Is it time for a new laptop?

First of all, hello. My name is Jeff and I'm the newest addition to these forums. A little bit of my computing background before I get to my question: I was interested in building a desktop a few months back, but I didn't have the funds for it ($500-$800 for a decent gaming rig). I learned a lot in those months in terms of hardware and even software, but I've also forgotten some stuff, as well, so please forgive me if I'm not descriptive or informative enough. Nice to be here



Anyway, I'll be shipping off to college within 5 or 6 months as a physics major and music minor (for now) and was wondering if an upgrade was needed. This is my laptop:



HP Compaq Presario C700 Notebook - The sticker on the bottom of my laptop only says "Presario C700," but I've also found "C700 CTO," "C700ET," "C700LA," and a "C700T Series."



Operating system: Windows Vista Home Basic 32-bit (I think "MS Windows Vista SP2" is the specific type of Home Basic package I have, but I'm just going off of what CCleaner told me)



CPU:Intel Pentium Dual CPU T2310 @ 1.46GHz (dual core, I believe)



GPU: Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset Family



Memory: 2GB RAM (upgraded from the measly 1GB I started off with/2GB is the computer's max RAM capacity) - DDR2 PC2-5300



Miscellaneous: It seems to heat up a lot. Been using 3 Dixie cups as support to provide a few more inches of breathing room underneath. The fan will sometimes get louder and I'll have to use a cold rag or something to cool it down or just lower my screen brightness.



Windows Experience Index: 3.2 overall, 4.6 - processor, 4.4 - RAM, 3.2 - graphics, 3.3 - gaming graphics, 4.9 - primary hard disk



I got some of this information through typing "MSINFO32" into my Start menu search function.



So is an upgrade necessary? I still want to build that desktop in college so I don't know if a third computer is necessary. Thank you in advance