Laptop Gaming Questions

[Flightsim]

I'm thinking about buying a laptop soon(going to college), but I have some questions about playing games on them. If I don't think playing games on a laptop would be enjoyable or even possible, I will buy a cheap one and save some money. Thanks for any input.

-Is is difficult/annoying to play games with small laptop keyboards and screens?
-Is it easier to use a USB or wireless mouse for games? Can you buy a standard PC keyboard and attach it to a laptop?
-Is it possible to upgrade or build a laptop? I can't find many laptop parts for sale at newegg or other places, so it doesn't seem like a common thing to do.
-What are some of the best affordable laptops for gaming? I'm not talking about laptops made by Alienware or some other expensive high end manufacturer, I'm just looking for something with reasonable performance and price. Its not like I'm planning to play Doom 3 on a laptop. So far I've looked at offers from Dell, Compaq, and Hp. Any other manufacturers that I should consider? Compaq has a laptop(R3000Z model) with the Athlon 64, and HP offers the only laptop(ZD700 model) I've seen with a 128MB video card aside from the very expensive high end laptops. The prices and performance seems reasonable, know anything about these models?

 

[DesolationWilliams]

i cant remember the name of the emachines laptop but its the one with the a64 processor in it. u can get one for under $1,500 and its great for gaming.
upgrading a laptop is very limited (ram, maybe hard drive) and its impossible to build ur own
u can just connect a usb mouse and gaming on the laptop keyboard is no more difficult.
its not really difficult or annoying to game on a laptop.

 

[Wiktor]

Check out some Sager laptops - these are built for gaming, but they can get expensive.

It is possible to attach a keyboard, USB or PS/2, same with mouse. Screens are just as good as desktop LCDs, 15" isn't too small.
You can upgrade RAM, HDD and that's about it.

You can get more info here:
http://notebookforums.com/

 

[howdyduty]

Similar to a desktop, the key to smooth gaming is a good graphics card. Unfortunately, laptop graphics cards are not upgradable. So, if your a serious gamer you best get a very powerful graphics card in the laptop. Keep in mind the card would be playing games for years since you cant upgrade.

 

[MDE]

I have an eMachines M6805 and it does pretty well in any game I've played on it. Get a USB mouse, touchpads suck in games, trust me. The screens on most laptops are fine although some may ghost more than others.

 

[ElFenix]

i play ut2k4 on my notebook all the time. D600 with 64 mb radeon 9000

 

[JBT]

You can game on a laptop pretty well actually I have a 64MB Radeon 9000 and I play Desert combat on that just fine. Now they have Radeon 9700's in some of them. IF you get oen of those you will be in for some smooth sailing. BUt definitly get a mouse. The key board is ussually fine.

 

[Cosmic_Horror]

my brother got a dell laptop with a 128Mb 9600 pro card (pentium M 1.6ghz, 512mb ram 60gb hard drive) and it plays games great! though you want to add a mouse to it, to make it easier to use

 

[0roo0roo]

playing games on laptops is for the well off.