FFXI and HTPC (MPC-HT) Laptop

[Kiine]

I'm going to be stuck in the hospital for 3-5 days (maybe longer... ) in about a week, and my current laptop has just about had it after about 4 years (was my travel laptop @ work - they let me keep it when company closed.). It is also pretty unpredictable in FFXI. I replaced the critically failing HD, but really it is a wreck. So...

I'm looking at a laptop that can do FFXI (the only game I really play - Assuming I get all this latest crap with SQEX billing taken care of) and also feed my anime need with Media Player HT (720p and 1080p encoded files). BabaBT is my enemy.

Anyhow, based on research I did, features, size and keyboard feel, I've gotten my selection down to two laptops:

ASUS K53SV-XR2
http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0366052

vrs.

ASUS N53Sn-XR2
http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0355914

Both those laptops are around $1k and seem to have good power and features. Their memory can be expanded, and they don't mass much more than 5% of what I do. Therefore, I probably won't kill myself lugging it around.

What I'm wondering is if anyone has experience with those graphics cards or the exact laptops themselves. I know I'll need to get more recent nvidia drivers since they recently fixed the 400 and 500 series for FFXI (did the fix also apply to 400M and 500M cards?).

If someone has a recommendation of a laptop with an ATI/AMD gfx card, I'll listen, but I'll have to go back to the store to see what the actual laptop feels like. Best Buy alternatives are welcome, but whatever I get, it has to be from a brick&mortar store near me.

[Karinastar]

Either of those are fine for FFXI since it's such an old game, and either should be just fine for watching stuff on. The more expensive one will definitely feel snappier though due to the 7200rpm hard drive. Otherwise you probably won't notice a lot of difference with what you do.

[Tymon]

FFXI can get maxed out on any dual core processor with even integrated graphics at this point

[Kiine]

Does anyone have specific experience with those models or cards? It seems like either will be powerful enough to do other things. I'd still like to know if the latest nvidia drivers work well enough on the 4xxM series of cards (apparently the driver was a night&day difference for the 4xx desktop card). This is, assuming, SQEX doesn't somehow ban me over all the credit card crap from this weekend's foul-up.

[Karinastar]

I don't know, sorry. I'm more of an ATI person to be honest, but according to nvidia's site, the notebook drivers have had the XI performance improvement implemented as well.

[Kiine]

Thanks. It all worked (and works) great. Even got the Optimus settings to behave. Unfortunately, hospital's free wifi was gimped and I couldn't entirely get on FFXI. Never mind that I was on some pretty intense meds, so my participation would have been limited or detrimental.

[The Stig]

Hope you recover quick. Failing that, a pay as you go 3G Dongle/Card will work just as well.