Sigh, y'all are thinking this is about cheap, it's more likely his parents won't spring for that, because he just needs one for college, and why should they get him a sweet gaming rig anyway?
For the highly advanced, super-programs that a laptop just can't run, of course >_>
Is using "Julian Assange is a Hillary butt plug" an acceptable signature quote?
This foreboding is fa...
Yeah, if he's going to school for anything scienc-y, math-y or art-y he could definitely play it up as "for school."
Auto CAD is a pretty big memory hog, in my experience. As is Autodesk and Photoshop. And Crysis 2, and 16 tabs of Chrome, and Minecraft, and Civilization 5 *cough*
Really, if they can be convinced in any way, Desktop + cheap laptop is the way to go.
edited 5th Jul '11 10:58:50 PM by deathjavu
Look, you can't make me speak in a logical, coherent, intelligent bananna.
I see the Awesomeness.
My experience is that Inventor is a bigger hog than CAD. No where near as big as FEA stuff which will make your machine explode if you're not careful.
Fight smart, not fair.
Judging from my college experience, a college dorm may not be the safest place for a desktop.
You don't really need a SSD unless you have tried one before and can't live without one. A laptop spends a lot more time in sleep mode than a desktop so reduced boot times is a non-issue.
A i3 or i5 is enough for decent gaming. Make sure to get at least 4GB of RAM. The real bottleneck for laptop gaming is the GPU. You want a good GPU, your laptop will be heavy, hot, and expensive. If your parents are paying, go for the good stuff. 
I'd suggest a Netbook. I bought a €500 laptop and it was a mistake. It's so big I haven't brought it to lectures, I don't have accommodation for second year so I have to commute in and I don't really want to bring the laptop in for that, and if I hadn't bought it I wouldn't have made some regrettable Steam purchases....and GOG.com purchases,and.....uggh I don't want to think about them anymore, I have too many of them now. It's a very nice laptop but hell, the Library computers have all I need.
Dumbo
I'll second the suggestion for a netbook. Like occono, I had a large laptop I bought for school, but after a few months, I simply stopped bringing it. A few years later, I bought myself a netbook and I find I bring it everywhere because there's little weight difference with or without.
Who Am I?
Can anyone recommend a good netbook?
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
It will be cheaper to get a laptop + gaming desktop then to get a gaming laptop.
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play