Acer 6920 - thoughts?

silvine

The successor to the Acer Gemstone 5920 is out for €1250. Any thoughts on it? There is also an 8920 for just under €1500.

Both come equipped with a Geforce 9500M GS card. How would that handle today's games?

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/Acer_Aspire_Gemstone_Blue_Laptops/cat.asp

They certainly look good...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkzSmBhP0t0

Voodu Child

They look nice alright, and the 16:9 display is an interesting change, should be nice for movies.

The 9500M GS looks to be little more powerful than the DDR2 8600M GT, and a little less than the DDR3 8600M GT. It should be good enough for current games (except very demanding ones) at medium-ish settings.

silvine

I'm leaning towards the 8920. For an extra €250, you get a bigger screen and better sound.

Would the Dell Vostro 1700 be a better buy though?

Voodu Child

The Vostro doesnt have a blu-ray option so I don't think they're comparable machines.

Personally blu-ray doesnt interest me, but i'd have thought that's the main reason you'd be looking at the Acer - the blu-ray drive, 16:9 screen, 1:1 pixel mapping for HD movies, and the fancy sound setup.

So if you want these things, the Vostro isn't a comparable machine, and if you don't want them, not much point in going for the Acer imo.

pwd

voodoo_child wrote: »

They look nice alright, and the 16:9 display is an interesting change, should be nice for movies.

The 9500M GS looks to be little more powerful than the DDR2 8600M GT, and a little less than the DDR3 8600M GT. It should be good enough for current games (except very demanding ones) at medium-ish settings.

How do you know if which version of that card is in a particular laptop. Just by seeing what RAM is installed?
edit: seems unrelated to the RAM since the xps m1530 has the better version of the gpu and ddr2 RAM.

JM MARCONI

Im buying a 6920 today. The only thing is I dont know which to get. The 2.1ghz is in stock and the 2.4ghz is out of stock until the 19 of may. Should I wait to get the 2.4ghz?

pwd

I think the 2.4ghz seems the best value version of the 6920g. The tv tuner is only on the 2.4ghz model. Perhaps more importantly, the screen resolution of the 2.1gHz is only 768. Blu ray resolution is 1080, so unless you intend to only watch blu ray movies on an external display, the blu ray will be wasted to a great extent. The 2.4ghz version has a 1080 screen.

silvine

Will an extra 2.4 GHz makes much of a difference? As opposed to 2 Ghz.

pwd

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

benchmark list for mobile processors.

TerrorFirmer

pwd wrote: »

How do you know if which version of that card is in a particular laptop. Just by seeing what RAM is installed?
edit: seems unrelated to the RAM since the xps m1530 has the better version of the gpu and ddr2 RAM.

The Gddr3 version of the GT comes in very few laptops, such as the M1530, the Asus G1, and a few other laptops which aren't very common in Ireland. The vast majority are DDR2. I'm not quite sure what you meant by the above, but the ram onboard a video card isn't linked to the main ram i.e whether or not the card is ddr, ddr2 or ddr3 isn't regulated by the mainboard.

I would definitely wait for the higher res screen for the reasons pwd mentioned.

In terms of laptop gaming, the 9500GS is a good card. If you're a 60fps craving gamer most new games - Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, etc run at medium settings great, if you can make do with 30fps, they run at relatively high settings. I prefer the former option; I run Call of Duty 4 at 1280x800 medium settings on my ddr2 8600GT without any problems @40-60fps.

You won't notice any difference between 2.1 and 2.4Ghz save for things like ripping and encoding and even then the difference won't be huge. It won't affect games performance.

silvine

Perfect thanks for that!

AlmightyCushion

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

In terms of laptop gaming, the 9500GS is a good card. If you're a 60fps craving gamer most new games - Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, etc run at medium settings great, if you can make do with 30fps, they run at relatively high settings. I prefer the former option; I run Call of Duty 4 at 1280x800 medium settings on my ddr2 8600GT without any problems @40-60fps.

I think the 9500gs is just a re-badged 8600gt (just like the 9300 is a re-badged 8400).

silvine

Indeed it is. What would working with text documents be like with the WUXGA resolution of this laptop?

AlmightyCushion

Turns out I was wrong the 9500gs is about 10% better than the 8600gt and should consume less power. Link (http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9500M-GS.8167.0.html).

Ace2007

guys just saw this now, in the process of getting a laptop - was all set all getting the vostro 1700 - but will take 15 or so days - can't really wait that long, so i've seen the acer gemstone II 8920G 4GM 18" and was thinking of getting it - would it be just as good. need fast replys

Thanks
-Ace-

AlmightyCushion

From what I've read it's a beast of a yoke. Really good specs. One big difference will be the portability. The vostro 1700 is borderline portable. You can get bags for 17" laptops and while they are heavy you can still carry them around. I doubt that would be the case with the 8920 (18.4" laptop). If it's going to be moved wait for the vostro if not go with the acer.

silvine

If you are using something like this as a desktop replacement, would you need to buy a docking station?

What would a 16:9 screen be like for word-processing?

JM MARCONI

Ok so my 2.4ghz 6920 just arrived today. I am really happy so far. One thing though. How do you set up the tv tuner. I have it connected but when i run a scan in media centre no channels are found. Thanks

thirdmantackle

i ordered one of these yesterday

CANNOT WAIT

silvine

I was going to get this but ended up going for an iMac instead. Looks like a good laptop though.

thirdmantackle

arrived today

oh boy

gonna take a while getting used to vista etc