Getting new laptop soon, any reccomendations.

[Rob of the Julii]

Hi, not sure if this is the right section so feel free to move it, but it does kinda relate to EB. I'm planning on getting a new laptop sometime in the summer. I just want a good general purpose machine, nothing extravagent. But I want to be able to play EB on it of course as well as Medieval 2 (+ Kingdoms) and maybe a recentish FPS like Battlefield 2.

Been doing a bit of research and I quite like the look of the Samsung R505. Spec is below.

* AMD Turion RM-72 dual core processor.
* 2.1GHz processor speed.
* 1MB cache.
* 3GB DDR2 RAM.
* 15.4in screen size.
* Resolution 1280 x 800 pixels.
* Widescreen.
* 250Gb SATA hard drive.
* Multi-format dual layer optical drive.
* 24x CD-ROM read speed.
* 16x CD-RW write speed.
* 8x DVD-ROM read speed.
* 4x DVD-RW write speed.
* Dedicated ATI HD 3470 graphics.
* 256MB graphics memory.
* 3-in-1 media card reader - compatible with SD, MMC SDHC cards.
* 3 USB ports.
* 1 Ethernet port.
* HDMI output.
* RealTek ACL262-GR sound card.
* 1.3Mp webcam.
* 802.11a/b/g wireless enabled.

All this for £499 sterling. What grabbed me was the graphics card. I know laptops aren't ideal for gaming unless you splurge but for the price I'm very impressed. Is the graphics spec enough to play above games? I'm somewhere between a casual and hardcore gamer, leaning more casual and gaming will not be the primary use for this laptop. I personally think it's quite nice, I'm only annoyed that I missed the special offer that Argos had at £399 back at Christmas.

Alternatively if you can reccomend any other laptops for about the same price (£400 - £500 - no idea what you'd pay in dollars etc sorry) with roughly the same spec, especially RAM, it would be much appreciated.

Many thanks

[wudang_clown]

I have Toshiba A210 AMD Turion 64 X2 1,9 Ghz 2GB RAM and ATI HD2600 256MB (I bought it year ago, for c. £500) and I'm satisfied when it comes to play in RTW and M2TW.
Of course, the latter is much more demanding, and it is impossible for me to play with the highest graphic setup, but on medium it is good. So I would be satisfied with the laptop you propose.
If it comes to latest FPS, I played in MOH Airborne demo and on lowest details it was completely playable. However it was really, really exhausting for CPU - temprerature jumped at 80C in some 15 minutes. Now I know, how to lower it, but still newest games are (and will be) very stresful for my laptop.