I would kill for a picture of you in the tin foil hat.

I use a Gateway NV53A with a 64-bit Windows 7 OS, which is a bit outdated. I picked it up for somewhere in the $450-550 range around a year ago. I'm having trouble remembering.

Here are it's specs:

AMD Pehnom II N830 Triple-Core Processor (2.10 GHz)
4 GB RAM (3.74 accessible)*
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250
DirectX 11
450 GB HDD
_{*I believe the RAM is DDR3, but I'm not sure}

Technically speaking, this machine should be able to run some new games on minimum graphics settings; the graphics card is the part that would be preventative. The newest game I ever run on this laptop is Left 4 Dead 2, which I can run on max settings if I'm not bogging my computer down with superfluous background processes.

If you got a machine with similar specs and a better graphics card (which I would recommend if you plan on the machine being your primary game station), you should be able to get something passable.

Edit: This model with slight depreciations (dual instead of tri core, for example) is now available for $430 from the retailer, and probably cheaper from any stores that haven't managed to sell their stock of them. I'd guess getting a model with comparable/slightly better specs and a dedicated mid-range graphics card would land you around $650-$750.

Part of the problem getting a machine that runs games in a laptop is that they naturally bump up all the specs in the factory-floor machines as well, which add to the price significantly more than just the additional graphics capability would. I would recommend looking for a mid-range model and seeing if the graphics card is upgradeable, which would give you what you need for less cost. Also bear in mind that you'll need to pay for any warranty you want (optional) and antivirus as well, which adds to the price a little.

Another option worth considering is getting a cheap netbook for use in class or writing papers, and putting the rest of the money towards buying components to build a good desktop for your dorm. I have a dedicated desktop with much better specs that I built for video editing and gaming. The nice thing about this option is that you can always upgrade your desktop if it becomes obsolete halfway through college, but if your laptop runs out of steam you have less wiggle room.

I apologize for kinda barfing in on the thread, but supposing I /could/ upgrade my laptop to be able to play games like Skyrim at pretty good setting, what's the first thing to upgrade?

Edit: Barging. Not Barfing. I apologize for doing that, too.

Probably the graphics card. But replacing that is usually pretty difficult. Other than that having enough ram and a good cpu might help.

The processor, RAM, and graphics card are the three limiting factors. Graphics card wil be most helpful, but are terribly difficult to upgrade in laptops (if the laptop even allows for an upgrade). After that, I would say RAM and processor are in a toss-up depending on what your current specs are. You can't really upgrade your processor either. So basically, you can really only upgrade your RAM.

Thing is, my parents are buying this one for me for graduation. If I tell them to just buy me a cheap netbook, I won't be gaining any money to go towards a desktop. I'm mostly trying to milk this for what I can so I can save money later. Even if my parents decide to take up my offer to dig into my savings for a better one, I'll ultimately be better off than if I have to have two separate computers.

Maybe you should suggest that your parents help you choose and buy components to build a desktop under the pretense that not only will it be sure to be relevant for academic technologies through your entire college career, but that you will also be learning about computers and beginning to learn a useful skill. I imagine that they could be willing to reward industriousness.

Then with your savings you can pick up a cheap netbook for "everything else," you have a computer capable of doing whatever you need it to do, you've learned more about a technology you use every day, and you can definitely play Skyrim.

Otherwise, if you are definitely getting a laptop that you want to stay relevant through your 4-5 years at college, get one with decent RAM (try for 4gig DDR3 or better), look at graphics cards, and processor. Those are going to be limiting factors as your computer ages. It's hard to find a laptop with fewer than about 500GB hard drive space, but remember that external hard drives are cheap and getting cheaper ($100 for two Terabytes), so don't worry about space.

Hmm. I'll propose that first idea to them. Thus far, they've been adamant in keeping this as "their gift" and keeping me out of the decision process, but that could be an interesting tact to take.

In my opinion the best option for you is Toshiba's portege range they are the best laptops for playind heavy games.

No offense, but that post was over 150 days ago. I think he's bought his laptop by now.