First of all, I just wanted to say hi to everyone again- due to a combination of computer issues, my mobile being unable to load/show the site properly, and not having other access to a workable computer (it took months before the one at the library finally logged me in correctly, instead of logging me in and then booting me right out again) I haven't been able to really stop by or reply much this year. And when I finally do, it's to ask for help--sorry.

As for business, does this Lenovo laptop look like a good buy to anyone? According to NotebookCheck's Graphics Card table the NVIDIA card it comes with is way more than enough for TS3, and I'm mostly going to just be playing TS2 (with all EPs and most SPs, however), so that part checks out, and I know that Lenovo is usually a well-recommended brand. I'm mostly wondering about the rest of it, not to mention the online seller itself- yes, they have basically a 5-star rating on the site, but you don't really know who is actually commenting... (yes, I've starting to become a bit more cynical in my "old" age, what with 30 apparently being "ancient" in internet years ).

Sorry if I'm going on a bit, I just don't want to plop down several hundred for what turns out to be crap--AGAIN (never again HP, NEVER AGAIN!). Thanks guys.

As far as I can see, that laptop has the Intel HD 4000 Graphics chip, which might be able to run the first couple of EPs for Sims 2. I don't see an included NVIDIA card.

Do be a bit cautious, because the difference between a grand graphics card and no graphics card can often be one character right at the end of the model number, which a lot of reviewers don't pick up on. Always make sure the reviewers' model has the same specs as the one you're looking at.

(Ofc, reviews of a different variant of the same model are still very useful for info about things like keyboards, battery life, sound quality etc)

If you're planning on playing The Sims 3, don't expect to pay anything less than $700-$800. And even then that's only for laptops on sale. Normally they would go for about $1000.

$900:
Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 i5 3230M 2.6Ghz 6GB RAM Nvidia GT 650M SLI

$1000:
SAGER NP7352 i7 4700MQ (2.4Ghz) 8GB RAM Nvidia GTX 765M

$1100:
Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p i7 4700MQ (2.4Ghz) 8GB RAM Nvidia GT 750M SLI

Ah, thanks guys. I'm beginning to think that I might be better off just either ordering exactly what I want straight from the Lenovo site itself, or maybe checking out which stores (excluding the big-box ones of course, due to their huge mark-ups and because I know for a fact that they don't carry Lenovo or MSI and rarely have good Toshibas) near my area that might sell them, so I can physically try them out myself. I'll have a little bit more time to do the later since I'll be moving this month (a little ahead of schedule, so it's not really an optimal PC-buying time right now anyhow). I think I'll skip the one that I was looking at and just try to rig my current crappy one back together for a few more weeks. It looks like it might be something I can fix myself - basically the backlight burnt out, and apparently on the presario CQ60-214DX models it's usually just the inverter, which is a cheap part, the hard part is the replacement itself... but in a way, that's this computer's job now...it was slated to become the new test dummy for simple repairs (fan replacement, hard drive reformatting, etc.) before having to do them on the (now future) "good" computer(s), I just wanted to be sure I had a useable computer first, for a worse-case scenario thing.