First, hello to a fellow Georgian. I go to Georgia Tech. That said, I've done my fair share of math, and yours is correct.

Second, how many players do you normally play with? Judging by your collection, it appears as though most of your games are in the 2-4 player range. An advantage to a round-table is that you can easily crowd 5-6 people around it, which is trickier with a rectangular table.

Now, the 60-inch round-table would place each player 2.5 feet away from the center of the table. My arm is probably 2.5 feet long so that doesn't seem too large. I'd go with the round-table if you frequently play with larger groups (5+). If your group is usually smaller (2-4), then I'd probably lean toward the rectangular table.

Of course, I don't know how much free space you have in your house, either. Is the larger table gonna cramp your game-room?

Depends on the type of game you play. If you intend to play miniatures or wargames which are traditionally 2 player, you may find that a rectangular table is a better layout. If you play multi-player Euro games or card games, you may find that a round table works better, as each player is equally far from the action.

Something else which may have no bearing on your decision, but certainly affected mine was expandability. With rectangular, I can easily change the gaming space by putting an identical table beside it. With a round table, that's the size you're always using whether you like it or not.

Round tables have a few problems. Some people do not have 30" arms, and even if all your players do, that just reaches the center of the table. Imagine a 16" chess board in the center of the table: now to reach the far row, a person needs a reach of 38 inches, which is a very long reach. Imagine stretching to the center of the table playing Carcassonne. And can a game board be easily read at 30-40"?

Then, most games have rectangular components. One thing this does is tend to make the edges of a round table useless, so the area calculation is somewhat misleading.

Many games have banks or other reserves in addition to a central board. These tend to arrange best in a line, down the center of a rectangular table. (Consider the reaches needed if these common items were clustered in the center of the round table.)

Given how common the rectangular tables are--used at conventions, banquets, meetings, offices...--and their resemblance to common home tables, most games are designed to fit on them.

For multiple games, a rectangular table can easily have a couple games playing, one at each end. For chess, you can have three matches side by side by side.

Last, if you intend a folding table, a rectangular table will fit in many closets. Are your closets 5' deep for the round table? And I recently transported exactly the rectangular table you're considering in my car, and the trunk even closed. I could not have transported a 60" round table.

If you think you really might need the room, I suggest getting two rectangular tables. Note that these are the standard "banquet" tables, beloved by businesses everywhere. Given the times, I expect you could go to a used office furniture store and pick up a pair in good condition for a song. And you can also use the tables for holiday gatherings: rectangular table cloths are much more common than round--I have a round table, and finding a tablecloth for it was a pain, but I have several seasonal tablecloths for my rectangular table, You can fit two rectangular tables together with little seam; round tables, not so much.

I prefer modular systems myself. If you had 3 2'x4' tables, you could make one large 6'x4 table, or a 4'x 4' with another to keep "stuff," or three separate tables for 2-player games. OR you could put together a T-bone or an I-beam or an S-rune or a dog-leg, or whatever table set-up you want!

...Otherwise, I'd go with the circular one for the space it provides.

I think I will end up with the 48" round. The rectangle looked good until I thought about the people on the ends having to reach way in. The width was also too short for the people on the long sides. I typically have four people playing. I could have more, but I doubt I will have multiple games going on at my house for the necessity of side by side ability that a rectangle provides.

My family just got a 48" round and it is great for games. I would really encourage you to get a round table that also supports a leaf, that is what we got. We keep it a circle for small games with up to 4 players, but then we can bust out the leaf for a big game or more players. It gives us another 2 feet.

Yours is pretty permanent then? I was looking at a folding table.

What fits the room best?

What fits your preferred game types best?

We bought a great table at Ikea that is round, but you can pull it apart and put an extra piece in the middle to make it longer. When we have 4 we just use the circle (and keep it that way when it's not in use- the extra piece stores easily below the table top) when we have 6 or need more space (Agricola-style) we put in the extra piece.

We bought ours years ago but it is very similar to this model:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30116056

They have an additional picture of what it looks like when you expand it :)