[Solved] Need Help Choosing Between Two Laptops

I personally went for the Acer Aspire AS5745G-5844 because of my budget:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] mance-wise
(Even $700 was kinda pushing it, but I preferred a more future-proof option since the value would carry in the long run. The total in the end was $780 with all additional expenses included (not including shipping since I picked it up locally).

I wrote a little about my hands on experience here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] ok#t242601

The AS5745G-5844 is an outstanding notebook, and from what I gather, the AS5745G-3690 is pretty much identical to the 5844 but with a better i5 450M CPU with Turbo Boost up to 2.66 GHz, along with an additional 180 GBs of hard drive space.

So if you can indeed afford the extra $70, you should definitely get the 3690. If I could have I certainly would, but as I said, I was really hitting my maximum budget.


However, someone also mentioned the Aspire AS5551G-4591, which has a weaker CPU (Turion II X2 P520) than both the 5844 and the 3690 but a substantially stronger GPU (ATI HD 5650) than the GT 330M in the 5844 and 3690.
See benchmark comparisons:
GT 330M: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDI [...] 437.0.html
HD 5650: http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-M [...] 697.0.html

There are some key differences which are important depending on what is your primary purpose for the notebook:

- The HD 5650 has much better gaming performance than the GT 330M.
- It also supports DirectX 11, which the GT 330M does not (only DX 10.1).
- The HD 5650 also has the ability to transport lossless 8-channel Dolby True HD or DTS Master Audio over the HDMI port.

On the other hand:

- The GT 330M has much better driver support for DXVA hardware acceleration of H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 ASP content, whereas ATI's Catalyst drivers (even beyond v10.4) have been known for issues with DXVA compatibility, making the GT 330M better for HD multimedia playback.
- The GT 330M also has CUDA support, which is great for applications that support GPU-accelerated video encoding, etc.
- The GT 330M also supports hybrid-GPU profiles which save large amounts of energy by turning off the discrete GPU when it is not needed, enhancing portability and efficiency. As far as I know, AMD does not offer such a feature.

But also keep in mind that the 4591, at $679.99, is cheaper than the 5844 and especially the 3690, and with DirectX 11 it is the best option for gamers at this price range.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0337842
However, this is not to say that the GT 330M does not offer decent gaming performance, so in the end it depends on whether or not you work with more CPU-intensive applications or more GPU-intensive applications like gaming.

A weaker CPU will not significantly affect gaming performance in most cases since most of the games today rely primarily on the GPU and much less on the CPU.
The 2 hr 40 min battery life will definitely be a problem if you plan on bringing it with you to school. (Unless you don't mind the constant hassle of finding an outlet to plug it in.)
CPU intensive applications often involve photo/movie editing as well as video encoding/conversion (essentially the entire line of Adobe products). Multitasking in general will also stress the CPU, like editing a video while simultaneously encoding another in the background, etc.