Need help on choosing a laptop

Alright guys, I'm in need of a laptop....I've narrowed it down to these two.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1218093379440

or

http://www.jr.com/asus/pe/ASU_G50VTX1_hy_RB/

My friend has the ASUS and I absolutely love it. I like the flashing LEDs and the mini led screen that shows battery life and stuff, also its pretty comparable to the Toshiba. The thing is though, my parents don't like the idea of refurbished stuff and prefer new...Any suggestions?

ps: this is for college and i like to play games as well....mainly cs source

Well if your already afraid of the refurbished (or rather your parents are) then go with the toshiba. The only real problem I had with my toshiba machine was my charger died. A simple call to the tech people and they UPS'd me another one in bout 4 days. Hasn't been a problem since.

As for the ASUS the flashing led's and the mini screen for battery life, those might be nice but if you use the computer in dim or dark places I hope you can turn that stuff off or it can get quiet annoying. Also running led's to tell you your battery status and in the process drain your battery is kinda retarded IMHO.

Those are both good laptops. In my experience, there is nothing wrong with refurbished units, they are just as good as new and cost a lot less - my guess is, say, someone returned a laptop with a bad RAM chip, they replace the RAM chip and mark the price down since it it open box. Between my dad and myself we've bought probably 20 refurb'd items and they've been just as good a new or very good used condition.

So, on a 750 dollar budget, which one would you guys choose? If anyone has any other suggestions, let me know.

Go with the Asus:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...ist.844.0.html

If you compare the 9800GS on the Asus vs the 4570 on that site you'll see that the 9800 does much better.

As Rick said, generally, there's nothing wrong with refurbished units. They'll likely come with the same warranty that a new unit has so even if it breaks again it is covered by warranty.

Either way, both laptops are good and will suite your needs.

Thanks for everyones help, looks like this will be my purchase. When Windows 7 comes out, will this machine be efficient enough to run it if I wanted to upgrade?

Ive never had a laptop longer than 2.5 years (I had an HP that lasted longer, but the fan had a rattle that made it unbearable to use.)

For that reason alone, I wouldn't trust a refurb.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by invision

Thanks for everyones help, looks like this will be my purchase. When Windows 7 comes out, will this machine be efficient enough to run it if I wanted to upgrade?

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Windows 7 runs much faster than Vista on equal hardware and, in my experience, faster than XP surprisingly. With an 8600gt I get much higher framerates.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by invision

Thanks for everyones help, looks like this will be my purchase. When Windows 7 comes out, will this machine be efficient enough to run it if I wanted to upgrade?

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If it runs Vista, it will run W7. 7 is a lot lighter and a lot faster than Vista.

I have only had 1 driver problem between Vista and 7: Netgear. Vista drivers refuse to work on 7. Ridiculous.