Solved! Laptop for university engineering (and perhaps gaming)

[reignsupreme11]

hey all i'm deciding on a laptop for engineering at university. i will be doing heavy multitasking on it as well as CAD and photoshop. its important to note that i have a quality gaming computer at home, however, if i choose to build a laptop with gaming capabilities i would use the laptop as well. i've narrowed my choice down to 3 similar options below (all from cyberpowerpc.com, with differences bolded), one is geared toward gaming and the other to threaded performance. they are similar with one main difference.

1. GAMING (XPLORER 9200)
Intel i7-2630QM CPU
2 x 4GB DDR3 RAM
Nvidia GT 540M 2GB GPU
1366 x 768 res.
120GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD
CD/DVD RW drive
MSI Range Booster Wifi Card
Windows 7 Home Premium

TOTAL: 1016$ CyberPower has a 5% instate discount for anything over 999$ and a 50$ MIR for students on Windows 7 HE (if over 999$), essentially bring the total price to a little over 1100$ (tax and shipping in)

2. ENHANCED OS (XPLORER 9100):
Intel i7-2630QM CPU
2 x 4GB DDR3 RAM
Intel HD 3000 intergrated graphics
1366 x 768 res.
120GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD
CD/DVD RW drive
Windows 7 Ultimate


TOTAL: 1014$ CyberPower has a 5% instate discount for anything over 999$ and a 100$ MIR for students on Windows 7 HE (if over 999$), essentially bring the total price to a little over 1050$ (tax and shipping in).

3. INCREASED STORAGE (XPLORER 9100)
Intel i7-2630QM CPU
2 x 4GB DDR3 RAM
Intel HD 3000 intergrated graphics
1366 x 768 res.
160GB Intel 320 SSD
CD/DVD RW drive
MSI Range Booster Wifi Card
Windows 7 Home Premium

TOTAL: 1013$ CyberPower has a 5% instate discount for anything over 999$ and a 50$ MIR for students on Windows 7 HE (if over 999$), essentially bring the total price to a little over 1100$ (tax and shipping in).

i think the 3rd option is the weakest overall, but i thought i'd include it.

SO,
1. which laptop provides the best bang for buck? if i can't game on it, that's okay, but if the gaming one is better value overall i will take advantage of it.\
2. is windows 7 ultimate a worthy upgrade?
3. will i notice the speed difference between the intel and agility ssds or is it worth it for the extra space?

thanks in advance, and sorry for the long post!

 

[shadamus]

i think i am going to go with my original option #1 but without the SSD. i'll downgrade it to a 320GB 7200rpm for about 200$ less. i love SSDs (i have one in my desktop) but i just don't think i want to spend that much right now. my original budget was <1000$ total. The price on that same PC without the SSD is 813$. it will be a tad less with the exchange rate in my favour

Good choice, leaves some budget to play with later.

 

[reignsupreme11]

thanks for all the help and advice and your're right, it leaves future upgrade room. an HDD is the easiest to upgrade next to RAM so i may buy an SSD in a year or 2 when prices will be even lower.