Which of these laptops should I buy?

[blast00]

Okay, Im going off to graduate school, and I need a new laptop.. I would like to spend at most, $2,800... here are my requirements:

-the Basics: typing, powerpoint, internet browsing

- some gaming. but not too much (so a good, but not great graphic card), however need to use complicated engineering software such as inventer, autocad, 3dsmax (so it may require a good graphic card)

- NO NEED for movie editing, or music manipulation of any kind..

-must last 4 years...

These are the 4 laptops I have it narrowed down to, if you guys could say which one I should get, I would really apprecaite it.. remember my needs, as a constatly moving around graduate student from class to class, not really much gaming (only command and conquer 3), and a long battery life (im buying all the 9 cells)

1) alienware Area-51® m5550

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7400 2.16GHz 4MB Cache
Display: 15.4" WideXGA 1280 x 800 LCD
Motherboard: Alienware® Intel® 945PM + ICH7 Chipset
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz - 2 x 1024MB
Hard Drive: 160GB Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s 5,400 RPM w/ 8MB Cache
Video/Graphics Card: 256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7600
Communications: Integrated 10/1000Mb Gigabit Ethernet & 56K V.92 Modem

Total: $2,417.00

2) Dell m1210
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 (2.33GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB)
Memory: 2GB Dual Shared Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)
Hard Drive: 160GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Video Card: 256MB GeForce Go 7400 TurboCache

Total: $2,550

3) Asus Z96J
custom built from pugentsystems.com

Motherboard: Asus Z96J 15.4 inch Notebook (SATA) w/ DVDRW
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 2.33GHz Merom
Video Card: ATI X1600 256mb
Ram: 2 x Super Talent SODIMM PC2-5400 1024mb
Hard Drive: 160GB 5400RPM Notebook SATA Hard Drive

Total: $2,450


4) Asus Z62J 14" WSXGA (1440x900)
custom built from pugentsystems.com

Motherboard: Asus Z62JM 14.1 inch Notebook (SATA) w/ DVDRW
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 2.33GHz
Video Card: GeForce Go 7300 128mb
Ram: 2 x Super Talent SODIMM PC2-5400 1024mb
Hard Drive: 160GB 5400RPM Notebook SATA Hard Drive

Total: $2,600

 

[BubbaGump69]

Wow you have a huge budget. Any one of those systems would be a great choice. They are all very similar but lets look at it logically. I would dump the last asus because of the smaller screen size and the 128 mb video card. A 15.4 wide screen display is still pretty small and very portable. I would also dump the alienware just beause I think they are over hyped and have bad support. That leaves you with the dell m1210 and the asus z96j. They are just about identical as far as specs. Which do you like better? You could check cnet for reviews on each. I just checked the last 2 out online and I like the clean compact look of the asus. I just configured it the way my system is set up and it cost $600 more than I paid. You may want to look at HP Pavilion DV6000 and up. You can build one well equipped for way under 2k. Good luck man. As stated above any one you choose from above will be perfect for your application.