Acer 3820TG or Gateway ID49C?

Hi guys,
I am looking for a laptop for school and occasional gaming.
I live in Canada and 3820TG will come with 5470 ATI (512mb) video card and i5 processor.
The Gateway ID49C comes with i3 processor but 1gb nvidia 330m video card.
That is the main difference between the two.
However, build quality is the thing that I care the most about since I will be carrying this laptop everyday for grad school and I had bad experiences with HDD failures (Acer 1410T or 1810 in Canada actually) because of frequent use.
Please lend me any advice as build quality plays quit a role!
Thanks guys!

 

Acer owns Gateway and some Gateway & Acer laptops have the same chassis so build quality is very similar between the two.

Despite its i3 processor, the ID49C will have better gaming performance than the 3820TG with 5470. However the 3820TG will get you 7hr of surfing and weighs in at 4 pounds while the ID49C gets about 4.5hr(?) and is an extra pound.

So it's basically portability vs gaming.

As for your concerns about the HDD, it really boils down to which HDD model your unit comes with (which can vary even on the same laptop model)

 

Thanks a lot for the suggestions!
How did you get your 3820 with 5650 ATI?
Is there a seller here in Canada?

 

To find out how people are getting their 3820TG with 5650, follow this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/501992-acer-3820tg-north-america-purchase-options.html

The "skinny" or "straight dope" is that people are importing them from Taiwan via world.pchome.tw. However right now they're out of stock on i5+5650, so I would wait until they come out with newer i5's, because word out on the street is they are.