What kind of CPU/GPU would be good for playing games on? I'm not talking about 'high end' things but things that are good enough to say that it is 'definitely better than low end'... but not so expensive. One thing I dislike about my laptop is that when I play a game on it or have processes which take up a lot of CPU or something, it gets really hot. I would like to avoid things like that.
Another thing I have also been considering is a laptop that I can 'write' on (like Lenovo's Thinkpads; I do not know if there are other brands that sell similar things, so if you know of any do tell). The problem I have with that is that I'm not sure how often I would even use such a mechanism.
I would assume any notebook with a touch screen is also one that you can 'write' on. A tablet form would make it easier to use (either purely tablet form, or one with a screen that can rotate/flip into a tablet form)
When buying any laptop, I would go for one with the cheapest ram/hard drive option and upgrade it yourself. Hard drives are one of the easiest components to swap out, and ram is 'easy' but doing it the first time can give you a bit of hesitation (you have to use a bit of force to 'snap' it in.... but make sure you are doing it right and don't break the ram itself =P). You can go to youtube and find a million how-to videos.
As for processor/gpu combo.... I hear amd llano laptops are good for budget low- to mid-range gaming. Never tried them myself though, but just keep in mind that the highest tier llano processor barely outperforms an intel i3 cpu-wise.
For the new ivy bridge processors coming out, they all come with intel hd4000 graphics which are supposed to be 2x better than hd3000 graphics and should be good for low end gaming (for games coming out in the future). Probably equal to a current gen mid-range nvidia card. If you need more graphics power, intel cpus are usually paired with nvidia gpus (I don't know much about amd gpus.... had one laptop with 6470m and the switching was a pain so I stick to nvidia for mobile graphics now). The gt YXXm models are for mid-range gaming uses, and gtx YXXm being high end where Y is the generation, and XX is the relative power between gpus of the same generation. If you're interested, do a bit more research into the specific models you are looking at because nvidia has some stupid naming conventions (e.g. gt555m has 3 different versions).
If you can wait, I would wait for an ivy bridge laptop. Power shouldn't increase by much, but battery life, heat and graphics should be greatly improved.
I haven't been following all the new laptops coming out but one that has really caught my eye is the lenovo ideapad yoga. It should come in around $1000+ with a 13'' 1600x900 capacitive touch screen, ivy bridge processor, ssd, 8 hourish battery life and a very interesting form factor. Google it for more info.
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