Laptop for light gaming, <£650 - any ideas?

[jim]

A friend has asked for some advice on this topic, but I'm not really up on the current situation with laptops.

They've just come out of a poor experience with an Acer (overheated under 3D load after a while, with no dust and raised off the desk).

I've been having a look, and places like Scan seem to be able to do something within budget, i.e. a 4GB dual-core an 840M, but I'm assuming these are Clevos which means potential issues with weight and bulk. I think the most demanding game likely to be played would be Rome 2: TW, but with settings dialled down as appropriate.

Is there anything else that might do the trick? I've looked at Dell and Asus, but haven't seen much that looks interesting.

[scaryjim]

Anything with an A8 or A10 APU? My HP cost just over £400 (OK, it was a bit of a bargain) for an A10 4600M with 8GB of DDR3-1600 and a 1TB hard drive. Good enough for most modern games at sensible settings (i.e. medium) at the native 1366x768 res of the panel.

Hmmm, according to the online specs this HP: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptop...62441-pdt.html has dual graphics*. It's also a 25W APU, so should be good for battery life, while being Richland it clocks almost as high as my Trinity. At £500 it looks like a bit of a steal....

*edit: HP website appears to confirm this. A10 APU + 8670M dual graphics will *monster* most games at 1366x768. Unless he's desperate for something tiny and lightweight, he won't get better performance for £500....

edit2: Oh, it apparently includes a free BF4 download too. I might have to go and post this in the current bargains forum now...

[jim]

A10 was my initial thought, but I hadn't found any AMD powered laptops anywhere - that does look pretty good, cheers! Will suggest now.