Opinons on this laptop for gaming/school

Probably not very well at all,maybe HL2 at low res and settings,far cry the same.

I suggest you look for something with at least an nvidia 8400M GS if you want to play any sort of game....even then thats a baseline recommendation really but you should be able to pick something around a similar price with an 8400......you will be glad in the long run

Hi Vman,presumably you are wanting a portable,tried finding a 14" HP in canada with 8400 but couldn't find one,which is strange considering the do them in other area's.

Dell Vostro 1310 13.3" with 8400GS can be had with this spec for 798.00....

Processor:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5670 (1.8GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB) M13567C 1 [223-8884] 1
Operating System:
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic,SP1, with media,32 Edition VHB31E 1 [420-8708][313-6183][420-6581][420-7293][420-7658] 11
LCD Panel:
13.3 inch Widescreen XGA LCD Display XGA 1 [320-6449] 2
Camera and Digital Microphone:
No Integrated Webcam or Mcrophone NCAMERA 1 [313-6198] 21
Memory:
3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM 3GB2D 1 [311-8563] 3
Hard Drives:
160G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive 160G54K 1 [341-6616] 8
Optical Drives:
8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+/-R write capability, Data Only 8XDVDO 1 [313-6192] 16
Video Card:
128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS (64 bit) 8400M 1 [320-6448] 6
Wireless Cards:
Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Wi-Fi Mini Card DW1395 1 [430-2916] 19
Sound Card:
High Definition Audio 2.0 IS 1 [313-4783] 17
Customized Pictaflex LCD Back:
No Custom Image and Text on Notebook NPCTAFX 1 [313-6200] 24
External Modem:
No Modem is required NOMODEM 1 [313-6194] 14
Adobe Software:
Adobe® Reader 8.1 ADOBE 1 [410-1100] 15
Video Memory:
Windows Vista® Basic VBN 1 [310-8627] 7
Productivity Software:
No Productivity Software NOSW 1 [412-0379] 22
Antivirus/Security Suite (Pre-install):
No Anti-Virus/ Security Software NOPRTCT 1 [410-1054] 25
Hardware Support Services CS 2.0 (Module 29):
1 Year Basic Limited Warranty plus 1 Year Mail-in Service S1OSMI 1 [901-0337][988-6059][983-3920][901-0410] 29
Primary Battery:
38 WHr 4-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery 38W4C 1 [312-0690] 27
Optional Support Services (Mod 31):
10GB for 1yr Online Backup by Dell Datasafe DASF10G 1 [420-7776][987-7479] 31
Touchpad Options:
Standard Touchpad NOFRDR 1 [311-8556] 9

Its a pretty good portable,not perfect but good for the cheap price and you can configure through small business online,there's also the inspiron 1420,but thats more expensive for some reason

http://configure.dell.com/dellstore/...C=N13102V_F_1E

I haven't seen anything but speculation on this really,but they do run quite hot when gaming....especially in the thinner more compact notebooks they seem to be mostly fitted into.....the XPS M1330 seems to be the most commonly heard about....but who knows what people are doing to them....probably overclocking them in the hope of raising their 3dmark scores by 50 points or something

If you have warranty,there's nothing to worry about.