Hello all, i'm new to the forum "just finding it" and my problem is i'm trying to find a laptop for gaming purposes for $2,000- or less. The games I play alot right now and what I types of games are (World of Warcraft, Battlefield 2, any RTS game). Right now my choices that I have found to be the best is the Asus G2 Laptop which is around $1,900 with shipping. My computer knowledge isn't that great but I have enough to get around. --Also from what I understand its best to go with Windows XP for gaming due to higher fps, and overall performance.
I'll also be more specific I don't care if the laptop is fugly, I only care about performance and reliability, and just want my bang for my buck.

If I could get some advice, reconmendations and valid reasons if possible on some good gaming laptops, or links to reviews(sure I can just check the site )that would be great.

-Thankyou for your time and thankyou in advance for any help I get

I hope this is in the right forum to post

your budget will be a key bottleneck for you in terms of gaming laptops. the asus g2 is an okay machine but its graphics card is underpowered for the 17inch class. what you should be looking for is a card in the x1800/7900gs range on the low end and 7950gtx or x1900 on the high end.

to find this i suggest you check out places like alienware, hypersonic, dell (the xps and e1705/9400 ranges), among many other choices.

So the asus G2 is good overall except for the video card, ok i can compare specs that way then. I know this next question is a bit off topic for this forum, but i've been told like said before that XP Pro is the better OS to go with for gaming.

Compared to Vista, you mean?

I would definitely reccomend the Dell Inspiron 9400/E1705. Mine (see signature) was only $1071 after tax with next day shipping. Currently, upgrading from what I have to a 2.00GHz Core 2 Duo and 2GB RAM at 667MHz would each be $200. I would reccomend doing both of these if you are going to do any heavy gaming. Mine runs most games good, but I will upgrade to 2GB of RAM when I have the money. You could upgrade the RAM separately to save a few bucks, but then you have to worry about reselling. Either way, this would definitely fit in your price range.

The Prez

generally xp has a bit of an edge at the moment because it has better driver support, but that will change. i have not had difficulties actually running any games under vista though supposedly some have had issues. i really to prefer vista.

The X1700 is certainly fine for RTS games. I would consider a better video card if you played more FPS, as they generally have higher requirements.
The Nvidia 7900 GS is a better model and may work if you can fit it into your price range.

its easy to fit it into the price range with that budget, and honestly if you are buying in a 17inch form factor you should get a video card thats within the standard range of that sized machine.

Thanks for all the help, I found a laptop for $2300 a bit over my price range but well worth it in my opinion.
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread190976.html

I figured that vista wouldn't be great right off the bat since xp has older drivers (More experience), then vista I guess i'll just wait to see if it does improve, tell me what you think on the laptop i'm getting BTW 2.7 years on warranty not months.

That is a fantastic buy on a fantastic laptop. You will not be disappointed. If I had found that thread before I purchased my xVx, I'd very likely be using that machine instead. Go get it!

Yeah I saw your post and another persons on there so I had to grab it as quick as I can haha. I'm sure I will be happy with it especially with the 2.7 year warranty on it.

you made a good choice and im sure you will end up very happy in the end.