Laptop Recommendation (Acer or Vostro)

Dotfuscator

hi there, as with a lot of the posts in this forum, this is a "which laptop should i get" question.

From reading many of the posts I understand that Vostro laptops are recommended my many of the members.

I'd like a laptop for around €1000-1200 or so and have found two decent ones, a vostro and an acer.


Acer Aspire 5920G (H) Gemstone Laptop - LX.AN60X.001(€1121 on laptopsdirect.ie)

Design: New Curved glossy black lid and clean white interior
Processor: Powerful Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 2GHz (x2), 800MHz FSB, 4MB L2 Cache
RAM: 2GB Fast DDR2 RAM! (2 x 1024Mb) - Low cost double memory offer, call for details!
1GB Turbo Memory
Up to 2x faster performance when loading frequently used applications!
Up to 20% faster Windows Vista boot time!
Hard Drive: 250GB Hard Disk
Screen: 15.4" Widescreen TFT (1280x800 - 16:10) with CrystalBrite Technology
Optical Drive: HD DVD Drive with DVDRW (plays High Definition films, writes normal DVDs / CDs)
Graphics: 256MB dedicated RAM - NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS with 1GB of TurboCache memory - superb for playing the latest games!
Wireless LAN: 802.11a/b/g - Wireless Internet Connection
Battery Life (depending on Use): 3.5 hours 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Weight: 3kg
Warranty: 1 Year Collect and Return (Europe-wide)- Upgradeable to 3 Years for only £49 - Call for details!
Operating System: New Windows Vista Home Premium
1GB of Intel Turbo Memory
Camera: Built-in 0.3Mp CrystalEye Webcam
Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000
HDMI port with HDCP (for connecting to a HD TV)
5-in-1 card reader


Vostro 1500 (€1237 on dell.ie)
BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 Processor (2.2GHz,800MHz,4MB L2 cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Business - English edit
HARDWARE SUPPORT 3 Year Business Hardware Support - Next Business Day edit
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display edit
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Matte Jet Black with 2.0 mega pixel camera edit
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024) edit
HARD DRIVE 160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD 256MB nVidia® GeForce® 8600M GT edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive edit
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr)



The Vostro has a better graphics card and is slightly faster but the Acer has a bigger hard disk and a HD DVD drive and is cheaper. Can't really make my mind up.

Do any of ye have any advice on which to buy? Or do ye know of any better laptops around the same price range?
This is my first post but any help on this would be much appreciated!

Tom Dunne

Dotfuscator wrote: »

Can't really make my mind up.

One thing that might swing it either way is doing a search on this forum for both of those sellers you mention.

majiktripp

Go with the Dell, for the price your quoting you have a 3 year NBD warranty aswell which is worth its weight in gold! (well not quite..) but I'd take the Dell over the Acer, never really liked Acer's...
Vostro Machines are pretty good looking laptops too.

Heinrich

majiktripp wrote: »

Go with the Dell, for the price your quoting you have a 3 year NBD warranty aswell which is worth its weight in gold! (well not quite..) but I'd take the Dell over the Acer, never really liked Acer's...
Vostro Machines are pretty good looking laptops too.

How many Acers have you had to be able to say that you never really liked them? By the same token, how many Dells...?

Now I have had a number of Acers and never had a need to call on a warranty! And when I buy my Acer it is delivered within 3 days.

majiktripp

I haven't owned any... but I do fix laptops , pc's , etc for a living and I can tell you without a doubt Acer's are shody made, as for HP's...don't get me started... Each man to his own , your opinion is as valid as mine.

Heinrich

majiktripp wrote: »

I haven't owned any... but I do fix laptops , pc's , etc for a living and I can tell you without a doubt Acer's are shody made, as for HP's...don't get me started... Each man to his own , your opinion is as valid as mine.

But I'm not using my opinion to influence anyone, you are! So you fix computers for a living? Well, I fix them too but not for a living. I did work for a large multinational company which used Dells and the helpdesk people were assured of their future, if you get my gist.

Now if you had some detailed reasoning for the guy who is not sure of what to buy I might be inclined to consider your opinion...

The Acers which I owned were certainly not shoddily made.

majiktripp

Heinrich wrote: »

The Acers which I owned were certainly not shoddily made.

I own 2 Dell Laptops , 1 Dell Desktop , Problem with 1 Laptop but resolved quickly , no issues with the others. There's your stats! Hence why I always recommend, no matter what the brand Get a 3 year warranty. If I could persuade the chap I'd be making him buy an IBM!

When you say the help desk staff were assured of their future , was it because of Dell hardware issue's all of the time? ,because that was what we were comparing really. I'd find that hard to believe, on average its user error/ignorance (and theres a lot!) / random act's of the computing god's that causes most problems. (But hardware issues make up some too...)

Heinrich

majiktripp wrote: »

I own 2 Dell Laptops , 1 Dell Desktop , Problem with 1 Laptop but resolved quickly , no issues with the others. There's your stats! Hence why I always recommend, no matter what the brand Get a 3 year warranty. If I could persuade the chap I'd be making him buy an IBM!

When you say the help desk staff were assured of their future , was it because of Dell hardware issue's all of the time? ,because that was what we were comparing really. I'd find that hard to believe, on average its user error/ignorance (and theres a lot!) / random act's of the computing god's that causes most problems. (But hardware issues make up some too...)

A lot of hardware sadly. There was a series of dud HDDs and quite a few of those hideous external interchangeable DVD/CD writer combo drives!

TerrorFirmer

I love this classic argument. The reason people experience DELL failures so much is because their whole business/corp is fitted out with them and more people own them then other brands generally in the non corporate side of things. If you moved your contract to Acer I guarantee that you'd find no different. Large volume = inevitably larger amount hardware fails. I'm pretty sure if you worked out problems as a % of laptops/machines sold, then Dell are actually not too bad.

As for Acer, I have to say I find them perfectly OK from my personal experience, but have noticed a tendency for faults with the screens and hinges on various models when viewing other peoples problems, for whatever reason.

The Price comparison firstly is unfair, as the Dell has 3 year NBD support, which is quite expensive. Given those two packages for actual value, I would take the Vostro. But it depends on what you're doing. The video card is much better in the Vostro, but the Acer has some nice extras, and the video card is good enough that if you're not gaming, or doing very light gaming, the difference isn't huge or worth mentioning.

Aesthetically the Acer will look nicer. The 1500 is a basic looking machine to be honest.

I think there should be some some of template for these threads, i.e set budget, intentions with new machine, desirability of warranty, etc! We need more info before we can really recommend other machines.

AlmightyCushion

HavoK wrote: »

I think there should be some some of template for these threads, i.e set budget, intentions with new machine, desirability of warranty, etc! We need more info before we can really recommend other machines.

There is a sticky about it here.

I'd go with the dell myself. It is more expensive but as HavoK says the warranty is bringing the price up. You could drop it to a one year and it would be around the same price if not cheaper than the acer. It's also got a better cpu and graphics card although it has a smaller hard drive.

Tom Dunne

HavoK wrote: »

I think there should be some some of template for these threads, i.e set budget, intentions with new machine, desirability of warranty, etc! We need more info before we can really recommend other machines.

As AC pointed out, there is. I don't want to come in all heavy-handed making people stick rigidly to the requirements, but I agree it would help if they did.

Actually, I'll stick the bit about the warranty in the sticky too.

Dotfuscator

Thanks very much for all ye're responses!

I think i'll go with the dell.
I guess you're right AC that the better cpu and graphics card is more important than the hd dvd drive and bigger hard drive,
and the 3 year warranty thing does give piece of mind.
I definitely want that warranty too cause my friends xps screen broke recently and costs a lot to fix!

Prob a stupid question, but do any of ye know why dell don't offer vostros in the home section?
Is the 3 year business warranty only for businesses or does that matter?

AlmightyCushion

Dotfuscator wrote: »

Prob a stupid question, but do any of ye know why dell don't offer vostros in the home section?

It's probably just a marketing thing but a home user can definitely buy a vostro.

Dotfuscator wrote: »

Is the 3 year business warranty only for businesses or does that matter?

The business warranty is better than the warranty they offer on home laptops and it doesn't matter if you are a business user or not too have this either.

jackal

Worth mentioning that the Acer has a HDMI out, vostros dont, so forget about hooking it up to you big screen if you have/get one... And you will want to

Dotfuscator

ya, initially i liked the idea of the HDMI output but then i realised that i don't actually watch that many DVDs or connect my computer to the tv so I don't actually need it. It'd be a nice extra though!