Sony VAIO vs Sager Laptop

[ZRTMWA]

I'm torn between these two laptops so I was wondering if yal could help me decided, or at least tell me which one you think I should get. I'm going away to college next year and I want a quick laptop that I can use for moderate gaming and also in my negineering classes. I also really like the 17"+ screens (1920x1080 resolution). Here's all the specs of the two laptops:

Sony VAIO EC Series VPCEC490X
(Sony.com)

-17.3" 1920x1080 screen
-7.3 lbs
-Intel Core i5-580M (2.66-3.3 GHz)
-Seagate 500gb Momentus hybrid drive
-8gb ram
-ATI Mobility Radeonâ„¢ HD 5650 GPU (1GB VRAM)
-Blu Ray Player
-Windows 7 Home Premium

$1345.99

I would have to buy the ram and hard drive separately because Sony overcharges for the RAM and doesn't offer the hybrid drive. But these are already factored into the overall cost.

Sager NP5170
(xoticpc.com)

-17.3" 1920x1080 screen
-6.83 lbs
-2nd Generation Intel Core i5-2520M (2.5-3.2GHz)
-Seagate 500gb Momentus hybrid drive
-8gb ram
-nVidia GT 540M 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR3 DX11 with Optimus Technology
-Blu Ray Player
-Windows 7 Home Premium

$1248.23

Sony VAIO: VPCEC490X | VAIO® EC490X Configure-to-Order | Sony | Sony Style USA

Sager: Sager NP5170 Custom Laptop (Built on the Clevo W170HN)

Thanks in advance!

Chris

 

[~Darkseeker~]

hmm, never heard of Sager but maybe that's just because i'm not in the US.

Spec wise the Sager is definately better, but would you really need all that RAM? you could probably shave a significate sum off of the price dropping it down to 6GB.

 

[ZRTMWA]

I figured I should get a large amount of RAM for any graphics-intensive engineering programs I may have to run. Plus the 8gb was on sale from Sager, making it only $25 more than the 6gb. Sony charges $200 and thats why I was planning on buying that separate for $80 and installing it myself.