I need to buy a laptop for uni but I don't know enough on which specifications to search for, can someone help? I want to be able to play games and films, not the super modern 3d games just most as well as uni needs like word etc. What drive speeds, ram and all that doo daa do I need to know about to make an informed decision? Do I need to avoid a brand like Dell?

As I said on your other thread it's all a question of best numbers for your budget.
A modern i processor is a must buy..

The nice thing about the consumer laptop industry right now is that margins are so thin, you're getting what you pay for.

So...

I think your looking for a Core i5 laptop, and the minimum specs I would look for would be 4G of RAM, a 300G Hard Drive, and a video card like the NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M.

Many of these options are a function of yor budget. You'll find cheaper and more expense machines that have the Core i5 CPU in them.

I think the video card is the most sensitive item. Anything will be fine for writing papers, but modern games may not run too well if you don't choose a better card, and laptop video cards aren't that great to begin with.

I'd also recommend you get an external hard drive to backup your school work on.

Thank you Philysteakandcheese, that helps a lot, I have a perspective now.