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Should I or should I not buy the Qosmio X300-158?

I was in an electronics shop and I saw the Qosmio X300-158.

The specs are as follows:
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 (2.53 GHz, 3 MB L2 Cache, 1066 MHz bus speed)
640 GB HDD (320 + 320) each has 7200 RPM rotational speed
nVidia 9700M GTS graphics card (512MB dedicated up to 1791MB if shared)
4 GB DDR3 RAM 1066 MHz
17" screen TRU-BRITE TFT
4.1 speaker system from Harman/Kordon (with a subwoofer since it’s 4.1)
DVD super-multi drive
full keyboard (with numpad)
windows vista home premium SP1 (32-bit but detects all 4 GB of ram)

you can see them here:

http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/product/Qosmio-X300-158/1064857/

The performance indexes (according to the windows vista test thingy) all were 5.8’s and 5.9’s including windows aero and gaming graphics. The only thing was the processor at 5.4 therefore the overall was 5.4

Then I noticed that the processor was one of the few bad points in the laptop. It has half as much L2 Cache as most processors, which have 6mb L2 Cache. My desktop last time had a video card that could run a few games on top graphics but apparently the problem was that the processor wasn’t fast enough. I don’t want the same issue to happen with my laptop. Is this processor fast enough to run any game on relatively high graphics? The GPU can run Crysis, for instance with high (but not top) graphics, would this processor be able to keep up or not?

Does the 3mb Cache difference between the P8700 and T9400 make a big difference in performance in gaming or such tasks?

Another issue is that the screen is not full HD, The internal resolution is only 1,440 x 900 (aspect ratio 16:10) and full HD would be 1920 x 1080 (1080p 16:9)
I did a few calculations and approximately 1 inch of the screen will be just blank if I’m watching a movie in that aspect ratio (half an inch from the top and half an inch from the bottom of black screen) Moreover, the movie won’t be rendered completely as the screen won’t be able to support that. Would movies still be clear and well rendered on such a screen/laptop or should I avoid it and try looking for something with full HD?

My third issue is that it doesn’t have a blu-ray drive. I know that games don’t come on blu-ray drives yet but I’m sure in a couple of years they will and then I think I’ll be screwed. Is that a big issue or should I just go for it?

Since my budget is already at it’s max, around 2400 USD, I can get the Qosmio or another ASUS laptop with the following specs:

These are the specs:
Asus M70 series
Intel Core 2 Duo (2.6GHz) T9500 (or maybe a T9400)
4GB RAM DDR2 (667MHz or 800MHz)
1 TB HDD (500GB + 500GB) 5400 RPM
nVidia graphics card 1 GB
17" full HD (1920×1200)
blu-ray combo drive (read/write)
Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)

Clearly the Qosmio has higher specs (except for screen resolution, drive, processor, and maybe VGA) Everything else (RAM, HDD, etc.) is better in the Qosmio.
Should I go for the Qosmio or Asus or is there something else within the same price range anyone would recommend?

Sorry for my question being so long and your help is really appreciated! Please answer thoroughly not just short answsers.
Don’t be afraid to go technical on me, I understand well.

Thanks in advance! ^_^

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Blu-ray. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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