Buying a laptop

[Cerebrum D]

I want to buy a laptop for playing games like Halo, Doom 3, and Half-Life 2, as well as multitasking between going online and listening to music. I also want it to have a DVD burner. Right now, I have $500 saved up, but I don't really need to buy it for another year or so, so I'll probably have at least $900 by then.

What I really want to know is :
1) What kind of processor would best suit me for now and for the future? Is a Mobile AMD Sepron good enough? If yes, then what is the lowest model I could go with?

2) Do I really need 1 GB RAM? My desktop PC has 512 MB RAM and plays Doom and Halo ok, but everyone I talk to recommend 1 GB.

3) Would the built in graphics be good enough for games? If not, then what would be a cheap card that would be good for now and future games, and what would be better ATI or nVidia?

4) Would it be cheaper to buy a laptop that already has all the parts I need, or should I get a basic one and upgrade it?

 

[bigsaucybob]

To be totally honest, i would be worrying about it right now. In a year or so there will be new processors (hopefully) and certain mobile processor series could be much cheaper. I would wait until about 2-3 months until you wanan buy it then come back here.

You can learn right now what is good, but worrying about what to get in a year is pointless.

 

[LaptopExtreme]

I want to buy a laptop for playing games like Halo, Doom 3, and Half-Life 2, as well as multitasking between going online and listening to music. I also want it to have a DVD burner. Right now, I have $500 saved up, but I don't really need to buy it for another year or so, so I'll probably have at least $900 by then...

Yup, you should wait until next year then. There will be new systems, new processors, and new games. Those games will be old news by then.