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Hi,
I want to buy a new laptop (my current one just died).
After a good 1 hour google search i found these two which seems to be the best under 800 euros:
Asus X5BTP-SX022C 749,30 €
Screen: 15,6" TFT ColorShine
Processor:AMD Turion Dual Core RM-72 2,1 GHz / NC
Memory: DDR2 4 Go
Hard drive: 500 Go SATA
Graphics: ATI HD 4650 1Go
+ wifi, 3 USB 2.0, 1 eSATA, 1 FireWire, 1 RJ-45, 1 VGA, 1 HDMI blabla
Aspire 6930G-744G50BN 699,00€
Screen: 16.1" LCD
Processor:Core 2 Duo 2GHz / NC
Memory: DDR2 4 Go
Hard drive: 500 Go SATA 300
Graphics: nVidia GeForce 9600 GT 1Go
+wifi, 3 USB 2.0, RJ11, RJ45, VGA, HDMI, eSATA etc...
What do you think?
Which one is the best? Why?
What are the weak points?
Thank you.
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Since I have strong bias to only prefer HP products so I am going to say that Acer sucks.
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i think it's just going to come down to screen size. you want bigger or smaller?
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Honestly 15.4" or 16" doesnt really matter to me. But one is LCD and the other is TFT. Which one is the best technology?
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TFT is the standard for LCD. I would be surprised if they weren't both TFT.
As far as the choice goes, it really comes down to Intel vs AMD
Do you want a sleek awesome CPU, or do you want to bang your head against the wall, hating every moment of your miserable existence?
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The graphic cards are different too!
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On July 28 2009 02:17 illu wrote:
Since I have strong bias to only prefer HP products so I am going to say that Acer sucks.
HP laptops are pieces of shit. I got one 2+ years ago and it broke within several months.
The repair department sucks ass, as well. I sent my laptop to them twice, and they did absolutely nothing to it. Now it's in the garage, dead, collecting dust...
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At these prices I would go with the Intel processor.
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Go with Acer/Intel CPU. Also a bit cheaper.
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Yeah HP suxor go with Lenovo
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didn't the amd turion series have some issues?
i think heating related
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Acer has crap build quality and customer service. FYI.
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acer doesnt have top notch build quality true.. customer service isn't bad imo, you might have had bad experiences. depends per country perhaps.
the ATI gfx card is better than the geforce one, but im pretty sure the AMD Turion series have overheating issues.. so the asus gets my auto antivote >.<
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Most important thing is the keyboard, IMO. Every computer can run into big problems, albeit with different probabilities, but it really sucks if you buy a laptop only to find out you hate the way the keys feel.
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On July 28 2009 02:17 illu wrote:
Since I have strong bias to only prefer HP products so I am going to say that Acer sucks.
Since I'm chinese I am going to say that Acer owns
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joohyunee
Korea (South)1087 Posts
I would say Acer, because of customer support. When my HP broke down last year, I fought with customer support for 3 weeks and when they finally began fixing my computer (after shipping it out and all), they said nothing's wrong with my computer when I kept on getting blue screens every 24 hours I used the laptop.
My hallmate down the hall sent in his Acer for a small repair. They replaced like 60% of the computer and pretty much gave the laptop an upgrade, at no additional cost. I would say Acer's a WAY better choice
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When buying a laptop, focus on the most important things that you will need instead of what you think you will need. I personally prefer the thinkpad series from lenovo, those laptops are extremely wellbuilt, nonflashy, and the keyboard layout is superb. I also own an HP pavilion and I love my 9yo thinkpads a lot more. A larger screen size is great for things like watching movies, doing img editing, and so forth, but larger screens means heavier laptop for me so 15.4 is the perfect size, 17is just too large. Also 17" widescreen holders are tougher to find.
Personally I have never used an Acer laptop, only have limited experience with Dimensions (Dell), Satelites (Toshiba), Pavillion (HP) and Thinkpads (IBM now Lenovo). These are all solid brand if you want a mid-range laptop for usage.
Take in mind that similar to desktop, RAM modules and Harddrives can easily be purchased and install (even for new users, if you can read instructions, you can do this). The most important things to focus right off the bat is the processor, graphic, and battery. Needless to say, a more powerful laptop will not last as long as a lower power laptop so just get what you need, why waste money/heat/energy? Most of the time, its actually better to buy RAM after the laptop and install it yourself since itd be faster/cheaper. Make sure to look up and research this first. A 500gb 2.5 is roughly around $80 so you can even skim down on harddrive if you want to purchase a larger drive later and install it yourself.
I really recommend the thinkpads line, check them out yourselves.
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680 Posts
asus/acer suxx. ggnore sorry.
it depends what you wanna do with it: gaming (only very low quality) or internet, university stuff.
for university I'd go for ibm/lenovo thinkpads (though T series only! but dunno whether 800 is enough for a modern one)
otherwise samsung is pretty decent too. but dunno how much which company cost in your country.
and for last, dell latitudes are also great.
gaming... well go for a desktop -_-
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Lenovos have amazing keyboards and are solid, but perhaps "boring" / a bit more expensive. I have one from work... very reliable and comfortable + I love the mouse pointer thingie... I can't deal with touch pads. This is around the price you are looking at (in Euros anyway). The T series is a bit more expensive but may be worth a look.
I've always had a good experience with Toshibas. Sony I find overpriced. My wife has an HP and loves it, but she's a very light user, so its not much to go by.
If you are sticking with the 2 choices above, I stand by my initial recommendation: go with the intel. The overheating thing is a bitch on a laptop.
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think pad all the way. i love how durable it is and its pretty fast too 
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i own a hp laptop with amd myself and it's good enough for me. it does get a bit too hot but it's not a problem if you're using it on a desk. don't expect to have it on your lap a long time lol. i've had this laptop for about a year now with no problems at all. this is my first laptop so i don't really know anything else about the others. however, i have a friend that owned an acer laptop and that broke down fast :x
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I'm thinking about purchasing a new laptop myself in the under €750 range.
I would like to know what specs are most important in a laptop, in order of priority. I'm looking at getting a 15" one.
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On July 28 2009 05:48 MoltkeWarding wrote:
I'm thinking about purchasing a new laptop myself in the under €750 range.
I would like to know what specs are most important in a laptop, in order of priority. I'm looking at getting a 15" one.
I think the specs are typically valued at what you are planning to do. Personally, I order them by:
RAM -> Processor Speed/Chip -> Available Ports (# of USB, FireWire 400/800, etc.) ->Battery Life -> Screen Size. The other ones tend to just be qualitative, such as aesthetics and heat output. I can't recall a laptop being described in terms of BTUs.
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On July 28 2009 05:55 Archaic wrote:Show nested quote +On July 28 2009 05:48 MoltkeWarding wrote:
I'm thinking about purchasing a new laptop myself in the under €750 range.
I would like to know what specs are most important in a laptop, in order of priority. I'm looking at getting a 15" one. I think the specs are typically valued at what you are planning to do. Personally, I order them by: RAM -> Processor Speed/Chip -> Available Ports (# of USB, FireWire 400/800, etc.) ->Battery Life -> Screen Size. The other ones tend to just be qualitative, such as aesthetics and heat output. I can't recall a laptop being described in terms of BTUs.
RAM can be installed afterward, so it shouldn't be that important. Battery life is the main thing here and second should definitely be processor.
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Why should Battery life be important if I mainly plan to use it as a mobile desktop?
Also, does processor cache size have any value?
Recommendations for graphics card?
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On July 28 2009 06:11 MoltkeWarding wrote:
Why should Battery life be important if I mainly plan to use it as a mobile desktop?
Also, does processor cache size have any value?
Recommendations for graphics card?
Getting a mobile desktop is kind of a waste of money imo. You can get such a great desktop for 750e compared to what you can get for a 750e notebook. I think if you're looking for a solid notebook to play games on as well, 700~750 is probably the minimum.
For a notebook I'd rather get an intel processor over an amd one. And you need a dedicated graphics card (ati or nvidia), those intel graphics media accelerator are the worst gfx cards out there >.<
http://www.notebookcheck.net can help you a lot during your research (lots of info on mobile gfx cards)
edit:
while i don't think processor cache has ever really been a bottleneck for any configuration, a bigger cache will definitely help you to speed up various data processes.
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United States20661 Posts
On July 28 2009 05:48 MoltkeWarding wrote:
I'm thinking about purchasing a new laptop myself in the under €750 range.
I would like to know what specs are most important in a laptop, in order of priority. I'm looking at getting a 15" one.
The point is none of these laptops are buyable.
Specs don't tell much about how usable a laptop really is.
How can you know whether you're desirous of a laptop or not until you know
-Their marque, and respective customer support
-Their company and company history
-Their socio-economic cost
-Their video and audio quality
-Their mouse sensitivity, keyboard compatibility, and headset capability
-Their fanbase, reputation, and coolness in laptop culture
-Their anti-virus, anti-spyware, and other security abilities
-Their browser and OS stability
-Their past strengths and weaknesses regarding mobile computing life
-Their country of origin (if not already clear)
-Their computing virtues (efficiency, non-Chinaman parts, etc)
The above listed constitute 95% of the qualifications for any purchasable and therefore attractive laptop.
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On July 28 2009 06:22 Smorrie wrote:Show nested quote +On July 28 2009 06:11 MoltkeWarding wrote:
Why should Battery life be important if I mainly plan to use it as a mobile desktop?
Also, does processor cache size have any value?
Recommendations for graphics card? Getting a mobile desktop is kind of a waste of money imo. You can get such a great desktop for 750e compared to what you can get for a 750e notebook. I think if you're looking for a solid notebook to play games on as well, 700~750 is probably the minimum. For a notebook I'd rather get an intel processor over an amd one. And you need a dedicated graphics card (ati or nvidia), those intel graphics media accelerator are the worst gfx cards out there >.< http://www.notebookcheck.net can help you a lot during your research (lots of info on mobile gfx cards) edit: while i don't think processor cache has ever really been a bottleneck for any configuration, a bigger cache will definitely help you to speed up various data processes.
I don't want a desktop because I move around a lot and don't want the additional weight in my luggage train.
I don't play many games, but ideally a system which could run SC2/Diablo 3 would be the maximum requirement for me.
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On July 28 2009 07:30 MoltkeWarding wrote:Show nested quote +On July 28 2009 06:22 Smorrie wrote:On July 28 2009 06:11 MoltkeWarding wrote:
Why should Battery life be important if I mainly plan to use it as a mobile desktop?
Also, does processor cache size have any value?
Recommendations for graphics card? Getting a mobile desktop is kind of a waste of money imo. You can get such a great desktop for 750e compared to what you can get for a 750e notebook. I think if you're looking for a solid notebook to play games on as well, 700~750 is probably the minimum. For a notebook I'd rather get an intel processor over an amd one. And you need a dedicated graphics card (ati or nvidia), those intel graphics media accelerator are the worst gfx cards out there >.< http://www.notebookcheck.net can help you a lot during your research (lots of info on mobile gfx cards) edit: while i don't think processor cache has ever really been a bottleneck for any configuration, a bigger cache will definitely help you to speed up various data processes. I don't want a desktop because I move around a lot and don't want the additional weight in my luggage train. I don't play many games, but ideally a system which could run SC2/Diablo 3 would be the maximum requirement for me.
Sounds like you're looking for the exact same notebook I am looking for :p Are you in Canada atm? Because I guess you're looking at bestbuy and/or futureshop then... If so, let me know if you find anything good ^^
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On July 28 2009 07:10 Last Romantic wrote:Show nested quote +On July 28 2009 05:48 MoltkeWarding wrote:
I'm thinking about purchasing a new laptop myself in the under €750 range.
I would like to know what specs are most important in a laptop, in order of priority. I'm looking at getting a 15" one. The point is none of these laptops are buyable. Specs don't tell much about how usable a laptop really is. How can you know whether you're desirous of a laptop or not until you know -Their marque, and respective customer support -Their company and company history -Their socio-economic cost -Their video and audio quality -Their mouse sensitivity, keyboard compatibility, and headset capability -Their fanbase, reputation, and coolness in laptop culture -Their anti-virus, anti-spyware, and other security abilities -Their browser and OS stability -Their past strengths and weaknesses regarding mobile computing life -Their country of origin (if not already clear) -Their computing virtues (efficiency, non-Chinaman parts, etc) The above listed constitute 95% of the qualifications for any purchasable and therefore attractive laptop.
...
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i would go for the acer. on desktops at least im think the 9600gt is better than the 4650 and it's a c2d.
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The problem with asking questions like these
I would like to know what specs are most important in a laptop, in order of priority. I'm looking at getting a 15" one.
is that the answer varies widely from person to person. like right now, you are arguing, pretty much needlessly, about whether a portable desktop replacement is a good idea
outline exactly what it is you want your computer to do, and pick the specs accordingly. some specs that are immensely valuable to others (price, 4+ hour battery life, dedicated gfx card, screen quality, looks, etc) could hold absolutely no value to you, or vice versa.
for instance, since you said you wanted a portable desktop, you clearly don't care too much about battery life as you already said, and probably the 2-3 hours you find on all but the most powerful laptops will be sufficient. you also probably don't care too much about the weight (the difference between 4 and 7 pounds is sort of noticeable if you're a student carrying it around all day, every day, but not so much if its packed away in your bags.. and you'd be paying a hefty premium for the former), and likely wouldn't mind upgrading from 15.4 to 15.6 or 16 screen-wise so consider those as well.
since you want to play sc2/d3, i imagine not at max settings, well i don't know what the requirements are going to be but you'd likely be able to squeeze by with a highend integrated like a 9400m or if you want a little more oomph, get a entry/medium level dedicated.. something like a 9600m gt. ram/hdd-wise shouldn't be a consideration as it's really easy to upgrade yourself to whatever you desire (i believe the standard now is something like 4gb ram, and 320gb:5400 or 250gb: 7200 hdd). processor, something mediocre would likely be fine, a c2d with at least 2.0ghz
then make sure to consider the (just as important as the tech stuff, f the haters) physical aspects of the notebook: whether you like it, how the keys press, screen viewing angles, overall looks, and how it holds up in general. how much weight you put on these factors is entirely up to you. i put a lot of weight, personally, on these (some of which are intangible but you know they're there)
two links that you may (or may not) find useful to compare gfx/cpu:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Graphic-Cards.130.0.html
oh yeah my personal informal criteria? pick a laptop with enough tech in it to run what i want "good enough"(as opposed to "really well") and dump the rest of the budget into a pleasant laptop (hassle-free, light, looks good, etc)
currently waiting for ... lg xnote p510 to come to canada. :o
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thank you all for these precious informations!
i'll read it in details tomorow and hopefully be able to make a wise choice (i'll check the thinkpad laptops too).
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I got the Acer one without that graphics card. It's been very nice so far. (had it for about 4 months)
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i dont recommend an Acer for a laptop, or a cheap brand one since the Acer C110 Tablet i had crapped out after 1 year, with all the LCD pixels in the top right corner giving out until it spread to the middle of the screen.
Replaced it under warranty, and 3 months later the whole screen started flickering erratically. After that i just ripped out the hard drive and threw the damn thing away. Quality SUCKS.
Got a Compaq and after 3 years not a single dead pixel has appeared. And, by experience, my next laptop will be an HP or any high-quality one.
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Seems like a good deal. I'm pretty sure you are SC2/D3-safe with that system. (playable, but not highest settings.. eventho its all just speculation I don't believe that blizz will make the game that inaccessible for the mainstream gamers)
The difference between the 2 is a little awkward though. The 'normal' version has a slightly faster processor (doubt its even noticeable, only in benchmarks), 2GB DDR2 RAM, and costs 600. The 'gamer' version has a slightly slower processor, 4GB DDR2 RAM, and costs 700.
I highly doubt that buying a 2gb mobile ram stick costs 100 euro. Perhaps you can customize it and ask for 2GB extra in there and see what the costs are. While 2GB RAM probably costs way less than 100, you'd need to visit a certified dealer or technician who can put it in for you. Doing it yourself will void the warranty : [
I'm looking at the HP Pavilion dv6-1160ed (NX854EA) & Toshiba Satellite A300-1SR at the moment. I think I'm gonna make my own blog for this tho xD
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