Laptop advice

[Dudley52]

Looking to buy a high performance laptop that I can play games on, watch movies, browse internet etc.

Been looking at this one

Acer Aspire 5920G-302G25Hi Laptop LX.AN60X.041 - Acer Products | Acer Direct.co.uk

Is that a decent graphics card? Anyone know about this laptop? I have no clue about the processor or anything, so just want some advice. I don't even know the best brands, just heard that Acer is a good brand. I don't need it immediately but looking to buy it within a month.

Budget is £700 max.

thanks in advance.

 

[Jonty]

Hi Dudley52

This laptop looks quite good for your money, but what kind of games do you intend to play? The GeForce 8600M is the latest generation mainstream graphics card. It's certainly not bad, but it's no desktop powerhouse, so don't expect to play Crysis in DirectX 10 mode etc.

If you really need performance, then the 8800M or 8700M GT will be better choices (although the latter is really just an overclocked 8600M with more RAM). However, these cards will likely be out of your price range.

With regards the rest of the system, Intel's Centrino platform is a good choice, and the Core 2 Duo processor is very powerful. The rest of the specs are fine, although the screen resolution is a little low for a 15.4" display, and the system is a little heavy if you're looking for something portable.

Acer seem a good brand for the money, but Kryten's your man for more details on performance and reliability etc.

Just one more thing, if you can wait a few weeks then Intel will release it's mobile Penryn processors. They're smaller, more powerful , but still consume less power. Acer may not start to stock them immediately, but custom builders (like Dell, Alienware, Rock etc.) will probably start to offer them fairly soon. It's not the end of the world if you buy the existing technology, though.

Kind regards,

 

[Kryten]

Will agree - hold out for a couple of weeks, it won't be long.
Even if you decide that the current technology is still for you, it'll then be "old" technology and you might notice a difference in how much comes out of your wallet for it

I don't mind Acer hardware at all, but it's never been entirely solid built - but if it's going to spend most of it's time sat on a desk and folded up/moved around just as an afterthought, that shouldn't be too much of a worry.
I've had a bried hunt round the usual suspects - samsung, dell, HP and sony and I don't think you can really match the Acer for graphics - many laptop manufacturers are scaling down on the graphical side of things to squeeze in other features or enough cooling to run the faster processors - as a result the typical graphics capabilities come from the likes of Intel's X3100 and ATI RadeonExpress hardware - both fall a long way short of really playing games at a level you'd find worthy.

The typical 8700/8800M based laptops are retailing for around or well in excess of a grand going to double that price - I think we're still all waiting for a decent comprimise, a home laptop capable of higher end gaming.

No quarms about the processor - as Jonty has already said, the Intels are the way to go in laptop processing - Centrino merely means a combination of powerful processing and wireless networking, the Core2Duo just means you've effectively got 2 "better than Pentium 4" processors doing the work for you - these are low power but high performance.

I'd say stick with that Acer for the best comprimise I can find. With a budget of 700 though I'd have to ask if you really need a laptop, would you perhaps be better off upgrading your desktop? Throws portability out of the window a tad though

 

[Dudley52]

thanks for the replies.

I've always wanted a laptop, and now I have the money I wanted to buy one. I didn't really want to take it out of the house, but being able to move it around the house would be great (I don't need it for my job or anything like that).

I also don't mind not being able to play the high end games like Crysis because I know laptops aren't the best for gaming. As long as it can run the likes of Warhammer online when it releases then thats fine. Will laptops with this new processor cost alot? How much would a desktop that can run DX10 cost me btw? Also, I can save up more money for a better system, will just take another month or so. But damn computers are expensive.

 

[Taxii]

I would like to point out that If you end up buying an Acer laptop, then your pretty much left alone if it happens that the Laptop breaks.

You cant put a new and larger 2,5" Harddisk without Contacting the Acer support so that they can send you a blanket that after 3-4 months of the return date will get you the CD's to install the system again.

Also, I've been having alot of problems with their support wanting to help me with very basic stuff, such as getting the intigrated webcam working on the laptops.

I know that this is just my point of view, but I am speaking from experience.

I do not want to name a specific product, nor have I looked on the laptop you listed, but as said, I have alot of bad experience with Acer.

Myself is using a IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad T60 ( 2007-FUG is the model number. ). Its not the perfect gaming laptop, but it suits alot of needs for alot of people....

This is not to force you out of buying the Acer, but more a warning so that when/if you buy it, then you will be prepared for some trouble if theres problems with the machine.

 

[Kryten]

Just be thankful you're not a fan of Apple - then you'll be able to say they're expensive

Comparitively, the current pricing of hardware is very favourable, we're literally spoiled for choice which is never a bad thing.

Don't expect the new processors to be immediately available from the major suppliers - they will no doubt start off another £100 on top of the current prices if past trends are anything to go buy and prices will drop after 6 months or so.

The laptop you were looking at will certainly run Warhammer nicely enough.

An equivelent desktop, I'll throw together a quickly priced estimate for a system that would run Crysis without too much bother (this is a high level but not over the top system)

Core2Duo E6750 & suitable mid range motherboard - £170
2gb memory - £40
Case and power supply £80
Geforce 8800GT graphics card £150
19" TFT monitor £150
Hard drive and optical drive (DVDRW) £70
Keyboard and mouse - various, say £20

Thats £680 for the lot, so you could say 700 with a better grade keyboard/mouse and speakers or something. Obviously you may well have keyboard, mouse and a monitor you can already use, so you could say around £500 for just a base unit that will play Crysis very well indeed. I use that as a benchmark for a gaming system purely because it stresses it all so much - if a system can run it, it'll run anything else without batting an eyelid.

Those prices and specs can be adjusted as you see fit, you might feel you want to futureproof yourself a bit more and go for a newer Quad core processor, which would add £50 to the above price. You could also go a bit lower and look at the core2duo E6320, where you can take £50 from the above price. The model numbers are a little confusing - generally the higher the better.

So as you can see, you'll get a LOT more gaming performance for less money in a desktop, but of course you lose that portability you were hoping for. It's a choice only you can make - but be assured, I can't see any reason why the laptop you're looking at won't play Warhammer. It should play plenty of other modern games too like Call of Duty 4, all your Source based games etc.

I don't personally like Acer's build quality as I've said, and the above poster says they've had support issues. Dell are much worse if you need something fixing - their engineers are about as qualified to do their job as macdonalds staff when asked to cook a gourmet meal. Or even worse, PC World employees
Theres horror stories about all the manufacturers, and one of the biggest "buts" about Laptops generally is that if something goes wrong it's often easier to get the whole unit replaced, rather than changing a single part. But then again, I take hundreds apart a day

 

[Jonty]

Theres horror stories about all the manufacturers, and one of the biggest "buts" about laptops generally is that if something goes wrong it's often easier to get the whole unit replaced, rather than changing a single part.

Hi guys

Kryten's point is spot on: I've often heard of people (especially Dell XPS customers) getting entirely new systems because laptops can be a pain to fix.

It's also true that every company has horror stories, so sometimes it's just the luck of the draw regarding who deals with your support request.

In Taiwan, most of my colleagues use Acer sub-notebooks and they manage to survive a fair amount of punishment. That's completely unscientific evidence, I know, but I would happily consider buying one given their price/performance ratio.

Kind regards