I NEED A GEEK!! Laptop buying decision making help please....

Ok. So some of you will know, I got a laptop the other day and its killer, apart from its graphics card which hates SL. So now I have to sell it, and buy another. Grrr. I've narrowed it down to 2 choices, and being that I am not particularly hardware savvy, I'd really appreciate some help on which would be the best machine to buy -

Here's the 2 I am considering.

http://www.shopacer.co.uk/pp/Acer_Aspire_Laptops/Acer_Aspire_5630_Series/Aspire_5633WLMi_-_J.html

OR

http://www.shopacer.co.uk/products.asp?partno=LX%2EAEW0J%2E139

I'll be using it for secondlife, and photoshop and illustrator, and skype, often at the same time.

Basically I am buying it as a "work machine" for secondlife. So if you lot could take a look at them and let me know what sort of performance I should get out of SL, which you'd buy, etc etc, I'd really, really appreciate it....!

Thanks guys!! [ and girls ]

Does it have to be a laptop n.n they will always be weak compared to a workstation (or whatever you guys call it o.o) not to mention cost way to much and outdated / unusable fast and zero upgradeability n.n

Do a search on laptops in the forum. There was similar thread. I am not familiar with the Intel Core duo but I have an Intel Mobile that runs wide open at 2.ghz when using second life and it does fine. My video card GoForce 5200 with 64meg of memory runs second life fine. With the processor running wide open it generates a lot of heat so at home I would get a cooling stand to throw extra air. I have been meaning to get one but not yet.

When I bought my previous laptop I looked at the Acer, Sager, ect, crowd. These are kinda generic PCs with lots of their stuff made in China by a wholesaler that lets these guys slap their name on it. You get a lot of bang for the buck from these guys, however... How long do the componets last is the question. Well, for me I bought a Sager with a gig of ram and a full size pentium 3 and a 64meg ati graphics card. It broke down five times in the two years I had it, and each time I had to ship the thing across country to California from the east coast to fix it. Turn around time was about two weeks. The final time it broke down, it was gone for a month before they informed me that the motherboard was toast, and replacement parts DID NOT EXIST. Fortunetly I had purchased a 3 year extended warrenty which saved my ass. Because of the warrenty in place, and their inability to repair the device, they bought out my warrenty contract. Once I recieved my check for $2000 I went out and bought a namebrand ( HP) laptop.
I now have a 3.2 pentium full size chip, with a gig of ram and a 128mb Nvidea card with a 17" widescreen. Runs SL just fine tho I wish I had held out for a 256 card. Gaming laptops do indeed tend to run hot, so a laptop cooler is a must, ( its just a couple of electric fans in a tray that your laptop sits on). Id research any small companies reviews from people who have purchased the items. Some sound great on paper or in advertising, but talk to the folks who've purchased one and sometimes the review isnt so hot. One of the reasons I didnt pick up one of those ALIENWARE souped up PCs is some of the horror stories from consumers, talking about bad customer service ect. Research, research, research, dont rely on somethings specs to make a purchase, you dont always get what you pay for and sometimes get more than you bargained for.

I agree with Thili, laptops suck generally and I recommend getting one only if you really need one to supplement a desktop. The ones that can run SL well are gonna run hot and for not very long on batteries. My previous laptop could run SL but for less than an hour which kinda made it not portable really and would cause burns on your leg(no joke).

The core 2 duo is an excellent choice, but you will need to read the tips on running sl with a two processor machine. Since you use photoshop at the same time as sl, you should go for 2gb of memory, so the 9423 would be the better choice. You will like the dual processor with sl and photoshop, because one processor should run sl while the other runs photoshop, resulting in much better performance for both programs. Both of these machines have the 7300 Nvidia graphics card, which should be adequate for sl, but not the best. If you could afford a fancier machine with 7600 or better Nvidia graphics, you will see significant improvement in frames per second, especially in uncrowded sims.

Linden recommends Nvidia 5200 as minimum, and 6600 as recommended. The important figure is the second digit, so a 5200, 6200 or 7300 are actually similar performers, all playable but not optimal for sl. Nvidia 6600 and 7600 are the recommended versions for good performance without spending an excessive amount of money. The Nvidia 6800, 7800 and 7900 are for folks who want only the best, and are willing to pay for it. When I upgraded from an Nvidia 6200 to a 7600, sl performed a lot better.

If you were getting a desktop machine, you could get something cheap and then upgrade ram, video card and maybe power supply. That is what I did. But when you get a laptop you have to pick from the choices they give you (although ram is upgradable). They only sell the really nice video cards on their top of the line laptops, unfortunately. If I were buying a laptop for sl today, I would want a minimum of Core 2 duo, 2gb ram, Nvidia 7600 grapics.