you said with the 160 GB, it is $872.
$100 - $872 = $128. That is not close to $300 at all. And then he is going to need to get a hdd upgrade, so the difference will be even less. The gpu is so significantly better (for a laptop) that it is worth it.
When someone says under a certain amount, I always take it to mean up to that amount. I mean, how much under? That laptop is $999.99, so it is less.
And you won't find a deal at $1000 that good on the egg. If you're looking for something in a lower price range, this laptop will allow you to play cod on near max settings. It is almost the exact one I have and is $750:
Newegg.com - HP Pavilion DV6-2144NR NoteBook AMD Turion II M520(2.3GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 - Laptops / Notebooks
I think the difference is mine has a 2.2 GHz turion 2 instead of a 2.3 GHz. Anyway, on mine, when I tried playing cod5 on max in a server by myself that I hosted, I just got periodic stuttering every 10-15 seconds. I don't know if it was due to the fact that I was using modded graphics drivers, or if the card just couldn't quite take it. I'm sure there would be lots more stuttering in a full server.
Anyway, the Asus, is going to give you a faster HDD (7200 rpm as opposed to 5400) and a significantly more powerful graphics card. The difference is a lot less than with the 9300 in the laptop Mak is recommending, but it is still quite the jump.
I was going to get one that was very similar to that Asus laptop for $1000, but my parents didn't want to pay that much, so I got one like that hp for $800. I'm happy with it. I've never needed to game on it though. I've just kind of tested stuff out. If I didn't have my desktop here, I would be really wishing I would have went with the Asus.