As a high school senior, I'm looking towards getting a solid laptop to use for my college years. I'm hoping to get excellent functionality as well as moderate gaming capability out of the machine. I've found two fairly decent choices at Best Buy so far, but I'm unsure of which to go with.
1. Asus Gaming Laptop. http://http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9050279&type=product&id=1218012519873. It seems to have insane hardware capabilities, but I'm only irked by the short battery life reported by reviewers (often < 1 hour), and I'd like to be able to use it on the go while on campus in college.
2. HP Pavilion. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9053007&type=product&id=1218012194815. This seems like another solid computer as well. It has a 17" screen (compared to the 15.6" on the Asus) and also has a reported battery life of over 3 hours. It's hardware isn't as insane, but it has a solid GeForce 9600 GT graphics card and more than enough memory and hard-drive space. Many also say this PC has over 77 processes on startup (BLOATWARE GALORE), but I would probably pay the $70 for Best Buy to optimize and remove the bloatware.
Note: I'd most likely be playing WoW and Counter-Strike for games (maybe Age of Mythology too), and I'd like to get around 65-90 FPS in WoW and 50+ in CS.
1. Asus Gaming Laptop. http://http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9050279&type=product&id=1218012519873. It seems to have insane hardware capabilities, but I'm only irked by the short battery life reported by reviewers (often < 1 hour), and I'd like to be able to use it on the go while on campus in college.
2. HP Pavilion. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9053007&type=product&id=1218012194815. This seems like another solid computer as well. It has a 17" screen (compared to the 15.6" on the Asus) and also has a reported battery life of over 3 hours. It's hardware isn't as insane, but it has a solid GeForce 9600 GT graphics card and more than enough memory and hard-drive space. Many also say this PC has over 77 processes on startup (BLOATWARE GALORE), but I would probably pay the $70 for Best Buy to optimize and remove the bloatware.
Note: I'd most likely be playing WoW and Counter-Strike for games (maybe Age of Mythology too), and I'd like to get around 65-90 FPS in WoW and 50+ in CS.