Three-Way Dilemma. Please help!

My first University semester is starting up in a few weeks, and I've decided to purchase my first laptop, but I'm stuck between 3 machines.

Toshiba A200-AH9
HP Pavilion dv9417ca
Acer 5720

The Toshiba is $999 (CAD), on sale from 1249.99. It has a Core 2 Duo running at 1.73ghz with 2GB of RAM, but GMA 950 graphics. It has a 15.4" screen and a 9-cell battery.

The HP is $899 (CAD), on sale from 1299.99. It has an X2 TL-56 running at 1.8ghz with 2GB of RAM, but nVidia 6150 graphics. It has a 17" screen and an 8 cell battery.

The Acer is $999 (CAD), on sale from 1099.99. It has a Core 2 Duo running at 1.5ghz with 2GB of RAM, and X3100 graphics. It has a 15.4" screen.

I would much prefer a machine with the Core 2 Duo, but the GMA 950 scares me. I really don't plan on doing much gaming on it, besides the occasional use of World or Warcraft. How much of a performance decrease is there between the Tl-56 and the C2D? And with a less efficient processor, a dedicated card and a 17" screen, how will that 8 cell battery perform?

Thanks,

Tony

 

i would go for the hp, the 8-cell will give you plenty of battery dependingh on what you are doing, the 6150 is better than the 950 and will run wow at low settings.

 

Wouldn't a 17" be too big and heavy for carrying it around?

I myself would go for the HP as well.

 

17" sucks. It defeats the purpose if it being a laptop -- you'll start calling it a miniature PC with an integrated display. I'd go with the Acer Aspire 5720 if I were to choose among those three.

BTW, don't they have the Acer Aspire 4520G there? Well, it's selling here for 49K Php which is around $900 US. It has an AMD Turion X2 1.8 Ghz, 1 GB 533 Mhz DDR2, GF 8400M GS 128 MB, 14.1" WXGA glossy screen, 160 GB hard drive, DVD writer, etc. Quite a bang for the buck if you ask me. Tried looking for it in Newegg. Couldn't find it. It MAY be only for sale here in Asia. Not sure though.

Anyway, here are some of my suggestions if you don't mind:

HP Pavilion DV6425US
HP Pavilion DV2410US

If you don't mind boutique store laptops, try this:

ZT Element S1001a NoteBook AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50(1.60GHz) 15.4" Wide XGA 1GB DDR2 667 120GB 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 256MB VRAM - Retail

EDIT:

Checked the Acer USA site. Apparently, they're still NOT selling the new Aspire laptops there in the USA. Well, the new Aspire "Gemstone" laptops have been here for two months now. I think you should wait.

 

I say get a Vostro 1500 with an 8400M GS card, if you get it soon you can use the coupon and get it for like 700$ PLUS its better then all of those laptops you put

 

I second the vostro suggestion.

This thread should be moved to the "what notebook should I buy".