to what we are used to now.

Processer we are using now: AMD Athlon(tm) X2 Dual-Core QL-62 2.00 GHz
Processer in the potential purchase: 1.6GHz AMD Phenom II Quad-Core P920 Processor

GFX we are using now: ATI Radion HD 3200 (with no memory of its own, it steals memory from the laptop)
GFX in the potential purchase: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 550v (1GB)

This would also boost her from using vista to windows 7, 4gig of ram instead of 2, and about 3 inchs larger screen.

Would this be able to run the game better than we are used to? I am sure it can do all the other stuff she would use it for no problem, its just EU that im worried about.

narfi

 

Cool i appreciate it. Not too excited about it being a dell, but oh well :P
narfi

 

Cool, thanks for the info. That second laptop you linked too looks nice but is way over our current budget.
Waiting isnt really an option right now either, hers is in pretty bad shape.

The review you linked earlier ATI Mobility Radeon HD 550v - Notebookcheck.net Tech
I could expect about what they show for crysis? or what specifics were you looking at on that?

I think right now were getting around 25fps in almost all safe mode settings(avatar and objects on medium) but there are lots of times with 1-2seconds of frozen frames as well.

If crysis is what im looking at on that review, then we should be able to play on medium with a lot better consistency than we are now on safe, is that correct?

thanks,
narfi