Decision time for college, 8600 vs 600m.

Hello all, I'm new to these forums, I ran across them when doing a search on Yahoo for reviews on both these notebooks. Firstly, I'd just like to say what a GREAT GREAT resource this site has been. Keep up the great work, its vibrant communities like these that really fuel the backbone of the internet. Anyways, compliements aside, I am currently going into my first year of college next year and have decided to abandon my desktop (Athlon64 3000+ 1024GB ran etc,. 9800 Radeon) at home for a lighter and easier to carry around laptop. I plan on taking my laptop with me to different places (like class, on trips when i go places, my dorm room, taking it home) as well as really using it and testing it. Now I'm no slouch when it comes to mobile technology and I know quite alot about computers besides knowing how to build one and the components in it. Anyways, after doing alot of searches on the internet, I've found two laptops that fit my budget (1300) and my specifications. I really want a thin and light laptop, something I can carry around but I do crave performace. I am willing to make sacrifces however for something lighter. The models i am currently looking at go like so:

600m:
1.5ghz
512
60gig (4200 )
64mb 9000
DVD+RW 4x
SVGA
Around 1300 after everything

8600:
1.8ghz
512
60gigs (5200)
64mb GForcGo 5200
CDRW/VD 24x
SVGA
Just about 1200 after everything

These are refurbished laptops btw, which is why they're so cheap in comparison. I'm buying the laptop out of my own pocket, which is why I have such a limited budget. I know exactly how these laptops will perform in terms of speed and size. My question I guess really lies on the gaming, usability and build of the laptops. I've read a few of the reviews of the 600m and the 8600 on these forums. I've heard people say they can play Halo and Farcry well on 600ms (with low/medium) settings, is this true? I don't plan to go all out graphic extensive on my laptop, like trying to play Doom3 or Halflife2, but I want to be able to handle a few of th newer games coming out (sims 2, rome total war) think its possible to pull off on a 600m? And if not, what CAN I pull off on a 600m. And how big is the 8600 really? mean I know it says 1.5, but measurements don't matter when something feels smaller or looks smaller. They're both around the same weight 6lb-7lbs. As you guys can see, I'm leaning towards the 600m, but I just want to get the gaming issue out of the way, and ask if those heating up problems about the 600m are really true.

Thanks for your opinions mates!

Hm

You are indeed correct sir, I did mean 7200, which in turn gives me faster write and read speeds for the HDD therefore making the 8600 EVEN faster. I did do a search on the forums before posting, and there are QUITE alot topics like this currently. But none really got deep into the games discussion, spefically for the 2 dx9 games I want to try and play on a laptop. Anyways...Having been around laptops all my life, my dad had an old compaq 1.9in 10lber before, now a sleek Sony Viao Z1ra, my sister has a v505 and my other sister has a older sony laptop with a dock. And having seen how sleek and light those laptops are compared to the old compaq, I can't imagine going for a 1.5, I even thought 1.2-1.3in was going too high, I was stuck in the .9-1.1 range for awhile, but those became expensive or too featureless. The DVD+RW drive on the 600m really really makes me lean towards the 600m espeically since it's lighter. Are the graphics really really unplayable? I've read the reviews on the GPU of the Mobility Radeon 9000, I know its not based on the dx9 core and the 1200ish 3dmark scores really make it seem anemic, espeically compared to my decked my desktop(ofcourse comparing a desktop to a laptop is essentially crazy). I mean, looking at the possible requirements for Sims 2 and Rome Total War, it does seem like I could pull it off, albiet less intensively than high settings.

wow

Wow, I'm just taken aback by the number of replies I've gotten already and it hasn't even been more than four hours. Great great forum again guys.

After looking at some close up pictures of both laptops in the Dell Pictures forum you guys have here, the 8600 really really looks like a behemoth compared to the 600m. Any pics out there with both laptops next to each other side by side? Personally, after hearing that gentleman with the 600m say he can run Battlefield Vietnam on his 600m without many issues, I'm leaning again towards the 600m. But if comparison pics show the 8600 is close to the 600m in height nad weight (.2-.3in difference and 1-2lbs difference as per the Dell website), I migth just go and buy the 8600 but it really does seem like the added weight and height doesn't seem to be worth it just for a dx9 video card. Thanks again for ALL your help guys. more opinions would be appreciated!

Thanks Everyone!

Thanks for the wonderful opinions from everyone on this board. I've decided to go with the 600m, I realized the marginal improvement of the Geforce 5200 64mb over the 9000 64 is not worth it (I don't have enough cash to get the 128 9600) when comparing it to the sizes of both laptops. I do have a quick quick question though, someone mentioned that the 1.5 is always the old banias processor and the 1.6 is the new Dothan. I know the differences between the two, namely double the l2 cache (2mb vs 1mb if I'm correct). Is it worth it for gaming? Will it really make THAT big of a difference? I know alot of AMD chips and when a l2 cache is dramatically increased like that, it affects EVERYTHING including gaming, is the different between the 1.5 and 1.6 like that?

Thanks any help is appreciated.