Thoughts on a couple of laptops

So I just filed my income taxes and as I'm getting a bit more money back as a refund than I had expected, I'm looking at getting myself a new computer.

So, a few notes. I don't want to go over $800 for my budget with this. The less I pay out of pocket myself, the better. I'm going back to college in the fall so a laptop would be preferable, as I'd like something that's easily portable. And I don't play a huge number of PC games (Guild Wars, Sims, Dawn of War, and Portal are about it), so it doesn't need to be some super gaming computer. Something that will run Photoshop smoothly and allow me to play the few games I do play is fine.

These are the two laptops I'm looking at right now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834114631

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115539

The first one is cheaper, obviously. My old laptop I had was a Toshiba Satellite and the model I had had issues with the power jack not being soldered properly to the motherboard (or something like that, I can't remember precisely - it's been a few years), and of course that started to affect mine after the warranty ran out. So I'll admit, even though they've likely fixed that in their laptops by now, it's put a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. They also have a tendency to run a bit hot and I noticed someone comment on that in the reviews - apparently that's something they HAVEN'T fixed yet (I learned the hard way with my laptop that having it on my lap while wearing shorts is a bad idea. I actually got a burn from it and the mark didn't go away for months).

However, it's also $100 cheaper. And that's nice, definitely.

The second one has a slightly larger screen, but not enough for it to really make a huge difference. Both are a bit smaller than I'd like but I don't think I'll find a 17" one in my price range. The second one also has 4GB of RAM as opposed to 3GB. The first one has a larger harddrive, 320GB as opposed to 250GB.

My main question is on the video cards. I'll admit, this is where my knowledge of computer innards is a bit lacking - or mainly, I just don't know much about cards besides Nvidia ones. How comparable are an ATI HD 3650 and an Nvidia 9600M? Is one significantly better than the other? Is the Nvidia worth shelling out an extra $100 for?

So, if anyone can help me with this, that'd be awesome, and thanks in advance. Just general thoughts on the two laptops is also welcome, and if you know of any decent laptops within my stated price range that's comparable to these two, post them, please!

Thanks a lot

the 9600M is a more powerful card than the HD 3650, although either one would be sufficent for Guild Wars or the other games you mentioned, I do believe that Photoshop would benefit from the 9600M, but either one would work with it imo.

the 3650 is roughly on par with the 9600M GS. it's the 9600M GT that will surpass it. and yes, i know nvidia's naming schemes are confusing. heck, i'm into this stuff and it still confuses me sometimes, especially since nvidia released the G92 core six different times under different names...

get the second one if you're looking at these two.
acer makes great laptops. eighter one will suffice for what you have in mind though.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115540
this will even perform better for basic tasks (better cpu). it does brake the budget with 100$.

$100 more you get an intel processer, 64 bit vista, and a HDMI port (movies to your TV via netflex or other source R Awsome) and if you wish installing a new blueray player later is an easy install you will want the HDMI port if you do.

Well, breaking the budget is absolutely not an option here.

Also, HDMI port is useless for me - I don't have an HDTV, and I don't watch TV or movies anyway; the only reason I own a TV is for my 360 and Wii :P

I'm probably going to go with the second one, though I'm still not entirely convinced that it's really worth the extra money (at least for my purposes). I just am not entirely fond of Toshiba laptops.