Getting a New Laptop.

[Kilma]

I am currently looking at purchasing a new laptop for school and work. I would like it to play WoW at atleast Med/High Settings (don't care about shadows or AA)

I have a couple different options from newegg: (price range ~ 700)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834215105 (this is bottom of the barrel - just if i wanted to save some money)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834215122 AMD Radeon HD 6650
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834215119 Nvidia Geforce GT540M

Is the AMD GCard a better value since larger HD or is performance just slightly better on the 540m.

These two above seem like the exact same computer and specs - besides the hard drive on ATI/AMD Graphics Card. Would this be a good laptop?

If there are other makes and models please post here.

*I know laptops are bad for gaming but i need the portability for school.*

[taekvideo]

I think the gpu's are pretty close on the 2nd two. The first has integrated graphics so don't get it. Either of the 2nd two will play wow just fine (probably on high settings) so just look at the other features and choose which you like best.

---------- Post added 2011-08-14 at 05:19 PM ----------

also if you can stretch your budget a bit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834215106
has a quad core sandy bridge instead of a dual core that the other 2 have... which is definitely worth the extra $70 in my opinion.

[Kilma]

So after doing some more extensive research I'm stuck between:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834215106 (Quad i7 + 540m) 749.99US
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834246153 (I5-2410 + 555m) 799.99US

Is downgrading the CPU but upgrading the graphics especially to the 555m better? or is it not worth the price?

I want the computer to last a while since I'm trying to keep this through graduate coursework as well.

Not sure how good this benchmark is, but it shows 300+ point increase in graphics.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/vi...eForce+GT+555M

[taekvideo]

The 2nd one is definitely better for gaming. The quad core would help for heavily multithreaded stuff... but the hyperthreaded dual core should be plenty for normal applications for the next 5+ years. What graduate degree are you going for? It really depends on what applications you'll need for that coursework.
Don't use videocardbenchmark... that's a terrible site which has a margin of error of roughly +/- 50%.. I mean it literally lists the 470 ahead of the 590...