Here's my thinking.
I never buy the warranty because if anything major goes wrong, it will happen right away (hopefully) so, the factory warranty should apply. So buy a cheapo, good lappy (around $600-$800), and keep a high performance desktop for gaming. (unless he is rich, then disregard my whole reply 😉 )
It will be outdated in a year anyway and he will probably be able to pick the same thing up for $500 in the near future if need be. Still, it's up to him though !