Having trouble deciding between asus computers! Please help :)

[birdgofly]

Hello! I will be starting college soon, and I have spent quite a bit of time now looking for a computer that's right for me on my budget. I've got it narrowed down between the Asus X83Vb-X2 and the Asus X83Vm-X2.

The X83Vb-X2 has a 2GHz T6400 Core 2 Duo, 800Mhz, 2mb L2 cache;
4gb of ram at 800Mhz;
250gb of hard drive at 5400rpm;
and a 512mb (or 256mb, I can't find a straight answer about that one) nVidia geforce 9300M GS graphics card.

The X83Vm-X2 has a 2.13GHz P7450 Core 2 Duo, 1066MHz, 3mb L2 cache;
4gb of ram at 800Mhz;
320gb of hard drive at 5400rpm;
and a 1gb nVidia geforce 9600M GS graphics card.

Everything else is about the same, same size, screen, ports, pretty much everything, but the X83Vb-X2 is MUCH prettier (I'm a girl and it kind of matters to me, but it's definitely not the most important thing, but the X83Vb-X2 is kind of ugly) and the X83Vm-X2 is a much more powerful computer (especially the graphics card), but it's about $100 more.

So the problem is that I don't know if the extra $100 dollars is worth the better computer. I know that the X83Vm-X2 is a much better deal, but I don't know if I need all the extra power, and so the extra $100 and the un-prettiness is holding me back. I do want the best computer I can get for the money, so I guess that would be the X83Vm-X2, but I'm not a gamer; I play Sims 3, maybe Spore, and I adobe photoshop.

So I guess what I'm asking all of you is if the extra hundred is worth it, or if all that extra power will be a waste for me. And also, the ones I'm looking at are refurbished; that's not a big deal, right?

Thanks guys! Any help, comment, or opinion you can give me is very much appreciated!!

 

[xsistor]

i would go for the second one. Given the beter card, processor, hard disk, it's totally worth it.... and who knows. maybe u'll start gaming through college (NOT RECOMMENDED) ... anyway. that 100 bucks isn't anything considering the advantages. atleast in england it isnt. for 60 quid extra, i'd deffo go for the second one.

 

[birdgofly]

lol, ok, thanks!! anyone else?

 

[ukee1593]

Hi, I agree that the second one is a LOT better!

I bought an ASUS N50VC with a Nvidia 9300 GS installed and 512 Mb of Graphics Ram and it runs a lot of games quite well. I strongly suggest you get that one, only one issue is under vista the wired Ethernet port does not work, but the wireless works well enough, AND you get windows 7 upgrade as well.

the Nvidia 9300 was a lot faster than I expected and I strongly recommend it.

What's so terrible about Vista?

hope it helps,
Luke

 

[birdgofly]

Thanks! I was very worried about the 9300m gs being kind of crappy, so this definitely helps!

I'm kind of leaning toward the 1st one, as I don't know if I need all the power of the 2nd one, but I'm kind of hoping that my laptop will last me about six years (I usually take pretty good care of my things), as that's how long I'll be in college, so I guess that the 2nd one will not be so easily outdated as the 1st.

So I'm still definitely open to suggestions and opinions! Thanks everyone

 

[core2drew]

for how long you plan to use the notebook and given that you won't have the ability to upgrade the processor or graphics on the machine down the road, i think the extra $100 to get the x83vm-x2 would be money well spent. the larger hard drive is an added bonus.

 

[birdgofly]

Hey! Thank you for the advice everyone! I actually ended up getting the first one for $450, so I got that instead, but I really appreciate all the input!

 

[ignitorr]

This is the one I am strongly considerring:
http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+-+Desktop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Pentium%26%23174%3B+Processor/9536415.p?skuId=9536415&id=1218120537563