Short 'n Quick: College student, looking for a laptop, do most of my stuff on Desktop (~$1,700 rig), need a quick and slopy laptop to do average college stuff and light gaming (NOTHING better than GWs) during trips.
This ok? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834157535
Sub $500 recommendations? Black Friday? Cyber Monday?
Decent for GW (and possibly GW2?)
vamp08
Elder III
Wait until the end of the week and see what deals come out on Friday. Be prepared to act fast though, as really good deals on laptops often sell out within hours. 
(yes, that laptop would work for you, but you may do better then that in the <$500 category if you wait a couple more days)
(yes, that laptop would work for you, but you may do better then that in the <$500 category if you wait a couple more days)
Iron Monkey
It's a bit low spec (on the GPU side), and I hate cheap compaq, but I know Guild Wars runs fairly well on Intel GMA4500HD (I have a UL30A), so even a HD4250 will run it OK.
However, if you can find an Acer Timeline 3810TZG (switchable GMA4500HD / HD4330), or an Acer Travelmate 8731 with also a switchable GMA4500HD / HD4330, that'll be your perfect travelling companion and will be able to play GW. With great battery life, low weight, thin and powerful enough for office work and videos. I know you can find them in the UK for under £400, so I'd expect them to be available for around or under $500. You also have the bigger brother, the 4810TZG, with an added optical drive. They're still fairly cheap. Also, usually bottom-feeder Acers are pretty low quality, but those are basically business models, so much better quality than the typical cheap 15'' Acers you may find.
And it will quite possibly play GW2. It's still speculative since I haven't found their min spec requirements, but I doubt their CPU requirements will be much higher, and it should scale all the way down to third-tier mobile graphics cards.
The fusion chips have still 6-8 months before they make it to production notebooks and netbooks. But these chips should run GW1 / GW2 really well.
I must say, It's not the best to play GW on a laptop, an external mouse is recommended. But these thin and light notebooks (basically, supped up netbooks) are awesome. I take mine everywhere.
However, if you can find an Acer Timeline 3810TZG (switchable GMA4500HD / HD4330), or an Acer Travelmate 8731 with also a switchable GMA4500HD / HD4330, that'll be your perfect travelling companion and will be able to play GW. With great battery life, low weight, thin and powerful enough for office work and videos. I know you can find them in the UK for under £400, so I'd expect them to be available for around or under $500. You also have the bigger brother, the 4810TZG, with an added optical drive. They're still fairly cheap. Also, usually bottom-feeder Acers are pretty low quality, but those are basically business models, so much better quality than the typical cheap 15'' Acers you may find.
And it will quite possibly play GW2. It's still speculative since I haven't found their min spec requirements, but I doubt their CPU requirements will be much higher, and it should scale all the way down to third-tier mobile graphics cards.
The fusion chips have still 6-8 months before they make it to production notebooks and netbooks. But these chips should run GW1 / GW2 really well.
I must say, It's not the best to play GW on a laptop, an external mouse is recommended. But these thin and light notebooks (basically, supped up netbooks) are awesome. I take mine everywhere.
vamp08
I ran GWs way back in the day on an old Inspiron 8600 that had a radeon mobile 9000 or something w/ 32mb of VRAM and that would be just enough for me to play GWs on trips.
I will mainly use this laptop for College, as i know how bad laptops are for gaming(which is why I have a desktop). I just want it for very light gaming...something to keep me occupied at night at the condo while on vacation.
However, a better GPU is always welcome compared to that ~10yr old Dell Radeon.
I'll more than likely wait till Cyber Monday for Newegg/Amazon as I'm not in a rush, get paid in a couple days, and want a nice deal.
I will mainly use this laptop for College, as i know how bad laptops are for gaming(which is why I have a desktop). I just want it for very light gaming...something to keep me occupied at night at the condo while on vacation.
However, a better GPU is always welcome compared to that ~10yr old Dell Radeon.
I'll more than likely wait till Cyber Monday for Newegg/Amazon as I'm not in a rush, get paid in a couple days, and want a nice deal.