roughly, looking at standard machines
?699 will get you a Dell inspiron with
Core2Duo 1.6GHz
1 gig RAM
nVidia 128mb dedicated gfx card
160gb hard drive.
That could handle low end gaming. The processor is a bit slow and its not got too much ram but its a decent enough gfx card with its own dedicated memory (not pinching any from the ram)
?849 however
Core2Duo 1.8GHz
2 gig RAM
nVidia? GeForce? Go 8600M GT with 256MB DDR2 dedicated graphic memory
160Gb hard drive
Thats a pretty reasonable gaming machine by anyones standards. It should cope with most of what is available today but its ability to handle whats coming up within the next few weeks is pretty restricted.
Both those machines include Vista
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/notebooks_best?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs
Those are the dell options. Other websites like ebuyer have similar specced machines for slightly lower prices.
* Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T5300 - 1.73GHz, 533MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache
* RAM: 2048MB DDR2-667
* Hard Drive: 160GB
* Screen: 15.4" Widescreen TFT
* Optical Drive: DVD Super Multi Double Layer
* Graphics: Dedicated ATI X2300 896MB HyperMemory (128MB VRAM)
* Wireless LAN: 802.11a/b/g - Call for advice on Wireless Networking
* Warranty: 2 Year Global Warranty, Collect and Return within UK
* Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium Edition
That one is ?639. It should handle most of what you want to throw at it (games included) and leave you with a bit of cash left over for accessories (carry bag, docking station, mini mouse, anything else like that you may want)
For ?900 though you can get
* Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 Processor
* 1024MB DDR2-533MHz
* 120GB Hard Drive
* 20.1" Widescreen TFT
* DVD?RW Optical Drive
* GEFORCE 7600 256MB Graphics
* 802.11a/b/g Wireless LAN
* 1.3MP Orbicam
* VOIP Phone
* Tv Tuner
* 1 Year Warranty
* 5in1 Card Reader
* Vista Home Premium
And that also has its own dedicated 256mb gfx card.
I know you said you dont really want to spend more than ?800 but im trying to go a bit either way to give you an idea of the differane and what you can expect for your cash.
Long and the short of it, if your just after a machine for work and media, then ?800 is pretty generous and you could get a fair bit for your money. But in terms of a gaming machine it really isnt big enough if you want something with enough kick to last for a while into the future.
Having said that though, ?750 from alienware on a "Student Saver" deal.
http://alienware.co.uk/product_deta...SysCode=PC-EU-LT-A51M5550&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT
The spec for that seems though of a similar price to the Dell's mentioned earlier. But thats to be expected seeing as they are the same company
In terms of laptops, you cant really go wrong with either Dell or Alienware. Both will be reasonably priced, mass produced and come with excellent packages.
Although another outsider
www.rockdirect.co.uk could be worth a look. Only trouble there is that I hear they have some overheating problems. I dont know how true this is though so you should look into it if you consider them
To sum it all up
?800 isnt much if you are after a gaming laptop. By the time I specced anything up to what I would consider reasonable its well into ?1.4k
But like i said if your after a work / media laptop, ?800 is very generous and you could easily get away with spending only 3/4 of that, and even then that would be generous.
Whoa that was a long post. Time for me to go have a lie down.