$850 CAD (excl. taxes) Gaming laptop

anyone?

ok so this is still Pre-Boxing day price but here's the shortlist, I'm sure I'm missing some good laptop but this is the final list as far as my brain tells me:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5546803&CatId=4938
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5557209&sku=M452-17001%20CA
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5250511&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs

The problem with the highest speced laptop in this list is that it's refurbished with only a 3-month warranty...due to this I would need to purchase an extended warranty separately

There's a GT 130M, 9600M GT and a mighty GTX 260M (the only one with GDDR3 and Physx, but it's refurb! but many people are happy with refurbs....i am so leaning toward it but I just need advice, oh and did I tell you that said laptop has had overheating issues due to the inadequate cooling for GTX 260M, then nVidia released a BIOS fix to increase the fan speed, increasing the noise...underclocking it is a possibility though)

So what do you think I should go for?
Remember, the new Asus do come with 1 year of Accidental warranty coverage but after this hard-learned lesson...I doubt It'll be undergoing any more accidents

First off....I am not a hardcore gamer right now, I just play casually but I have started to play AC and DMC4 now, and will definitely play AC2

so opinions please, the only thing holding me off the refurbed one is the price + extended warranty, which makes is something like $1239 (incl.tax)...and if I don't get the extended warranty...then It's $1017, all others are > $1000 (or equal)

If you say I should go for the GTX 260M laptop, please also tell me what should be my second choice, I'm a university student so my budget is not so flexible
please help!

[QUOTE=Afzal;113257]
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5546803&CatId=4938
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5557209&sku=M452-17001%20CA
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5250511&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs
[/QUOTE]

ok, narrowed down to 3...really confused now

the Asus G51-RX05 is in a different league altogether but the other two,
is the performance gain of the GT 130M compared to a 9600M GT isn't worth the extra $57??
I just checked my balance and I have only $960 !!! and won't be getting any money since after christmas (will take atleast 2 to 5 business days after my dad sends it)
also, if I get the MSIs, they're 17" and I would need a bigger backpack for it plus I am also trying to get a $35 3.5" eSata enclosure

lol, I am trapped and I need a laptop which can handle Assassin's Creed 2 at medium/medium low atleast!

hey
I bought the Gateway P-7803H-CA just yesterday...someone on notebook review forums pointed out the deal to me  

Toshiba A500-02J is a fingerprint magnet   and I'd rather stay away from HP at this time  
The gateway has an extra harddrive bay too!

How do you like the quality of the Gateway? You got it at CC, right?

I was considering that one except I wish it had the next level of processors so that I could enable virtualization but I guess it's not a biggie considering the price of that one.

How do you know about the Toshiba? You prefer the Gateway over the Toshiba? By a lot?

yeah, i got it for $799, it's going for $699 on boxing day only

so at that price, you can't go wrong...this one's good, the adapter is emitting a very low volumed low freq hiss...but it's only noticeable under extreme quietness and the fan is a bit erratic...under Win 7, it's better

I owned a Toshiba A500-025 before this one...spilled water on it, thus the reason behind buying this one

still need to recover the data from it, the HDD from that one isn't working in this one....I'm hoping an enclosure might do the job or atleast tell me the prob

and also hoping to get my $100 back tomorrow  

Interesting! That's a good price! Tempting! Don't forget your receipt. I don't see why they wouldn't refund $100 since you just bought it.

I'd definitely use Windows 7 on any recent laptpo I buy. I dual boot Linux, too, though.

Not sure what to say about your power adapter. You could check whether it means any difference if you're near electronic appliances but it still shouldn't hum, I don't think.

It would be good if some of the Asus laptops went on sale, too, so I could compare some other laptops but the reduced price on the Gateway is intriguing. It's even low enough that one could consider adding a SSD later on!

Good luck on getting some money back and figuring out your power adapter issue although seems minor.