That price range is why I tend to not even consider PC gaming. It always seems like the new games require better than what $600-800 can buy, especially on a laptop. That's why I suggested a console (not your preference, I understand, but that's where my logic chain takes me).
Well, as noted, that's not an issue for me. The one new game I might approach is Diablo III, and that's from Blizzard, well known for not requiring the best in hardware to get a good play experience.
I'm also not worried about playing the newest games all the time. I'm happy to play something a few years old.
I usually by Dell for my desktop and have very few problems personally. I tend to by close to leading edge tech and upgrade it over the years as needed.
That used to be my mode too, when I was a student and grad student. Get a desktop, and keep it up to snuff through upgrades. That doesn't work so well with laptops, however.
In the end, I took the advice that had collected here, and a few other places, which amounts to "don't sweat the big stuff".
Yes, ignore the big stuff. If you're going midrange, from a major manufacturer (Dell, Toshiba, HP, and so on), while there are differences, they'll all perform well enough. The details are not important. What'll get you is the small stuff - like the exact screen size, or the feel of the keyboard, and such.
So, after getting my hands on a few models, I finally went simple - Dell Inspiron 17. 17.3" screen, i5 Core processor, 8 GB ram, 750 GB hard drive. The keyboard feels good, and the screen real estate is nice for a laptop.
