Choosing a Laptop

[agentbilly]

I'm looking for a laptop that is fairly small, 15.4" or smaller, although 14" is preferred to take to college.

I want a video card somewhere in the 8600m range for some occasional gaming.
The school I'm going to requires at least a 2 ghz C2D for the processor.

I found these two Asus models, which one would you reccomend? (Something completely different?)

$1000
ASUS F8 Series F8Sp-X1 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T5750(2.00GHz) 14" Wide XGA 3GB Memory DDR2 667 250GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16834220303

$1200
ASUS F8 Series F8Sn-B1 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T8100(2.10GHz) 14.1" Wide XGA 3GB Memory 250GB HDD DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16834220273

With either of these I would probably upgrade to 4gb RAM. (I know about the issues with 32 bit. The school is giving me free 64-bit Vista Business.)

 

[Brainonska511]

I'd go with the one with the HD3650. I don't think the 9500M GS is worth $200 more. The 3650 is better than the 8600 anyway (with the 9500 being the best by about 250 points in 3dMark06 (3450 points vs. 3700) as seen here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/M...chmark-List.844.0.html )

 

[agentbilly]

I've seen that benchmark list, pretty handy site actually.

I was more interested in the cpu, how much more performance will the 8100 get me? Will it run cooler or get me more battery life?

 

[IlllI]

i like that site a lot, but it could be better. for example it would be helpful if they listed some notebooks that came with the corresponding gpus

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: agentbilly
I've seen that benchmark list, pretty handy site actually.

I was more interested in the cpu, how much more performance will the 8100 get me? Will it run cooler or get me more battery life?

In terms of CPU, you should see a little bit better battery life and performance as the T8100 is built on the 45nm process and not the 65nm. It also has a higher FSB, but I don't know if that would help too much as (IIRC), the memory controller is 64-bit and not 128-bit as it is in desktops, so the 667MHz FSB is easily handled by the available memory bandwidth.