Getting a new Laptop (looking at Acers). any advice?

Eddie Brennan

Im buying myself a laptop for music software like final scratch or serato etc and for internet and games etc (outside music). looking at the acer's at the mo. I like the look of them and ive got a lot of positive comments on them. i want a better than average graphics card too cos me likes me hard on graphics games. my budget is about 1200/1300.

in the aspire range i was looking at the 3020 Laptops with AMD Sempron processor. How is that processor compared to the AMD Turion 64 Mobile Technology supporting AMD PowerNow? does anyone know what the ATI Mobility Radeon X600 128MB dedicated graphics is like?

This is another i was looking at Acer Aspire 5024WLMi - LX.A4605.048 is it worth that much more?

any comments?

it doesnt say what the rpm is on the hard drives cos i know id need it to be quite fast

Shiny

I'd say go for the acer 5024.

Its definately worth the extra couple of hundred.

The Turion would destroy any Sempron.
They are equivilantin perfomance to Pentium M but
wouldn't be as good with battery life.

The rpm of the 5024 is only 4200 but in any reviews
that i have read, this speed has not caused any
problems.

technically a fast hardrive wouldn't make a difference
in games unless you have very little ram.
(only in loading times really)

Gandalf23

I have an Acer 5021 Turion 64 ML-28.

I was uncertain before I bought it but its and excellent machine. I throw a lot at it, and it deals with everything easily.

My advice... get an Acer.

Eddie Brennan

and what is the graphics card like? the ATI Mobility Radeon X700 PCI-E 128MB dedicated graphics? how did you find out shiny the rpm on the hd? is there a review site i could check out on these?

Shiny

I got a acer Ferrari 4000 instead but the
performance is around the same as the
acer 5024.

Graphically it performs the same as my pc
which has a 9700pro and and xp2600 1gig ram.

But in BF2 the levels load much faster and the
game runs alot smoother.

here is a review (google man!)
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2379

Eddie Brennan

cheers thats the type of site i was looking for!! i did try google but i just kept getting places to buy etc

Eddie Brennan

Shiny wrote:

The rpm of the 5024 is only 4200 but in any reviews
that i have read, this speed has not caused any
problems.

technically a fast hardrive wouldn't make a difference
in games unless you have very little ram.
(only in loading times really)

im a bit concerned as ive a friend into music production and playing out etc and he says 4200rpm wont be enough that id need ideally 7200!! the ACER site doesnt make it easy to find one with that rpm!!

Shiny

Eddie Brennan wrote:

im a bit concerned as ive a friend into music production and playing out etc and he says 4200rpm wont be enough that id need ideally 7200!! the ACER site doesnt make it easy to find one with that rpm!!

7200 drives are not that common in laptops.
5200 is the norm.
4200 is unusual and would have put me off my
laptop only that the review said that it didn't make
a difference.

As far as i know they put in slower rpm drives to save
on battery, hence you normally find a 7200 in a desktop
replacement laptop.

Eddie Brennan

thanks for your help shiny. ive been talking to 2 people who i will have same usage of laptop as an they insist i must get 7200 rpm for music processing etc

Eddie Brennan

if i was to get the 5024 is it easy enough to insert a different hd? i was looking at the Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 HTS721080G9AT00 80GB 7200rpm Hard Drive (review here: http://www.pricegrabber.co.uk/rating_getprodrev.php/product_id=10598882/id_type=M// )

i know it would void my warrenty but would it be easy should anything go wrong to simply insert back the original hd? ie do they have seals on them that lets them know i tampered with it etc?

Shiny

Looking at my laptop here, I dont see any seals on the outside
but it is very possible that there are seals on the inside.

I wouldn't regard chaging the hardrive of a laptop as easy
but it is definately possible.

I'm just thinking that inserting a hardrive of that speed could
reduce your battery significantly or does the battery life really
matter that much to you?

Basically you will see yourself as you open the laptop if there
are seals and they normally dont break by accident, you usually
have to shove a screwdriver into one to open a screw.:)

Eddie Brennan

battery life wont be too important at all. ill have it pluged in when im using it most of the time and definitely when using it for its primary use (music output from ableton etc).

Ponster

I have the Acer 5024WLMi and I'm very happy with it.

You already know the specs so I won't repeat them here but the only downside is that the speakers are weak (I have to use headphones if there is any background noise) and both the fan and DVD drive make a lot of noise between them.

I play HL2, Quake 4 and Battlefield 2 on it without any probs (BF2 45fps @ 1024*928 all settings on medium and AA x2).

Eddie Brennan

yeah it looks great for games but i cant afford to have any lag when i hopefully play music live with it down the line etc

grahamor

would the 5024WLMi be good for graphics intensive programs (3d modelling etc.)

The machines seem like very good value, can someone recommend a place to buy them online ?

Thanks

Eddie Brennan

buy them from www.acernotebooks.co.uk
they are the cheapest ive found

Eddie Brennan

well ive gone completely off acer now. i rang them and they donmt think they have any laptops with 7200rpm harddrives!! I hva ebeen informed that i must look for one with that if im gonna be using it playing live through etc. Does anybody know of a laptop with the following spec im finding it imposssible to find one!! Spent 6 hrs yesterdxay trailing thru pages!!

AMD chip (cos i need it 64bit)
at least 60GB and must be 7200rpm
decent graphics card such as the
ATI Mobility Radeon X600 128MB dedicated graphics
at least 14 inch but 15/15.4 wide if possible
1 gig RAM
wireless modem thing for bb from router
budget has now gone up to about 1800/1900

anybody have any suggestions or any web sites that may be of use. there's plenty of web sites ive found but not many give the RPM on the HD unless its being reviewed!!

Eddie Brennan

well i think ive come to my conclusion that i am gonna get this http://www.nusystems.co.uk/buy.asp?p=0&g=118&b=0
cant find an affordable AMD laptop with 7200rpm on the hd so ive gone with a 1.86 Intel Pentium® M Sonoma Processor with 533FSB 2MB cache. working out at about 1950 with 2 gigs or RAM, 128MB Dedicated Graphics - ATI X600(M24) PCI-Express Dual Output etc etc

Capt'n Midnight

don't forget the faster drives will be noisier.

Would an external firewire drive do ?

Eddie Brennan

id prefer internal etc. it says "Up to 4.5hrs battery time and an extremely silent notebook" so it shudnt be too bad and when im blaring out music from it, noise shudnt be a prob


my only hangup is it doesnt have a wireless card. Can one be got easily enough?

Shiny

yeah you can get a wireless card no problem.

you would find it easy to get a 802.11b/g card
second hand in the for sale forum.

Eddie Brennan

i just noticed it is optional for a further 37 euro so ill get that. Whats a 15.4" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050 resolution) TFT Display like?

maidhc

What about a Dell if you are happy enough to live without an AMD. At least you will get an internal wireless card

Should be able to get a 7200 rpm h/d there? Good service if you go for the 3year NBD.

Eddie Brennan

dell laptops are flimsy plastic. i dont like them at all. i use one here at work and really dont like it. i got the wireless anyway. everyone ive talked to and knows what i need it for has commented it is an excellent laptop and well priced so im happy. 2 gig RAM will have me flying!! its also partitioned off into different sections for music, internet, games and general so if one goes corrupt i can format that part and not lose any info off the others and also in the audio part they tamper with windows so i dont get error reporting and lots of other unnecessary things that slow the comp