The Top 5 Laptops for Casual Gamers

Hardcore gamers have an entire segment of the laptop industry devoted to their needs. Casual gamers, however, don't have this luxury, which can make for a difficult buying decision. You don't need to spend top dollar for the fancy gaming computers with high-end graphics and expensive peripherals devoted specifically to game aficionados. That would be overkill for your light gaming needs. If you're a casual gamer with little technological know-how, check out these top 5 laptops for casual gamers. The laptops are compared based on price, ram, processor, and the most important aspect for any gamer, graphics.

Dell Inspiron Mini 1018 'Extremely light gaming' (Facebook Apps, Browser-based Flash)
Processor: Intel Atom N455
Ram: 1 GB DDR3
Graphics: Integrated GMA 3150

The Dell Inspiron 1018 netbook is a perfect fit for the lightest of gamers. Those who enjoy Facebook games such as Farmville, or browser-based flash games would find this netbook ideal for your needs. If you do first person, higher-end casual gaming you may want to look for a laptop on this list with a better graphics card and more ram. The Integrated graphics would only run simple games you can run in your internet browser. However, for $299 this is an affordable light gaming computer for a casual gamer. Review the Specs

Lenova G550 Laptop
Processor: Intel Celeron 900 (2.2Ghz)
Ram: 2 GB DDR3
Graphics: Intel GMA 4500M

A step up from the Dell Mini 1018, the Lenova G550 provides the light gamer with a larger screen, extra ram for slightly improved performance for more ram intensive browser based games. Although the Lenova also has integrated shared graphics, the 4500M is a step up from the 3150 in the netbook. This laptop provides a Celeron processor which can't run new higher-end games but it sufficient for any browser based gaming and older games that don't require a faster processor. Prices at $430, this would be an affordable fit for the casual gamer that avoids resource heavy new games. Find a merchant

COMPAQ Presario CQ56
Processor: AMD V140 (2.3GHz)
Ram: 2 GB DDR3
Graphics: Ati Mobility HD 4250

The Compaq CQ56 pushes into a slightly different category of gaming. The Compaq provides enough resources to enable some first-person based newer games to perform sufficiently. The Ati HD 4250 has dedicated memory devoted specifically for gaming and graphic intensive applications such as photo and video editors. Priced about the same as the Lenova, the Compaq laptop would provide enough extra power to do more complex gaming for a small budget. If you need the dedicated graphics you can't go wrong bypassing the Lenova for this laptop.

TOSHIBA Satellite C655D-S5057
Processor: AMD Athlon II P320 Dual Core (2.1GHz)
Ram: 4 GB DDR3
Graphics: Ati Mobility HD 4250

The Toshiba Satellite S5057 continues the ascent into higher-end gaming with more processing power and more ram. The Dual Core processor has enough power to handle nearly any game on the market. The 4 GB of DDR3 is also sufficient for just about any game you can choose. This computer would be ideal for someone wanting to be "future" proofed who is interested in the latest and greatest games on the market. The graphics card is the same as the lower priced models, but it can be overclocked to help improve the frames per second and help it keep up with the processor.

Priced at $550 this is a laptop that can handle any office applications, several internet tabs, HD video, and the casual game of any graphic requirement. The graphics settings on newer games may need to be lowered to medium settings as the dedicated graphics are slightly underpowered and won't allow max settings on some newer games.

Acer Aspire AS7741G
Processor: Intel Core-i5 (2.53 GHz)
Ram: 4 GB DDR3
Graphics: Ati Radeon HD 5650

Want the best laptop for the casual gamer? I recommend an Acer Aspire AS7741G with a powerful Intel Core i5 multi threaded quad core processor. 4 GB of DD3 and a powerful dedicated graphics card, this is for a gamer that wants to play any game on high quality max settings. Purchasing the Acer will relieve the guesswork of whether you can power that new game sufficiently, as it will handle anything you throw at it. You may elect to add some extra ram if your running multiple applications, browsers, games, etc. Prices around $780, it's around half the price of a high end gaming laptop and it provides all the power you need to game at will with any game of choice.