Topic says it all really. I've gone without a laptop forever. Now everyone in the family has one so I'm thinking of getting one for the wife....and by default myself I'm thinking of spending around £500 on a 15" screen laptop, brand doesn't matter. And I figure it might as well be capable of running CS:S at 1440x900. Is there anything that can handle it at that resolution for £500 or near? Kev
CSS was always processor-bound. You shouldn't have a problem. Stick steam and css on a memory stick and run around currys trying them out.
Well I'm glancing at the i5-2430M which seems to be a good balance of speed + value. The HD3000 graphics seem to run CS:S OK; http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-3000.37948.0.html As for trying out USB sticks, you've obviously never met the PC World/Currys nerks down in Cornwall. They think you can get a virus on their display models just by waving a floppy disk at them....
Got this in the end: http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Laptops/buy-ASUS-X53E-SX996V-Laptop/769428 The HD3000 chip seems OK, I tried it out first on CS:S with an i5-2430M which is basically the same performance. I could have spent another £100 to get the same laptop with an Nvidia chip but to be honest I'd rather have the £100!
I think one of the dell inspirons would be your best bet kev..should cost you around 350-600 £ with an i5...css could probably run at around120 fps with a decent cfg file