Choice of laptop: mid range, limited choices

[JBroad]

1. What is your budget?
500-700 euros

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15.6"

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Typical 1366x768 would do.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

5. How much battery life do you need?
Unimportant, it most probably be on "life-support" all the time.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Duh ^^ Football Manager 13, Guild Wars 2
Medium-ish to low would do just fine

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Work related spreadsheets etc that every laptop can handle

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Standard 250GB are more than enough as i will carry my external HDD

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
At least 1 year

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DvD ROM/Writer

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
Open to suggestions as i haven't delved in the laptop market before though I'm kind of sceptical towards AMD related due to poor (?) driver support.

13. What country do you live in?

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

I'm moving away from my beloved desktop PC for work and i need a laptop that can keep me occupied when not working. That means gaming mostly the two aforementioned ones (GW2, FM 13). I know i cant get a "gaming" laptop at that money and i'm not interested in one. I just want games to be playable (enjoyable hence the medium-ish settings). Due to time and availability restrictions i've narrowed my search to these 3 fellows but i would try and find any other suggestions you may have.

The Asus U40SD has an Intel Core i5-2450M (2.50 GHz) with 4GBs DDR3 Ram and a Nvidia GeForce GT 520M
http/www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/U40SD/#specifications

The Samsung SAMSUNG NP350E5C-S03 has the Intel Core i5-3210M (2.50 GHz) 4GBs DDR3 Ram and a AMD Radeon HD 7670M
http/www.samsung.com/hk_en/consumer/computer-peripherals/notebook/series-3/NP350E5C-S01HK-spec

and the TOSHIBA SATELLITE C855-1W8 has the same Intel Core i5-3210M (2.50 GHz) as the Samsung but with 8GBs of DDR3 Ram and a AMD Radeon HD 7610M
http/uk.hardware.info/productinfo/165357/toshiba-satellite-c855-1w8#tab:specifications

All 3 are within my budget with the ASUS being cheaper by a hefty 80-100 euro from the other two (guessing that 520m isnt very good ^^)

P.S. I ve checked an ACER V3-571G with Intel Core i5-3230M (2.60 GHz), 4GBs DDR3 Ram and Nvidia GeForce GT 730M 4GB but i have been told is not a good, dependable choice.

Operating system is irrelevant as i have a spare w7x64 ultimate dvd.

 

[JD88]

Out of that list, the Acer with the GT 730M is going to be the most powerful by far. As to it's reliability, I have no idea.

A distant second would the the Samsung.

The only one I would not suggest would be the Toshiba. Every one I have ever encountered has been absolute junk.

The Asus is an older model with last gen processor and graphics.

 

[JBroad]

Out of that list, the Acer with the GT 730M is going to be the most powerful by far. As to it's reliability, I have no idea.

A distant second would the the Samsung.

The only one I would not suggest would be the Toshiba. Every one I have ever encountered has been absolute junk.

The Asus is an older model with last gen processor and graphics.

Thanks for the input. I do realise that spec-wise the Acer is on top. I think, however, and correct me if I'm wrong, that the other machines could satisfy my needs ( again spec-wise). As i said i have no prior experience with laptops but I've been told that Acer products have been kind of troublemakers when it comes to drivers and longevity. And due to the fact that i will be quite far from any technical support i would like to have my mind at peace. So if anyone has any experience working with Acer products his/her input would be much appreciated.