Help needed over choice of laptop, Acer vs. Samsung vs. other??

John 1987

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Hi, over the last couple of days I have been looking at laptops in preparation for me starting back at Uni. I didn’t realise quite how bewildering the choice and range would be. I have a budget of around £500 and I think I have narrowed it down to these two choices.

An Acer Aspire 5613AWLMi
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-4410/btnResultSort.x=14/btnResultSort.y=12.aspx

or a Samsung R60+
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-1905/btnResultSort.x=14/btnResultSort.y=12.aspx

Now my main question is whether these two choices are any good. My second question would be which one is the better choice (I’m leaning towards the Acer). And finally, would I be able to run games on these machines, what are the graphic cards like. I’m thinking older games such as C&C generals, Rome: Total War, and would I stand any chance of playing newer games on these machines such as the new Command & Conquer or Medieval Total War 2, I don’t care if they’re not running at maximum, just playable would be fine.
 
I just ordered the Acer Aspire 5613 myself. But I bought mine from here

It is only a few £££ more and you get a free mouse and carry case, as well as a better processor. It looks like a great deal for the money, I'll tell you how it goes when I get it (by friday hopefully).
 
I just ordered the Acer Aspire 5613 myself. But I bought mine from here

It is only a few £££ more and you get a free mouse and carry case, as well as a better processor. It looks like a great deal for the money, I'll tell you how it goes when I get it (by friday hopefully).

What are the chances...i've just ordered the Samsung, its coming tomorrow :rotfl: I guess if you hold off a couple of days you'll be in a good position to choose!

bh though I dont think there is much difference between the Samsung and the acer that Razorback has posted. Although from alternate companies, both gfx chips are of a similar level. I'd avoid the Acer from Tesco though, as it only has a Core Duo, as opposed to the newer Core 2 Duo.
 
Yeah I know the Acer I linked to is only core duo, but I was wondering is there a real difference between the performance of a core duo and a core 2 duo?
 
Yeah I know the Acer I linked to is only core duo, but I was wondering is there a real difference between the performance of a core duo and a core 2 duo?

according to What Laptop there is a difference. I bought it this month while having a look at the different different options and it contains a sort of "league table" of mobile proccessors. They have used MobileMark scores to rank them in terms of power, as Low (<180) Medium (180-250) and High (>250)

Anyway all the Core Duo's fall under into the Medium catagory and the Core 2 Duo's are all in the High catagory. Hope that helps.
 
Yeah I know the Acer I linked to is only core duo, but I was wondering is there a real difference between the performance of a core duo and a core 2 duo?

Be interested to see what you two think of your new laptops, I'm looking for one mainly for Uni work but also for multimedia so def keep us updated on your thoughts as I've been looking at both the Acer and the Samsung laptop.
 
I have a friend at work who wants to get herself a laptop.....has around £500 to spend, I found this today.HP Pavilion Media Center dv6552ea I priced up dell and even a mac and this was the only 2gig machine I could get under budget. :eek: Only issue not to keen on the AMD Turion™ 64 X2 :(

Anyone else found a 2gig ram decent processor under £500ish machine ?
 
I have a friend at work who wants to get herself a laptop.....has around £500 to spend, I found this today.HP Pavilion Media Center dv6552ea I priced up dell and even a mac and this was the only 2gig machine I could get under budget. :eek: Only issue not to keen on the AMD Turion™ 64 X2 :(

Anyone else found a 2gig ram decent processor under £500ish machine ?

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5633WLMi_LX.AXX0X.246/version-1.asp

depending on how vital the GFX card is that could be an option.
 
Well I wanted to order from Tesco for two reasons, club-card points and the fact I know the company, rather than all of those random Acer ones, silly I know.

As for the Acer being only core duo, I know it seems silly not to get the most up-to-date processor, but compared to my computer at the moment it will be a dream. Like I said In my original post I am leaning towards the Acer, I've seen them in the flesh and they seem good quality with good looking screens. I feel I could spend days upon days looking at all these laptops and still inevitably find a better value one as soon as I've ordered.

The only thing that is stopping me ordering the Acer was my concern over the graphics card, as I would like to play Command and Conquer and Total war, and that fact the Samsung looks quite good. I mean the Acer does everything I want, at a reasonable price, and I could have it within a day. I sound like I've made up my mind don't I? I was just looking for some reasurance really.
 
Less HD space is no real loss if you don't mind an external. For example I have 1x80gb and 1x120gb 2.5" passport drives that cost me £85 total

It will depend on the memory config to upgrade ram yourself to 2gb though. If the laptop comes with 1x1gb stick, that's great. If it comes with 2x512mb sticks that will mean either dumping one and settling for 1.5gb or dumping both and going for 2x1gb sticks. Not sure how that would work out money wise
 
So you would recommend 2 gig of ram? As I would not feel confident fitting some in a laptop? Which takes me back to my first two choices. Do you feel there is a major performance difference between core duo and core 2 duo, and what about the grahpics cards? Obviously I'm not expecting anything special but just the assurance they 'could' play some games would be a huge help. I'm fairly confident the older command and conquer games will work, as will the older total wars. It's just the new one's i'm worried about, but it's not like they need the the most up-to-date graphics card?

I think this could be the C&C 3 minimum specs
Minimum Required Specs:
Windows XP or Windows 2000
1.3 GHz Intel Pentium IV or AMD Athlon processor
256 MB RAM
Nvidia GeForce2 or equivalent video card with 32 MB RAM
DirectX 9.0b compatible sound card
4 GB available hard disk space
Please note that while you will be able to play The Battle for Middle-earth(tm) with the specifications above, play experience can benefit from additional RAM, above the required 256 MB
Nvidia GeForce2 MX is not supported

And this could be medieval 2's spec
1.8 GHz Processor
Pentium 4 or equivalent
512 MB RAM
Direct X 9.0c
Graphics Card 128 MB
Graphics Card (Direct X 9.0c Compatible)
Sound Card (Direct X 9.0c Compatible)
11 GB Free Hard Disk Space Required
 
Sorry I was answering the question by comparing it to the system with 2gb ram and whether the saving you make is enough to be able to pay for a ram upgrade yourself and have change :p

I am on XP and have not used Vista so cannot say if 1gb is enough for Vista; or whether people would advise you to turn off Aero when gaming if indeed 1gb is just about OK. That's just me thinking out loud :p I'll allow someone to give you a proper answer
 
Just to throw something else in the mix - Warranty and support. I know if something goes wrong with your Acer it has to go off to Southampton and I believe that it will be there for 5 weeks minimum - so you need to factor in how long you can be without it for

Cheers

Lawrenso
 
I have used a few Acer machines and belive they are fine but you don't seem to get your money out of them. I have decided to go for the HP from staples. 2 gig out of the box 160gig drive and not a bad firm HP. :smashin:
 
Yeah HP are nice. I have a business laptop made by them. I use it for everything and its just all round fantastic
 
right my Samsung R60plus arrived yesterday and I have to say im extremely impressed. I'm coming from using a Mac so its hard to give an exact comparison to an older windows machine, but Vista certainly looks the business to me. The major bonus for me though is the screen, its one of these glossy extar bright ones and IMO its absolutely stunning. I'm a bit of a photography geek so it should be good for working with photo.

All in all i'm very impressed especially for the price, given how few around the 500 quid mark came with 2GB RAM. Anyway if you have any questions or want any pics just ask.
 
Off topic slightly.

Just bear in mind glossy somewhat makes colours appear more "vibrant" and may not be an accurate representation of a photo. Also laptop screens are generally poor compared to a proper monitor. My new external monitor turned up 4 days ago and hooked it to my laptop. Before I though my laptop was OK considering. Now its like a layer of vaseline has been taken off my eyes

Just a small point. Hope you enjoy your laptop :D
 
I went for the Acer from Tesco in the end (always kind of knew I would), ordered on Wednesday, recieved it yesterday and am so happy with it. The laptop itself looks the business, vista looks amazing and has been a dream to use (what were people complaining about?). It runs so smooth, quick and incredibly quiet, even better I have been able to play the demo of one of the games I wanted to buy. All in all, I'm very pleased. :D
 

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