[Concious]

This friday i'm going to buy a brand new laptop to last me for the next 4 years of my college life. I have a strict 700 dollar budget and it has to be prebuilt brick and mortar(sucks i know). These are the two best laptops i've found and i was wondering if you can guide me on which would be the best to get. I'm thinking the acer 6920 but i'm not sure. I plan to use it mostly for school related work and video/photo/music editing with the adobe suite. Listening to music and watching movies. I would like the option to do casual mmorpg gaming as well. Heres the list where would you all go?

{
Acer Aspire 6920 (16")
$699
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Acer-...oductDetail.do

Intel Core 2 Duo T5550(1.82ghz)
320GB hard drive
3GB of DDR2 memory
2mb L2 Cache
Intel Media Graphics Accelerator X3100 with 358MB of shared graphics memory
Vista Home Premium
+FingerPrint Reader & Acer Media Control on side(cool looking)
}

{
Gateway M(14.1")
$699
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....#productdetail

AMD Turion(TM) 64 X2(2.0ghz)
250GB hard drive
3GB of DDR2 memory
512KB + 512KB at die Level 2
ATI RADEON X1270(upto 256mb Hypermemory)
+HDMI output

Vista Home Premium SP1
}



Ps. could someone explain why the core 2 duo is supposed to be better if the amd dual core is clocked higher?

poll1=acer
poll2=gateway

[Mosquito555]

Hi mate!

Since you are going to get a laptop you should already know that these machines are not suitable for gaming etc. You also say that you need the machine for 4 years. I believe that portability and good manufacturing are the first things to consider before getting a laptop. So I propose this one:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/HP-Pa...oductDetail.do

I found a few cheaper laptops made by HP, somewhat slower though because of their CPU. What do you plan to run with your machine?

Anyway, I don't trust Acer as a brand. Their products are not that bad but you can find better. HP on the other hand...I've seen some of their machines running for days without heat problems or anything.

A Core 2 Duo is faster because of its architecture. In simple terms, it can execute more instructions per cycle than a Turion. So even with lower clock speed it equals or outperforms Turions. Also, C2Duos have more L2 cahce memory which increases their performance significantly!

[Concious]

however my 700 dollar budget is EXTREMELY strict. 700 was pushing it lol. For the hp it is 779 up front,with one of those annoying mail in rebates. So is acer really that bad? should i avoid it and go with the gateway?