Quote Originally Posted by Ode to a Grasshopper View Post
Sweet. It'll likely be my default-for-everything computer for the next couple of years, so gaming is kind of important, but I'm also more into older games like the Thief series, Baldur's Gate, the occasional play of GTA Vice City (I love shooting up the 80s ), and so forth - probably the most recent game I really want to play besides maybe War for Cybertron is the first Assassin's Creed, which my current ****heap is a tad short of running. So gameability is a factor, but less so than keeping it working at my less-than-tender 'puter-wise hands and it definitely doesn't have to be top-of-the-line. It'll be a work, internet, and media computer first, and a games rig second - the big factors are versatility,reliability, how well it'll travel, and if it'll last a fair while.
Hehe we have very similar taste in games . The first two games I played through after buying my new laptop this year was War for Cybertron and Assassin's Creed.

Any laptop being sold now will probably get you by work/internet/media wise for the next 5 years. Thus gameability is going to define the performance specifications you want. If you're going Windows I would recommend getting the laptop equipped with the highest spec graphics card available, as this will future proof you for at least 2 years of being able to play new games at reasonable performance. Also if you're gonna game, the bigger the screen resolution (not physical size) offered the better. If you're going with an Intel processor, I reckon the new 'sandy bridge' series of i5's is sufficient. Compared to an i5 chip, i7's cost more, run much hotter and only give you a performance edge when doing stuff like video encoding or serious 3D modelling. Some people have questioned why i7's are put in laptops in the first place.

Another thing that hasn't been discussed so far is travel friendliness. I don't know if you're like me and your laptop is your desktop pc OR if you need to travel with it everyday. If you need to travel I would avoid the ASUS brand as their construction is not very robust (personal experience, I own two of them, however I still reckon they are value for money). Even though I hate their guts, HP build a pretty robust laptop and I reckon Toshibas are pretty sturdy too.

Finally, a few items to look out for:
-make sure it includes at least one USB3 port. This will be important as file sizes inevitably grow and you want to store stuff on portable hard drives.
-screen resolution: if you're hooking it up to a TV or monitor, the bigger the res the better. If not, don't waste your time with high resolutions (i.e anything bigger than 720p / 1366x768 which is basic HD not full HD ).
-battery life. If you're very mobile, you'll want a decent one, and the smaller your machine the better.
-weight. Every gram counts if you're walking lots so the lighter the better. I personally dislike carrying my 3kg laptop around.
-bluray or dvd drive. Up to you but can save you about 150 bucks if you ditch bluray.
-connectivity. if you are planning to hook this up to your awesome TV, a HDMI output is mandatory and also check if you have a standard VGA output for monitors. Also check where the headphones, heat vent, power supply, USB ports and disc drives are located. I preferentially like EVERYTHING at the back if possible.