Need Help Choosing a Semi-Gaming Laptop

[Pelephant]

First of all, as a warning, I'm not exactly a super tech-savvy person, so forgive me if I'm rather clueless. I've never been a PC gamer (mainly because my current, 4-year old laptop won't play anything) and have always stuck with my PS3, so I really have very little knowledge on how to choose a new laptop.

Anyhow,
I'm looking to buy a new laptop that's under 1000 that will be able to play most recent games around medium, or at the very least medium to low, settings. For example, I would be really happy with something that could play, say, Skyrim at medium setting (though I know that might be a lot of ask considering Skyrim is pretty graphics intensive.) I don't expect a pure gaming laptop, since I know those are 1. Huge in size and 2. Are pricey.

I've mainly been looking at ASUS laptops at the moment, since a lot of my friends and family seem pretty happy with their products.

The one I'm most interested in at the moment is the ASUS N56VZ (15.6" HD (1366*768)/Intel Core i7-3610QM (2.3GHz)/4GB DDR3/Nvidia GT 650M 2G/500GB 5400RPM) for $999. It's on the upper limit of my price range, but it has the new i7 3rd generation processor. The big issue though is that it only has 4 GB of RAM. Is that enough for gaming? (Again, apologies for being completely clueless.)

Similarly, I've also been looking at an older model in the same series, the ASUS N53SM (15.6" Full HD(1920 x 1080)/Intel Core i7-2670QM(2.2GHz)/6GB DDR3/Nvidia GT 630M 2Gb/750GB 7200RPM) for $899. A hundred cheaper, it has more RAM but the 2nd generation processor and a slightly older graphics card (I think?).

Lastly, I was also considering a cheaper but slightly weaker ASUS A53SD (15.6" HD (1366*768)/Intel Core i7-2670QM Quad Core (2.2GHz)/6GB DDR3/Nvidia GT 610M 2G/750GB 5400RPM). Almost identical to the one above, but a step down on the graphics card.

Having really no experience in PC gaming, would any of these be good choices? What would be the best, considering price and longevitiy (not being outdated too fast?)

I'm also open to any other suggestions of laptops that might work for what I'm looking for, so do you guys have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!!

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Note: I would get a desktop if I could, but as a college student that studies halfway across the country from my hometown, a laptop would probably be more ideal.

 

[FilipJPhry]

The N67 sounds decent. But if you could be a bit more patient(I mean just wait for another paycheck) this one sounds perfect..

 

[Kironcho]

Even though it's the cheapest, the ASUS A53SD (last one) could pretty much dominate whatever you throw at it (except, perhaps, Crysis 2 on super duper max settings).

4GB of RAM is a good amount. I haven't seen a game that needs any more than that. The laptops you listed are all very good computers (better than my so called 'gaming' PC, which has a processor and video card that are outdated by at least two-five years) and I'm pretty sure that you can run Skyrim on high settings. It may come as a surprise, but vanilla (that is, completely unmodded) Skyrim isn't that all graphics intensive.

However, while all the laptops listed are good in their own ways, I think the first one (ASUS N56VZ) is a bit of a rip off, with the second one (ASUS N53SM) being almost as good (and better in some aspects, such as with the RAM and hard disk space). If I were you, I'd personally go with the second one.