Not an expert by any means but from what i've picked up reading posts on laptops in the forums you will need to spend more money than that if you are looking for something to be able to run games.  i believe the key is the Video/graphics capabilities.

If you are wanting to save on a medium power gaming laptop,you might want to check into a factory refurbished unit,such as LINK or LINK  Other manufacturers often offer great deals on reman/refurbed units. A google search of used  laptops will point you in the right direction.

just to note if you're only looking to play sins then i can play on my 3-4yr old acer travelmate. the game does quite well at the low end performance wise.

i'll post the exact model number/specs when i get home to give you an idea. i think it's 1.8ghz celeron with an intel chipset (nothing fancy).

that said, i would be inclined to agree with the others if you want to play anything more demanding.

Acer or Asus do better and cheaper laptops for gaming than most, check out sites for LAN gaming and see what they are using apart from overpriced Alienware - beware of them secondhand as the warranty is tied to owner 1.

Make sure you have good ventilation and a cooler for intensive gaming on a laptop and clean out the dust bunnies often.

Toshibas are good solid build, very glossy all over so fingerprints galore, very good components used including harmon kardon sound.

I have an HP notebook with the widescreen -f or games it's the bomb, for portability not so much

I'd recommend spending at least $700 and look for an Asus. Start prowling dealnews.com daily, so you can get an idea of what prices are good on laptops. The problem you have is that no laptop for $400 has anything but an integrated graphics card, which won't run Sins.

If you can save even more, like $1000, you're in mid-range gaming laptop territory. For about that much I purchased a used Gateway P-7811fx, which has served me well to this day. Build qualtiy is horrible though.

The Asus GV50 line is really awesome and comes with overclocking features. My brother owns one and is really happy with it. You would just have to wait a bit to save up the extra money.