I will use it as a computer to go and for gaming.
A good way to compare computer specs when your looking for hardware would be to look at whatever game you are looking to play, and find its suggested system specs. Then find a computer with the closest match and lowest price.
However, laptops are generally not the best hard-core gaming platforms. If your like me, and only will play simulators ( Orbiter, FSX ) then you really don't need a lot of power, but just enough to get along. This is generally cheapest and most economical for a laptop, otherwise I would rather get a desktop.
If your looking at the biggest bang for your dollar, a good place to look is at a
refurbished site or you could even find some new computers online at some name brand store.
Of course when it comes to gaming, having any graphics card is essential compared to integrated graphics. Also look for a computer with duel core, and make sure you don't get any kind of Celeron processor.
There is
this site that does a good job comparing graphic cards, if you are looking at a particular laptop, and want to see some comparisons.
I might be getting a laptop this year and I would like to know about them. How do processors play a role, do they increase FPS, and what is a good processor in GHz?
Having a good fast processor does help to some extent, but in gaming an extra GPU is even better. The graphics card's sole purpose is to process graphics, while the CPU can be left to handle the majority of the calculations. Also if the graphics card has a healthy dose of RAM then that would speed up map loading and all around performance.
Is RAM also associated with the FPS you get when you are playing games? What is a good amount of RAM? Thanks. I hope to be customizing it from alien ware.
Lack of RAM could really kill FPS, but just adding another two GB of RAM might not do much overall. Now a-days, a good dose would be 2 GB of RAM.