1) stop playing UT3
2) buy a cheaper laptop
3) ???
4) profit

what is the point in buying cheaper laptop? I am affraid that this one may be a bit slow though.

i don't get the concept of playing games on a laptop.

Why not?

running low on power really fast?
even more crappy LCD?
keyboard stuck on screen so you're limited in mousing space?
more expensive while slower?
(barely) no upgrade options?
when defect your whole computer is away for a month

hows that? :)

Why not?

Edit: image added

So you have an overpriced desktop with bigger heating problems and smaller life span. Swell.

Heating problems are zero (model was carefully chosen, you know).

Regarding life span - taking into account that I play mostly classic Quake titles, this notebook will be suitable for games for many more years . :)

So why not?

The lifespan I refer to is the life of the parts in the laptop, not the upgrade life. Most laptop hard drives/video cards don't make it for more than a year.

wonder why my 5yr old POS laptop is not dead already?

Older laptops were built better. My Sega Genesis still works, but my PS2 died after a year.

My laptop is 2 years without anything breaking!

nice statistics based on a total of 2 machines

That was an example of old things being built better, not on the average life of a newer laptop. I've owned and helped troubleshoot several dozen laptops, and the general life of the parts is only about a year. Meanwhile, my old 700mhz laptop is still kicking (and collecting dust). I just bought an HP Mini (1.6ghz processor, 15gb SSD, tiny size) and I can already tell by the heat generation that I can expect to replace it within a year if I use it with any sort of regularity.

Yeah! works fine.

that config should be enough to run ut3 in mid res

Dell XPS M1530. Awesome lappy.

laptop is ALWAYS rubbish to play games
get a decent desktop-pc (maybe in a small case if space is the issue that makes you want a laptop) - you get a really decent machine for under 700€ whereas you'd pay 1400+€ for a laptop not even as good equipped
if you're a university student or sth alike and really need a laptop go get something cheap with a ton of battery lifetime, small display (12" or smaller and not the heavy 15"+ crap), onboard gfx and quite possibly a small 5400rpm hdd (slow but energy efficient) or if you have the money: a SDD.
as for the manufacturer: if you have the money go for a sony vaio or a lenovo thinkpad - if not: i have an acer notebook since 2004 and - beside the battery being shit (which it was from the beginning) - it hasn't broken down or had any other problem so far. heard from friends samsung wasn't bad either - only ones i would recommend to stay away from are fujitsu siemens, hp and compaq - i aswell saw many many dell notebooks die - possibly because so many ppl had one

I've been using my Acer laptop for little over 3 years now, and I had a few small problems. The notebook fan died almost, just 2 weeks before warranty was running out. Got it fixed within a week even though Acer has shit support so was ok. Then my spacebar got a bit dodgy so I had to replace the keyboard (blame cups of coffee and bread crumbs though), and now lately my dvd drive gave up. :D
But seeing as I put it through the worst shit possible for 3 years, it did fairly well! I'd still try and get an IBM for my next one though (is Lenovo any good?).

haven't seen a thinkpad die so far (my above post was based on 4+ years in university with several hundred people with laptops in my classes)

acer is the most crappiest manufacturer, check lenovo/sony/hp business models. Quality windows laptops.

if not short on cash, check MBP

VooDoo or Alienware.

/I don't know anything about laptops except that they're more mobile, and less customizable/serviceable.

well, there's some good hardware in alienware laptop's but they are more like draggable.

alienware is overpriced shit from dell (they were bought by dell in 2007 iirc)
"gaming laptop" with crappy display, low battery lifetime and a keyboard that sucks