Help Me decide on which laptop to buy!

[sn0wbOmb]

I'm looking at both of these! Which one is the best bang for the buck.
http/www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=286119&CatId=4939

and

http/www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1365824&CatId=4939

http/www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1365823&CatId=4939

Now I'm majoring in network security and taking virtualization classes (VMware). I have a waterproof 1TB USB 3.0 external hard drive and the bottom two have USB 3.0 ports but the top doesnt. What the top does have is a decent graphics card and it's fairly cheap. I play minecraft occasionally and will play diablo 3 when it comes out. School does however take precedence over all that.

My next question is for what I'm doing would the core i3 be sufficient? I don't mind paying extra for the i5 if it will make a nice difference. (I also make music with my computer and run some semi intensive software).

I will be running virtual machines and that can be very hardware intensive.

I keep hearing about USB3 bottlenecks....will it even run my external HDD at a noticeably different speed? Is the 7200rpm hard drive a limitation?

Thanks in advance

 

[sn0wbOmb]

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230202
this too is an option

 

[aaab]

RAM RAM RAM and more RAM, I have found that when running vm's in a testing environment the main bottleneck is ram.

Why are you getting a laptop? and not a desktop? Depending on what VM's you will be running, with only 4gb ram you will only likely get 4 - 5 VM's, which may be sufficent.

 

[sn0wbOmb]

Im gonna upgrade ram upon buying it to 8gb we work with desktops at school so I need something I can move around. Trust me. I need a laptop. My main concerns are USB 3.0, CPU bang for buck and Giving into my gaming guilty pleasure...sacrificing usb 3.0...whats the point of having this shiny super durable external HDD if i have no usb 3.0 ports!

 

[sn0wbOmb]

bump