Asus U50A good enough for a college student?

I was recently looking into getting a Gateway NV or a Toshiba Satellitle L505-S5983 for my sister. I also considered an Asus that was going for 499 at best buy but was not sure. My co-worker recommended the Asus U50A. This laptop is for my sister, mainly she we will use this laptop for web surfing, e-mail, college use; I also would like to make sure that the laptop will be able to play the Sims 3, it's her favorite game.

Specs for the Asus U50A:
• Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 (2.2 GHz)
• 800MHz system bus
• 2MB L2 cache
• 4GB DDR2 memory
• Multiformat DVD+RW/CD-RW with double layer support
• 15.6" LED-backlit wide screen display
• 500GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
• Built-in facial recognition
• Intel GMA 4500M
• 1.3 megapixel web-cam
• 8 in 1 media card reader
• 3 USB ports
• Wireless b/g/n
• 5.6 lbs
• 5 hours and 10 mins. of battery life

I would like to get this laptop for my sister but I'd like to make sure that she will be able to play the sims 3 on it. Having the Intel GMA 4500M has me a bit skeptical sinc I've heard mixed opinions about it.

 

Sims 3 will work on the U50, but due to the Intel GMA 4500M integrated graphics, it will not run as smoothly. Other than that, the U50A is more than capable of running all the other tasks you listed.

 

I think you should get the UL50vt instead since it has a switchable graphic card (integrated and dedicated : the GMA to save battery life and the NVDIA to play games, etc.).

The rest of the specs are about the same.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220633

There is also a version with a 500gb hard drive.