Is there such a thing as a gaming laptop PC for roughly $500?

I've been checking out Best Buy's website and while I don't necessarily want to buy a top-of-the-line laptop that can play all games at highest specs, I don't want to purchase one that can only handle free games at MSN Zone. LOL Most gaming laptops start at about $1,000 at Best Buy and I'm impressed with the customer reviews and may go that direction, but in your experience, have you ever purchased a laptop in the $500 range that can actually handle some of today's games with maybe the attributes toned down? Something like an older game such as Half-Life 2 maybe? I ask because gaming will not be the primary concern for this laptop but I would like to be able to distract myself with it from time to time.

Depends on what games you want to play on such laptop.
I have a 9" netbook that I got for $180 and when overclocking you can play Hitman 2 silent assasin and contracts on medium/high graphics (and NOLF on high).

I have a Asus K50 for about $500 and it does rather well. Has a Dual-core 2.20Ghz processor with 3GB of RAM. Also has Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit preloaded.

I bought an Asus G60 that was on clearance at Best Buy for $800. I'm very happy with it. I've tried out some of my Steam games and everything runs fine. GTAIV (which surprisingly is probably the most taxing game on my system, even more than newer hits like Bad Company 2) runs at all high specs, with great view distance for most objects. The resolution is in the 1300x800 range but I can live with that. I can play all my 720p movies smoothly and I've even messed around with it turning it into a dual monitor systm with the built-in Nvidia card and it works great. My only complaint is this sucker gets HOT! I'm trying it out to the max right now so I can know if I'm stuck with a heat tank dud before the 14 day return policy ends.

The cheapest "gaming laptop" I've seen at Best Buy is the ASUS G60 which currently goes for US $780.

The lowest scoring component was the CPU. I can't remember its score. But, its GTX 260M scored a 6.8 compared to my desktop 5770's 7.4. A score of 6.8 is freaking good for a laptop.

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Definitely not!

Yep, with a ram upgrade and razer gamebooster, this can run skyrim at about 30 FPS on high.

http://www.amazon.com/HP-Envy-dv6-7218nr-15-6-Inch-Laptop/dp/B009X8EA92/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

Yep, with a ram upgrade and razer gamebooster, this can run skyrim at about 30 FPS on high.

http://www.amazon.com/HP-Envy-dv6-7218nr-15-6-Inch-Laptop/dp/B009X8EA92/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

JFlame44

[QUOTE="JFlame44"]

Yep, with a ram upgrade and razer gamebooster, this can run skyrim at about 30 FPS on high.

http://www.amazon.com/HP-Envy-dv6-7218nr-15-6-Inch-Laptop/dp/B009X8EA92/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

2ndWonder