New laptop... hung up on choices

I'm looking to buy a new laptop for school [just entered 2nd semester 1st year at uni] and I'm hung up between choices from HP and Gateway. I priced a Toshiba system as well, but it ended up falling short of the HP's specs and for the same price tag essentially, so that's out. The laptop I have now is 17" and, despite the weight and bulk, I've fallen in love with it, especially having a numpad on the keyboard, so that's basically a necessity on any system I look at.

However, I've priced 2 systems, one from HP and one from Gateway, that are fairly comparable but I'm having trouble making the final decision. Specs are listed below; if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. 2 grand is right around my price range, and I'm looking for something that will handle current games with ease - I play World of Warcraft fairly often, as well as games on the HL2 engine and newer.

HP system: [$2371.99 - $150 instant savings]

Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate
Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo T7200 (2.0GHz/4MB L2Cache)
17.0" WSXGA+ BrightView Widescreen (1680x1050)
512MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7600
2048MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
200GB 7200RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (100GB x 2)

Gateway system: [$2020.98]

Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7200 (2.00 GHz, 667MHz FSB, 4MB L2 Cache)
17" Ultrabright WSXGA+ TFT Active Matrix (1680 x 1050 max. resolution)
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS Graphics w/ 256MB DDR Video Memory
2048MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2-1024MB modules)
100GB 7200rpm Serial ATA hard drive

Thoughts? Comments?

Have you thought about portability?
Carrying those 17 inch ones is a REAL drag. Why not go for the 15.4 inch ones. I ordered a HP laptop it has a 7400 geforce and you can always get the external vid card later. The other specs will be the same.

hi,
actually, the hp 9000t is not too heavy to carry around. i have been toting mine a bit.
i have the the 7200 and boy, its fast!!!!! 2 gig too, but not the 512 video card.
suzy